2023 - UPDATES - September
Part 1
We have little information on how Colorado districts are implementing the new guidelines. The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) does not require districts to report how they implement the new policies, so data is limited. For now, then, a solid analysis is impossible. The last time the State Board of Education met to look at the new guidelines—astonishing, isn’t it?—was in the fall of 2017. One wonders if state leaders have any idea how this effort is playing out.
The Board is expected to get an update on implementation this year. I won’t wait for that. My research and several interviews with those in schools gives me sufficient evidence, I believe, to raise concerns now.
|
From the Colorado Department of Education: “Graduation Guidelines are designed to help students and
their families plan for success after high school. “Students choose from
a Menu of Options - embedded in each school district’s graduation
requirements - to demonstrate their readiness for career, college and
the military, based on at least one measure in Reading, Writing, and Communicating,
and one measure in Mathematics.” (Emphasis mine. Not or, but and.) http://www.cde.state.co.us/postsecondary/graduationguidelines |
A. An overview. A national look reveals how exceptional Colorado’s guidelines (if that is even the right word) appear to be. I find no other state that offers such a wide array of options. Here I will touch on the wide gap in expectations among some of our 11 options; next month, more on one option, the District Capstone.
B. Information the state
has gathered, so far, from districts. In Colorado, each local school board creates
its own guidelines from “a menu of options.”
A.
Across the country
50-State Comparison: High School Graduation
Requirements
From
the Education Commission of the States (May 2023)[i]
This national study
provides background for my contention, further developed in Part 2 next month,
that Colorado’s guidelines and 11 options are more than “flexible”; they are
all over the map. There is no consistency in their expectations. It strikes
me that our main goal is to expand options enabling students to graduate. (Many
are glad, of course, for this lack of clarity; it’s one way to claim high
graduation rates.)
ECS report:
“Does the state require students to take specific assessments for graduation?”
May I? You may.
34 states – “Yes.” For the other 16 states (including Colorado), we read: “Not specified in state policy.” And yet Colorado is somewhere in between. The report goes on to say:
“However, [Colorado] does identify assessments that may
be used to satisfy graduation requirements. School districts may use
some or all of the assessments in the menu of options developed by the state.” (Bold
mine)
Among
the 34 states that require assessments, we see specifics like this: (6
examples)
|
Alabama |
Indiana |
Mass |
Missouri |
Pennsylvania |
Texas |
|
… each student must demonstrate
college and career readiness by meeting the cut score one of the following
options: |
Postsecondary ready competencies
must be demonstrated through one of the following assessment options: |
Students must meet a competency
determination requirement as measured by the following statewide assessments: |
- Civics
assessment |
Students are required to demonstrate
proficiency for graduation through the Keystone Exams or locally-developed
assessments for these subject areas: |
Students must complete end-of-course
assessments in: |
1) Of
those 34 states with requirements, NOT ONE lists Capstones as an option. (More below)
2) Of those 34 states, only ONE other state uses the
ASVAB (Indiana-above), the test for entrance to the military, and only ONE
allows for the use of ACT WorkKeys (Alabama-above). Colorado is the only
state in the country that allows both measures. Worth noting because these
measures show readiness for the military or a career, but it is unlikely either
calls on students to demonstrate anything close to “readiness for college.” More
in the Addendum: Alabama (and Pennsylvania too) set a higher bar
(Silver) than does Colorado (Bronze) on the ACT WorkKeys. The Addendum
also points to Indiana’s debate about the ASVAB.
ECS report: Which assessments are required?
Colorado is one of 35 states that require certain assessments. The report shows we have the widest variety and the longest list of assessments. Only Tennessee comes close in length. But note the difference in the kind of assessments in our two states. Tennessee’s list is largely based on work in 10 core academic classes.
|
Colorado |
Tennessee |
|
School districts may use some or
all of the assessments for students to satisfy graduation requirements
included in the state menu of options. |
- ACT/SAT |
ECS
Report - Does
the state permit or provide alternatives to assessment requirements?[viii]
Colorado is one of 10 states that provides alternatives, but we are the only state where a CAPSTONE project is listed as one of the alternatives permitted. (As this pathway is so prevalent, and so little understood, it will be my focus in AV #264, next month.)
