It’s all about completion!
Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by Bonnie.
What does this mean for Washington students? More opportunity that should lead to more people earning a family-wage salary and fulfilling careers. Awesome.
SEATTLE — The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) is launching the Washington State Student Completion Initiative aimed at dramatically increasing community college completion rates. The initiative, one of the most comprehensive completion efforts in the country, will launch new programs and expand successful pilot programs aimed at addressing key barriers to student success.
The initiative is supported by the state Legislature, a $5.3 million investment by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and $800,000 from the Ford Foundation.
“As Washington competes in the global economy, it is critical that we have the most highly skilled workforce available,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said. “That starts with our community and technical colleges. That’s why I have supported their innovative student completion initiatives in past state budgets and am so pleased to hear about this partnership with the Gates and Ford foundations, which will catapult their efforts even further.”
In today’s global economy, a college degree or postsecondary certificate is required to obtain a family-wage job. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for community college graduates will grow at a rate nearly twice as fast as the national average between 2006 and 2016. Nationally, only about 28 percent of first-time, full-time students at two-year institutions earn an associate degree within three years of enrolling. Washington is one of only a handful of states that is working aggressively to increase these percentages.
“Low-income young adults rely on community and technical colleges to get the skills they need in today’s economy, but many are struggling to succeed despite their best efforts,” said Jan Yoshiwara, SBCTC’s deputy executive director for education. “This partnership is funding some of the most innovative approaches to teaching and learning that will help us move more students further and faster to educational and economic success.”
The Washington State Student Completion Initiative will focus state and local attention on several “key achievement points” that research shows students must pass on the road to graduation, among them successfully completing pre-college or other remedial courses and completing a college-level math course.
“Getting more students into college means little if we’re not also making the effort to help them graduate,” said Hilary Pennington, director of Education, Postsecondary Success and Special Initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Washington state has an inspiring track record of developing innovative and effective ways to do just that.”
Several Washington state programs already serve as national models for boosting student completion. These programs will be expanded over the four years of the Washington State Student Completion Initiative:
- The state’s I-BEST program combines basic academic courses and career skills classes to ensure that the least-prepared students not only complete college, but are competitive in the workforce upon graduation. Program evaluations suggest that I-BEST students are almost four times more likely to earn a credential or degree than similar students who were not enrolled in I-BEST. Under this initiative, Washington state will expand I-BEST to new pre-college and college-level degree programs. (I-BEST stands for Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training.)
- Washington’s Student Achievement Initiative provides financial incentives for institutions based on increases in student milestones that have demonstrated key linkages to college completion. It represents a significant shift from traditional funding, which typically is based solely on a college’s enrollment. During the pilot phase of the initiative, colleges served the same number of students but increased student achievement by nearly 5 percent. The greatest gains were a 10 percent boost in basic skills and nearly a 7 percent jump in college readiness. This initiative will expand the financial incentives to those colleges that see higher numbers of students who reach key graduation milestones.
The state will launch two new programs under the Washington State Student Completion Initiative:
- Strengthen and expand access to the colleges’ gatekeeper courses. There are 80 high-enrollment, gatekeeper and pre-college courses that most students must take to successfully earn a degree. Too often, students don’t complete these courses, can’t find an open section, or can’t afford the textbook. SBCTC and the 34 colleges will research, redesign, teach, and assess the 80 courses to improve completion rates through best practices in instructional design and active learning. This online initiative will reduce total student costs (an estimated $6.5 million a year) with open textbooks, course packs, existing library resources, and other open educational resources. All 80 courses will be digital, so faculty can select and continually improve courses, colleges can offer additional online or blended sections, and the courses can be shared throughout the college system and with the rest of the world. The state aims to achieve 95 percent completion rates in all redesigned high-enrollment gatekeeper courses.
- Take steps to improve students’ success in pre-college and college math. Math continues to be the major hurdle for students to complete certificates and degrees. More than 56,000 community college students in Washington are required to take remedial-level math (a 9 percent increase in the last year alone). Under this initiative, a coalition of seven colleges will focus on improving student math achievement by making substantive changes in curriculum, instructional practices and teacher support, and assessment. The program aims to increase successful completion of remedial math courses by 15 percent.
“Too many young people enroll in community colleges expecting educational advancement and broader opportunity—only to find a revolving door,” said Alison Bernstein, vice president of education, creativity and free expression at the Ford Foundation. “We are pleased to support initiatives such as Student Achievement that offer large numbers of students the chance to reach their ultimate goals of obtaining AA and BA degrees. We want students to complete their higher education, not just sample it.”
The grants announced today advance efforts by the Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation to help increase the number of people in the United States who successfully earn a degree or certificate beyond high school.
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Provocative report on Seattle Public Schools released
Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by Genna.
Last night, the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington DC based research non-profit, released a large study on the current state of teaching in the Seattle Public Schools, done at the request of the local Alliance for Education . A presentation of the study at Seattle University, attended mostly by activists, teachers, and school district officials, drew intense and varied reactions from the crowd.
The study, which can be found in its entirety here, suggests many ways to improve the school district. The three most problematic areas found in the report were pay incentives, time spent teaching, and effectively evaluating teacher performance.
In the area of pay incentives, the study found that Seattle teachers are required to take far more classes than teachers in neighboring districts in order to qualify for the same size pay raise. Because research has shown that additional coursework does not actually make for better teachers, the NCTQ recommends getting rid of this incentive, and instead giving bonuses to teachers who teach in high-demand areas, such as math and science.
In regards to the time spent teaching, the study noted that Seattle elementary school teachers’ work days of 7 hours are significantly shorter that the regional average of 7 hours, 38 minutes. A 30 minute difference in the school day is comparable to cutting 2.5 weeks out of the school year.
Finally, the study found that the school district is not effectively identifying the teachers that aren’t doing a good job. Last year, only 16 teachers out of 3,300 were evaluated as performing unsatisfactorily. The problems that the NCTQ found in the evaluation system were that student achievement was not considered, classroom evaluations were rarely unannounced, and principals were not held accountable for the quality of their evaluations. The study also suggested that teacher effectiveness should be considered when choosing teachers for tenure, not just seniority.
At the dinner where this study was presented, emotions ran high. Many of the teachers in attendance expressed anger and skepticism about the findings of the study, such as the assertion that teachers take college classes while teaching in order to get pay raises, without the classes actually improving the quality of their teaching. Others worried about the implications of completely reworking the evaluation system.
Among local education activists and parents, the reaction was largely positive. Many were excited to see the study addressing issues they had personally witnessed in schools, and expressed enthusiasm that this could get the ball rolling towards improvement.
From my perspective as a student, I understand both groups’ reactions to the study. To me, it seemed like the study (or perhaps just the presenter at the event) unnecessarily attacked teachers by pointing the finger at them for issues such as Seattle teachers’ high rate of days out of the classroom, or the fact that teachers are taking college classes that are not actually improving their performance. To me, both of these problems stem from the district that allows these practices, not the teachers who take the opportunities presented to them. I hope that neither the teachers nor the school district feel so antagonized by this study that they are unable to see the helpful suggestions it provides. Although unwarranted advice might be annoying, that doesn’t mean its wrong.
