California Continuation Education Association Document

Title: Recommendations from Roads to the Future: Strategic Plan for Educational Options in the 21st Century

Author: Educational options Unit; Youth, Adult and Alternative Educational Services Division; California Department of Education, and the 1990-91 Educational Options Advisory Committee

Date: September 1991

Recommendation I

SUPPORT AND ENHANCE THE "CORE CURRICULUM"
FOR ALL EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS

Rigorously support and require the application of common learning goals for all educational options:

• All educational options providing a high school diploma must require students to achieve demonstrated mastery of the "core curriculum," as specified in California Senate Bill 813 and the federal America 2000 education reform initiative.
• The 'core curriculum" specified in California Senate Bill 813 must be augmented to place greater emphasis on skills dealing with group processes, interpersonal communication, team work, multiple languages, problem solving, critical thinking and basic competence with key technologies. The 'core curriculum" should also support development of self-esteem and positive attitudes toward learning.

Attention should be placed on defining the learning goals of 'core curriculum' in measurable terms so that instructional programs across the state and educational options using a variety of learning contexts and methods can be evaluated comparatively in terms of the skills and knowledge achieved by participating students.

Recommendation 2

SET STANDARDS AND EXPECTATIONS
FOR "ALL" STUDENTS

Educational standards and expectations must be specified and reinforced for all students through the following methods:

• Employers and educators must work at the state and local levels to define essential skills, knowledge and behavior necessary for successful entry into the workforce.
• Educators must work at the state and local level to articulate the secondary educational achievements required for success in post-secondary educational programs.
• Parents and educators must work at the state and local levels to define essential skills and knowledge for everyday life.

The skill and knowledge requirements identified should be clearly conveyed to students in terms of the courses and educational options they should pursue in order to reach their personal goals. These learning objectives must be constantly reinforced by schools, parents, businesses and community organizations.

Recommendation 3

MEASURE PROGRAM PERFORMANCE BY WHAT STUDENTS LEARN

The California Department of Education should work with local educators, business and other stakeholders to develop program performance measures based on the learning achievements of individual students. These measures should include:

• Standardized skill and knowledge assessment processes should measure student achievement in all areas of the 'core curriculum" and selected electives in ways that allow comparison among varied educational options.
• Every student should have the right to alternative assessment procedures that produce comparable data on skill achievement (e.g. authentic or applied performance tests, verbal tests, paper and pencil tests, or portfolios evaluated by a common standard).
• Assessment processes should measure students' ability to transfer skills and knowledge to a variety of functional contexts.
• Testing systems should be used to provide feedback to individual students and to certify individual achievement.
• Assessment procedures should produce data that is representative of all participants of educational programs.
• Scoring and data processing procedures should allow scores to be disaggregated to show skill achievement by student characteristics, programs and geographical areas.

Assessment procedures must produce comparable data on skill and knowledge gains for individual students, programs, and the state. These measures of progress should recognize and adjust for the fact that schools deal with a wide range of student populations that start learning at different levels, and learn at different speeds.

Recommendation 4

FUNDING INCENTIVES FOR PROGRAM PERFORMANCE

Explore ways to link the funding of public school programs to student achievement:

• Develop and test modes to provide incentives for superior performance through revenue bonuses beyond base funding to programs with high student skill 'improvement' levels documented by standardized assessment procedures (see Recommendation 3).
• Develop and test program options to be funded in accord with the documented skill and knowledge 'improvement of students rather than 'seat time."

Funding incentives should not be implemented in ways that handicap schools confronting high student turnover and other learning barriers. These initiatives also should not penalize schools with existing records of high student achievement, or create permanent funding inequities among schools.

Recommendation 5

POLICIES THAT SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS
TO ENHANCE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

State and local educational agencies must articulate official policies supporting the existence and integration of educational options. These policies should incorporate the following principles:

• Educational options allow students with different needs, goals and learning styles to achieve more than would be the case with no options.
• Options are a reality within today's school systems that must be supported and coordinated.
• All educational options must support and require learning achievement as specified by California's "core curriculum" (see Recommendation 1).
• Priority must be given to finding ways to inform students and parents of existing educational options, remove barriers that prevent the flow of students among options according to individual needs and achievements, and prevent involuntary placement of students into inappropriate programs.
• Funding must be adjusted so that resources follow students in accord with their needs rather than programs.

