Spring 2013 - 62750 - PA388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

The seminar will be organized around the development of a model state policy framework for the Education Commission of the States (http://www.ecs.org/) that will enable member states to address a timely problem of practice: reconciling emerging K-12 college readiness policies with emerging public higher education remediation policies. The great majority of states have committed themselves to adopt the Common Core State Standards, an internationally benchmarked set of curriculum guidelines that are designed to ensure that students complete high school "college-ready" in mathematics and English/Language arts. Projections indicate that as many as two-thirds of students will be deemed not college-ready on new assessments being developed to measure student mastery of the Common Core.   At the same time, states are limiting the role that their higher education systems play in remediation as well as attempting to institute policies that will increase the numbers of their residents with degrees, certificates and licenses with labor market value.  Finally, a growing number of states are adopting policies that prevent admission to college-level courses for students who cannot meet certain academic skills prerequisites.  The misalignment of these K-12 and higher education policies has consequences for the equity and access missions of public two- and four-year colleges and for state economic development plans.
This section is cross-listed with M396C #57010.  LBJ is the originating department.