Issue/Policy Brief

This report describes the key findings of a national survey of state approaches to college and career readiness. The survey sought to answer four basic questions: how do states define career readiness; how is career readiness assessed; how do states use these assessments; and what other issues do states face related to assessing students for career readiness?

This brief discusses competency education from classroom practice to assessment and accountability. KnowledgeWorks suggests that competency-based learning is critical to the achievement of college and career readiness and success among high school students.

This brief uses a model by Jobs for the Future to discuss strategies to get learners on-track to effective educational pathways. The “Back on Track Through College” model indicates three overarching pathway benchmarks: Enriched Preparation, Postsecondary Bridging, and First Year Support. Using these points of entry to organize recommendations, this brief suggests using technology as a tool at all stages so that schools, youth programs, colleges and other organizations may leverage it for off-track students.

The recent emergence of geen jobs supporting environmental sustainability across a broad range of industries is creating employment opportunities and new career pathways. This report discusses how green jobs may provide options for low-income youth to overcome poverty. In doing so, it offers guidance to youth programs on how to connect disadvantaged youth to the educational and professional development opportunities necessary for a green career. 

This report discusses the fundamental design elements of quality bridge programs, drawing from the example of Carreras en Salud in Chicago. Bridge programs provide low-skilled workers with enrichment opportunities to increase their readiness and competitiveness for employment. Among these opportunities are: career development, contextualized instruction, and support services. The report outlines step-by-step instructions for organizations to consider in creating successful bridge programs - including the development of partnerships, curricula, and logistics.

This brief argues that California and many other states have the foundations in place to build better accountability systems, and proposes a three-pronged approach to put California back on the path of national leadership.

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.

Community colleges enroll a larger proportion of new undergraduates each year but receive a smaller proportion of public funding compared to four-year institutions. This brief provides evidence that students who are the least prepared are in higher need of resources from college and as a result, more resources should be allocated to community colleges.

This brief explores measures states can use to hold high schools accountable for developing students' career readiness. The brief focuses on implementing one specific indicator: obtaining a satisfactory performance rating by a supervisor in a job, internship, school-based enterprise or other experience that demonstrates a student's career-related transferable skills. In addition to this indicator, other indicators are also recommended by the author. 

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.