The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which aim to assure competency in English/language arts and mathematics through the K-12 curriculum, define necessary but not sufficient preparedness for success in college. The Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), which describes what a college degree should signify, regardless of major, offers useful but not sufficient guidance to high school students preparing for college study. A coordinated strategy to prepare students to succeed in college would align these two undertakings and thus bridge an unfortunate and harmful cultural chasm between the K-12 world and that of higher education. Chasms call for bridges, and the bridge proposed by this white paper could create a vital thoroughfare.
The white paper begins with a description of the CCSS and an assessment of their significance. A following analysis then explains why the CCSS, while necessary, are not sufficient as a platform for college success. A corresponding explanation of the DQP clarifies the prompts that led to its development, describes its structure, and offers some guidance for interpreting the outcomes that it defines. Again, a following analysis considers the potential of the DQP and the limitations that must be addressed if that potential is to be more fully realized.
The heart of the white paper lies in sections 5 and 6, which provide a crosswalk between the CCSS and the DQP. These sections show how alignments and differences between the two may point to a comprehensive preparedness strategy. They also offer a proposal for a multifaceted strategy to realize the potential synergy of the CCSS and the DQP for the benefit of high school and college educators and their students -- and the nation.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
Education and Literacy;Nonprofits and Philanthropy
The role of leadership in rapidly developing African countries is fundamentally important and the need for leadership development across the African continent is critical for social and economic progress. Since 1953, the Africa-America Institute (AAI) has advocated for educational and human capacity building on the African continent by offering a wide range of scholarship, training and exchange programs that have benefited over 23,000 people from 54 African countries.
In 2007, AAI launched its Transformational Leadership Program (TLP) with a grant from The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) to offer business training and broader leadership development for managers of African NGOs and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The program has reached 351 participants from 14 countries through certificate and degree programs at United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, Kenya; Pan-African University (EDC) in Lagos, Nigeria; and University of Stellenbosch (USB) in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2013, an evaluation of the TLP was conducted using surveys, questionnaires, individual interviews and focus groups with strategically selected stakeholder groups, site visits, participant reflective writing, Town Hall meetings, and a comprehensive review of program and university documents.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: Africa (Eastern) / Kenya / Nairobi;Africa (Southern) / South Africa / Cape Town;Africa (Western) / Nigeria / Lagos
Education and Literacy;Nonprofits and Philanthropy
The role of leadership in rapidly developing African countries is fundamentally important and the need for leadership development across the African continent is critical for social and economic progress. Since 1953, the Africa-America Institute (AAI) has advocated for educational and human capacity building on the African continent by offering a wide range of scholarship, training and exchange programs that have benefited over 23,000 people from 54 African countries.
In 2007, AAI launched its Transformational Leadership Program (TLP) with a grant from The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) to offer business training and broader leadership development for managers of African NGOs and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The program has reached 351 participants from 14 countries through certificate and degree programs at United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, Kenya; Pan-African University (EDC) in Lagos, Nigeria; and University of Stellenbosch (USB) in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2013, an evaluation of the TLP was conducted using surveys, questionnaires, individual interviews and focus groups with strategically selected stakeholder groups, site visits, participant reflective writing, Town Hall meetings, and a comprehensive review of program and university documents.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: Africa (Eastern) / Kenya / Nairobi;Africa (Southern) / South Africa / Cape Town;Africa (Western) / Nigeria / Lagos
Education and Literacy;Nonprofits and Philanthropy
The role of leadership in rapidly developing African countries is fundamentally important and the need for leadership development across the African continent is critical for social and economic progress. Since 1953, the Africa-America Institute (AAI) has advocated for educational and human capacity building on the African continent by offering a wide range of scholarship, training and exchange programs that have benefited over 23,000 people from 54 African countries.
In 2007, AAI launched its Transformational Leadership Program (TLP) with a grant from The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) to offer business training and broader leadership development for managers of African NGOs and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The program has reached 351 participants from 14 countries through certificate and degree programs at United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, Kenya; Pan-African University (EDC) in Lagos, Nigeria; and University of Stellenbosch (USB) in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2013, an evaluation of the TLP was conducted using surveys, questionnaires, individual interviews and focus groups with strategically selected stakeholder groups, site visits, participant reflective writing, Town Hall meetings, and a comprehensive review of program and university documents.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: Africa (Eastern) / Kenya / Nairobi;Africa (Southern) / South Africa / Cape Town;Africa (Western) / Nigeria / Lagos
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy
In June 2013, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) announced a new teacher evaluation system for New York City, which is being enacted citywide in the 2013-14 school year. The implementation of a new system for evaluating the 75,000 teachers who work in New York City's public schools is a massive undertaking -- one that will change how principals use their time, how teachers direct their efforts in the classroom, and, ultimately, how students experience school. State Education Commissioner John King has said, "These evaluation plans will help principals and teachers improve their practice, and that in turn will help students graduate from high school ready for college and careers. That's our goal in everything we do."
As the intended beneficiaries of this major reform effort, students and their families have an enormous stake in its success. This paper makes the case that the New York City Department of Education (DOE) must include them in the policy implementation process.
