Credit: Lillian Mongeau/EdSource Today

Credit: Lillian Mongeau/EdSource Today

California teachers say critical thinking skills, not scores on standardized tests, are the best way to assess whether students are prepared for success in college and the workplace, according to an online survey by EdSource in partnership with the California Teachers Association.

Teachers said they have received much more training on how to prepare students for college – and far less on preparing them for non-higher options.

They too said college and career readiness has not been fully integrated into the professional development preparation they accept received to implement the Common Core State Standards.

Preparing students to graduate from loftier school prepared for college and careers is now a principal goal of all major education reforms beingness implemented in California, including the Common Core standards and the Local Control Funding Formula, which was canonical by the land Legislature in June 2013. This represents a major shift from the goal of the No Kid Left Behind reforms of the past 15 years, which was to promote proficiency on standardized tests.

The survey of 1,000 teachers randomly selected from amongst a list of CTA's more than 300,000 members was conducted final spring. Carried out by the polling firm GBA Strategies, information technology is the first of its kind to probe teacher attitudes regarding college and career readiness. The survey was partially underwritten past The James Irvine Foundation.

Defining what exactly "college and career readiness" means – and what information technology will take to ensure that students reach that goal past the fourth dimension they graduate from loftier schoolhouse – is currently a major business of educators and policy makers around the land, and the teachers' part in making that happen will be critical.

Teachers overwhelmingly supported the goal of preparing students for college and careers. When asked to rank the near of import indicators of higher and career readiness, 78 percent of teachers ranked developing critical thinking skills among the iii most important indicators. Eight pct of teachers ranked proficiency on the Smarter Balanced test, which more than 3 million students took for the offset fourth dimension last bound, among the iii most important indicators.

"I think most college professors would agree that students' ability to think critically and clarify texts, and to integrate information is much more important than what they did on a test," said David Plank, executive managing director of Policy Analysis for California Education, or Pace, a joint policy and inquiry institute of UC Berkeley, Stanford University and the University of Southern California. "The disagreement would come from admissions officers who find tests very efficient in deciding who is eligible for admission or not."

David Conley, professor of education policy at the Academy of Oregon, and president of EdImagine, a strategic consulting business firm that is working on higher and career readiness issues with schoolhouse districts in California and the California Department of Teaching, welcomed teachers' accent on critical thinking skills, but he said that the high school curriculum has largely not reflected that emphasis. "The arrows are all pointing toward greater alignment of loftier schoolhouse and college, but the challenge will be form redesign at the loftier school level in detail, and training (of teachers) in new instructional methods," he said.

Just nether i 3rd (30 percent) of teachers said their districts have conspicuously defined standards for what constitutes college and career readiness. Xxx-v per centum say that their districts have standards, but that they are not clearly defined. Eight pct say their districts have no standards at all.

Conley, who authored "Getting Ready for College, Careers and the Common Core," said that it is essential that districts adopt a specific definition of college and career readiness that goes beyond just requiring students to come across the A-G course requirements for admission to UC and CSU. He said what will be needed "is a definition that y'all can put into operation through professional person development (of teachers) and curriculum development. A vague definition doesn't do you whatsoever expert."

At a time when teachers are beingness asked to take on a number of new reforms, nearly three-fourths of teachers say they are either "very satisfied" or "adequately satisfied" with their jobs. Xxx-one percentage of teachers support the Mutual Core standards, and almost half support the standards with some reservations. Twelve percent say they are opposed to the standards altogether.

The survey also provides some guideposts for what boosted resources teachers experience they need to adequately prepare students for higher and careers. At the acme of their list are programs that link the high school curriculum to the workplace with a specific career pathway forth with more than high school career-technical courses.

"High schools have historically done a better job preparing students to graduate ready for college," said Jon Snyder, executive managing director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. "They have non done as good a chore in our schools preparing students for careers."

Snyder said it was of import to "pause downwardly the faux dichotomy between higher and career." "We used to say college or career, and y'all had these two tracks," he said. "It is important to say  'both and,' not 'either or.'"

Key Findings Include:

Support for college and career readiness as a goal

  • More than than three-fourths of teachers say they believe that preparing students to be fix for college and the workplace by the time they graduate from high schoolhouse is a very or somewhat realistic goal. Twenty-3 percentage feel information technology is not very realistic or not realistic at all.
  • In that location are differences in instructor attitudes depending on the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students in the schools where they teach. About 58 percent of teachers in schools where fewer than 1 in 4 of their students are eligible for free or reduced-priced meals believe that higher and career readiness is a "very realistic" goal. But 20 pct of teachers in schools where more than than 3 in 4  students qualify for federally subsidized meals take similar attitudes.

Lack of clearly defined standards

  • Thirty percent of teachers say their districts take clearly defined standards for what constitutes college and career readiness. 30-five pct say that their districts have standards, just that they are not clearly defined. Eight percent say their districts take no standards at all.

Little professional development or training for not-college options

  • Although almost all teachers consider themselves knowledgeable most what should be done to prepare students for college and careers, 36 percentage say they take received specific preparation to help them prepare students for college over the past two years.
  • Eight percentage say they have received preparation to prepare students for options other than college.
  • At the high schoolhouse level, 43 percent of teachers say they accept received grooming to gear up students for college, and 14 percent say they accept received training for other career options.
  • Those teachers who accept received training say that the professional development training they have received in preparing students for college and careers has been useful to them (69 percent).

College and career readiness training frequently not integrated with Common Core grooming

  • 70-nine per centum express support for the Common Core standards (31 pct back up them unconditionally, while some other 48 percent support them "with reservations"). Twelve percent are unequivocally opposed to them.
  • At the same fourth dimension, the majority of teachers (51 percent) say that the goal of college and career readiness has not been integrated into the workshops, in-service training or professional development related to the Common Core they had participated in. 10 per centum said that college and career readiness was "very strongly integrated" into this professional development and training.

Resource teachers need

  • Teachers ranked career academies, linked learning or other programs that tie the high schoolhouse curriculum with a specific career pathway as the No. 1 resource their school or commune needed virtually to set up students for college and careers.
  • Ranked second and 3rd respectively are more than high school career-technical courses and boosted schoolhouse counselors to help students make choices about colleges or alternatives to college.
  • Teachers who were aware of programs outside of their school district to promote higher and career readiness also placed a very high value on workplace internships – with virtually 2-thirds listing internships as an effective way to prepare students for college and careers.

Survey Documents

Survey Documents

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