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Building a Structure of Supports for Students and Schools
The Costing-Out Study provides clarity for the need for increased per-pupil funding in Pennsylvania and provides additional insight to help us target funding to address the diverse needs of youth across the Commonwealth to ensure their academic success. Various factors such as poverty, living in a household where English is not the primary language spoken, etc. all can influence student achievement. Because of these conditions, it’s up to us to assure that the necessary supports exist — both inside and outside of the classroom — to help kids reach their fullest potential.
Well before a student gets to the ninth grade, we have a chance to identify whether he or she will have difficulty in high school. A growing body of research is pointing to sixth grade as a critical benchmark for identifying and assessing children who may be at risk of eventually dropping out of high school.
According to research from Robert Balfanz, Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools and Liza Herzog, Philadelphia Education Fund (with support from the William Penn Foundation), sixth-grade predictors of falling off track to graduation include: poor attendance, poor behavior, failing math, and failing English.
“It is imperative that schools understand that getting a child to graduation does not fall to a specific grade level or a certain teacher, but is instead an effort that spans the middle grades through high school. Unless we intervene in the sixth grade, those students who are at risk will soon be gone,” Herzog said. “While the physical evidence of dropping out may not occur until the ninth or tenth grade, a student does not simply decide overnight that he or she is going to leave school. Dropouts are ‘born’ in the middle grades; the decision to leave school has been incubating for a long time.”
PPC recommends Pennsylvania create and institute an early identification and improvement plan that includes targeted interventions such as differentiated instruction, tutoring and outreach to parents for students who are exhibiting any of the four risk factors. By recognizing atrisk, struggling students and providing the necessary supports early in the middle school experience, we will help keep these kids on track to achieving a high school diploma.
One such intervention model is underway at the Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences (FSAS) in Philadelphia. The middle school has developed programs that address poor attendance, failing grades in literacy and/or mathematics, and poor behavior. Staff from the Philadelphia Education Fund (PEF) — an independent non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of public education for underserved youth throughout the Philadelphia region — have partnered with FSAS to address these concerns and have been actively involved in planning and developing a school-wide behavior, intervention and enrichment plan.
“Our teachers are making dramatic improvements in the level of individualized instruction for all students. We believe that by providing rigorous standards-driven instruction and individualized attention to those students who are not on grade level, we will dramatically reduce the incredible number of students who drop out of high school,” said Ralph Burnley, principal of Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences (FSAS).
Afterschool Opportunities & Career Exploration
While it’s important to address the needs of students during the school day, it is essential also to address the needs of youth afterschool, when older children and youth are least likely to be supervised and most likely to get into trouble. And, our increasingly high expectations for students call for more opportunities to extend instruction and offer a variety of learning and career exploration opportunities. Pennsylvania is home to nearly 342,000 youth in the middle grades who have working parents and many of these children are unsupervised for 20-25 hours per week.
Positive afterschool and youth development programs provide students an opportunity to engage in programs that can enhance and enrich the academic experiences of the school day.
Since middle school is such a critical time in determining which kids will struggle in high school — and may be struggling already — PPC recommends the Commonwealth establish a grant program to create and enhance extended learning opportunities targeted at middle school students to foster academic achievement and career exploration.
“All too often, youth have dreams for themselves, but do not have the support, guidance, and resources to take concrete steps to realize these dreams. In order for youth to be successful, it is important for them to see a vision for what they want to do in the future and a belief that they can achieve it,” said Lori Schaller, executive director for YouthPlaces, a network of afterschool programs in the Greater Pittsburgh Area that operates 17 sites and serves 6,000 youth ages 12-18.
As part of its career development efforts for middle schoolers, YouthPlaces helps students identify their talents and interests, exposes them to career possibilities, offers opportunities for them to interact with individuals who share their careers and career paths, and discusses steps they need to take to achieve their career goals. “Youth need to understand what curriculum and experiences will prepare them to succeed in their careers after high school,” Schaller said.
In addition to providing career exploration opportunities in an afterschool setting, it is important for guidance counselors in school to be able to expose kids to jobs of the future. Providing professional development opportunities for guidance counselors and afterschool providers in the areas of emerging careers and academic preparation is essential in enabling wellqualified personnel to steer students in the right direction.
Regional Career Education Partnerships for Youth (RCEP) are youth intermediary organizations that connect both the classroom to the workplace and employers to schools giving young people better opportunities, both in and out of school, to gain the knowledge and skills critical for success in college and careers. RCEP members work together to establish a network that provides career education, career counseling and employment opportunities for youth; strengthens the Commonwealth’s Project 720 high school reform strategy by deepening connections to employers and the public workforce system; and convenes local and regional employers to promote support for career preparation strategies and for research-based high school reform.
Since 2006, 20 Regional Career Education Partnerships for Youth received $3.1 million in state funding from the Department of Labor and Industry to form a statewide youth intermediary network. PPC believes Pennsylvania should provide matching grants to these regional partnerships to provide work-based learning opportunities for youth. The grants could be used to provide stipends and related support for students and businesses participating in internships as well as fund other specific youth career awareness initiatives in the region.
“The Regional Career Education Partnership in the Lehigh Valley has provided us the opportunity to hire a full-time workforce coordinator whose sole job it is to link students and schools with area businesses and the workforce system,” said Nancy Dischinat, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board. “The RCEP connects our young people with a variety of career exploration and work-based learning opportunities and provides students, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and administrators a better understanding of 21st century occupations in the global economy, the skills required to get those jobs, and the pathways for students to gain those skills.”
School-based Supports
Pennsylvania has taken many steps in recent years to partner with schools to improve student achievement. Initiatives such as Project 720 and dual enrollment warrant increased investments but we still need to do more to assure that every school district has the supports it needs to be a successful learning environment for every student.
While many school districts have the resources to develop a curriculum and diagnostic tools aligned to the standards, many others do not. Developing rigorous model core curricula and aligned benchmark assessments in math, English/language arts, science and social studies as an option for districts would give all districts a critical tool to improve student performance. “Developing a curriculum to meet the demands of a 21st century economic model requires research and development that goes beyond the means and willingness of the vast majority of school districts,” according to Glenn Caufman, educational consultant and policy specialist with Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (PASCD). But curriculum and assessment alone will not meet the need. Districts need resources to assure that class size is kept small and teachers have a real opportunity to spend time with each child assuring they learn to their full potential.
Pennsylvania is home to a large number of teaching colleges and a fine pool of committed teachers. But we must assure that teacher preparation stays in tune with our expectations for students and that current teachers have access to meaningful professional development that enhances their skills; facilitates their ability to mentor their peers; and allows for their full learning and inclusion of new tools provided to them in their daily classroom activities.
Guidance counselors and other school personnel also play a critical role in the path each student travels and we must step up our efforts to assure that resources are in place to allow for academic and career guidance for all students that is informed and fully available.
Supports Outside the Classroom
In addition to providing support in the classroom, we need to understand that young people come to school with their whole selves and all the gifts and challenges derived from their personal and community capacities. To assure students achieve, we need to develop and provide physical and behavioral health, and human services supports to help meet the diverse needs of our youth.
PPC recommends the Commonwealth establish schoolbased Youth Resource Centers in areas of high poverty to provide an array of general health and wellness services, family counseling, college prep guidance and financial aid information.
It is critical to address the education, health and human services needs of our highest risk children such as those who are pregnant, parenting, in foster care and other placement.
Focusing on the whole child both in and outside of the classroom will provide the necessary supports to help a student succeed academically.
Out-of-School Youth
While supports for students who are enrolled in school are critical, equally important is an enhanced commitment to our young people who have dropped out. We need a dropout re-engagement strategy to reach young people who have left school.
By the year 2020, the U.S. will face a shortage of 20 million qualified workers for the fastest-growing job sectors including health care and computer technology. This will make it imperative that all youth — both enrolled and those who have dropped out — have the skills and education to meet this shortage.
One promising re-engagement strategy is a Department of Labor & Industry initiative called Pennsylvania Youth in Transition (PAYT), a community partnership to reconnect dropouts to education leading to postsecondary education and successful careers. PPC recommends the Commonwealth provide additional funding to this program to reach out-of-school youth, which, ultimately, is an investment in the community.
