A Path to Alignment: Connecting K-12 and Higher Education via the Common Core and the Degree Qualifications Profile

Education and Literacy

A Path to Alignment: Connecting K-12 and Higher Education via the Common Core and the Degree Qualifications Profile

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

Standing Up for Equality in Germany's Schools

Education and Literacy, Race and Ethnicity

Standing Up for Equality in Germany's Schools

Why do children of "migration background" -- whose families may have arrived in Germany as many as two generations ago but are still perceived as "foreigners" -- often perform significantly worse at school than their native German counterparts? The problem is discrimination. This report gives a face and a voice to the discrimination that many children of migration background experience in Berlin. Its purpose is to show, through concrete stories, that discrimination in schools against migrant children is widespread -- and to call on all Berliners to condemn and end it.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: Europe (Western)-Germany-Berlin

Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline

Children and Youth, Education and Literacy, Substance Abuse and Recovery

Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline

Beyond Zero Tolerance is a comprehensive, cost-effective approach to secondary school drug education and school discipline that is all about helping teenagers by bolstering the student community and educational environment.

This innovative model combines honest, reality-based information with interactive learning, compassionate assistance, and restorative practices in lieu of exclusionary punishment.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America-United States

Building a Legacy: Arts Education for All Minnesota Students

Arts and Culture, Education and Literacy

Building a Legacy: Arts Education for All Minnesota Students

In the early 2000s, there was considerable discussion about the role of the arts in public education, but little data about the status of arts education in all schools in Minnesota. To answer this need, the Perpich Center for Arts Education launched The Minnesota Arts Education Research Project during the 2010/2011 school year with funding provided by the Minnesota State Legislature through its Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment.

The purpose of this project was to gather, evaluate and disseminate quantitative data regarding arts education in the state. The Research Project was designed to document arts education in every school through a statewide voluntary survey, and combine the survey findings with other information to create a 360-degree view of arts education in the state.

This report is a summary of the status of arts education, education policy and delivery. The intent is to provide decision makers and the public with a clear picture of the status of arts education in Minnesota.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Minnesota

Eduployment: Creating Opportunity Policies for America's Youth

Children and Youth;Education and Literacy;Employment and Labor

Eduployment: Creating Opportunity Policies for America's Youth

Eduployment: The bifurcation of school and work, education and employment, college and career is out of date and meaningless. We need to use a both/and rather than an either/or framework in going forward. We call this eduployment.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies

Arts and Culture, Education and Literacy

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies

This report examines the academic and civic behavior outcomes of teenagers and young adults who have engaged deeply with the arts in or out of school.

In several small-group studies, children and teenagers who participated in arts education programs have shown more positive academic and social outcomes in comparison to students who did not participate in those programs. Such studies have proved essential to the current research literature on the types of instrumental benefits associated with an arts education.

A standard weakness of the literature, however, has been a dearth of large-scale, longitudinal studies following the same populations over time, tracking the outcomes of students who received intensive arts exposure or arts learning compared with students who did not. This report is a partial attempt to fill this knowledge gap. The report's authors, James Catterall et al., use four large national databases to analyze the relationship between arts involvement and academic and social achievements.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America-United States

Arts for All Higher Education Think Tank

Arts and Culture;Education and Literacy

Arts for All Higher Education Think Tank

As we enter the 21st century -- the global information age -- we must ensure our students are equipped to thrive in an environment that will require them to be able to shift their thinking and remain open to learning throughout their lives. Flexibility, innovation, improvisation and the ability to communicate across diverse cultures are skills crucial to future success. The arts are the most efficient way to teach those skills. By working to include and sustain the arts as part of a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, we allow students to cultivate the crucial skills they will need to function in a 21st century world.

Arts for All is a dynamic, county-wide collaboration working to create vibrant classrooms, schools, communities and economies through the restoration of all arts disciplines into the core curriculum for each of our 1.7 million public K-12 students. One of the key strategies to ensure high quality arts education is to improve the quality of teaching and learning. We believe that when we help build the skills, knowledge, and confidence of the people who provide arts instruction to students, they are able to translate district policies and plans into high quality student learning. Practical tools and partnership opportunities promote the collective responsibility of classroom teachers, arts teachers, and artists to deliver high quality arts education. The on-going development of teachers and artists increases their ability to raise the quality of arts education.

On Friday, May 7, 2010, Arts for All in partnership with California State University at Northridge, hosted the Arts for All Higher Education Think Tank. This event brought together decision makers throughout the education community to begin to discuss how to strategically address quality arts education in teacher preparation programs in order to impact teacher practice and student learning. Over 60 people attended representing 13 institutions of higher education, 3 foundations, 6 school districts and partners from the Los Angeles County Office of Education, Orange County Office of Education and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

This report is a transcript of those proceedings.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Western) / California / Los Angeles County

Arts for All School Arts Survey: Measuring Quality, Access and Equity in Arts Education

Education and Literacy

Arts for All School Arts Survey: Measuring Quality, Access and Equity in Arts Education

As part of its goal to make quality, sequential arts education a reality in all public K-12 classrooms in Los Angeles County, Arts for All connects school districts with effective tools and resources to improve arts learning. The Arts for All School Arts Survey: Measuring Quality, Access and Equity in Arts Education is the most recent of these tools to be introduced. It was developed to measure access to and quality of arts instruction at the school site level as well as to develop a system for collecting and reporting the data. The results are useful to schools and school districts to find out what is working, what's not working, and to point the way toward improvement. But the results can also provide a picture of what's happening across a region.

The following summary describes how the survey was built and its first test in five school districts encompassing 100 schools. As a result of this test, some refinements will be made in the survey, but the survey's strength and utility have been proven. Los Angeles County now has a means of objectively measuring quality and access to arts education and making the results easily accessible.

August 1970

Geographic Focus:

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