Family & Community Students & Families Student and Secondary Support
College and Career Readiness

Update on the Massachusetts National Governors Association High School Redesign Grant

In January, I provided you with a summary of the Massachusetts National Governors Association (NGA) High School Redesign Grant and the activities that have taken place since we won the award. Massachusetts is one of ten states selected to receive the NGA grant, which will provide $1 million per year over the next two years. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is implementing the grant in collaboration with the Governor's Office, the Board of Higher Education, and the University of Massachusetts. A list of grant Executive Committee and Implementation Committee members is attached.

The purpose of the grant is to increase high school graduation and college and work readiness rates. The grant includes three key goals: (1) strengthen the value of the high school diploma for all students in the Commonwealth; (2) increase public awareness of the need for school graduates to be college and career ready; and (3) develop an effective PK-16 data system to inform K-12 and higher education policies.

This grant is intended to be seed money to provide a catalyst for redesigning high schools. As we work together as a Commonwealth to ensure that all students reach proficiency and beyond, it is timely for us to discuss strategies to strengthen our high schools. At this month's meeting, I want to update the Board on our progress to date, and our plans for the next few years.

Strengthen the Value of the High School Diploma

Over the next several months, we will begin defining "what is college ready" including the courses and the characteristics of those courses that prepare students for success in both college and a career. Further, we have entered into a multi-state consortium to explore developing a voluntary Algebra II assessment that will help determine students' readiness for taking more high school level and college level mathematics courses. We also hope to be able to identify incentives that encourage all students in the Commonwealth to stay in school and take a rigorous program of study in high school. Following are additional details on this goal and actions taken to date:

• Department of Elementary and Secondary Education staff is drafting a background paper on a high school Curriculum for College and Work Readiness. The background paper will include a state-by-state analysis of high school graduation requirements as well as recommendations from the State Scholars Program and the Southern Regional Education Board on model programs of studies.

• Massachusetts is one of six states to partner with Achieve as part of our commitment to the American Diploma Project (ADP) to ensure that our state standards in math and English language arts in grades eleven and twelve are aligned with college and work-ready standards developed by Achieve. A recently completed analysis indicates that our standards are nearly fully aligned. We are planning regional follow-up meetings on the standards with state college/university English and math instructors/department heads and business and industry forums. The forums will be coordinated with the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. The Department plans to develop companion documents that support the state standards in the curriculum frameworks and provide clear instructional approaches for educators.

• Massachusetts is working with Achieve and other ADP member states to study the feasibility of developing an Algebra II assessment that would measure students' preparedness for college mathematics and/or the technical demands of the workplace. We anticipate having the test available in spring 2008. Achieve is currently exploring options for collaborating with ACT and the College Board on this important initiative.

• Governor Romney's FY 2007 budget includes $2 million to establish a new dual enrollment program focused upon increasing options for students to take math, science and/or technology courses at a local public college while in high school. Funding for the program is also is in the Board's FY 2007 budget request. The new design of the program includes the development of high school/college grant funded partnerships designed to attract underrepresented students.

• The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Center for Collaborative Education and the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy hosted a high school reform conference - High Schools of the Future: Lessons from Reforming Schools - at Holy Cross on January 20, 2006. The conference was oversubscribed - about 700 registrants for 400 conference spaces - indicating widespread interest in this topic. Based on the high interest in high school restructuring, we are planning additional follow-up events.

Increase Public Awareness of the Need for all High School Graduates to be College and Career Ready

In order to encourage more low-income students and students from other underrepresented groups to prepare for and succeed in college, we are developing an aggressive information campaign targeted to at-risk students. The campaign will also include the development of a career and education web portal/site that provides students and their parents with tools to help them plan for their future. The web portal will assist all students in education and career planning, provide information on financing a college education, and define what students need to know and be able to do to succeed after completing high school. We have drafted a Request for Responses (RFR). The Governor's budget includes $250,000 for this initiative, and we will seek additional funding sources for implementing the system.

Develop an Effective PK-16 Data System to Inform Through Research, K-12 and Higher Education

We do not currently have an infrastructure to enable the Department's Student Information Management System (SIMS) to communicate with the Board of Higher Education's Higher Education data system (HEIRS). A state-supported educational data system that runs from pre-kindergarten (PK) through public higher education (grade 16) is a vital tool for longitudinal studies to answer a wide range of policy questions that cannot be addressed at present.

• A PK-16 data committee made up of representatives from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Board of Higher Education has been formed.

• The committee has developed a statement of work for a new database of PK-16 information from public schools and public higher education that will enable K-12 school leaders to assess school performance in terms of success in college and enable college leaders to assess effectiveness in helping students attain a college degree. A vendor has been selected to design the database with work commencing in March 2006.

• A Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Board of Higher Education has been developed to enable the agencies to share data as needed to carry out the project objectives, while complying with confidentiality requirements.

I look forward to discussing the high school initiative with the Board at our February meeting. Our grant implementation chairs and grant coordinator will join the discussion. As we continue our work, I will update the Board on our progress, as we work to help redesign the Commonwealth's high schools to ensure that all students have the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in our increasingly competitive global economy.

Attachments:

	Organizational Chart For Implementing The NGA Grant
	Selected Data Points - Academic Preparation for College and the Workplace