College and Career Ready Graduation: Strengthening the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

“The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act must account for our current national and international context, and it must continue its legacy focus on low-income students—particularly underrepresented low-income students—to ensure that all Americans succeed in today’s economy. The reauthorization should incent and reward states that promote college and career readiness among all students—and more specifically among the growing number of low-income students. ESEA should also provide incentives for and remove barriers to new innovations that produce promising secondary and postsecondary results for low-income, underrepresented students—including those who have dropped out or are significantly behind. With this focus, ESEA can help move our education system to dramatically improving the education and life outcomes of these youth, while also addressing our nation’s economic health” (p.2-3).This policy brief does not focus directly on workforce development, but on elementary and secondary education. However, the author's focus on promoting college and career readiness has broad implications for understanding workforce policies and programs around career readiness and career pathways for economically disadvantaged students. (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

Policy Recommendations for ESEA reauthorization:“College- And Career-Ready Standards And Assessments - • Continue to provide incentives for states to adopt and implement college- and career-ready standards and assessments. • Provide adequate flexibility in assessment timelines for federal accountability to allow for competency-based assessments. • Allow the use of performance-based indicators, such as the completion of college coursework in high school, to demonstrate progress towards college- and career-readiness.Rigorous and Fair Graduation Rate Accountability - • Define graduation rates and establish graduation rate accountability.Turning Around Low-Performing Secondary Schools - • Continue and expand the priority on low graduation rate high schools. • Require specific secondary school turnaround activities addressing off track students…. Requiring districts and schools to use early warning indicators to intervene more quickly and provide support for students before they fall too far behind and increase their risk of dropping out….. Requiring districts to develop and implement district-wide dropout recovery strategies in partnership with community- based organizations (e.g., reengagement centers and back- on-track alternative education options, including GED-to- college programs). • Permit differentiated accountability.Incentives, Innovation, and Invention - • Invest in scaling up what works. • Invest in invention” (p. 3-5).(Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Individual author not identified
• Organizational Author(s): Jobs for the Future
• Funding Source: Jobs for the Future
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Justin Venneri
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies