A growing body of evidence has shown that social and emotional strengths in children and adults lead to school and life success. This article from the New York Times summarizes some of the key studies that support this claim, and argues that schools and teachers need to promote social and emotional skills in addition to academics. The article includes interviews with lead researchers in the field of social and emotional learning and school and district personnel who are implementing such programs in their schools.
Outcomes and Measures for College and Career Success: How Do We Know When High School Graduates Meet Expectations?
The purpose of this brief is to summarize and organize the college and career readiness outcomes and measures that the National High School Center has collected as part of a scan of organizations involved in college and career readiness. The brief summarizes outcomes and measures of college and career success and organizes this information into three key threads: On-Track Indicators, Attainment and Authentication, and Accountability and Improvement Feedback. Along with a brief description of each thread, key components are highlighted and examples of each type of outcome and measure are provided. The brief concludes with key factors that schools, districts, and states may want to consider as they begin to build, analyze, and address measures and outcomes specific to college and career readiness in their contexts.
Bringing Underrepresented Populations into the Sciences: What Difference Does Difference Make?
This resource is a presentation hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), given by Dr. Shirley M. Malcolm, addressing the underrepresentation of minorities in the sciences and the need for a more scientifically and technologically literate population. As a renowned scientist and Dean of Education, Dr. Malcolm reflects upon her own experiences and builds upon key career goal preparation and supporting processes needed to build capacity and inspiration for the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers. There is a need to build the talent pool from diversity. Her key message emphasizes how the power of diversity makes for better science, and that the 21st century requires a different set of skills and tools than what is presently provided to teachers and students.
In her presentation, Dr. Malcolm makes compelling points about diversity of all kinds, and addresses the underrepresentation of women in positions of power in the biomedical fields and other STEM fields. Her speech addresses the need for diversity in higher education faculty, and the need for relevant experiences and mentoring for women in minority groups, in order to have higher retention of diverse faculty, including scientists. Also emphasized are needs for effective capacity building in the educational system, rethinking of hiring and retention policies, and working within an environment of planning before pursuing future reforms in education, as well as for high leverages, focused goals, community involvement, maximizing the use of technology, and focus on collaboration across the educational system.
The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2015: American Indian Students
This report is the latest in a series of annual reports published by ACT to highlight the progress of U.S. high school graduates based on college readiness. This particular report is focused on American Indian students, with the authors suggesting the report be used to understand how well these students are prepared for postsecondary education and careers, and how to support American Indian students to persist towards college and career readiness. Included is data from the 2015 ACT administration that illustrates the percentage of American Indian students who met college readiness benchmarks on the English, reading, mathematics, and science portions of the ACT assessments. In examining American Indian student performance on the ACT, the report also compares the percentage of students who take the recommended core curriculum (four years of English, three years each of mathematics, science, and social studies) against the percentage of students who met ACT college readiness benchmarks. For comparison, the report also includes data on the number of college readiness benchmarks American Indian students met on the 2015 ACT administration. The report includes broad recommendations for supporting and increasing the number of American Indian students who are college and career ready.
2014 State Teacher Policy Yearbook National Summary: Are New Teachers Being Prepared for College- and Career-Readiness Standards?
As part of the National Council on Teacher Quality’s annual report on teacher policies, this year’s edition of the State Teacher Policy Yearbook continues to keep the spotlight on critical issues of teacher preparation. The 2014 yearbook has “expanded its policy analysis to examine the extent to which states have aligned their requirements for teacher preparation and licensure with the skills needed to prepare students for college and careers” (p. i). Specifically, it focuses on state efforts to prepare teachers for the profession by explicitly requiring teacher preparation programs to address the K-12 instructional shifts required by college- and career-readiness standards. One of several key findings show that “no state received a ‘green light’ for its state policies to deliver teachers into the classroom well prepared to help their students achieve at the high level demanded by college- and career-readiness standards” (p. i).
Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects
This book resource is a report written by the Committee on K-12 Engineering Education, chaired by Dr. Linda P. B. Katehi. The report will be useful to advocates for greater public understanding of engineering, as well as to those working to boost citizens’ technological and scientific literacy. Educational researchers and cognitive scientists will also find that the document exposes a rich set of questions related to how and under what conditions students come to understand engineering. The document was created in response to the need to develop the country’s technical workforce, and to understand the status of engineering education and its educational policies and programs, so as to set a new direction for the 21st century. It is a product of a collaboration between the National Research Council and the National Academy of Engineering. The committee process involved meetings, sponsored data-gathering workshops, and solicitation of online input from the public. The committee also commissioned an analysis of a number of existing K-12 engineering curricula, and conducted reviews of the literature on areas of conceptual learning related to engineering, the development of engineering skills, and the impacts of K-12 engineering education initiatives. The authors also collected preliminary information about a few pre-college engineering education programs in other countries. Beyond this data gathering, the report reflects the personal and professional experiences and judgments of committee members. The aim is to provide carefully reasoned guidance to key stakeholders regarding the creation and implementation of K-12 engineering curricula and instructional practices, focusing on the connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.