College-career readiness can include remediation rates, diploma quality
By Tom Chorneau
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
In the search to define and measure college and career readiness, state and local officials throughout the U.S. are looking at university remediation rates and early performance indicators of middle school students, according to a new study.
Pressed by the Obama administration to evaluate how schools prepare students for life beyond the K-12 system, educators and state policy makers are exploring other indicators beyond graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment. As a result, 43 states now link student data from K-12 to the postsecondary system while 17 take it a step beyond to include workforce data, according to a new study from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The report analyzed 25 rating systems used by school districts, states and even news organizations to evaluate national trends in measuring school performance. Only those systems that resulted in a single, overall rating were included in the review and only those that were also publicly available.
“Before we can ensure all children have access to a high-quality public school, we have to know which schools are high quality,” Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance, said in a statement. “This report helps us