2013 International SIM Conference School Practices that Matter Most for High School and College Readiness Elaine Allensworth 2013 International SIM Conference Lawrence, KS This could be a title slide

National Movement to Prepare All Students for College Rise in educational aspirations From 1981 to 2004, the percentage of students who expected to attain a bachelor’s degree or higher doubled--from 35% to 70% Criticisms of low high school academic standards Recognition that skills most needed in the workforce are the same as those for needed for college Goal of the Obama administration that all students leave ready for college or careers Change in focus from achievement to attainment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2006) President Obama’s first address to Congress signaled a shift in educational priorities. He committed his administration to ending the dropout crisis in the nation’s public high schools and ensuring that by 2020 America would once again lead the world in the proportion of its population with college degrees.

This is ambitious As a nation, we’ve never come close to graduating all students college ready About a quarter of students fail to graduate high school About half of graduates nationwide have less than a 3.0 GPA A quarter of ACT-taking graduates meet all 4 college-ready test benchmarks Only small increases in 4-year college completion 32% of 25-to-29-year-olds have 4-year degrees in 2011 (22% in 1980) 38% of students enrolling in a 4-year college complete Large inequalities in preparation & academic attainment Graduation statistics are from NCES: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11 _008.asp http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11 _345.asp. ACT statistics are from ACT. Statistics from NCES and ACT, Inc.

National Movement for More Rigorous Curriculum Require all students to take a college preparatory curriculum Chicago ended remedial courses, required college-prep courses for all in 1997 Expand AP courses, IB programs Chicago expanded both considerably, beginning in 1997 Remediation through double-dosing Chicago required 9th graders with 8th-grade scores below national median to take additional course in Algebra and/or English in 2003 Common core and next generation standards adopted by almost all states Chicago adopted Instructional Development Systems, IDS in 2005 High quality curriculum & pedagogy designed by vendors Aligned with ACT, formative and summative course assessments Curriculum coaches, Professional development These strategies had unexpected results in Chicago 4

Logic behind curricular push to increase college readiness More challenging, college-oriented curriculum Increased learning, Stronger skills Higher educational attainment Makes sense, right?

Logic Assumptions behind curricular push to increase college readiness ? ? More challenging, college-oriented curriculum Increased learning, Stronger skills Higher educational attainment You can implement curriculum in ways where one piece does not lead to the other, or there are adverse effects. You can have increased learning, but no effect or lower educational attainment. You can have teachers implementing better curriculum, but no effect or weaker skills.

Logic Assumptions behind curricular push to increase college readiness ? ? More challenging, student-centered curriculum Increased learning, Stronger skills Higher educational attainment Teacher  Teachers need to understand the more challenging curriculum and know how to implement it. But to get students to do harder work means teachers also need them to work harder (study more, persist despite frustration) – need better skills around student motivation & classroom management. If they’re teaching content at a high level to students who are entering at low level, they need to know strategies to reach those students without losing students who already have strong skills. And at the h.s./middle school level, they aren’t just teaching one class. Schools need to distribute their teachers – if suddenly they need to offer 50% more algebra instruction or Algebra II to all students, they’re going to need more algebra teachers from somewhereSchools need to figure out how to program students, and can affect who is in their class and that is going to affect the classroom climate, learning pace, and students’ own conception of themselves. Educational material Students The Instructional Triangle, Cohen and Ball, 1999 

Success depends on the school organization and context More challenging, college-oriented curriculum ? Increased learning, Stronger skills ? Higher educational attainment Teacher  Selective enrollment schools may not be affected at all. Schools with 20% students learning disabled, high mobility rates, poor school climate, little time for shared planning – figuring out how to implement new curriculum more likely to face challenges, or to distract attention from other needs that may be essential to get students in the building in the first place. Students Educational material  School Organization and Context

How do we make all of the work on the common core and new standards pay off with higher educational attainment?

