Project Accomplishments

Recap of March 30-31 Science College Readiness Definitions Session

The following is a list of your accomplishments in the 2-day session:

1. A detailed review of the team's accomplishments to date kicked-off the day's session.
   
   
2. An update from Ricardo Sanchez, including a discussion on workplace readiness, WASL, and funding for next steps.
   
   
3. This was followed by a discussion of the value of habits of mind and foundational concepts in science versus discipline-specific content knowledge. There was unanimous agreement that it is vastly more important for a student entering college to have high levels of competency in habits of mind and foundational knowledge versus discipline-specific content knowledge. There was a range of opinions about the importance of discipline-specific content knowledge. Opinion varied from not important at all (in fact should be omitted from the college readiness definitions) to needing to write higher level standards than the grade 9/10 GLEs.
   
   
4. After much discussion, following is a summary of the consensus position:
   

   · The college readiness definitions in science should place the habits of mind and foundational information in science first, and not at the end.

   · The college readiness definitions in science should have a strong prologue to the definitions, explaining the context for the definitions.

   · A three-tiered approach:

    

   a) A recommendation for what would be sufficient for college entry (i.e., accomplishment of the 9/10 GLEs, habits of mind, etc.).

   b) A recommendation for what would enable students to perform well in college science courses (e.g., mastery of 9/10 GLEs and a third year of science in high school).

   c) A recommendation for students planning to major in science (e.g. inclusion of mathematical based science such as chemistry or physics).

    

   · Mastery of the GLEs in science appear to provide a sufficient knowledge base for success in entry level college science courses.
   

5. We performed a detailed review of the GLEs to ensure that the level of knowledge represented in that document is sufficient for success in entry level college science. This review was completed in groups by discipline. With a few exceptions, the 9/10 GLEs represent sufficient knowledge in discipline-specific content knowledge.
   
   
6. We created initial draft language for the prologue. This had three sections: 1) Overall overview; 2) specifics on math and other topics and 3) related research in the field.
   
   
7. We discussed the upcoming Review Session in June and you were encouraged to invite people to apply to attend the event.

 

Next Steps:

• A cohesive draft for all three of the sections of the prologue will be drafted and sent out to the full team for comment.
  
  
• On April 12, the science team will receive information on the next online tool opportunity. This will need to be completed by April 26.

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