PK-Grade 12 School Reform The Impact on SMU Entering Students

The Big Picture High Stakes Testing College Readiness Including Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Programs Accountability for College Success

Beliefs No Child Left Behind and the Reauthorization of the Elementary Secondary Education Act in 2010 represent one of the major social justice policies to impact education short of the Establishment Clause in the Constitution Most well intentioned policy fails because of the lack of well- designed implementation plans

High Stakes Testing: The Quest for the Holy Grail

High Stakes Testing-Negatives Students will be impacted by a narrow focus on what is tested Time allocation on untested subjects will be evident in the conceptual background of your students particularly in social science and science The shift to using personal narrative as the tested genre short changes other important genres necessary to be successful in multiple disciplines for entering students.

High Stakes Testing-Positives All students are monitored for progress and academic success, thus opening doors for students who were underserved in the past. Addition of open-ended response questions has raised the rigor of instruction and assessment Reading assessments require deeper analysis across genres rather than just locating answers in text. Writing instruction is valued starting at early grades

College Readiness-Taking Baby Steps

College Readiness/Common Core Standards and Measures-Negatives Not much bad on this concept Texas College and Career Readiness Standards were developed jointly with the Coordinating Board and TEA They are process oriented and not pure content knowledge. Disciplines are represented as “a way of knowing”. Specific literary works and content details are not outlined in the document Link: 5A72BD7F7FB2448E

College and Career Readiness Standards: Positives Texas Standards represent all major content disciplines Common Core only represents English/Language Arts and Math Standards are written and measured at higher cognitive levels Implementation is dependent on the quality of teacher training provided by schools whether using the Texas College and Career Readiness Standards or the Common Core

CCSS-M: Develop understanding of fractions as numbers (3.NF.1) 1. Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.

CCSS-M: Develop understanding of fractions as numbers (3.NF.3.a) Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size. a. Understand two fractions as equivalent (equal) if they are the same size, or the same point on a number line.

Example of College and Career Readiness Standard-Cross Discipline Key Cognitive Skills A. Intellectual curiosity 1. Engage in scholarly inquiry and dialogue. a. Identify what is known, not known, and what one wants to know in a problem. b. Conduct investigations and observations. c. Cite examples or illustrations in which a clear-cut answer cannot be reached.

AP/International Baccalaureate/Concurrent College Enrollment Push: Negatives Open enrollment has created a wide-range of students for teachers to accommodate. Often the original design of these more rigorous programs ends up being compromised Students may miss prerequisite knowledge and skills when placed in these programs without some assessment of required knowledge and skills. In Texas 21% of the students are enrolled in AP or IB, but only 50% of those students make the passing score on exams.

AP/ International Baccalaureate/ Concurrent College Enrollment: Positives Under-represented students are able to access a more rigorous curriculum Concurrent enrollment allows for some acculturation to life on a college campus International Baccalaureate has consistent grading standards through the use of external evaluators. Broader writing genres are practiced by students.

Accountability for College Success: Negatives and Positives Texas schools are now held accountable for college entrance statistics Schools must now monitor student progress in college through year one with no remediation required. Only have data from Texas public and private universities, so that is a limitation

The Implications Assumptions about conceptual background of students need to be challenged particularly in social science areas and in the pure sciences. Students will need scaffolding and exemplars to be able to write effectively in the genres of different disciplines—comparison/contrast papers, justification papers, documented analysis papers, technical descriptions, literature reviews etc. The predominant style of writing will be personal narrative. Expectations for work quality and products will need to be more clearly stated than you may think is warranted.

Call to Action There is a connection between PK-12 reform and your students There is an increased need for PK-20 dialogue and discussions about student performance expectations There is a place for university faculty to show leadership in policy development and implementation that is helpful PK-20 However--- Once we have the students, they are our responsibility

Final Challenge Our task is to provide an education for the kind of kid we have…. not the kind of kid we used to have…. or want to have…. or the kid that exists in our dreams.

Tribute to the New Faculty at SMU Lee Alvoid, Chair Department of Education Policy and Leadership