In a bold new report, entitled College- and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success, released on January 12, Education Sector’s Chad Aldeman proposes a new accountability measure for high schools—whether they are preparing students to succeed in college and careers.

Inspired by the tendency of some “low-performing” high schools to graduate students who enroll in college at a higher rate, have higher college GPAs, and fail fewer remedial courses than their counterparts from some “high-performing” high schools, the report suggests that holding high schools accountable for their students’ college performance is an essential step to improving America’s high schools.

Of course, as the report acknowledges, many—if not most—“high-performing” high schools graduate students who go on to have great college and career success, and many “low-performing” high schools are failing their students on a fundamental level.  Nonetheless, the fact that any schools that are labeled “low-performing” are outperforming some of their “high-performing” counterparts when it comes to college attainment indicates flaws in the assessments system.

As the report says, “Tests and other proxy measures can offer only a limited snapshot of what students know and can do, and they have the potential to encourage educators to teach to the tests and narrow the curriculum.”

The report argues that outcomes-based assessments have an advantage because they would allow educators to feel that they are being evaluated based on more than the results of a single test, help with inter-state comparisons, and encourage alignment between high school, college, and work-force standards.

College Summit’s own recent policy paper, The Promise of Proficiency, makes a very similar argument, urging the federal government to support the gathering of college proficiency data by high school, disseminate this data and empower educators to use it to drive programmatic change, and reward those high schools that have successfully increased their college proficiency rate over time.

We’re exceptionally pleased to see that innovative education policy minds are starting to realize the value to high schools of college proficiency data, and applaud Education Sector for tackling this issue.

Read the Education Sector report.

Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education announced that its ambitious “Race to the Top” fund would require states and districts to increase college enrollment and college proficiency rates.  For the first time in U.S. history, our nation's leadership has explicitly acknowledged this new purpose of high school.  Click here to read College Summit’s analysis and recommendations.

Be sure to visit our new and improved Public Affairs website to learn more about the role College Summit plays in shaping changes to federal policy and how you can get involved!

Read the Edweek article. I wonder how "CSNav" did in the search terms.

An exciting new College Summit website, www.connect2urfuture.org, launched this week!  The website was created for Peer Leaders and educators, and gives tips on how to use social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook to create college-going culture. It includes ideas for educators on how to use social networking sites in the classroom as well as for continued learning opportunities.

Check it out!

Most exciting is our first-ever College Summit video contest, sponsored by Citi. The judges panel includes celebrity judge Don Cheadle, a College Summit Alumnus, and representatives from Citi and the Department of Education.  Launching this week, the contest challenges students to make a video that tells how they are create college-going culture in their school. College Summit students can submit short video clips that they produce after school to be entered into the contest.  There is a $2,000 grand prize for the contest winner! Learn more here. We’ll be sure to post the finalists here for your viewing pleasure. Classroom entries are also being accepted. We're offering a $500 cash prize to the class that submits the most creative college-going video.

Please help spread the word to College Summit seniors about this opportunity to engage with us, and with others in our community, to promote college-going!

Are you so busy senior year that you can barely find time to get on CSNav, even with all the great stuff on there?  Well, thankfully College Summit has done some research to figure out the most important things you can do in 12th grade to get into college.  These essential activities are called Your Planning Milestones. 

This CSNav Feature Profile looks at one of those Milestones, the Senior-year Plan.   To earn a check mark for the Senior-year Plan, you must complete the following activities:

1.    Three Short-term goals
2.    One “Goals Into Action”

These activities can be found on the page titled Looking Ahead in your Portfolio (you can also navigate here from the homepage: “Your Portfolio > Your Profile > Looking Ahead”).   
 
The Senior-year Plan shows up first in Week 3 of the Navigator (page 47).  Here’s a look at the CSNav Connection:

You can also check out this Youtube video which walks through the steps for completing the SYP.

Thanks for checking out this CSNav Feature Profile!  Leave comments below or email Rob Spackey at rspackey@collegesummit.org.

When I started College Summit fifteen years ago, one of the most compelling displays of inequality in post secondary education was that low income students with good grades went to college at a rate lower than affluent students with poor grades. College Summit was in part founded to help create a college-going culture to better support these college-capable lower income students.

According to a recent editorial in Money magazine, editor Pat Regnier acknowledges that this work is far from finished. The distance between lower income students and college success is getting wider as the economy promises increased financial instability. Why is that? That low income students have less support financially is obvious, but what about support in the classroom and at school? At home? 

In writing “…more investment in higher ed could boost the next generation’s prosperity. Expanding education--letting there be more winners--can help the economy grow, which is good for us all.” Regnier reminds us that the issue has also become a key economic one for our nation.  While calling for more investment in higher ed is a natural conclusion, I'd suggest that more strategic investments in high school reform can have the same, if not more, effect on increasing college-going.

It turns out that the feature on CSNav with the least exciting name is actually one of the coolest things you’ll find there.  This post (intended for College Summit students) features the School Finder. 

One quick note: After clicking on the links on this page, enter your CSNav username and password, and you will be taken directly to that section of the site.  

The School Finder allows you to find colleges and other postsecondary options by mixing and matching all kinds of preferences from school size and SAT/ACT scores, to tuition and Programs/Majors offered.  After you have identified all your preferences, click “See Your Matching Schools” and CSNav will produce a list that meets your exact specifications. 

Check out this Youtube video to see how it works!

Pretty cool, huh?  You can also locate the School Finder by logging into csnav.org and following this path from the homepage:

    College Planning > Explore Postsecondary Schools > School Finder

Thanks for checking out this CSNav Feature Profile!  Comments?  Email Rob Spackey at rspackey@collegesummit.org.

Beef up on your vocabulary, find the right loans for you, share notes and tips with classmates, check out how your professors are rated & more!

How can you use social networking websites to create college-going culture in your school?

-Create a Facebook group for your school and invite all of the peer leaders, educators and 12th graders to join. The group can act as a central hub on Facebook for your project and house links to resources, other initiatives on Facebook, pictures from school events, videos created, Twitter and Myspace, and a community forum for discussion. Events can be tied to the group such as the FAFSA deadline to help students stay on track.

-Create a twitter movement where a senior and 9th grader exchange twitter accounts and share motivation and tips to one another. Everyone tweets to share how their experience is going and creates a community of support. Important dates and reminders are also tweeted.

-Create a Twitter account that gives out an “SAT word of the day” and goes out to all students.

-Host a poster contest and scan the results on our Facebook group. The contest subject could be college-going.

-Participate in the College Summit video contest. Create a short video that shows how you’ve created college-going culture at your school and be eligible for a prize.

-Seniors can join the Senior Year calendar on Facebook and get reminders of important dates right on their profile.

-On Facebook, join the College Summit cause “ I’m going to college 2009-10”...top recruiters get a prize.

-Educators can create a blog where seniors can write posts that update everyone, especially 9th graders, on what’s happening at the school in terms of college-going, give motivation, share pictures and video, and share resources.

-Create “bumper stickers” for Facebook profiles that say things like “I got in!” “I completed my FAFSA” or “I’m a peer leader”.

-Post a status update when a senior gets into a college so that everyone can share in the excitement. You can do this on Twitter, Facebook or Myspace.