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CHALLENGING GOALS AND CURRICULUM FOR ALL STUDENTS


Recommendation 1:
Set ambitious learning goals and provide all students a challenging K-12 curriculum, including preparation for postsecondary schooling.

The State must ensure that all students have access to a K-12 curriculum comprised of the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary for successful college-going, productive work, and active citizenship. As a part of this curriculum, all schools must offer academic programs and coursework that provide all students an equitable opportunity to seek admission to and succeed in any of California’s public postsecondary institutions. To ensure this high-quality curriculum for all students we recommend the following:

Recommendation 1.1: The State must ensure that all schools provide all students with curriculum and coursework that include the knowledge, skills, and experiences that enable them to attain the following learning goals:

The necessary academic competencies are represented in California policy in the content standards. These standards form the basis of an aligned system of curriculum, materials, instruction, and assessments for each level of the educational system. However, the current standards and requirements are not a complete expression of what California students should know and be able to do The standards should recognize the congruity of academic achievement, workforce preparation, and the knowledge and skills needed for democratic participation in a diverse society. Among many needed refinements to standards and course requirements, we recommend the immediate addition of oral and written proficiency in a second language. California is the nation’s most linguistically rich state. At a time when global knowledge, skill, and understanding are at a premium, our multilingualism is an asset that must be developed. The Master Plan should recognize the State’s widespread bilingualism (in multiple languages) and embrace it as a 21st century educational and social resource.[5]

Recommendation 1.2: Provide all students the opportunity to take mathematics courses that include beginning algebra by 8th grade.

While many argue that algebra should be the required course at grade 8, there are several reasons for not locking all students’ mathematics learning into that particular configuration at this time. First, students who have not had the advantage of a newly aligned curriculum will need more time. Second, many good integrated math programs do not have a “course” in algebra. Third, not all students are ready to learn traditional approaches to algebra by 8th grade. Fourth, currently many middle school math teachers are unprepared to teach algebra to all of their students. Finally, many states including California have succeeded in getting virtually all students through algebra and geometry by allowing what was a one-year course to become a two-year course for those students who need more time. California would be well advised to create flexible, realistic, and well-supported approaches to mathematics learning.

Recommendation 1.3: Establish an academically rigorous course pattern (currently the A-G course pattern that is required for CSU and UC eligibility) as the standard curriculum for every high school student, and provide the learning support that enables students to successfully complete this college readiness curriculum. Students not wishing to participate in this rigorous curriculum should, with the proper counseling, be allowed to “opt out” of this pattern of courses. In such cases, students must follow a personalized learning plan that ensures basic academic competencies.
After years of negotiation, CSU and UC now agree on a desirable college/university preparatory pattern of high school course taking, both in terms of overall requirements and in judgments about whether offerings at particular high schools meet the A-G standards. This coursework pattern requires a broad and rigorous set of experiences in the humanities, sciences, and the arts, as well as providing the basis for college-level work and for participation in the workforce and civic affairs. This curriculum should be supplemented with learning supports that enable all students to complete the course pattern required for college admission and for them to succeed in non-remedial college-level courses.[6]

Three caveats are essential here, two of which are explored further below. First, neither the CSU nor the UC accepts the current A-G requirements as ideal, and scholars in both systems faced many frustrating hours selecting from all that constitutes a high-quality education the particulars that fit into a single set of requirements. Ongoing reconsideration of the college preparatory curriculum is essential. Second, in no way is this recommendation meant to undermine the “open admissions” policies of California’s community colleges that make real the State’s promise of access to postsecondary education for all Californians.

Most critical, however, is the caveat noted at the outset of this report. California is currently in no position to require that all students complete the college preparatory course pattern as a condition for promotion from one grade to the next or for graduation from high school. Today, most California high schools have neither the resources nor the teaching capacity to enable all students to successfully participate in the A-G course pattern.

Recommendation 1.4: Encourage the university and high schools to develop and provide to all students multiple pathways for successfully completing the college preparatory curriculum.

Traditionally, “multiple pathways” through high school has meant differentiated coursework leading some students to be qualified for college attendance and others not to be qualified. In contrast, we recommend that multiple pathways refer to alternative ways to successfully complete the A-G course pattern. At its simplest, this is a call for far greater flexibility in pedagogy and course content than now exists. This recommendation for added flexibility is not a call to relax the intellectual rigor of the courses or to step outside the California Standards. It is consistent with what some outstanding schools try to do, and what is being recognized as optimal by many schools and departments within the CSU and UC. The implementation of this recommendation should be phased in over time with more resources going to those high schools that need them the most.