These principles should be used to guide the development and maintenance of educational options.

Recommendation 6

MODES OF INSTRUCTION TO MATCH
THE "INFORMATION ERA"

The processes of secondary education should be modeled after the requirements of the "Information Era." Key elements include:

• Passive learning via lecture should be de-emphasized in favor of interactive and student-centered learning.
• Standardized lectures and study plans should be de-emphasized in favor of individualized study and approaches to achieving learning objectives that are sensitive to the context orientation of students.
• Teacher-led lectures and discussions should be de-emphasized in favor of learning activities that stress group problem solving, team work and interpersonal communication.
• The lecture and task-management role of teachers should be de-emphasized in favor of a role stressing facilitating or "coaching' the pursuit of learning objectives.
• The processes listed above, not the physical tools used during the

process, are key elements of making education relevant to today's youth.

Recommendation 7

MAKE SECONDARY EDUCATION A STAGE OF
"LIFELONG LEARNING"

The scheduling of secondary education should be made more flexible and organized as an early stage of ongoing 'lifelong learning. The California Education Code should be changed to support the following:

• Expectations that a high school diploma must be earned by age 18 should be abandoned in favor of standard policies and options that allow and encourage students to earn a secondary degree at any age.
• The common practice of earning a secondary diploma over a four-year period should be replaced with widespread options for graduating by demonstrating mastery of skills and knowledge required for a diploma. Continue support of the California High School Proficiency Examination (CHSPE) or a CHSPE-like test to provide working and 'bright but bored" students with an alternative to the traditional four-year period.
• Support, expand and adjust adult education 'concurrent enrollment" programs so that they provide a campus-based and day scheduled "middle ground' for transitional adults to complete high school. Students should be allowed to remain in the same school and receive a diploma from that school at formal graduation ceremonies.
• Develop options to increase the flexibility for scheduling and completing courses and other educational activities over days weeks and years (e.g. provide evening and weekend classes, concentrated classes, etc.).

These initiatives should be marshaled to create expectations that course completion and high school graduation require demonstrated mastery of required skills and knowledge, but that students have not failed if they have not completed these requirements by age 18.

Recommendation 8

SUPPORT THE EVOLUTION OF CLASSROOMS
INTO TECHNOLOGY-SUPPORTED LEARNING CENTERS

Classroom instruction dedicated to 'courses' of instruction should be de-emphasized in favor of "learning centers' providing a variety of options for completing the requirements of the 'core curriculum" and electives. These centers should have the following characteristics

• Learning centers should be organized to support a sense of community and belonging among students. Each center should be small enough to encourage community and interpersonal communication. The student make-up should reflect the demographic mix of the local community.
• Instruction would be built around a variety of learning modules based on the learning goals specified in an augmented "core curriculum" (see Recommendations I and 2).
• Learning centers should have a balanced variety of staff, equipment, facilities and resources to provide easy access to multiple approaches for completing educational requirements and exploratory learning (e.g. lectures, discussion groups, interactive video, mufti-media, group projects, computer assisted instruction, individual study).
• Student participation, achievement, and use of learning modules should be integrated with the support of electronic information systems. Each would be monitored by designated .mentor staff' with the assistance of Student Access Card (see Recommendation 12) records for attendance and equipment use. Each student would be empowered to pursue learning activities in accord with his or her Personal Education Plan (see Recommendation 10). Students would be assessed and counseled regularly to determine learning progress and needs (see Recommendation 11).

These centers would provide a common base of operation to encourage group and social activities while also allowing extensive individual choice concerning approaches to learning.

Where possible and appropriate, efforts to implement this recommendation should be undertaken in the auspices of the model schools" proposed in the federal America 2000 initiatives.

