What’s churning:
K-12 and higher ed researchers say Colorado high school graduates who need remediation in college could have been identified by looking at state test results as early as the sixth grade.
“If students were not proficient on the state assessment at that time, they were very likely to require remediation later when they entered college,” according to the report released Tuesday by Diane Lefly and Jo O’Brien at the Colorado Department of Education and Cheryl Lovell at the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
The authors looked at the remediation needs of 17,500 students who graduated from Colorado high schools in spring 2009 and entered Colorado colleges and universities that fall – most of them, or 86 percent, attended Colorado middle schools in 2003. They found a “high degree” of correlation between sixth-grade CSAP and the need for remedial help in college.
“If middle schools were to use the state assessment data to identify low performers, they would better know which students would very likely be postsecondary ready and which students would not,” the report states.
Later, results from the 10th-grade CSAP and the 11th-grade ACT “clearly identified” most students needing remediation. About a third of Colorado high school graduates must take remedial classes in reading, writing and math in their first year at a state college or university.
“We have known for a long time that ACT and CSAP results are highly correlated,” Lefly said in a news release. “This analysis confirms that those assessments are useful and can be used accordingly by educators.”
The analysis marks the first time the departments have shared data to analyze performance across K-12 and higher ed. The Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids directed postsecondary institutions to use the same state-assigned student ID numbers used by the K-12 system as an alternate identifier, allowing the tracking to occur.
Read the study “Shining a light on college remediation in Colorado” and check out the EdNews’ database to see remediation rates by high school.
What’s on tap:
Parent leaders from Padres y Jovenes Unidos will ask Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg to take steps including implementing a longer school day and year at the city’s lowest-performing middle schools. According to the group’s research, “approximately 70% of all middle school students entering North, Montbello, Lincoln and West High Schools are two to three years below grade level in their core classes.” The meeting, from 5 to 7 p.m., is at Valdez Elementary School, 2525 West 29th Ave.
The Adams 12-Five Star board meets starting at 7 p.m. at the district’s Educational Support Center, 1500 E. 128th Ave. Thornton. Agenda
Good (?) reads from elsewhere:
Colorado education leaders and policymakers aren’t the only ones wrestling with declining support for public schools.A little Web surfing brought up bad news in many states. Here’s a sampling:
Alabama governor orders immediate 3 percent K-12 cut … South Dakota students will rally to protest cuts … Florida teachers vow to fight trims … Wisconsin governor wants to take $834 million from education over two years … N.Y. governor wants to cap superintendent salaries.
Get more such stories than you care to read at this Google News link.