Ramp-Up to Readiness Governor’s Workforce Development Council February 12, 2009 Kent Pekel, College Readiness Consortium

2 College Readiness Rates in MN Source: Minnesota Office of Higher Education, Measuring Up 2008

3 The Problem Isn’t Aspirations Source: Education Week

4 The Problem Is… “The postsecondary completion problem is less a result of insufficient ambitions to go on to college and more one of a lack of articulated standards and clear signals concerning adequate academic preparation, and limited knowledge of what it takes to enroll and finish.” -- Michael Kirst and Kathy Reeves Bracco From High School to College: Improving Opportunities for Success in Postsecondary Education Michael W. Kirst, Kathy Reeves Bracco, “Bridging the Great Divide: The K-12 and Postsecondary Split Hurts Students, and What Can Be Done About It,” in Kirst, Michael W. and Venezia, Andrea From High School to College: Improving Opportunities for Success in Postsecondary Education. Jossey Bass Education, p. 5.

5 Vision Skills Incentive Resources Action Plan + = Change Skills Incentive Resources Action Plan = ++ + Confusion Vision Incentive Resources Action Plan + = + + Anxiety Vision Skills Resources Action Plan + = + + Resistance Vision Skills Incentive + = + + Frustration Vision Skills Incentive Resources + = + ++ Treadmill Action Plan Putting All the Pieces Together

6 So a plan would be a good thing… Research conducted by Daphna Oyserman at the University of Michigan engaged inner-city junior high children in Detroit in several exercises in life planning What kind of future would you like to have? What difficulties do you anticipate? How will you deal with them? Which friends would help you cope? Results: higher test scores, number required to repeat a grade dropped by half

7 But the plan must be truly focused on postsecondary readiness Source: National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Measuring Up 2008

8 And the plan needs to address motivational issues like mindset Illustration:

9 For the Student: Ramp-Up to Readiness

10 Critical Question: How do we take the project to scale, sustain and continuously improve it?

11 An Early Sign of Progress “Before having guest speakers come to tell us about college, I thought that school was just a place to hang out in. Now I take that back. School is more than you expect when you are trying to reach for your goals.” -- Junior High Student, Saint Paul

12 College Material

13 The challenge is huge, but we’ve been here before Source: Claudia Goldin, “The Human Capital Century: Has U.S. leadership come to an end?”, Education Next, Winter, 2003 (vol. 3, no. 1).