The Opportunity Myth Of College Readiness
A few weeks back I had the chance to chat with Dan Weiseberg, CEO of TNTP (formerly known as The New Teacher Project), a non-profit whose mission is described as “ensuring that poor and minority students get equal access to effective teachers.” Dan and I had met briefly prior to our call, and in that encounter I had the opportunity to share with him a bit about Remind and the important platform we are building in education. On our call, Dan shared the latest research study conducted by TNTP titled “The Opportunity Myth” (TOM). While the results highlighted in TOM are quite compelling, (though for many in education they’re likely unsurprising), it’s the actions suggested by the study that might be more challenging to enact given the structural realities within our K-12 public school system.
The Opportunity Myth’s Findings
The scope of TNTP’s study is impressive. TOM’s research covers 5 diverse school districts, nearly 1,000 lessons and 5,000 assignments, more than 20,000 student work samples, and almost 30,000 real-time student surveys captured. In addition, TNTP conducted multiple focus groups and interviews with over a hundred teachers and school leaders over the course of the study that spanned in excess of an academic school year.
The good news coming out of the TOM study is that students have big, meaningful aspirations. The study validated what we all hope to be true within the minds of our students — that they dream of pursuing lofty careers, and that, as a result, they early on recognize the critical role a college education will play in their journey. Thus, a central part of the TNTP project assumes (and rightly so) that a definition of true “college readiness” serve as the salient measure of student success that our K-12 system targets. (Forget for a moment the definition of “college” today versus tomorrow, and how this educational product will continue to evolve to meet student needs in a cost-effective manner).
The not so good news, however, coming out of TNTP’s report is that today not enough students are exiting high school ready for the rigors of college. Too many kids are leaving 12th grade with a readiness gap that they either have to pay additionally to remediate, or worse, that causes them to fall off the track that leads to a college diploma and the career they started dreaming about back in their middle school days. The punchline here: students (starting very early on in the K-12 journey) aren’t being pushed hard enough to truly achieve academically at grade level, and each year there’s a negative multiplier effect that results in a significant readiness gap for too many students. And no, it’s not the teachers or administrators fault this reality exists — it’s on all of us to help our K-12 educators close this gap for every kid.
A few poignant quotes and data points from the TNTP study:
“While students succeeded on more than two-thirds of their assignments, they only demonstrated success against the grade level standards 17 percent of the time on those exact same assignments.”
“To be clear, “grade-level mastery” doesn’t mean students must have read a particular list of books. It means they have had the chance to practice a core set of grade-level-appropriate competencies for processing information, thinking critically about texts, and solving problems using evidence. Those are essential skills that can make the difference between graduating ready for college or the workplace, or not.”
“In classrooms where teachers held higher expectations, students gained more than four months.”
The Four Big Resources That Drive College Readiness
TOM highlights four essential resources that when applied to K-12 education help close the college readiness gap:
1. Consistent opportunities to work on grade-appropriate assignments.
TNTP observed consistently that students weren’t being challenged with grade-level caliber assignments. Clearly we want our students to be challenged, but we have to be willing to deal with their struggle and frustration that comes hand-in-hand with harder assignments. At the same time, if these assignments include more information processing and critical thinking, then we need to support teachers’ ability to deliver and grade assignments that go beyond simple worksheets and multiple choice tests.
2. Strong instruction, where students do most of the thinking in a lesson.
Putting grade-level appropriate curriculum in front of students is just a part of the equation. Arguably, enabling teachers to instruct students in a way (as pointed out above) so that young learners do the bulk of the critical thinking, struggling, failing, and ultimately “learning how to learn”, is the way strong instruction amplifies challenging content. As TOM summarizes: “Strong instruction that asks students to grapple with challenging content — and that cultivates a classroom wide expectation that it’s okay to be wrong — has the potential to increase students’ natural drive to learn, rather than squander it. That can in turn deepen students’ engagement in school.”
3. Deep engagement in what they’re learning.
Student’s being engaged in what they’re learning requires teachers whgo interact with and support students, both in the classroom and beyond. Teachers who are able to keep engagement going when kids are outside the classroom consistently see better student outcomes (and this dynamic is only augments when mom, dad, and any special caregiver is part of the engagement layer). Educational platforms like Remind, LMS software, etc. play increasingly important roles for today’s digitally native learners who are “always on”. Kids drift away — they get distracted by the flood of social media and information flying at them via their mobile devices, video games, and good old fashioned “TV” watching (which today takes the form of watching Youtube videos). The growing use of communication and “nudges” to help ping kids back to staying engaged in an assignment or project is a potentially powerful force that in many ways enhances student engagement.