Theme 1 Increasing instructional challenge may have no benefit for educational attainment (and even bring declines)… …unless accompanied by more attention to student behavior and support

Chicago was an early adopter of popular strategies to increase curricular rigor One example: Eliminating remedial coursework & requiring a college-prep curriculum for all students (1997) Three years of math Algebra in 9th grade, followed by geometry and algebra II Previously 2 years were required; many students took remedial math Four years of English English I through English IV Previously many students took remedial English in 9th grade Three years of social science World studies, U.S. History and an elective Previously 3 years required of any social studies course Three years of lab science Earth or Environmental Science; Biology; Chemistry or Physics Previously 1 year required 11

Ending remedial coursework led more students to earn credit in Algebra or English I, but no other benefits Change in Math Outcomes Credit in Algebra I or Higher Math Course Failure Course Absences Math grades (4 pt.) Test Scores Lowest Skilled 8.8% 7.7% 2.24 -0.15 0.63 Low Skilled 7.4% 3.6% 2.40 -0.07 0.13 Average 1.0% 1.3% 3.14 -0.01 -0.17 Highly Skilled -0.4% 1.2% 1.67 0.10 0.50 Change in English Outcomes Credit in English 1 English Course Failure English grades (4 pt.) 35.8% 4.1% 1.15 -0.61 28.2% 4.0% 1.46 -0.11 -0.64 11.7% 2.1% 2.11 -0.06 -0.54 High Skilled -3.2% 2.6% 1.70 -1.11

Graduation rates declined with the policy Percent of students graduating from high school in 5 years Policy Year All students

Controlling for student background High school graduates were less likely to go to college with the policy Percent of graduates in each cohort attending a 4-year college after graduation Controlling for student background Policy So, in the end, requiring more rigorous coursework led more students to fail and reduced the capacity of schools to prepare the highest-achieving students.

Other policies to improve academic rigor in Chicago had further unexpected results Investment in curricular quality through IDS Better professional development, pedagogy Classes became less orderly Test scores declined, grades remained the same Double Dose Algebra More challenging algebra instruction for both high- and low-skill students Higher test scores among high- and low-skilled students LOWER pass rates & grades among high-skill students

Why didn’t student outcomes improve with higher curricular challenge?

Student achievement is affected by the interplay of three instructional elements: Academic challenge Demands, quantity of work, critical thinking in assignments, teacher expectations Classroom control Student behavior, orderliness, participation, work completion Student support Monitoring & feedback, individualized assistance, instructional clarity Student support is not personal support, but academic support. By better understanding the ways in which elements of classroom instruction affect outcomes, these policy effects make perfect sense. Classroom instruction measured from student surveys and student interviews, tied to grades and test scores. Statistical models controlled for student and teacher backgrounds and classroom characteristics. From Setting the Stage for Academic Rigor (To be released in Fall, 2013)

Orderly student behavior (classroom control) is a pre-requisite for academic challenge to lead to high learning gains

Higher challenge leads to lower grades, unless accompanied by support

When students encounter challenges, they withdraw A: [Math] got complicated and I didn’t get it. I just felt like I couldn’t do it. Q: What did you do? A: Nothing. Just sat there. The [homework] was too hard. I don’t understand it so I might as well not do it if I don’t understand something. From Student Interviews

What needs to happen to improve student test scores? Challenging work in a controlled environment – where students are doing what is expected More challenging work requires students to work harder But, classroom control can decline with increased challenge Teachers need strategies around motivating students Students may need explicit learning strategies to handle the work If expanding challenging coursework changes the composition of high-level classes–-need strategies to keep the classroom controlled and challenging When students talk about their best classes—AP, etc. they talk about how it made them work hard. How to be learners. Teachers need to teach students that more is expected in terms of studying, teach how to do more student-centered work, model studying behaviors. The teachers who do this are teachers who work hard. Who are attuned to their students. Who give them the academic help they need.

