Update 2-28-12

I am sending this Senate update to a slightly larger audience than usual, because it references a topic with implications for the entire academic community.  Below is an update and some basic information that will hopefully help us start to understand some of the issues, terminology, and how the topic will impact the college and our students.    

The Common Core State Standards are new academic standards for P-12 English Language Arts and Mathematics, adopted in 48 states, including Massachusetts.  The Common Core includes both curricular and instructional standards intended to improve P-12 education nationwide.  Information can be found at www.corestandards.org

PARCC, The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is one of two national assessment consortia which are developing assessments to assess the Common Core.  Massachusetts has signed on to use the PARCC assessment starting in 2014-15.  Information can be found at www.parcconline.org

College Readiness:  In addition to PARCC assessing the Common Core, the plan is also to have the end of year 11^th grade assessment be used to determine if a high school student is “College Ready” in English and Mathematics, and not in need of developmental coursework in those areas.   

Senate Discussion:  At the January 23 Senate meeting, the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC assessment were discussed. 

·        Defining what it means to be “college ready” is a faculty concern.  Faculty need to be involved, and therefore it is an appropriate academic issue for the Senate to consider. 

·        Currently, MCAS and Accuplacer results show very little correlation.  Writing solid curriculum is important, but what about instructional pedagogy will change to assure positive change?

·        If the 11^th grade PARCC assessment will be used to determine if a student needs developmental coursework, then college faculty must be involved in determining how it is used.

·        It has been shown that students who need developmental coursework are less likely to complete a college degree than those who do not.  The question was raised whether there may be an unstated desire is to ultimately remove developmental education from higher education.

·        There was discussion of a Department of Higher Education plan to determine a Massachusetts definition of college readiness.

·        The topic of developmental reading instruction and how it relates to college readiness was also discussed.

Since that meeting,

• BCC has been awarded a $7500 grant to fund regional conversations among BCC, NB and FR P-12 educators about issues related to college readiness.  BCC’s English and Math Chairs are coordinating this and related efforts.
• In addition to the Senate discussion, the topic of what it means to be college ready in English and Math is being brought to those departments.  Later in the semester, the plan is to have a campus wide meeting (likely one of the scheduled all-academic area, all college, or professional staff meetings).
• The plan is for all of these related efforts to lead to the development of a BCC regional definition of college readiness before the end of May.  The Department of Higher Education has requested such a definition from each public higher education institution by June 1.  The plan is then to use these regional definitions to create a Massachusetts definition which will help the state determine appropriate use of the PARCC assessment as a tool for determining college readiness.