Standards and Assessments In the News Again
February 19, 2014Voters Support Common Core and Aligned Assessments
March 17, 2014Many thanks to Achieve for allowing us to share this important information from their February Newsletter!
As states continue to implement college- and career-ready standards and prepare for the transition to aligned assessments, it’s more important than ever to remember why college and career readiness is imperative for all students.
A recent Time cover story looked at “the diploma that works,” specifically referring to the diploma earned in six-year high school models in which students also earn an associate’s degree. At the heart of this story was an endorsement of a college- and career-ready agenda that prepares students to graduate from high school with the skills they need to pursue postsecondary training to fill the growing skills gap.
The college- and career-ready agenda has always been a jobs and equity agenda with the goal of equiping allstudents with the foundational knowledge and skills they need to be successful. Despite mounting evidence that current graduates are ill-prepared to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow, there continues to be resistance to the college- and career-ready agenda, largely stemming from a misinterpretation of the “college” in college and career ready as referring to four-year colleges. In fact, graduating college and career ready is simply about high school graduates having options and being able to choose their own career path. To have choices, graduates must leave high school ready — without the need for remediation — to pursue additional education and/or training whether that is at a community college, technical college, apprenticeship or certificate program, or a four-year college.
When students do not graduate from high school adequately prepared for college and career, two things happen. First, a skills gap in the workforce emerges as workers do not have the skills needed for today’s jobs. It is estimatedthat there are at least four unemployed individuals for every new job opening, largely because of this skills gap. Second, students also spend money on remedial coursework if they do not graduate from high school prepared for the demands of postsecondary, coursework that does not count toward a degree.
Middle skills jobs, those that require more than a high school education but less than a bachelor’s degree, comprise about half of all U.S. jobs. Historically, these jobs were available to those with a high school diploma (sometimes less), but changes in production and increasingly sophisticated technology now require more education and preparation for this growing group of jobs than ever before.
According to work done by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, future demand will be for workers who have some kind of postsecondary training or education. The Center’s analysis found that the recession accelerated the loss of many low skills jobs in the U.S. labor force and is driving the economy toward middle and high skills jobs.
Middle skills jobs are a gateway to the middle class. Those who obtain some postsecondary credential are more likely to have increased lifetime earnings versus those who only have a high school diploma. According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, the pay gap between young adults, ages 25 to 32, with college degrees and those who have gone no further than high school is greater than ever. The typical high school graduate in this age range with just a high school diploma earns just 62 percent as much as the typical college graduate.
If today’s students are going to be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow, states must continue to pursue the college- and career-ready agenda by implementing college- and career-ready standards, adopting and implementing graduation requirements that deliver on those standards, administering assessments aligned to those standards and developing and refining data and accountability systems that value and incentivize college- and career-ready measures. Without proper preparation leaving high school, students will not be equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in meeting the expectations of the job market.