What needs to happen to improve student grades? Good grades require support that meets the level of challenge If monitoring & support don’t increase with higher challenge, grades fall and failures increase – even if students learn more Example: Double-dose algebra. Students learned more, but failure rates increased. The more that is asked of students, the more that teachers need to be sure they reach out as soon as a student is struggling Students withdraw when they feel frustrated The more challenging the material, the more important it is to have clear explanations of material School climate – orderly and supportive.

Theme #2 Improvements in educational attainment require higher course grades (GPAs)… …more so than higher test scores Grades in 9th grade are more predictive of high school graduation than entering achievement test scores, background characteristics High School GPA matters much more than test scores for college graduation Growing gaps in GPAs by race/ethnicity and gender are more of a concern than the gaps in test scores 1/17/2019

Who will graduate and who will drop out? Indicator of Future Graduation/Dropout… Prediction of graduates in 4 years Prediction of non-graduates Eighth grade test scores Race Economic status Gender Mobility prior to high school Over-age for grade 65% correctly identified, using all background information 48% This one indicator gives a vastly better prediction than all of these background characteristics combined.

Who will graduate and who will drop out? Indicator of Future Graduation/Dropout… Prediction of graduates in 4 years Prediction of non-graduates Eighth grade test scores Race Economic status Gender Mobility prior to high school Over-age for grade 65% correctly identified, using all background information 48% On-track in 9th grade At least 5 credits, no more than 1 semester F 80% using only the on-track indicator 72% This one indicator gives a vastly better prediction than all of these background characteristics combined.

Who will graduate and who will drop out? Indicator of Future Graduation/Dropout… Prediction of graduates in 4 years Prediction of non-graduates Eighth grade test scores Race Economic status Gender Mobility prior to high school Over-age for grade 65% correctly identified, using all background information 48% On-track in 9th grade 80% 72% On-track in 9th grade PLUS ALL Background characteristics 81% This one indicator gives a vastly better prediction than all of these background characteristics combined.

Middle grade GPAs are better indicators of readiness to do well in high school than middle school test scores Percent of Students Passing 9th Grade Math by 8th Grade Core GPA and 8th Grade Math ISAT Score Ninth grade pass rates show no relationship with test scores, once we account for both incoming GPAs and attendance Once I control for 8th grade attendance, test scores don’t matter at all.

High school GPAs are better indicators of likelihood to graduate college than high school test scores 6-year Graduation rates for North Carolina State Colleges by SAT Score and High School GPA (Bowen, Chingos & McPherson, 2011) They find, like we find, that students need at least a B-average in high school to have a 50-50 chance of graduating from college. From Crossing the Finish Line (Bowen, Chingos, McPherson, 2011). Data is from state colleges in North Carolina

Gaps in students’ GPAs by gender and race/ethnicity drive gaps in college degree completion So what matters for students’ grades? NAEP Transcript study (2011)

Theme 3: Students’ grades (GPAs) depend on much more than their core academic knowledge and skills… They are affected by a host of “non-cognitive” factors, including behaviors, mindsets, perseverance, learning strategies and social skills

Measured by TEST SCORES What factors contribute to grades? Content Knowledge Measured by TEST SCORES Academic Skills Noncognitive Factors Measured by GRADES

What are noncognitive factors? Anything not measured by cognitive tests (achievement or IQ tests) Skills, behaviors, strategies, beliefs, attitudes The stuff that isn’t content knowledge or core academic skills, but that matters for school performance

There is a large literature on… Skills, behaviors, strategies, beliefs, attitudes Time Management Interests Conscientiousness Work ethic Self-Regulation Grit Motivation Persistence Self-Concept Tenacity Self-Efficacy Collaboration Teamwork Agreeableness Open-mindedness Flexibility Leadership Creativity Innovation Confidence Effort Enthusiasm Values Cooperation Communication Peer Interactions Professionalism Work Completion Attendance Goal-setting "non-cog factors" go by many names… soft skills… same name used to mean different things in different fields, different names used for basically the same construct

5 Categories of Noncognitive Factors Academic Behaviors Academic Perseverance Academic Mindsets Learning Strategies Social Skills Academic Performance (Course Grades)