The ECS Reports shows four other states with
options that might have some similarities to Colorado’s District Capstone.
However, it does not appear that any of these states gives such alternatives a
central role towards meeting graduation requirements.
Alabama
“Yes.
Effective with the class of 2027-28, students may also demonstrate college and
career readiness through one of the following options:
- Completing an in-school youth apprenticeship
program. (Ala. Admin. Code 290-3-1-.02).”
Maryland
“Yes.
The following are offered as alternatives to assessment requirements:
- successfully completing the Bridge Plan for
Academic Validation.”
(“The Bridge
Plan for Academic Validation provides a process that ensures all students have
a fair opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills if the student has
proven to be unsuccessful on traditional high-stakes assessments. This
alternative pathway is particularly useful for students with disabilities,
students with 504 Plans, English Language Learners, and students who experience
assessment anxiety or who do not perform well on a traditional assessment.”)
Pennsylvania
“Yes. If student does not demonstrate proficiency on a
Keystone exam then proficiency may be demonstrated by completing locally
established, grade-based requirements for academic content areas associated
with each Keystone Exam including:
-
Internship, externship or cooperative education program.”
Rhode
Island
“Not
specified in state policy. However, performance-based diploma assessments are
locally designed and districts are provided with significant flexibility in
their administration and evaluation.”
B.
Across Colorado - choosing from a “Menu of Options” (https://www.cde.state.co.us/postsecondary/grad-menu)
The Colorado
Department of Education gathers what our 185 school districts and BOCES report
on their own menu of options. (The data here is what CDE has collected, based
on information it received from districts following the 2021-22 school year.)
Districts are not required to offer all 11 options. Based on what CDE has sent
me, these are the top four options that were reported:
|
All data is from the 2021-22 school year, but can reflect student
work demonstrated over more than one school year. |
1. SAT – 153 districts
2. District Capstone – 152
3. Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) - 131
4. Concurrent Enrollment – 115
Besides the SAT, districts reported four other academic assessments among their graduation guidelines. Each of these four is used across the country and has a widely recognized “passing score.”* Two are the College Board’s Accuplacer (87 districts) and Advanced Placement (43 districts). The other two are the ACT (39 districts) and the International Baccalaureate (11 districts).
*NOTE:
Colorado’s guidelines accept a score of 2 on a range
of AP classes, not all of them English or Math courses.
Pennsylvania includes success on AP tests among its options, but requires a minimum score of 3.[ix]
The two industry-related assessments were reported
in less than half of the districts: Act WorkKeys (62 districts) and Industry
Certificate (51 districts). The other option is a Collaboratively
Developed, Standards-Based Performance Assessment (17 districts).
Summary –
Intention versus the reality
A. “The Guidelines shall ensure that … each pathway is equally rigorous” – Who are we kidding?
We set out years ago to define the “local
high school graduation requirements to meet or exceed the Colorado Graduation
Guidelines.” Recall this, from the original legislation in 2007:
22-2-106. State board - duties.
(1) It is the duty of the state board [to]:
(IV) RECOGNIZE
AND ADDRESS THE MULTIPLE AND DIVERSE PATHWAYS TO DIPLOMAS OFFERED BY
SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE STATE… THE GUIDELINES FOR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
ADOPTED BY THE STATE BOARD PURSUANT TO THIS PARAGRAPH (a.5) SHALL ENSURE, AT A
MINIMUM, THAT, WHILE NOT IDENTICAL, EACH PATHWAY IS EQUALLY RIGOROUS.[x] (Bold mine)
It should be obvious that we succeeded with
“multiple and diverse,” but not with pathways that are “equally rigorous.”
Lower academic expectations are of special concern with ASVAB and ACT WorkKeys (again,
more troubling details on both in the Addendum), as
well as the District Capstone. A score of 31 on the
ASVAB appears to demonstrate readiness for some branches of the
military. A Bronze score on ACT WorkKeys might pass muster as readiness for some
jobs. Who knows what success on a District Capstone tells anyone, as all that
is “district determined.” The so-called benchmark is “Individualized.”
B. CDE’s Guidelines assert that “Students choose from a Menu of Options -… to demonstrate their readiness for career, college and the military, based on at least one measure in Reading, Writing, and Communicating, and one measure in Mathematics”?
