College- and Career-Ready Accountability

The mission of high schools is to prepare all students for success in college, careers and citizenship. Yet accountability systems today do not reflect the goal of college and career readiness for all students. As standards for students are raised, the expectations for schools must be as well.

Building High-Quality Data Systems

To upgrade their accountability systems, states must strengthen their data and information systems. Few states currently can gauge how well high schools prepare students for college and the workplace. Longitudinal data systems should follow individual students from grade to grade and school to school, all the way from pre-kindergarten through postsecondary education ("P-16") and the workplace. That way, they can trace student success (or failure) back to their high school experience and use the information to strengthen the experience for the next class of students. These systems also will provide more accurate and consistent measures of dropout and graduation rates. States need "unique student identifiers" in order to build these systems.

There has been significant progress in the number of states that have committed to building P–20 longitudinal data systems. However, the process is long and complex. So far,sixteen states already have a data system with unique student identifiers that follow students from pre-kindergarten through the postsecondary level in place, with all of the remaining states now working to develop such a system.

Florida, which has long had the nation’s most robust data system, can even track student progress into employment. This allows the state and its schools to answer a variety of questions about the impact of students’ K-12 education on their future success.

Accountability and Reporting Systems that Promote College and Career Readiness

There a number of key principles for states to consider as they build next-generation accountability systems:

• States must broaden indicators beyond assessments. Indicators should include course completion, achievement and attainment.
• Readiness should not be viewed as a fixed state. Indicators should measure whether students are on a path toward, are meeting and are exceeding college and career readiness.
• High schools must be given incentives to improve the readiness of all students. Readiness must become a central driver for school report cards and accountability metrics.