Attendance, homework completion Academic Behaviors Being a “good student” Only DIRECT relationship to course performance – All other factors are expressed through academic behaviors Improving academic behaviors is the only way to substantially improve grades Academic Behaviors Going to class Doing homework Participating Studying Academic Performance Clear evidence on Attendance, homework completion Monitoring & support

Academic Perseverance Ability and tendency to see things through to completion despite distractions or obstacles Expressed through the quality, intensity, and duration of a student’s academic behavior State or trait? A desirable outcome, but hard to change directly! Academic Perseverance Grit, Tenacity, Persistence, Self-Control, Effort, Delayed Gratification Academic Behaviors Academic Performance

Academic Mindsets Academic Mindsets Beliefs about oneself in relation to academic work. Sense of Belonging Self-Efficacy Growth Mindset Relevance Academic Mindsets I belong in this academic community. I can succeed at this. My ability and competence grow with my effort. This work has value to me. Academic Perseverance Academic Behaviors Mindsets are really powerful because of recursive thought processes Academic Performance

Evidence on Academic Mindsets Foundational research vs. Intervention studies Goal orientations Implicit theories of ability Locus of control Expectancy-value theory Learned helplessness Stereotype threat Normalizing academic difficulty in college Malleability of intelligence Relevance of course material Cueing important values

Learning Strategies Learning Strategies Academic Behaviors Strategies to aid in cognitive work of thinking, learning, or remembering Academic Perseverance Learning Strategies Study Skills Metacognitive Strategies Self-Regulated Learning Goal Setting Academic Behaviors Academic Performance

Interpersonal Skills, Empathy, Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility Social Skills Poor social skills/ behaviors can negatively affect grades through disciplinary events Little evidence of positive effects on grades from especially strong social skills, but important for other outcomes Social Skills Interpersonal Skills, Empathy, Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility Academic Behaviors Academic Performance

Model of Noncognitive Factors

What does this mean for getting students engaged around more challenging curriculum? Increased challenge can affect mindsets in negative ways (self-efficacy), as well as positive ways (relevance) Higher challenge means students need to show more perseverance to meet new expectations Higher challenge with different instructional tasks may require different learning strategies Students can learn more because of exposure to harder material, but get lower grades, reducing future educational attainment Directly, through lower GPAs Indirectly, by affecting their mindsets about future work

Curricular approaches address skills, but not necessarily engagement with the curriculum More challenging, college-oriented curriculum Increased learning, Stronger skills Higher educational attainment For challenging curriculum to result in increased learning, students must be doing the work For stronger skills to lead to higher educational attainment, students need good grades and positive mindsets

Teachers can be ready for the additional demands of more challenging curriculum Systems for close monitoring and support around students’ academic behaviors Poor attendance, work effort indicate problems with mindsets, lack of sufficient learning strategies, as well as other issues in students’ lives Monitoring student behaviors and talking to students can help teachers diagnose problems Individualized assistance to students who miss class or an assignment can keep students from falling too far behind Attention to instructional clarity, individualized assistance in lessons Helps students feel they can succeed, they do belong Explicit teaching of learning strategies and behavioral expectations so that students can handle higher demands Scaffold learning processes and academic behaviors, as a key part of teaching more challenging material (not in place of it) These are teacher-based practices, but we can’t expect each individual teacher to be able to do this well on their own, especially if they are teaching many students with skills well below the level of the curriculum, or are in a difficult school context.

Schools can be ready for the additional demands of more challenging curriculum School leadership can support teachers through systems and collaboration Data systems that are easy to use to monitor students, that can allow information on student progress to be available across staff and with parents School-wide mechanisms and policies that facilitate partnerships between teachers, students, parents Time for collaboration and planning among teachers who share students Schools can have supports in place for students with skills below course- level, or with prior low performance, before they fall behind Can use data on prior performance to identify the types of support that they will likely need School leadership should be strategic when planning programs and instruction, so that everyone’s efforts are aligned coherently to support student engagement in their classes