Texas: Seeking to Improve High School to Postsecondary Transitions

Back in the blogging saddle after a few months away. Texas, which as usual had a very busy legislative session this year (they are in regular session only in odd-numbered years), enacted numerous pieces of intriguing legislation designed to improve college completion.

Some of these enactments are clearly designed to help students transition from high school to postsecondary--one such piece of legislation is H.B. 2909, which makes various changes to the state's public awareness campaign promoting higher education. Among the changes: the campaign now must provide information on the benefits of obtaining postsecondary education, the types of postsecondary institutions and degree programs available, the academic preparation needed to successfully pursue a postsecondary education, and how to obtain financial aid and the types of financial aid available. Perhaps even more importantly, the legislation specifies that the higher education coordinating board must work with other agencies to implement the public awareness campaign (previously such coordination was voluntary), and directs the board to collaborate with the Texas Education Agency (i.e., state SEA), the P-16 council, and other appropriate entities, including regional P-16 councils and businesses.

This is definitely a step in the right direction for a state that has already done much policy-wise to enhance students' college readiness, and has set its sights on closing the gaps (both in-state and nationally) on college participation and success.

More 2011 Texas enactments on improving transitions and postsecondary completion may be highlighted at a later date either here or on my other blog, which is geared at policy and research innovations in general.

Hawaii P-3 Receives $1.5 Million for Demonstration Project

As reported by the University of Hawaii, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has given a $1.5 million award to Hawai‘i P-20’s early education program, Hawai‘i P-3. The funds will take the Hawaii P-20 council's current Kellogg-funded P-3 efforts "from capacity building toward shared public education transformation." The funds will also support a fifth demonstration project to improve alignment of early education to elementary schools, with the goal of children reading on grade level by grade 3.

As the Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education Web site makes abundantly clear, early learning is a core component of both their work and their leadership. In fact, not only is Hawaii one of the relatively rare states that explicitly includes the "P" in the P-20 council's agenda and membership, but Hawaii's P-20 council seems to be the only one in the nation that includes an explicit early learning representative as a council leader.

Would external funding--from a Kellogg or another philanthropy or business representative--increase the likelihood that other councils would follow Hawaii's lead and make early learning a core component of their work and leadership? Or does the commitment from council leadership need to be there first, and the funding will follow?

Oklahoma: P-20 Council Task Force

S.B. 206 signed by Governor Fallin earlier this month creates a 9-member P-20 Council Task Force to explore the "feasibility, value and structure" of a P-20 council or partnership in Oklahoma. The task force is charged with reporting its findings, including legislative recommendations to the governor and house and senate leadership by December 31, 2011.

It will be interesting to see what the task force determines. In recent years, Oklahoma has taken steps forward on P-20 issues--such as becoming one of the first states to adopt graduation requirements aligned with postsecondary admissions requirements, and establishing the P-20 Data Coordinating Council. What will be next for P-20 alignment in Oklahoma?

Georgia: College and career academies

A number of states, including Georgia, have "career academies", high schools that offer specialized instruction in one or more career/technical education (CTE) fields, after which students may continue technical training or go directly into the workforce. Until now, career academies in the Peach State were charter schools developed via partnerships between one or more districts and a technical school. 2011 S.B. 161 replaces these with "college and career academies"--programs with a clearer connection to both postsecondary education and business/industry and communities to enhance workforce development.

According to the legislation, college and career academies in Georgia are still charter schools, but may come about through a more varied set of stakeholders--through a partnership "between one or more local boards of education, a private individual, a private organization, or a state or local public entity in cooperation with one or more postsecondary institutions" (not just two-year schools). S.B. 161 legislatively establishes the Office of College and Career Transitions in the Technical College System of Georgia to coordinate between the state board of education, the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia and accredited not-for-profit postsecondary institutions in the professional development, curriculum support, and development and establishment of college and career academies.

The bill directs the the Office of College and Career Transitions to develop a college and career academy certification process. The certification applicant (i.e., academy) must demonstrate how the proposed college and career academy "will increase student achievement, provide for dual credit and dual enrollment opportunities, increase work based learning opportunities, and address workforce development needs; articulates how the collaboration between business, industry, and community stakeholders will advance workforce development; demonstrates local governance and autonomy; and shows other benefits that meet the needs of the students and community."

The measure also calls for reporting and data analysis--programs must annually provide, among other components, "an evaluation of the progress relative to relationships between and among the business, industry, and community stakeholders, and any other information requested by the board to demonstrate the yearly progress or effectiveness of the college and career academy." The Office of College and Career Transitions is charged with evaluating program data related to program effectiveness. (It will be interesting to see what level of data are reported, and how they will be used to improve programs--and what implications these data have for replication of this model in other states.)

While I'm not sure why the sponsor encouraged the switch from "career academies" to "college and career academies", the legislation seems to hold several potential benefits:

• Clearer involvement of the business and local community leaders in the development of their future workforce
• Clearer focus on "increasing student achievement" as one of the goals of college and career academies
• Integration of dual enrollment opportunities into career education.

Oregon: Taking on transfer

Legislation on its way to Governor Kitzhaber in Oregon has the potential to improve student transfer from two-year to four-year postsecondary institutions in the state.

H.B. 3521 directs the joint boards of education (the state board of education and board of higher education) to develop standards to apply community college credits toward four-year degrees. The legislation provides the standards may include:

• Admission standards to four-year schools for students who have earned an associate transfer degree
• The maximum number of credits a student who has earned an associate transfer degree must complete to receive various types of baccalaureate degrees
• The maximum number of credits a student who has completed a transfer program (1-year program to allow a student to earn credits toward a baccalaureate degree) would need to complete to earn various types of baccalaureate degrees
• A process by which a community college would award an associate's degree upon completion of necessary credits, regardless of whether a student applied to receive the degree or the student had earned the credits at a 2-year or 4-year campus
• Any other issues identified by the joint boards of education related to community college courses of study and student ability to transfer credits to a 2- or 4-year institution, to be admitted to a 4-year institution, or to earn a degree at a 2-year or 4-year institution.
• Requirements that students must meet to benefit from the aforementioned five standards.

The legislation also establishes reporting requirements for community colleges and 4-year institutions on numbers of transfer students in the system and the amount of credits they have accumulated at 2- and 4-year institutions, and reporting requirements for the joint boards, related to implementation of the standards by the 2014-15 school year.

Washington State: Smoothing the path from high school to postsecondary

Legislation recently signed by Governor Chris Gregoire makes intentional efforts to render the senior year of high school more meaningful, and increase the likelihood that options such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and others will translate into in the postsecondary credits that students and parents often assume students will automatically receive.

H.B. 1808 requires:

• A potential overhaul of the senior year: Every public high school must, within existing resources, work to offer the equivalent of a year's worth of postsecondary credit toward a certificate, apprenticeship program, technical degree, or associate or baccalaureate degree. The high school courses referred to here have a related proficiency exam or demonstrated competencies to show students have gained postsecondary knowledge and skills.
• Raising student and parent awareness of opportunities for college credit: High schools must inform students and their families, particularly those from underrepresented groups, of the availability of such courses that qualify for postsecondary credit. Students are to be encouraged to "to use the twelfth grade as the launch year for an advance start on their career and postsecondary education."
• Coming closer to postsecondary consensus on awarding of dual credit: Public postsecondary institutions must develop a master list of postsecondary courses (lower-division general ed. requirements or postsecondary professional technical requirements) that can be completed by achieving minimum scores on Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or other recognized college-level proficiency exams, or by demonstrated competencies. However, the legislation does not require postsecondary institutions to come to absolute agreement on cut scores and demonstrated competencies that will earn high school students PS credit--they must do so "To the maximum extent possible"--which may leave institutions some degree of wiggle room.
• Developing 1 year of college credit that may be earned before HS graduation: Each institution, in developing its certificate, technical degree program, two-year academic transfer program, or freshman and sophomore courses toward a bachelor's degree, must identify "the equivalencies of at least one year of course credit and maximize the application of the credits toward lower division general education requirements that can be earned" via minimum scores on exams such as AP and IB.
• Colleges to get the word out on dual credit they will accept: Each public postsecondary institutions must clearly include in its admissions materials and on its Web site the credits or postsecondary courses that can be fulfilled by minimum exam scores or demonstrated competencies, and what those minimum exam scores and demonstrated competencies are. In addition, each institution of higher education must make this information available in a form that the state superintendent can distribute to school districts.

Students and parents nationwide would likely benefit from the broad availability of college-level credit this legislation calls for at the high school level, and from the level of transparency institutions must show in terms of what scores on which exams will and will not earn students credit in which college courses.

Arkansas: Evaluating early learning quality

In recognition of the "P" in P-20, an early learning post:

Many (most?) states provide funding for early learning programs, but I'm not certain how many states require all state-funded programs to undergo annual evaluation aligned with nationally recognized measures. Arkansas legislation enacted this session does just that.

Arkansas S.B. 337 directs the division of child care and early childhood education to assess each state-funded early childhood program based on nationally recognized standards and assessments that may include:
(1) Curriculum and learning environment
(2) Staff training and education
(3) Adult-to-child ratios
(4) Student assessments
(5) Health and safety conditions
(6) Family involvement
(7) Site visits.

A summary of the results of these assessments must be provided to the governor and house and senate education leadership.