Friday, March 19, 2010

Remembering the “Career” in “College- and Career-Ready” � The Quick and the Ed

Remembering the “Career” in “College- and Career-Ready” � The Quick and the Ed

Remembering the “Career” in “College- and Career-Ready”

March 19th, 2010 | Category: Accountability


George Will asks some good questions about the Obama Admnistration’s proposal to link $14.5 billion in federal funding to whether a state certifies their education standards as “college- and career-ready” in this New York Post op-ed. He writes:
But how does one fulfill — or know when one has fulfilled — Obama’s goal of “college and career readiness” for every child by 2020?
That gauzy goal resembles the 1994 goal that by 2000 (when, Congress dreamily decreed, every school “will be free of drugs and violence”) every child would start school “ready to learn.” Is “college and career readiness” one goal or two? Should everybody go to college? Is a college degree equivalent to career — any career? — readiness?
Typically the latter half of the “college- and career-ready” slogan is mumbled and forgotten. Partly this is because it’s easier to measure college-readiness than it is career-readiness. If a student goes directly from high school to college but it slotted into remedial coursework, is unable to attain passing grades, and flunks