It should also be obvious that this claim is untrue. Our options are not all rigorous enough to require that students “demonstrate … readiness … for college.” In fact, it is unclear if several options require that students meet the standards we have established in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics for ninth graders.
We sought clarity on what it means to earn a high school degree in Colorado. In reality, our “guidelines” allow every district to take their pick from a mixed bag of options. We can have 185 interpretations of what it means to graduate from a high school in our state. We have no clarity. It is time for a review.
**
A. ACT WorkKeys – CDE’s menu of options lists a score of 3 (Bronze) as the minimum score to pass.
ACT WorkKeys scores – 6 or better = Platinum. 5 = Gold. 4 = Silver. 3 = Bronze.
“Bronze Level – Signifies an individual
has scored at least a Level 3 on each of the three assessments and has the
necessary skills for 16% of the jobs in
the WorkKeys Job Pro database.”[xi]
“Applied Maths[xii]
- This assessment will take 55 minutes in English and 70 in Spanish, and you
will be given 34 questions to answer.
Example Question
You work at a store, and someone
gives you a $10 bill to pay for a cake that costs $4.54.
How much change would you give the
customer back?
a) $5.45
b) $5.46
c) $6.42
d) $3.54
Show Answer”
Alabama and Pennsylvania, unlike Colorado,
require a SILVER or better score on the ACT WorkKeys
The ECS report shows that Colorado is one of only four states (along with Alabama, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania) where ACT WorkKeys is one of the options available to meet high school graduation requirements. NOTE: At least two of those states appear to expect higher scores than does Colorado.
Alabama - “Bronze:
Students earning a Bronze certificate are judged to be ready for 16 percent of
jobs. In Alabama students earning a Silver certificate or above are
considered career ready.”[xiii]
Pennsylvania: “ATTAINMENT OF AN ESTABLISHED SCORE ON THE ACT WORKKEYS. The student must meet or exceed the established score of Silver Level on the ACT WorkKeys NCRC.”[xiv]
ACT
WorkKeys - on BRONZE versus SILVER scores
I asked ACT WorkKeys for clarification about the value of a Bronze versus a Silver score. It replied with a two-page pamphlet on College Credit.[xv] Excerpts below. I asked, but did not hear one word about credit for high school students, or credit for scores at the Bronze level.
Award College Credit
FOR THE ACT® WorkKeys® National Career - Readiness
Certificate®
“Students MUST
possess the workplace skills employers need. Postsecondary institutions can award
college credit to students who demonstrate the 21st-century skills needed
for success, using a nationally recognized credential that measures
foundational, work-ready skills.
“In 2022, the American Council on
Education (ACE) recommended that colleges and universities in the lower-divisional
baccalaureate/associate degree category, award 3 semester hours in Technical
Mathematics and Introduction to Information Literacy (6 semester hours total)
to students who earn a Platinum NCRC, and 2 semester hours in each (4
semester hours total) to students who earn a Gold NCRC; in the
vocational category, award 1 semester hour in Technical Mathematics and
Introduction to Information Literacy (2 semester hours total) to students who
earn a Silver NCRC… NOTE: Each
institution should determine how best to implement technical mathematics and information
literacy in their curricular offerings and how to award the credit achieved through
a high-level WorkKeys NCRC.”
B.
Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
(ASVAB)
CDE’s menu lists
a minimum score of 31 to pass the ASVAB. Two questions: 1) Why is it set
this low?
2) Although CDE states that all 11 options measure writing, we see no writing portion on the ASVAB tests.[xvi]
ASVAB Scores and Military Entry
Requirements[xvii]
|
Minimum Required ASVAB Scores |
||
|
Branch |
High School |
GED |
|
Air Force |
36 |
50 |
|
Coast Guard |
36 |
47 |
|
Navy |
35 |
50 |
|
Marine Corps |
31 |
50 |
|
Army |
31 |
50 |
|
National Guard |
31 |
50 |
More on ASVAB:
1) “With ASVAB Standard scores, the majority of students score between 30 and 70. This means that a standard score of
50 is an average score, and a score of 60 would be an above-average score.”
https://www.asvabprogram.com/media-center-article/46
2) “The current AFQT score is the most critical ASVAB score for you. The Armed Services Qualification Test (AFQT) is a percentile score based on the study of 1997, where the Department of Defense conducted the ASVAB test in which 12000 people took part. Your 31 means that you executed worse than 68% and better than other 31% of those 12000 people who did the ASVAB test in 1997.” https://usarmycalculators.com/asvab-score-calculator/is-31-a-good-asvab-score/#:~:text
Indiana debates the
use of ASVAB – policymakers ask a critical question
“Is a military exam a loophole in
Indiana’s high school graduation rules?”
