One of the best things states can do to improve their measures of high school effectiveness–and importantly, provide valuable information to educators–has nothing to do with a test. Feedback reports for high schools, containing information on students’ actual college and career outcomes, can reduce the huge burden on assessment systems to accurately measure all of the qualities that go into “college readiness.” That’s a win-win. We get much better information for high schools and at the same time, set much more realistic and attainable goals for high school assessments.
Why does this matter? Think about the
variety of things that research shows are necessary for “college-readiness.” And, consider this partial list of what the administration requires from the assessment systems
How is the University of California-Berkeley solving its budget crisis? By increasing the percentage of out-of-state students, who
pay more in tuition than their in-state California peers, from 14 to 27 in the course of a single year.
