The College and Career Readines and Success Center closed on September 30,2019 because the grant cycle for the U.S. Department of Education Comprehensive Centers ended. The information on this website will no longer be updated. Visit www.air.org for updates on college and career readiness.
This issue brief examines the effect high standards on student achievement, and concludes that not only is there is no evidence that high standards have hurt low-achieving student, but there is also evidence that higher standards have helped those same students.
This series of essays explores the challenges of implementing so many education reforms—such as new Common Core standards, new assessments, new accountability systems, new teacher evaluations, new data systems, and for some states, Race to the Top—all at once, provides a framework for policymakers to think about the choices ahead, as well as strategies and solutions to unexpected conflicts.
This brief presents an approach for state education agency staff to guide state, district and school practitioners in creating coherence among Common Core State Standards, teacher evaluation systems, and job-embedded professional learning to improve instruction in a way that ensures students are college- and career-ready. The brief provides an overview of each of these three reforms and presents the connections between them that support a coherence-buidling process.
This brief focuses on the role that career and technical education (CTE) teachers can play in ensuring college and career readiness (CCR) for all students. The authors introduce who CTE teachers are and how current policies support and integrate them into schools. The authors argue that these teachers are critical to meeting the needs of students who may wish to enter a career without obtaining a 4-year college degree or for those who wish to gain experience in a field before obtaining a higher degree.
This report describes the gap in the alignment between K-12 and higher education learning objectives and outcomes. The authors argue for the coordinated adoption and alignment of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) as a solution to this problem.
This report discusses the benefits of competency education in the context of digital technology that increases personalization and customization, enabling the management of individual learning progression in a data-driven environment. The report outlines 10 capabilities of a competency-based system including flexibility in time and resources, measuring learning gains, and setting college- and career-ready expectations; and 10 design choices that inform the necessary changes in areas such as school structure, grading, and student support.
Submitted by CCRS Center on
Employability skills, such as critical thinking, technology use, and communication, are critical for success in the labor market. Many of these skills have been integrated into the Common Core State Standards and the Common Career Technical Core. Realizing the importance of developing employability skills across all sectors and levels of employment, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) at the U.S.
Submitted by CCRS Center on
CCRS Interactive State Map, an interactive state map developed by the College and Career Readiness and Success Center (CCRS Center), presents the broad landscape of college and career readiness throughout the nation. The map provides a snapshot of various efforts states are taking.
This report provides a final progress update on the work the Southern Regional Education Board and its partner states completed on Strengthening Statewide College/Career Readiness Initiative (SSCRI), a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded grant project that began early in 2008 and ended in April 2011. The project focused on strengthening the college- and career-readiness initiatives in six states: Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
