How Are States Reporting on College and Career Readiness?
From the Publisher: “Preparing students for success in college and careers is one of the primary goals of our education system. How states track and report progress toward the goal of college and career readiness is important for public accountability and transparency; making data available publicly provides a window into how students – and the institutions that serve students – are doing. This brief describes the range of college and career readiness measures states are currently reporting publicly. The brief also provides guidance for what states should be doing to measure students’ college and career readiness.”
The purposes of this publication are effectively stated and generally achieved. However, the methodology appears to be limited to searches of state web sites without further verification, such as a state survey. The collected information is limited to a very short time frame, 2013-2014, and consequently does not illustrate changes or growth over time that states have made. The recommendations are reasonable and the report may push states to improve their reporting systems. Communications quality is generally good, although some of the author’s bullets provide little context or guidance, such as: “Hawaii reports student voter registration, and Oklahoma and Alaska indicate the average number of student volunteer hours by school.” A reasonable inference is that collecting such data is important or useful, but the author makes no further claim. Nor does the author provide evidence that collecting more data or reporting it more effectively leads to improved student outcomes.