College: 2-year

Rewarding Dual Enrollment in Performance-Based Funding Formulas

Dual enrollment and early college high schools have been shown to have a positive association with college completion rates. However, these programs are often among the first to be cut when state funding gets tight. This report outlines how performance-based funding that rewards outcomes such as graduation rates or annual student growth goals is a promising answer to state funding challenges.

Career and Technical Education Teachers: Strengthening Policies and Improving Instruction

High-quality career and technical education (CTE) programs are essential in improving college and career readiness for all students. High-quality CTE is not traditional vocational education or a tracking system. Instead, it provides all students, including those headed for four-year colleges, with rigorous academic instruction integrated with project-based learning and skill development. Policymakers across the country should invest in high-quality CTE to truly improve students’ college and career readiness.

Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: A 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes

This report includes the results of a study conducted by the Council for Adult & Experiential Learning which examined the effect of Prior Learning Assessments (PLA) on student outcomes at 48 higher education institutions.  The study findings indicate that PLA students had better graduation rates and persistence compared to students who did not receive PLA credit and PLA students also completed their degrees in a shorter period of time. The report also examined institutional policies expected to have the greatest impact on student degree completion in regards to PLA credit. 

Degree Completion Beyond Institutional Borders: Responding to the New Reality of Mobile and Nontraditional Learners

This report explains the process colleges, states, and other organizations use to recognize prior learning and transfer credit. The report also examines institutional policies that impede student progress toward earning college credits and transferring these credits through and among institutions. Additionally, examples of colleges and systems that allow for successful recognition of prior learning and transfer of credit are provided and best practices for using competencies and other methods for college degree attainment, other than just credit hours, are presented. 

Teacher Development to Increase College and Career Readiness - Guidelines and Promising Practices for States

Part of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) guidelines for a statewide college- and career-ready agenda, these guidelines are provided to support states, districts, and schools develop teacher development plans for senior-year transitional courses. The guidelines include seven specific policy recommendations for the development of statewide teacher development plans for transitional courses and shares promising practices and policies from the states in the SREB region.

State College and Career Readiness Initiative: Statewide Transitional Courses for College Readiness

This report provides a progress update on the work the Southern Regional Education Board and its partner states completed on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded grant project, Strengthening Statewide College/Career Readiness Initiative (SSCRI). The grant focused on strengthening the college- and career-readiness initiatives in five states: Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. This report focuses on the progress these states have made in regards to the design and implementation of transitional courses in reading, writing, and mathematics.

State College and Career Readiness Initiative: Final Progress Reports

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 2011The project focused on strengthening the college- and career-readiness initiatives in six states: Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Beyond the Rhetoric: Improving College Readiness Through Coherent State Policy

This brief identifies key issues associated with the college readiness gap and causes of this gap, as well as outlines steps state policymakers and educators can take close the college readiness gap in their states. In order to ensure students are prepared for postsecondary success, a statewide college readiness agenda should be in place. Components of this college readiness agenda include: readiness standards, assessments, curriculum, teacher development, college placement, and state accountability. 

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