Readiness with a Purpose: a model for college and career readiness
Date
2021
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
According to College Complete America (2019), 42% of recent high school graduates in the United States require remediation in either English, Mathematics, or both. Similar proportions of high school graduates in Delaware require remediation (Delaware’s College Success Report 2017). In 2016, the Career and Technical Education office of Delaware’s Department of Education partnered with Delaware Technical Community College to create the Readiness with a Purpose program to address the state’s remediation concerns. The program, funded through a Strada Educational grant, involved creating the Foundations of College English course. The target population for the course was students from the Allied Health program of study, a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program in Delaware. The purpose of the Readiness with a Purpose program was to increase dual enrollment eligibility. ☐ The Readiness with a Purpose program and Foundations of College English course have been implemented in Delaware high schools with Allied Health program of study students for three years. My primary role with the program and course has been to provide Professional Learning, ongoing support and communication for teachers, and to review enrollment and completion data collected through the Delaware Department of Education and surveys used with the course to ensure the program was meeting its goals. This Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) documents my evaluation of the program. Consequently, I have established an ongoing evaluation plan for the program and course and conducted an evaluation retrospectively pulling together data from the last three years. Therefore, the contents of this portfolio include background information and history for the Readiness with a Purpose program, improvement strategies proposed as part of the evaluation plan, and the results of the evaluation. ☐ The evaluation of the Readiness with a Purpose program conducted as part of this ELP process suggests that the strategic approach to readiness for students enrolled in Allied Health programs of study is a model that can be implemented for students in other Career and Technical Education programs of study in Delaware. Within the first three years of implementation, over 500 students have graduated high school meeting readiness benchmarks in English Language Arts that otherwise would not have. Therefore, increasing partnerships with Delaware school districts will be an effective approach for addressing readiness gaps for Delaware high school students. Strategies to increase partnerships include implementing a pay for performance model as an incentive for participation and working closely with guidance counselors to advise students about the program. Findings from enrollment and completion data, survey content from Foundations of College English teachers and students provide insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the program. Analysis of data collected as standard procedure with the program, retrospective analysis of procedures and practices as part of this ELP, and proposed data collection serve as the basis for the recommendations to sustain, build and refine the Readiness with a Purpose program.
Description
Keywords
Career, College, Readiness