WEBVTT

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My name is Neal Finkelstein.

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I am a senior research
scientist based

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at WestEd, in San Francisco.

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I was a member of the panel

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that developed Helping Students
Navigate the Path to College

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that was put forward as
an IES Practice Guide

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by the What Works
Clearinghouse in 2009.

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One of the things that's been
so clear over the past couple

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of decades is students
without some form

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of postsecondary
education just don't keep

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up in the labor market.

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They don't have the skills
they need to get the kinds

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of jobs they want, and they
haven't had the preparation they

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need to keep their options open.

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It's been clear in
economic terms.

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It's been clear in social terms.

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And there is every reason to
believe that the more we can do

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to prepare students early
and often for some form

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of continuing education,

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the better they will do
in their own choices.

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The obligation of the K-12
system is to make sure

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that these students are ready
for whatever they choose and,

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importantly, without the
need for remediation.

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We really believe that students
who finish high school ready

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to move on to their next
objective in education are those

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who will meet their own
educational objectives best.

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The entrance requirements
for postsecondary education,

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at least in four-year
colleges, somewhat less

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for two-year colleges,

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have become quite
standardized around the country.

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And in many states there are
formal requirements that set

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up a cascade of required courses
in core areas of the curriculum

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that students need to follow
in order to be college-ready.

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You know, at the end
of the day the basis

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for whether a student is
college-prepared is whether they

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can do the work at the
college level-again,

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without remediation.

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But we believe that that
preparation should happen early

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in core areas of the curriculum

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which meet most colleges'
basic entrance requirements.

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It's in math, and it's
in language and literacy,

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and it's in science and history,

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and it usually requires
some amount

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of foreign language training
and some art training as well

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as part of the core
course requirements.

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Those students who choose
their core sequences can know a

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trajectory very early on, and
we believe one of the things

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that schools can do to
ensure that students are

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on that path is to put those
cascades or those trajectories

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of courses forward to them.

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You know, they are 13 years old
and 14 years old in ninth grade.

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There is no reason why
students shouldn't be able

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to understand the kind
of pathways or roadmaps

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that they might take
as they wind their way

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through high school.

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How well a student does in
Algebra I in ninth grade,

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for example, becomes an
enormously strong predictor

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of how likely it is that
the student will progress

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on to geometry as a tenth
grader and trigonometry

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as an eleventh grader.

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And how well teachers
support their students both

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in the instructional side
and also in the assessments

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that allow us to see how
students are doing along the way

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make for these trajectories
to be more smooth

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as opposed to less smooth.

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In the best cases, more and
more students are taking

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college-ready courses even
before they get to high school.

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There are many states
and many examples

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where we now see Algebra I
being completed by eighth grade,

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which would be 12- and
13-year-olds having that level

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of preparation in
math which becomes

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such an important precursor
to many steps associated

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with college readiness.

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In schools that are making
college preparation easy,

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there is emphasis on certain
courses early on in ninth

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and tenth grade that really pave
the way for a strong foundation

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and a strong preparation
path towards college.

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The best examples are schools
where there is checking

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in with students, even
as early as the end

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of the first semester, on
whether or not the courses

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that have been chosen are
going well and utilization

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of that first summer
and after-school help

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and concurrent enrollment to
provide support for students

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through their freshman
year as a way of catching

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on an early intervention
some areas

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that might need additional
reinforcement and support.

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There is evidence
from the research

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that students have trouble, once
they have moved too far along,

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getting back on track.

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So if it's a natural progression
to move through four years

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of math and three years
of science and four years

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of English, for example,
then it all works

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out so much more simply when
one year builds on the next,

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which builds on the next.

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What we would like to discourage
are students being surprised

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by the time they get to
being eleventh graders

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and twelfth graders with
the aspirations of college

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that have developed over time,

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but having missed the key
milestones along the way

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that would have allowed their
transition from secondary

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to postsecondary
education to be smooth

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with the appropriate counseling,
with the appropriate support,

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with the appropriate feeds of
information through traditional,

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and now through technological
sources of information-the web

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and other kinds of ways of
feeding information to students.

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There is no reason why
students in ninth grade

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and in tenth grade
can't have a map in mind

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as they make their way through
their coursework being ready

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for college when they graduate.