Ways to Develop Key Cognitive Strategies and Key Content Knowledge (Chapter 2)

Chapter two focuses on the significance of defining the “big ideas” (54) of college readiness and the organization of these “big ideas” with regards to aligning secondary curriculum to post-secondary curriculum.

Conley states that the education that is being taught in post-secondary institutions reflects a “design-up” rather than a “design-down” model. This means that instead of looking at what students need to know in college to succeed and then designing the high school and middle school curriculum around this; high schools look at the middle school curriculum and what they have accomplished in order to determine what should be taught next rather than by what is required to achieve success in college and other higher levels of education.

Conley goes over several different types of solutions to remedy the educational gap between secondary and post-secondary institutions. These programs pay particular attention to senior year instruction, ensuring the closest proximity between secondary and post-secondary education. Conley states that these solutions are not easy to implement and require “rethinking relationships and assumptions about the content of courses and how the senior year of high school and the freshman year of college are connected” (56). This being said, the first solution Conley offers “aligning syllabi” would require major communication between high schools and post-secondary institutions, with special attention to first-year courses. This solution would ultimately be the easiest in the sense that once the high school syllabi has been established both institutions would not require direct interaction between faculty. This model does however have its challenges. One major challenge that is highlighted is asking high school teachers to commit to developing this syllabus and sticking to it.

The second solution Conley offers is the creation of “college-ready seminars”. These seminars Conley mentions are “specially designed courses that seek to challenge students in ways that begin to approximate what students will face in college” (59). The course design offers some connection for students between high school courses and college/post-secondary courses and course expectations, ultimately easing the transition to any post-secondary education institution. This course differs from a high school course in the sense that it is paced faster than a usual high school class where students are expected to read more. This course will also have fewer writing assignments; these assignments however will be more substantial in nature and will require that students be more accountable for their performance. This aspect of the course might come of a shock to some students who are accustomed to “generic feedback” on the majority of assignments submitted to their high school teachers.

College-ready assignments are what Conley describes as being another type of solutions that could help remedy the educational gap between secondary and post-secondary institutions. Although many high schools have identified these types of assignments (research papers & senior projects), they are not tied specifically to college readiness standards or the assessment standards used in college. These types of assignments however do help mimic what students will be exposed to in college and the grading methods students will face in college. Upon completion of the writing assignment or senior project, it will be subjected to teacher and peer review and critiquing which ultimately helps prepare students for the “give and take” of the college learning environment.

The final solution Conley goes over is what he calls “paired courses” (courses that are based on a high school and college or post-secondary partnership). Conley states that “the purpose the partnership is to develop guidelines that apply to exit-level high school courses and entry-level college courses” (64) which directly addresses the gap between high school and college curriculum.