Students and parents should have the opportunity to actively contribute to the policy changes that affect their lives; reforms are more likely to be successful, sustainable, and responsive to local needs when students and families are engaged as partners and supportive of such efforts. As theNational Parent Teacher Association (PTA) notes, "Because parents, teachers, students, and the general public are affected by school policy, it is appropriate that they participate in its determination. We believe that such sharing of responsibility will result in greater responsiveness to student and societal needs and therefore improve the quality of educational opportunity."
The voices of actual New York City public school parents and students echo this desire for participation with respect to teacher evaluation policy. One New York City high school student told us, "Since the students are the ones subjected to changes in the system (as well as the teachers) they should be allowed to have a say in what they think will benefit/hurt them. They should be able to say what they think makes their teachers effective/ineffective, and what can be done to fix any problems with the new policy."
Similarly, Diana M., the parent of an eleventh grader in Queens, affirmed, "We have a voice, we have many concerns and as parents should be included in these new policies that are taking place....Students as well parents have ideas and we can change the school system for the better [for] students, the DOE and the parents alike....The change starts with all three parties, parent, student and educator!"
With this paper, we are calling on the DOE to include students and parents when putting the new evaluation system into practice by establishing a stakeholder advisory group to provide feedback throughout the implementation process and ensure open discussion and sharing of responsibility take place. We begin by setting forth the arguments for including parents and students in the implementation of the new policies and conclude by providing examples of structures established for this purpose in other cities and states.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (New York Metropolitan Area)
The goals of The McKnight Foundation's Education and Learning (E&L) Program are "to increase the percentage of students reading at grade level by the end of third grade and to increase access to high quality learning beyond the classroom so that all Minnesota's youth thrive."
For this work, McKnight formed strategic partnerships with seven grantee schools in the Twin Cities:
* Andersen United Community School, Minneapolis Public Schools
* Jefferson Community School , Minneapolis Public Schools
* Saint Paul Music Academy, Saint Paul Public Schools
* Wellstone Elementary School, Saint Paul Public Schools
* Earle Brown Elementary School, Brooklyn Center Community Schools
* Academia Cesar Chavez, independent charter school
* Community of Peace Academy, independent charter school
Each school is focused on dramatically improving results for readers across the PreK-3 continuum. The schools first received a one-year planning grant before submitting a three-year proposal to implement their plans to improve PreK -- 3 literacy outcomes. All seven schools are now in the implementation phase.
The McKnight Foundation hired SRI International (SRI) and the Center for Applied Research and Education Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota to evaluate the E&L Program in the grantee schools. The evaluation included only the grantee schools from Minneapolis Public Schools, Saint Paul Public Schools, and Brooklyn Center Community Schools. The charter school grantees are not included in the evaluation.
The key purposes of the evaluation are (1) to inform internal stakeholders of the successes and challenges of the work as it is under way so that adjustments can be made and (2) to share lessons learned from implementation with others working to improve the PreK -- 3 continuum and literacy outcomes for students. The evaluation team is collecting and analyzing data on teacher practice and on children's early literacy skills and third-grade reading achievement to assess improvements associated with the initiative.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Midwestern) / Minnesota (Twin Cities)
Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor, Housing and Homelessness
This report contains current and historical demographic and socio-economic data from the Edmonton region. Areas of focus in this report include statistics on education and employment, the cost of living and housing, wages and incomes, poverty, government income supports, social wellbeing, and the demographics of Edmonton.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-Canada (Western)-Alberta-Edmonton
The UC Berkeley Library was founded with the University in 1868. From an initial collection of 1,000 volumes it has grown to include over 11 million volumes. Housed in several dozen physical libraries throughout the campus, the Library provided patrons 2.7 million physical items and 33 million article downloads in 2012. Globally, the Library has millions of exchanges with users through in-person visits, circulation requests, and online or phone conversations about research questions. Second only to the University's homepage, the Library website is perhaps the most visible face of our University to the world and the most tangible demonstration of its core values: excellence and access.
The University and the Library cannot exist without each other. Because the Library -- in both its physical and virtual forms -- is ubiquitous in the everyday lives of faculty, students, administrative staff, scholarly researchers, and the general public worldwide, it is difficult to make a case for its role in sustaining the academic preeminence of the University except by imagining our University and our world without it. There is simply no great University without a great Library. The Library is the heart and circulatory system of our research and instructional mission; it is the essential pump that takes in the life-blood of learning and circulates it throughout the campus community and beyond our walls to our furthest public extremities; it makes research happen; it makes learning possible; it draws new learning back into the system only to generate more learning and send it out to circulate again.
The Commission has concluded that the centrality of the Library to the range of learning and research at Berkeley warrants a serious strategy of major reinvestment. The Library, aided by the campus administration and the Academic Senate, should devise a detailed execution plan for this reinvestment, along the lines of the Commission's recommendations, coupled with a plan of both cost-saving and revenue-generating measures. To face the challenges of the next twenty years the Library should align its organizational structure and its institutional culture with the rapidly changing needs of faculty research and student learning. The campus community as a whole should assume the financial and intellectual responsibility of active partnership in this important endeavor. Because the health of the entire academic enterprise depends upon the Library, there should be no higher priority for campus investment and no greater responsibility for the Campus Administration and the Academic Senate than the effective stewardship of the Library.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Western) / California / Alameda County / Berkeley
