ILLUMINATING COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESSState Report Cards for Districts and Schools

Objectives

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Today’s webinar is designed to address several questions:

Why should your state incorporate college and career readiness (CCR) indicators into its district and school report cards?

What are CCR indicators and how can your state calculate them?

How can your state report CCR indicators to build understanding and inspire action among parents and the public?

We will be joined by Jon Gubera, Chief Accountability Officer, Indiana Department of Education.

We will also share a new sample College and Career Readiness Report Card that Achieve has developed.

WHY YOUR STATE SHOULD INCORPORATE CCR INDICATORS INTO DISTRICT AND SCHOOL REPORT CARDS

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The College- and Career-Ready Agenda

Report cards are powerful levers to focus attention on CCR outcomes

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Visibility of states’ school and district report cards, particularly for parents

Value that students and parents place on CCR (e.g. entrance into entry-level, credit-bearing

courses in post-secondary institutions without need for remediation)

Focus attention on improving CCR outcomes

Achieve has designed a sample report card to jumpstart a conversation in ADP Network states about incorporating CCR indicators into district and school report cards.

Focuses on actionable data

Includes academic as well as broader indicators

Provides comparisons to other schools

Illuminates subgroup-level performance

Suggests questions that parents and the public can ask about student performance strategies

You will be able to find it here: http://www.achieve.org/adp-meetings-and-webinars

Achieve’s sample CCR report card

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WHAT ARE CCR INDICATORS AND HOW CAN YOUR STATE CALCULATE THEM?

CCR indicators fall along a continuum of readiness

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Progressing Toward CCR Meeting CCR Exceeding CCR

ACHIEVEMENT

Students with “On-track to CCR” performance on

assessments in middle and early in high school

Students in a graduating cohort with “CCR” level of

performance on state anchor or college

readiness assessments

Graduates with college-level performance on AP or

IB exams

COURSE COMPLETION AND SUCCESS

High school students, by grade, with timely credit

accumulation along a CCR course of study

Students in a graduating cohort who complete a CCR course of study

Graduates who have completed AP, IB, or dual

enrollment courses

ATTAINMENT

9th grade students with “on-track” to graduation status

based on grades and attendance in core courses

in first grading period

Students in a graduating cohort who receive a

college and career ready diploma

Students in a graduating cohort who receive industry

certification

Graduates who enroll into postsecondary education

with no need for remediation

Graduates who successfully complete at

least one year of postsecondary education

Source: Adapted from Measures that Matter: Making College and Career Readiness the Mission of High Schools, Achieve and the Education Trust, 2008

EXAMPLE: Hawai’i College and Career Readiness Indicators Reports

9Source: Hawai’i P-20 in partnership with the Hawai’i Department of Education and University of Hawaii, http://www.p20hawaii.org/indicators_report.html

EXAMPLE: Virginia’s report cards include CTE and AP/dual enrollment indicators

10Source: Virginia School, School Division, and State Report Cards, https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard

The way states calculate CCR indicators matters for results

Numerators should be criterion-referenced where possible (e.g. “percent of students meeting the CCR benchmark” rather than average score) to better capture changes in readiness

Denominators should include all students, preferably all students in a graduating cohort (e.g. the 2012-13 graduating cohort rather than just students taking an assessment) to improve the stability of the indicator and its ability to portray the full picture of readiness for students in the school

This may mean that your state will need to work with data providers to refine the way they report data to you.

Some guidance for calculating CCR indicators

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Definitions for CCR indicators

12Source: Achieve’s sample CCR report card

HOW CAN YOUR STATE REPORT CCR INDICATORS TO BUILD UNDERSTANDING AND INSPIRE ACTION AMONG PARENTS AND THE PUBLIC?

State report cards use a number of strong techniques

Reporting the number of students as well as percentages

Building in comparisons - vertical comparisons such as school to district to state, horizontal comparisons such as school rankings or showing where the school’s performance lies upon a spectrum, or trends over time

Highlighting disparities among student groups

Some data and functionality may need to live online (along a spectrum of static to interactive reports) while others can translate to a paper report that might be given to parents

Reporting techniques can build understanding and raise the sense of urgency

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EXAMPLE: Texas uses student numbers to explain graduation rates

15Source: Texas 2010 Campus Graduation Summary, http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/cgi/sas/broker

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Achieve’s sample CCR report card includes numbers of students participating in certain pathways

Source: Achieve’s sample CCR report card

EXAMPLE: Indiana compares school to state and district performance

17Source: Indiana COMPASS reports, http://compass.doe.in.gov/dashboard/collegereadiness.aspx?type=state

EXAMPLE: Illinois shows where student performance falls along a spectrum

18Source: Illinois Interactive Report Card, http://iirc.niu.edu/

EXAMPLE: The Chicago Tribune uses a different method to show the distribution

19Source: Illinois Interactive Report Card, http://iirc.niu.edu/

EXAMPLE: Michigan displays ACT CCR benchmark data over time

20Source: Michigan School Data, https://www.mischooldata.org/CareerAndCollegeReadiness/ACTCollegeReadiness/Trend.aspx

EXAMPLE: greatschools.org shows three-year trend data for each subject

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EXAMPLE: Indiana compares CCR outcomes across student groups

22Source: Indiana COMPASS reports, http://compass.doe.in.gov/dashboard/graduates.aspx?type=state

Adding “judgments” can enhance understanding of performance patterns

Traffic-lighting – color-coding in categories such as red, yellow, green

Presenting performance data against goals and benchmarks

Ratings or classifications – these may include those used in the state accountability system, or be defined separately for measures used only in the report card

Presenting the data in context

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Achieve’s sample CCR report card includes judgments on annual improvement and against annual performance goals

24Source: Achieve’s sample CCR report card,

Use focus groups and surveys to get feedback on report card prototypes, from the content to delivery.

Draw on these interactions to…

Identify priority questions

Narrow the list of priority indicators

Refine data display techniques

Develop narratives to explain performance or better define indicators

Clarify what can be interactive versus what should be in a static document

Engaging users in the process

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ILLUMINATING COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESSState Report Cards for Districts and Schools