College & Workforce Readiness

An Alternative Approach to Gauging Readiness

By Lynn Olson — April 25, 2006 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A coalition of small high schools in New York state is challenging the notion that using standardized tests and curricula is the best way to prepare all students for college-level work.

The New York Performance Standards Consortium is a network of 40 schools that have agreed to use common performance assessments as a requirement for graduation, rather than the more widely required state Regents exams.

Students at each of the schools must complete four common tasks to graduate: a research paper, a science experiment, a mathematical analysis, and an essay comparing works of literature. Students must defend their work on those assignments before a graduation committee that includes outside evaluators, in addition to successfully completing all courses. Teachers at each school use the same criteria to judge the students’ work.

The schools have received a temporary waiver from all but one of the Regents exams that are normally required for graduation. Students must pass the Regents English test. Not until the class of 2013 must the schools’ students meet the requirement of passing five Regents subject tests, all with a score of at least 65 out of a possible 100. (“N.Y. ‘Portfolio Schools’ Get Regents Reprieve,” Aug. 10, 2005)

Meanwhile, the schools continue to make the case that their graduates are succeeding in college without having passed the exams.

Good Habits

Martha Foote, the director of research for the consortium, has been collecting the college transcripts of graduates from 28 of the small schools, most of which are in New York City, for four years. She now has data on close to 700 students.

In designing an assessment system that would gauge college readiness, Ms. Foote said, the schools decided “not only do you need content skills, but you need work-habit skills as well.”

“You need persistence; you need to be able to revise; you need to be able to work independently, but at the same time seek out those who can help you; you need time-management skills; you need research skills; you need to read and write analytically; you need to lay out evidence,” she said.

Of the students she has tracked so far, 77 percent are attending four-year colleges; 19 percent, two-year colleges; and 4 percent, vocational or technical programs. Their collective grade point average for up to three completed semesters of college work is 2.6 on a 4-point scale.

Of those in four-year colleges, 84 percent returned for the sophomore year, compared with 73 percent nationally, as did 59 percent of those in two-year colleges, compared with a national average of 56 percent.

Yet the schools in the study enroll a higher percentage of poor students than the New York City average. About 60 percent are eligible for free school lunch versus 54 percent of students in New York City high schools.

“What we have found, anecdotally, is that kids will say, ‘When we get to college we really know how to write, we know how to revise,’ ” said Ms. Foote, “and they find their classmates around them are unable to do that.”

Events

Artificial Intelligence Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: Math & Technology: Finding the Recipe for Student Success
How should we balance AI & math instruction? Join our discussion on preparing future-ready students.
Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness Q&A 'Adulting 101': The High School Class Teaching Real-Life Skills
Beyond core academics, what skills should high school students master before they graduate?
6 min read
Unrecognizable woman using mobile phone while calculating the amount of her bills at home. Focus is on hand and cell phone.
E+/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness How Can Educators Support Students Not Going to College?
A bipartisan panel talks about slowing trends in college-going—and what it means for schools.
3 min read
Carter Crabtree, a Daviess County High School junior, learns to stack landscaping blocks with a mini excavator at a demonstration set up by Barnard Landscaping during the Homebuilder Association of Owensboro's annual Construction Career Day on Apr. 24, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky.
Carter Crabtree, a Daviess County High School junior, learns to stack landscaping blocks with a mini excavator at a demonstration set up by Barnard Landscaping during the Homebuilder Association of Owensboro's annual Construction Career Day on Apr. 24, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky. Leaders in education discuss how career-tech education programs can support non-college-bound students, in an online webinar.
Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion Is It Time to Ditch the Four-Year Degree?
A call for three-year degrees, micro-credentials, and closer ties between educators and employers could affect K–12 and higher education.
7 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness 3 Ways Leaders Develop College and Career Pathways Designed to Serve All Students
Two EdWeek Leaders To Learn From share how they built these systems from the ground up.
3 min read
Jennifer Norrell, superintendent of East Aurora School District 131, meets with district leaders for the School Leadership Team's weekly meeting to discuss a college readiness presentation for students at East Aurora High School in Aurora, Ill., on Dec. 4, 2024.
Jennifer Norrell, the superintendent of East Aurora School District 131, meets with district leaders for the School Leadership Team's weekly meeting to discuss a college-readiness presentation for students at East Aurora High School in Aurora, Ill., on Dec. 4, 2024. She has led efforts to expand and enrich the kinds of post-high school pathways the school offers, both in core academics and in career-technical fields.
Jamie Kelter Davis for Education Week