ECS High School Resources and Services MS Word PDF - This two-page document describes the variety of resources and services ECS offers to answer state leaders' questions about high school, transitions to postsecondary, and P-16/P-20 alignment. (Education Commission of the States, July 2009)...

State P-16 and P-20 Council Considerations PDF - The divergent state-level structures that govern and fund education in the states — and the similarly diverse challenges that states face — may call for different members, agendas and supports for state-level P-16 and P-20 councils. However, ECS research suggests that some indicators associated with a council’s actors, agenda and appropriation of resources are positively associated with a council’s capacity to influence or implement meaningful education reform. This worksheet is intended to help you evaluate whether your state’s P-16 or P-20 council is aligned with some of these indicators. (Jennifer Dounay, Education Commission of the States, March 2008)...

Landmines P-16/P-20 Councils Encounter — and How They Can Be Addressed (or Avoided Altogether) PDF - Building upon the findings of the ECS database on P-16 and P-20 councils, and experience in the states, this policy brief sets forth the numerous challenges that can foil the best-laid plans of P-16 and P-20 councils, and suggests how they can be addressed or avoided altogether. These "landmines" lie in four areas: Actors, Agenda, Appropriation of Resources and Political Climate. (Jennifer Dounay, Education Commission of the States, November 2008)...

Making the Case for P-3 PDF - Supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the SPARK initiative, this ECS Issue Paper presents a concise and highly operational definition of P-3, outlining key guiding principles and provides a compelling case for "why P-3 now?" To that end, the paper includes arguments from both research and experience that address: How P-3 benefits children in the early years and early grades; How P-3 makes education reform more child-friendly; and How P-3 benefits state and local policymakers. (Kristie Kauerz, Education Commission of the States, July 2007)...

College Access: What helps to promote student access to college? - Access related research titles from the ECS Research Studies Database. Links embedded in titles will take you to each study's major findings and recommendations....

Pivotal Role of Policymakers as Leaders of P-20/Workforce Data Governance - This report contends that, while most states have established data governance processes that span the P–20W spectrum, the majority of states’ data governance structures lack the executive-level policymaker oversight necessary to systematically overcome these obstacles. The author asserts that policymaker leadership is critical to garner the political will and resources to address the barriers of turf, trust, technical issues, and time. The report outlines the following actions policymakers can take to effectively develop and lead P–20W data governance and ensure that data systems meet stakeholder needs: Establish the right structure; Select the right people; Empower the structure with the authority to make necessary decisions and implement charges, and; Ensure that the structure is sustainable, protecting the continuity of the state’s vision. (Data Quality Campaign, August 2012)...

Do High-Stakes Placement Exams Predict College Success? - This paper analyzes one of the most commonly used placement exams, using data on over 42,000 first-time entrants to a large, urban community college system. Using both traditional correlation coefficients and decision-theoretic measures of placement accuracy and error rates, the author finds that placement exams are more predictive of success in math than in English, and more predictive of who is likely to do well in college-level coursework than of who is likely to fail. (CCRC, 2012) ...

Predicting Success in College: The Importance of Placement Tests and High School Transcripts - This paper uses student-level data from a statewide community college system to examine the validity of placement tests and high school information in predicting course grades and college performance. The authors find that while commonly used placement tests do not yield strong predictions of how students will perform in college, high school GPA has a strong association with college GPA and with college credit accumulation. (CCRC, 2012)...

P-20 Education Policy: School to College Transition Policy in Washington State - This study examines Washington state's attempt to move toward an integrated P-20 system of education that enhances student transitions from high school to college. The study found that Washington has many key programs in place to enhance student transitions between the K-12 system and the higher education but the state's current approach lacks coherence and cohesion. This study also found that the state has developed a new and innovative model with the potential to solve many transition-related issues, but it will require assessment to determine its actual effectiveness. (Paul Pitre, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, February 2011)...

College- and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success - Most high schools are rated on only two measures: graduation rates and student scores on basic skills tests given in a single year. States can use college remediation needs of public high school students and other data systems to create richer, more accurate, more multi-dimensional measures of high school success. (Chad Aldeman, Education Sector, January 2010)...

Charting a Necessary Path: The Baseline Report of Public Higher Education Systems in the Access to Success Initiative - By 2015, the A2S leaders pledge that their systems will halve the gaps in college-going and college success that separates minority and low-income students from more affluent students. Much of what they have found in the last two years--included in this first report--has never been shared with the public and all of it isn't good news. (Access to Success Initiative, The Education Trust, December 2009)...