The mandate for A-G should be accompanied with incentives for creative curriculum work in the high school, in collaboration with public postsecondary institutions. The State must commit the resources to ensure high quality courses, qualified teachers, and adequate materials in every high school. The phasing in of these alternatives should begin with the most "in need" schools.

If California schools hold their career preparation programs to both the A-G requirements and the highest workforce standards, students will graduate ready for rapid career advancement through on-the-job experience, workplace apprenticeships, and postsecondary opportunities. From this perspective, the knowledge and skills in college preparatory academic courses and courses leading more directly to the workplace will overlap considerably in their intellectual rigor.

Most important, this recommendation will provide more equitable and higher quality learning opportunities to more students, hence, increasing the chances for more students to complete high school successfully. If the conditions for quality learning (as specified in Recommendation 5) are phased in strategically, more and more students will receive the quality education they have a right to expect in their schools.

Recommendation 1.5: Establish the A-G course pattern as that which prepares students for community college as well as for the state’s four-year postsecondary institutions.
Because the A-G pattern of coursework is necessary to prepare broadly for academic and workforce success, the community college system should add its voice to promoting this rigorous, standards-based curriculum. What CSU and UC require, the community colleges should strongly recommend. Of the three higher education components of the state’s education system—community college, CSU and UC—the community colleges serve students who have the widest breadth of college preparedness and the broadest range of career aspirations. This system is an extremely important nexus for providing not only continuing students but all citizens equitable access, at all times, to quality postsecondary learning and professional training. Even a summary of this breadth and range is too extensive to offer here; suffice it to say that the community colleges welcome students who may lack significant K-12 coursework and accomplishments and prepare these same students for high level workplace and professional careers. On the other hand, the community colleges serve many students who may enter as well prepared as their CSU and UC peers.

The guiding assumption should be that the A-G requirements will come to represent something more than a college preparatory curriculum, but, as well, the State of California’s goal for what constitutes the necessary education for all its K-12 students. Whether community college students intend to transfer to the university in pursuit of the baccalaureate degree or obtain advanced workforce training, the community colleges’ promotion of and engagement with the A-G requirements would send a powerful single message from the higher education community about what it takes to be ready for post-high school training.

This recommendation is compatible with the “open admissions” policy of the community colleges, which should be maintained. It retains emphasis on the importance of immediate workforce training at the same time that it includes students who do not successfully complete the core A-G coursework. It also addresses the all too common misconception that students not intending to go right from high school to a university have the option of selecting a less academically rigorous program of study in high school. This widespread phenomenon contributes to low expectations for many students and a multi-track educational system that creates significant deterrents to postsecondary certificate, degree, and transfer success.

Recommendation 1.6: Strengthen the academic programs at the community college that prepare students to transfer to CSU and UC.
The Master Plan provides both distinct and overlapping missions for the University of California, the California State University and the California Community Colleges. While the California Community Colleges serve broadly the educational, workforce, and community service needs of California, each system plays a critical role in providing baccalaureate education. At the heart of the mutual goals of the three systems is the successful completion of the baccalaureate at the California State University and University of California by students who have been placed on that road to success by their work at the community colleges. To realize this goal, high-quality and well-articulated general education requirements and agreements about the courses that satisfy lower division requirements for majors must be in place between the community college and all public universities.

Recommendation 1.7: Retain high-quality career and technical programs at the community colleges that lead to occupational certificates, occupational associate degrees, and what could be called customized curricula—a collection of courses chosen by a student based on knowledge of specific job requirements—that prepare students to enter the job market with a set of competencies they will need to succeed.

The increased demand for four-year college and university education should not diminish the state’s commitment to high-quality vocational preparation, certification programs, citizenship and ELL (English Language Learning) functions, etc. of the community colleges—all of which play an essential role in adult learning, immigrant transition, and community building. The opportunity for Californians to continually return to school to pursue relevant education for vocations and avocations is extremely important in a state where the accelerating pace of change in careers can both enhance and disrupt individuals’ lives as well as state and local prosperity. Further, we must recognize in our policies that many students do not complete high school, do not initially choose postsecondary education, or may not succeed in their initial academic attempts, but they often find great success when continued or advanced education has more relevance as a result of their work perspective. Additionally, less than a generation ago, “over 65” was the single demographic category used to represent what might be called “post-career” (or, perhaps, “old”) adults. Today, demographers recognize aging Americans as a complex and diverse group with extended working lives and educational needs.

Enacting and adequately funding all of the recommendations in this report are necessary preconditions and accompaniments to setting ambitious learning goals, including college preparation for all, and challenging curriculum for all students. The legislature must develop a plan for phasing in the resources equitably across all of the recommendations to make this first recommendation a reality.

Table of Contents
Summary Introduction Goals/Curriculum Opportunities
Assessment Accountability Access Members