Recommendation 9

TEST LINKAGE OF FUNDING TO INDIVIDUAL
STUDENTS IN ACCORD WITH NEEDS

Test new approaches for funding Categorical Programs by establishing a point system to ensure that revenues follow individual students on the basis of need:

• Establish a base funding level for students without special needs (e.g. 1 00 points for average student).
• Establish a classification system that assigns funding points to individual students in accord with documented special needs (as an illustrative example, 50 points for specified learning disabilities, 20 points for poverty status, etc.) This point system will be weighted to reflect the actual costs of meeting special needs.
• Allocate funding to school districts by paying a set dollar amount for the aggregate funding points generated by enrolled students. Funding provided for each point of student need should be adjusted to reflect geographic cost differences in accord with the consumer price index.
• Ensure that funding allocated to an individual student in accord with the point system 'follows" that student to programs he or she attends.
• Explore the viability of expanding application of Assembly Bill 777 to allow lumping of categorical funds within a wider range of programs and schools.

This funding strategy would augment funding for special needs, provide school districts with maximum flexibility to respond to 'individual" needs, and empower students and parents by linking funds to specific students.

Recommendation 10

PERSONAL EDUCATION PLANS (PEPS)

Every student should have a Personal Education Plan (PEP). This plan would include the following in standardized form:

• Statement of the students documented skills, knowledge and educational attainment based on an annual summary of completed courses, grades and results of standardized skill assessments.
• Statement of long and short-term educational objectives based on the student's goals and assessments of educational achievements.
• Summary and assessment of each students personal behavior, individual learning style, self-esteem, and self-concept.
• Specification of support resources needed to ensure each student's educational success (e.g. child care, transportation, health care, lunch program).
• Signed agreement with the student, parents and school concerning specific educational activities and outcomes to be undertaken over the next year.
• Semi-annual and special reviews and updates of Personal Education Plans.

Personal Education Plans will be reviewed once or twice every year by the proposed Comprehensive Counseling Placement and Certification Services (see Recommendation 11). Plans should also be reviewed and updated upon student request or development of special circumstances. Each student's Personal Education Plan should be stored on the proposed Student Access Card (see Recommendation 12). Staff should be trained in the effective development of PEPS.

Recommendation 11

COMPREHENSIVE COUNSELING, GUIDANCE,
PLACEMENT AND CERTIFICATION SERVICES

All schools and districts should develop counseling, guidance, placement and certification services to provide the following:

• Assessments of individual skill and knowledge attainment, learning style, personal needs, and career and educational goals.
• Review of student needs for support services (e.g. health care or transportation) and special services to overcome chemical dependence, family problems and other barriers to learning.
• Semi-annual and special reviews and updates of Personal Education Plans (see Recommendation 10).
• Impartial and comprehensive information about the availability and quality of educational options.
• Assistance in choosing and enrolling in the educational options that best meet individual needs.
• Certification of skill and knowledge attainment.
• A clearinghouse for centralizing non-school background information on individual students (e.g. health records, immunization, or eligibility for non-school support services).
• Linkage to a statewide computer network to facilitate transfer of individual records to new schools and sites.
• Case management follow-up and intervention to ensure integrated delivery of needed programs and services to each student.

These services should be sensitive to student needs and family situations. These services should be staffed by professional guidance staff and specialty trained guidance personnel (e.g. teachers, administrators). A local and statewide computer system should be developed to facilitate these services and maintain the personal privacy of students.

Where possible and appropriate, actions to implement this recommendation should be integrated with the "skill center" concept proposed in the federal America 2000 initiatives.

Recommendation 12

STUDENT ACCESS CARD

Explore viability of issuing a credit card-like device to each student that uses local and statewide computers to:

• Link to local and statewide Integrated Data Systems (see Recommendation 18).
• Establish a common link for monitoring students and storing Personal Education Plans (see Recommendation 10).
• Facilitate access and store individual educational records (e.g. courses completed, assessment test scores, certifications, health and immunization records, standardized transcripts, etc.).
• Reduce duplication of training and assessment.
• Ease process of determining eligibility for special services.
• Use a common format to report individual educational records from multiple educational options.
• Provide an efficient electronic media for collecting and matching private donations with public education funds.

This card would also dramatize the availability of educational options and provide students with a sense of ownership over their educational achievements.

