Overview

Session Two, “Students Who Graduate from the K–12 System College and Career Ready with No Need for Remediation,” of the System Design Partnership between Madera Unified School District and the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL), looks at the 9 Building Blocks through the lens of College and Career Ready students. According to The NISL Wheel, these are students whose deep mastery of the subjects they have studied will enable them to learn other things easily when they need to and to apply what they have learned creatively and effectively to a wide range of problems and challenges. College and Career Ready students are able to synthesize what they have learned from many domains as they address those challenges and to analyze the challenges they face so that they can address them. They are very good communicators, in many mediums. They are at once both disciplined and creative. They have learned how to lead and how to be a good team member. They set high standards for themselves and are prepared to work hard to achieve them. Character matters a lot to them. They know right from wrong and do the right thing when it is not easy to do. They take pleasure in serving others and being a contributing member of society. They are tolerant and inclusive, tough and kind. To be effective in anything they undertake, they are able to control their emotions, set high targets for themselves, and are prepared to sacrifice in order to achieve their long-term goals. They monitor their behavior and change it when necessary. They are able to set a goal, develop a plan, and work toward achieving it.

• Clear gateways for students through the system, set to global standards, with no dead ends (building block 4 from 9 Building Blocks for a World-Class Education System)
  • Instead of issuing a high school diploma—essentially a certificate of attendance—top-performing countries issue qualifications showing what high school courses the holder has taken and the grades earned in those courses.
  • Well-developed qualification systems are arranged into pathways such that an individual can go back later and pick up a qualification that he or she missed earlier.
  • Successful qualification systems have no dead ends; all paths can be linked up to others so that one can always go further in their education without having to start at the beginning.
  • The qualification one receives at the end of a course of study is the ticket of admission to the next stage of one’s education.
• World-class, highly coherent instructional systems (building block 3 from 9 Building Blocks for a World-Class Education System)
  • Top-performing systems typically have well-developed, highly coherent, and very demanding instructional systems for all students that incorporate student performance standards, curriculum, and assessments, as well as the use of instructional methods appropriate to the goals and standards of instruction.
• An aligned instructional system comprises
  • High Standards for All Students
  • Well-Designed Curriculum Frameworks
  • Syllabi and Instructional Materials Based on the Frameworks and the Standards
  • Formative Assessment Keyed to Progressions
  • Summative Assessment Based on Curriculum
  • Clear Gateways for All Students
• In top-performing countries, the standards for all courses in the core curriculum typically emphasize the acquisition of
  • a wide range of complex knowledge,
  • deep conceptual understanding of the subjects studied,
  • the ability to write well,
  • the ability to synthesize material from many disciplines to address real-world problems, and
  • strong analytical capacity and creative and innovative capacity.
• Top-performing countries not only set out clear benchmarks of readiness for college, vocational training, and careers, they provide a wide range of supports throughout primary and secondary school to ensure students reach these standards. As a result, they have far fewer students unprepared for post-secondary education. The strategies include
  • high level of support for early education to ensure school readiness;
  • highly qualified teachers, recruited from the top of the cohort and screened for their commitment to working with all students;
  • elementary teachers with strong content knowledge to ensure that students arrive at secondary school with a strong foundation in content and are on track to College and Career Readiness;
  • more time for teachers to help students who are struggling outside of class;
  • additional teachers assigned to help students who need more help throughout primary and secondary school.

As a result of the 2-day session, participants will be able to

During Day 1, team members examine their broad district context against indicators relating to the 9 Building Blocks for a World-Class Education System as well as data from two high-performing jurisdictions, one international (Singapore) and one domestic (Massachusetts).  We will consider examples from CIEB’s international benchmarking research. Team members then will analyze how Madera Unified supports all students to be on track for College and Career Readiness, including the consideration of the needs of students who require additional help and resources.

During Day 2, team members will discuss a vision of College and Career Readiness for the 21st century for ALL Madera Unified students and will begin to think about the characteristics of what a nested aligned instructional system looks like along the progressions within K–12.

Note: Pre-work is available through the NISL portal. Please see your facilitator if you have not been provided with an iPad and/or assigned a user ID and password.

While there was no pre-work assigned, if you have time, we suggest that you read: