Digital Learning Environments

Summer 2011

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Rigor: Does One Path Fit All?

By Diane Pruner
Director, Office of Professional and Life Skills, FCPS

As the director of the Office of Professional and Life Skills at FCPS, I know from seeing thousands of graduates that upon exiting high school, they need an incredible array of skills to be successful in the global economy in which they will live and work.

I think you’ll agree that the following skills and abilities are required to function in today’s global economy:

• The ability to work as a member of a team
• Conflict-resolution skills
• Creativity and resourcefulness
• Effective speaking and listening skills
• Strong reading and writing skills
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Time, task, and resource-management skills
• Job-specific mathematics knowledge
• The ability to understand and work in the changing information technology environment

Where did this list come from? The items may be viewed as those skills required for success in the 21st century, and they are indeed required. However, these skills are actually part of the Virginia Workplace Readiness Skills.

In development for more than a decade, curriculum standards in all career and technical education (CTE) courses include these Workplace Readiness Skills.

In fact, there is now a verified assessment for these skills available to students in all Virginia CTE courses.

There is a measurement of these skills that students may share with postsecondary institutions and employers upon completion of the assessment. While it is not a required assessment, and not a traditional Standards of Learning (SOL) assessment, it could be considered a value-added SOL for success in life after high school.

Why is this so important?

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, students with a career plan in place in high school are 47 percent more likely to complete postsecondary education. This supports Virginia’s decision that all students beginning in middle school have an academic and career plan in place.

It is no longer enough for us to prepare students for either college or career, with one preparation path more rigorous than the other.

All students must have the same rigorous curriculum, which will then enable them to pursue postsecondary education, a career, or both! A skilled scholar is more valuable in the global marketplace than a graduate with only a skill or a degree.

Attainment of Virginia’s Workplace Readiness Skills allow students to be well prepared to move vertically and horizontally on the college and career paths leading to success in the global marketplace.

Questions or comments? Send me an email at dppruner@fcps.edu.

Is the Rigor of U.S. College and Career Readiness Standards Internationally Competitive?

By Teddi Predaris
Director of the Office of Language Acquisition and Title I
FCPS Instructional Services Department

The United States is facing dramatic challenges to its economic stature as the world becomes even more competitive in the coming years.

Because the jobs in today’s global economy continue to require higher levels of skill, upon graduation our students will be required to become even more productive and innovative.

Are we preparing our students to be successfully competitive in this global economy?

Consider the 2011 report, Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard? published by American College Testing, Inc. (ACT), which states that, “[new] performance standards of U.S. college and career readiness in reading and mathematics are internationally competitive.”

Preparing students with college and career readiness skills so that they can earn a college degree is one way that American students will be better prepared to be successful in the world they will inherit.

However, currently only 57 percent of U.S. college freshmen graduate from college—a rate that is below that of many other nations including Japan at 93 percent, Russia at 80 percent, Slovenia at 64 percent, and Mexico at 58 percent.

ACT research shows that college readiness is directly correlated to college completion. However, of the 1.5 million 2010 high school graduates who took the ACT test, only 24 percent met the College Readiness Benchmarks in English, mathematics, reading, and science. This tells us that fewer than 1 in 4 high school graduates were ready for college without needing remediation.

The new Common Core Standards Initiative, which aligns U.S. K-12 education with college and career readiness, was created to better prepare students for postsecondary needs. Recent results show that the new U.S. standards are, in fact, competitive internationally.

Also, Virginia has recently done an alignment study with the Common Core Standards and has found that the new Virginia Standards of Learning in reading and math are at or above the level of rigor of those of the Common Core.

The FCPS Program of Studies (POS) includes the new Virginia Standards of Learning.

Specifically, some examples of these new college- and career-readiness standards include:

1. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

2. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

If we prepare our students with mastery of these types of 21st century college- and career-readiness skills, I am confident that our students can be successful in this global economy and that we can improve the future long-term economic viability of the United States.

About Teddi Predaris

Teddi Predaris is director of the Office of Language Acquisition and Title I, Instructional Services, in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Predaris previously served as director, coordinator, and specialist of ESOL services in FCPS. Prior to her tenure as an administrator in Fairfax, she was the assistant director of the national information center on ELL student education, the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (formerly NCBE).

She has also served as a professional development and resource specialist at multistate regional education resource centers, providing technical assistance and training to school districts on ELL student education. She has taught ESOL and World Languages in the United States and abroad and holds a B.A. from Duke University, an M.S. from Georgetown University, and an M.A. from Middlebury College.

For more information, or to talk about rigor, send her an email at TGPredaris@fcps.edu.

Next: How We Can Work Together to Make a Difference

Prev: Academic Rigor: Preparing Students to Be College and Career Ready

inside is an online publication published by the Fairfax County Public Schools Instructional Services Department. Its mission is to share thoughts and ideas about curriculum and assessment that are fundamental to the good work FCPS principals and teachers are doing with students.

Questions and comments are welcome and should be directed to Peter Noonan: peter.noonan@fcps.edu / 571-423-4510.