Recommendation 13

PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT WITHIN
SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS

Local schools and districts should apply participatory management techniques to involve teachers, guidance staff, administrators and other staff in joint planning and implementation of educational options. Schools and districts should:

• Establish joint administrative-teacher-business-parent-student task forces to review, recommend and implement district policies.
• Establish teams of teachers to develop, review and recommend educational policies, with discretion to implement selective polices.
• Involve teachers, parents, guidance staff, support staff, students and community leaders as active participants in long-term district and school she planning.
• Allow maximum flexibility to teachers in choosing teaching methods to meet learning goals.
• Encourage 'teacher entrepreneurship" in developing new educational approaches.
• Involve the business community in providing technical assistance in the application of participative management experience to school systems.

These and other techniques should be used to encourage open communication and a sense of school-wide team work.

Recommendation 14

STAFF AND PROGRAM SUPPORT FOR INNOVATION

Sustain and modernize state-administered services to assist educators in program design, curriculum development, staff training, and program review. These services should provide:

• Workshops, conferences, newsletters and regional technical assistance.
• Participatory seminars and workshops to review and redefine the roles of the teacher in tomorrows school.
• Toll-free technical assistance number for teachers and guidance staff
• Modem-linked computer bulletin boards with capacity to download information and software.
• Expert systems software (e.g. interactive learning and counseling programs for educational staffs).
• Video tapes and TV courses for educators.
• Technical assistance for long-term planning, use of instructional technology, and gaining community support for innovation.
• Teacher institutes for specific subject groupings (e.g. math, civics, etc.).
• Review and adjustment of teaching and guidance training programs to provide skills for participative management, alternative educational techniques, counseling, brokering support services, and use of the proposed Personal Education Plans (PEPs).
• Involve business community in providing training in the areas of staff development, productivity measurement, accountability, participative management, and decision making.

These services should have follow-up mechanisms to guide program development with participant feedback. Schools should provide paid time for teachers to take advantage of these services.

Recommendation 15

INITIATIVES TO INCREASE USE
OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

The California Department of Education should undertake a variety of initiatives to increase the use of educational technology. These initiatives should:

• Provide technical assistance to support development of technology plans. These plans would target areas of instruction for technological upgrading, specify options for applying technology, develop criteria for selecting technology, integrate new and old technology, prioritize training needs, assess funding needs, and determine cost-benefit implications.
• Establish Technology Teacher Training Academy that would provide a series of workshops, courses and onsite training sessions to assist teachers integrate technology with curriculum plans, clarify instructor roles in using technology, and train for the use of technologies.
• Add "computer Iiteracy" to pre-service teacher credential programs.
• Collaborate with private companies to encourage development of educational software that supports "core curriculum" and common electives.
• Prioritize work specified by California's Educational Technology Act.
• Provide a 'consumer service that evaluates available educational technology in terms of "user friendliness,' cost, cost effectiveness, pertinence to "core curriculum," and other criteria.
• Work with business and other stakeholders to develop a public-private investment fund to finance technological innovation within schools and involve business expertise in the selection and use of instructional technology.

These and other initiatives should be undertaken to encourage informed procurement and use of educational technology.

Recommendation 16

ENCOURAGE RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY
WITHIN TEACHING STAFFS

Racial and ethnic diversity must be encouraged within teaching and other school staff in order to provide students with role models and instructors with the background to understand racial and ethnic issues:

• Encourage the training of teachers from under-represented racial and ethnic groups by active recruitment and support programs.
• Develop programs to recruit and encourage volunteer and assistant teachers from under-represented racial and ethnic groups by providing pay incentives and credit toward teaching degrees.
• Pursue efforts aggressively to recruit and hire qualified teachers from under-represented ethnic and racial groups.
• Enlist high-achieving high school and college students from under-represented racial and ethnic groups as paid teaching aides or provide elective credit.

Continued effort must be made to ensure that every opportunity be extended to prospective teachers from under-represented groups while maintaining high training standards.

Recommendation 17

STATE AND LOCAL PLANNING COUNCILS

Planning Councils should be established at state and local levels to recommend long-term approaches for coordinating and integrating educational options. Existing bodies should be modified or new councils created to have the following characteristics:

• Be removed from direct decision-making power to encourage long-term problem solving.
• Report directly to state and local decision n-takers and decision making bodies.
• Be composed of broad-based membership including representatives of business, labor, students, parents, community organizations, and all major educational options.
• Prepare regular long-term plans concerning the coordination and integration of educational options and community support services to meet educational goals and standards.
• Have access to professional staff support to prepare background research and refine policy recommendations.