4. Teachers who hold high expectations for students and believe they can meet grade-level standards.
Of the four elements highlighted by TNTP, “The fourth key resource — teacher expectations for students’ success against grade-level standards — demonstrated the strongest relationship to student growth in our study.” Indeed, the difference in achievement growth between the best (top quartile) and worst (bottom quartile) classrooms associated with “expectations” was calculated by TNTP researchers at nearly 5 months, or almost two-times that of “engagement”, the second most impactful resource (number 3 above).
This result shouldn’t be surprising . Enabling teachers to hold high expectations — and then giving them the air cover if kids fail in the short-term along a more rigorous journey — really can result in the long-term desired outcome of heightened college readiness. As TNTP argues, supporting teachers in their efforts to maintain high expectations of their students does require some rewiring of how we message this priority to teachers. “The system doesn’t send teachers the message that their mindset matters nearly as much as the material they teach or the practices they employ in their classrooms. Yet teacher expectations had a stronger effect on student achievement growth than any other factor we studied.”
TNTP’s Call for Commitment and 5 Recommendations
As they tie together the diverse set of results found in TOM, TNTP asks all of us to make two core commitments to students and families to support the goal that 100% of high school graduates head to campus truly “college ready”:
“Every student should have access to grade-appropriate assignments, strong instruction, deep engagement, and teachers with high expectations, every day, in every class — regardless of their race, ethnicity, or any other part of their identity. We will continually investigate the extent to which our students receive this access and report on our progress.”
“Every student and family is an authentic partner and should have real opportunities to shape the experiences students have in school, receive accurate and accessible information about students’ progress, and have a legitimate role in decision-making. We will continually seek feedback from all students and families about whether we’re living up to this commitment.”
And in the end, TNTP serves up five recommendations — based on their findings — of where we can go from here:
Ask students and families directly about their goals and school experiences; listen to what they share; and then act on what they tell you.
Make greater access to grade-appropriate assignments an urgent priority for all students, no matter what their race, income level, or current performance level.
Give all students, especially those who are behind grade level, access to instruction that asks them to think and engage deeply with challenging material.
Ensure educators enact high expectations for student success by seeing firsthand that students are capable of succeeding with more rigorous material.
Conduct an equity audit to identify school- and district-level decisions — from the diversity of staff at all levels to which students are enrolled in honors courses — that give some students greater access than others to key resources.
A Little Reality Check And 5 More Thoughts
Of course I have my own take-aways from TNTP’s “The Opportunity Myth”:
Yes, students want to achieve greatness — they are human and have aspirations and dreams just like every generation before them. And yes, we need to push them harder to get there. Reading the section about teachers setting higher expectations brings me instantly back to J. K. Simons’ portrayal of the incessantly demanding drums instructor in the movie “Whiplash”. Maybe a bit extreme, but imagine the impact a few more ounces of that type of expectation sprinkled around classrooms could have on readying a student for college.
Failure must not be feared. Sure, easy to say from where I sit — especially as a dad who still might cringe slightly if my kid gets a B-. But the truth is, I’ve come to realize it’s the preparation that students get from high school, not the results, that matter most. My dad used to say: “Nobody got famous in high school”, (well, except for the kids from “High School Musical” I suppose). It’s worth pushing for a world where somehow our federal education overseers, state level counterparts, district and school leaders and, most of all, college admissions directors, could align around the concept that failing more might make students more college ready.
Perhaps the tangible step to the notion above is that we need to augment the way we measure college readiness. This doesn’t mean throw out the SAT or ACT, or kick aside GPAs, but it does suggest there are other rubrics we can employ here. What are the baseline math requirements (algebra, stats, what else?), reading and writing competencies (comprehension translated into the form of a well crafted and written argument), and the other baselines that colleges can share with us based on what they have historically seen “cause” college success, especially in that first semester or year. In addition to academic measures, we should considering widening the aperture of attributes that we attempt to connect to college readiness e.g. how might emotional and social learning (ESL) capabilities relate to college success?
Another major element must include how we support teachers in whatever shifts might evolve from here. The TNTP identified “strong instruction” resource begs further refinement — specifically along the lines of what professional development most helps teachers be their most inspired instructor-self in the classroom. Further, how do teachers get space between the testing and related requirements that govern their instruction today? Likewise, TNTP’s “expectation” resource requires the support of every stakeholder. Pushing students harder — to the point of frustration and even a few poor assignment results — only works if parents, school leaders, and everyone whose eyes are on the teacher support this approach.
Finally, in a self-serving insertion, I’d of course like to find a way for Remind to be a part of the solution here. We connect more teachers, students, and parents than any other communication platform in education. We are in every stakeholder’s hand all the time. We can support real-time check-ins and enable “nudges” that help students stay engaged and hungry; that help parents stay connected and on board with a little failure along the way; and that support teachers and school leaders in their pursue of an amended definition of college ready. Perhaps Remind might become the real-time pulse of what’s happening in classrooms and whether the drumbeat inside those four walls is pushing more students forward along a path to being college ready.
Originally published on Medium on December 2, 2018. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.