Prepping kids for college – Chicago Sun

ELGIN — Allison Jones, vice president for postsecondary collaboration at the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, said he really believes “the stars are aligned.”

And, Jones said, “We’re going to have systemic change in K-12 and in higher education as a result. … I think it’s going to be successful.

“There’s a lot of work to be done. It’s a short time frame. But I think we can do it.”

That’s all because of the Common Core Standards, the state learning standards that Illinois school districts adopted in 2010 for students in kindergarten through grade 12, he said.

Or, as he simply called those standards, “Why you’re going to see more students graduating from high school college ready.”

Jones was part of a panel of education officials who spoke Thursday evening about those standards and assessments and their impact on higher education. The session took place at the Elgin Community College District 509 Alliance for College Readiness meeting in a packed Seigle Auditorium.

Illinois is one of 27 states in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. PARCC is a consortium of states that have adopted the Common Core Standards and are working together to develop assessments in English and math anchored in what it takes to be ready for college and careers, according to its website.

Those assessments will be ready for states to administer during the 2014-15 school year. The next year, Jones said, PARCC plans to set scores on those assessments that will indicate whether a student is on track to be college ready.

He pointed to a quote from a March 2008 speech by President Barack Obama: “There’s no better economic policy than one that produces more graduates with the skills they need to succeed. … And that’s why reforming education is the responsibility of every single American.”

Working together

“In other words,” Jones said, “it’s a collaborative endeavor. We have to come together to do this — K-12, higher education, the public, business, the community. It can’t be done totally alone.”

Elgin School District U46 and Carpentersville-area Community Unit School District 300 both are part of the Alliance for College Readiness. And both have started to align their curriculums to the Common Core Standards and prepare for the new assessments.

U46 is doing that through its five-year accountability plan called Destination 2015, with the same aim as the Common Core Standards, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools Greg Walker said Thursday.

The Elgin school district also began replacing its curriculum with one that aligns with those standards last year, starting with math.

Next up is science, which puts the district in a “tough position,” Walker said. The district is at a “desperate point of need with our science curriculum,” and its science teachers are asking for resources, he said.

James Palmer of the Illinois State Board of Education agreed that technology is “going to be a task here in Illinois.”

The ISBE plans to take an inventory of the technology in its school districts this spring, then determine how bringing those districts up to speed will be funded in the cash-strapped state, Palmer said.

D300 prepared

That won’t be a problem in the Carpentersville-area school district, said Ben Churchill, District 300’s assistant superintendent for high school teaching and learning. The district has worked to put the infrastructure — the fiber and cables — in place to support additional technology, and even has started piloting iPad textbooks in classrooms, Churchill said.

It also has decided to change its high school schedule next school year to accommodate the new testing, which could include diagnostic and mid-year testing in addition to a standardized test at the end of the year. High school teachers already have begun to map out what they currently teach and create pacing charts to fit the new schedule, the assistant superintendent said.

And, he said, in the middle and elementary schools, the district has been familiarizing teachers with the Common Core Standards, what they can cut out that doesn’t align and what needs to be more rigorous. The standards, for instance, require all students to have had an “algebra experience” by eighth grade; currently, only 40 percent have in District 300.

As far as what K-12 and college educators can do to prepare while those assessments are being developed, Brian Durham of the Illinois Community College Board told the Alliance of College Readiness, “I think you guys are doing it. I think this is it.”

“The Alliance has been the model for us as well. Doing more of this, gaining that understanding, really digging into these standards and following what’s happening as far as continuing to ask the tough questions is the way to go — and collaboration.”