These State and Local Planning Councils should provide a forum for initiatives to think systematically about educational options and the long-term future of high schools.

Recommendation 18

INTEGRATED DATA SYSTEM FOR PROGRAMS
AND INDIVIDUALS

Develop a data system to facilitate planning, counseling and accountability among educational options to:

• Help students and educators by giving access to comparable information about educational options.
• Maintain student transcripts in a standardized format.
• Store and provide restricted access to selected non-school data on students (e.g. health records, immunization dates, social service records).
• Modernize routine student intake and processing to ease the task of record keeping.
• Generate comprehensive data on program participation, student characteristics, and educational achievement.
• Meet compliance needs by consolidating samples of student data stopped of identifying information to assure confidentiality.

High priority should be placed on ensuring that this data system meets both local and state needs.

Recommendation 19

LINKAGE OF SUPPORT RESOURCES

Local Educational Agencies, the California Department of Education and other state agencies should undertake a joint initiative to orchestrate the delivery of cross-agency services that will support students educational achievement. This initiative should establish cross-agency policies and procedures to provide case management and support services to students to:

• Identify and describe support services that can assist students.
• Consolidate information on eligibility requirements for using support services (e.g. income subsidies, child care, medical treatment).
• Develop procedures to better identify students eligible for support services, and facilitate access to and use of these services.
• Develop permanent mufti-agency task forces to prioritize and marshal use of support services within communities (see Recommendation 17).

Where appropriate, efforts to orchestrate and deliver support services should be coordinated through the proposed Comprehensive Counseling, Placement and Certification Services (see Recommendation 11), Student Access Card (see Recommendation 12), and State and Local Planning Councils (see Recommendation 17).

Recommendation 20

ENCOURAGING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Schools and parents must work to encourage parental involvement. Linkage with existing services and consideration of new concepts should be explored:

• Participation in the Personal Education Plan (PEP). Parents should participate in the development of their child's PEP, and sign ft. This would recognize the parent as part of their child's teaching team, and reinforce their impact on their child's education.
• Encourage Teacher Outreach to Parents. The role of teachers should be realigned to allow the time and resources to encourage parents and students to achieve common goals.
• Linkage with Adult Education Services. Adult education provides courses in parenting, English-as-a-second-language, and adult basic education, as well as courses to build self-esteem. Teachers and administrators should direct parents to a specific adult education contact persons, and encourage joint child-parent basic skills instruction when appropriate.
• Training Parents to Participate. Adult schools should provide "mini-courses" to assist parents in supervising homework, working with teachers, understanding the school system, and accessing support services.
• Support to Reduce Logistical Barriers. Districts and parent groups should utilize technology and existing support services to reduce logistical barriers to parental involvement (see Recommendation 19).
• Time Off for Parental Participation. Business and school districts should provide time off and work scheduling options that allow employees to attend parent-teacher conferences,
• Consolidate Support Services for Parents. Arrange representation from social agencies at schools so that parents have "one-stop" access to education and support services.
• The development of teachers as coaches and facilitators in the

Learning Center concept (see Recommendations 8 and 14), as well as instructional technology and electronic student records (see Recommendations 6 and 12), will allow teachers time to pursue outreach to parents.

Recommendation 21

BUSINESS COMPACTS TO SUPPORT
JOINTLY DETERMINED EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction and local superintendents should work with business leaders to establish state and local compacts to support educational standards:

• State and Local Business Compacts should involve representatives of all major public and private employer groups, including small business (which creates most new jobs in our economy).
• Business and educational leaders should work jointly to specify the skills and educational attainment needed for successful entry into the workforce (see Recommendation 2).
• State and Local Business Compacts should publicize the educational and skill requirements of employment to school age youth.
• State and Local Business Compacts should also solicit broad-based support among employers to integrate educational standards into firm hiring policy.

Where appropriate, the Compacts should develop a collaborative planning and problem solving partnership between schools and employers.