– by Dyla, Peers McCoy, March 23, 2023 (Bold mine)
“When Indiana policymakers set
out to overhaul high school diplomas five years ago, their aim was simple:
Ensure graduates are ready for the next step — whether that’s college or a job
with decent pay.
“High schoolers have a lot of
ways to prove they’re prepared. Students can take rigorous classes and get an
honors diploma. They can earn scores on admission tests like the SAT that show they are
ready for college. Or they can train in fields like
welding or health care…
“Now, the exam is under fire
from critics who say it’s become a loophole in state graduation rules. They
say scores on the exam don’t help students go to college or find jobs in other
fields.
“‘My whole goal is to make
sure kids are prepared for life and that we're not using something that is
not the appropriate tool for kids just to get them out the door,’ said
Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis), who chairs the House Education Committee…. ‘I want to make sure that these pathways have value,’ said Behning, who is leading a legislative push to
discourage students from relying on the test.”
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/asvab-military-exam-indiana-high-school-graduation-pathways
Endnotes
The State Board of Education last heard from the Assessment
Work Group on the new guidelines six years ago, Sept. 14, 2017.
CDE New Release - Graduation guidelines' background, recommendations and
policies discussed
The board
considered recommendations for updates to Colorado’s graduation guidelines. The recommendations were developed by a work group convened to review
and recommend revisions following the board’s September 2015 request to have
the guidelines reviewed every two years. The board is expected to vote on the
recommendations at a future meeting. https://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/09142017sbemeeting
On December 13, 2017, the Graduation
Guidelines Considerations were on the agenda of the State Board of Education
meeting. https://go.boarddocs.com/co/cde/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=AT4SSX734A84
[i]
Education Commission of the States, “50-State Comparison: High School
Graduation Requirements,” https://www.ecs.org/50-state-comparison-high-school-graduation-requirements-2023/.
[iv] Massachusetts
- https://reports.ecs.org/comparisons/view-by-state/869/MA
[vi] Pennsylvania - https://reports.ecs.org/comparisons/view-by-state/869/PA
[viii] “ECS 50-State Comparison,” https://reports.ecs.org/comparisons/high-school-graduation-requirements-2023-12.
[ix] Pennsylvania: “ATTAINMENT OF AN ESTABLISHED SCORE ON
AN ADVANCED PLACEMENT PROGRAM EXAM,” https://pdesas.org/Frameworks/DCEToolKit/Act158PathwaysToGraduationToolkit
[x]
Legislative declaration, HB 07-1118, … https://statebillinfo.com/bills/bills/07/1118_enr.pdf
[xi] WorkKeys/ACT National Career Readiness
Certificates, https://nwtech.edu/alvacc/workkeys/.
[xii] “The WorkKeys Test (2023 Guide),” Practice WorkKeys Tests, Applied Math, https://psychometric-success.com/aptitude-tests/test-types/workkeys-test#what-is-the-national-career-readiness-certificate.
[xiii]
Alabama - https://parcalabama.org/act-workkeys-an-assessment-of-workforce-readiness-among-high-school-graduates-in-alabama/
[xv] “Award
College Credit - FOR THE ACT® WorkKeys® National Career - Readiness
Certificate®,
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/pdfs/NCRC-Award-College-Credit.pdf.
[xvi]
“The ASVAB Tests - The ASVAB tests are designed to measure aptitudes in four
domains: Verbal, Math, Science and Technical, and Spatial. The table (at the
website, below) describes the content of the ASVAB tests,” excerpt from the
ASVAB Fact Sheet, https://agora.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/asvab_fact_sheet.pdf
[xvii] “ASVAB Scores and
Military Entry Requirements,” https://asvabbootcamp.com/blog/asvab-scores/.
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