The PAYT initiative is based on a national model that promotes data-driven strategies led by a community-based cross-sector collaborative representing key stakeholders with responsibility for the educational and social wellbeing of young people.
Research suggests that former dropouts are finding educational success in smaller, more personalized learning situations that provide individualized attention, social supports and connections to employment. These approaches, often referred to as “multiple pathways,” offer flexibility that enables youth to meet the complexities of their life circumstances while attending school. The goal is to create a set of rigorous and highly supportive educational options that re-engage struggling students and out-ofschool youth in quality learning options leading to a high school diploma and postsecondary education/training.
Philadelphia’s Project U-Turn Collaborative is a national leader in developing and implementing innovative approaches for disconnected youth. Managed by the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN), the Collaborative has supported research that not only documents the dimensions of the problem, but, more importantly, helps system leaders understand when and why students drop out. The effort is making demonstrable progress in building a new reconnection system; creating new seats in innovative, smaller high schools; and increasing support within the city’s schools and social services agencies to strengthen academic outcomes for the city’s young people.
“Philadelphia’s successes are due in large measure to the commitment and leadership of its cross-sector partners,” said Don Spangler, policy advisor at PYN. “This job is too big for any single institution. Our studies document that most dropouts are eager to return to appropriate educational programming. The members of the Project U-Turn Collaborative are working together to give them that chance.”
Common-Sense Accountability Systems to Ensure Success for All
Today in Pennsylvania, one of the requirements to graduate from public high school is that students must demonstrate achievement of the state standards by scoring proficient or above on the 11th grade PSSAs, or a local assessment that is aligned to the state standards. Additional graduation requirements, such as class requirements, grades and graduation projects are decided by local school districts.
In 2006, 126,926 high school seniors graduated from school districts in Pennsylvania. More than 57,000 of these students, or 45 percent, did not score proficient on the reading and math 11th grade PSSAs, the 12th grade retake, or did not take the PSSAs but graduated based on these local assessments. The disconnect between graduation rates and proficiency on state assessments is cause for concern. It is important to note that the disconnect does not exist solely in our most distressed school districts; indeed 461 school districts graduated at least 20 percent more students in 2006 than scored proficient or above on the PSSA.
PPC recommends the Commonwealth take steps to assure that all Pennsylvania high school graduates have the academic foundation they need by improving our statewide accountability system. We urge the Commonwealth to develop and require that every student take and pass a series of statewide end-of-course exit exams called graduation competency assessments (GCAs) that are aligned to state standards in English/language arts, math, science and social studies to graduate from high school. The proposal should be phased in by 2014. The purpose of the state accountability system is to guarantee that all children, regardless of where they attend school, master the core standards and are prepared for postsecondary education or training, 21st century occupations and productive citizenship.
Benefits of the GCA include placing assessments closer to the point of instruction and creating a sense of relevance for testing and progress of all students; providing opportunities to assess more in-depth knowledge; assessing smaller bodies of knowledge at one time; allowing students to begin taking the GCAs earlier and having multiple opportunities to retake and pass; diagnosing specific areas of weakness allowing for targeted remediation, and offering a valuable credit-recovery tool for dropouts who are returning to get their high school diplomas.
PPC recommends the Commonwealth develop 11 GCAs in four subject areas: English/language arts covering reading, reading comprehension, writing and analysis (English I, II and III); Mathematics (Geometry, Algebra I, Algebra II); Science (Biology & Chemistry); and Social Studies (American History, Civics/Economics, World Cultures) — and students should be required to score proficient or above on at least six of the GCAs to graduate from high school in Pennsylvania.
GCAs should be comprised of a combination of multiplechoice, constructed-response, and essay questions. The GCAs should be administered three times per year — at the end of the first semester, the end of the second semester, and the end of the summer session. Students should be given an unlimited number of opportunities to take and pass each GCA within the schedule above.
Today 26 states have or are phasing in mandatory high school exit exams which require students pass an exam or series of exams to receive a high school diploma. By 2012, more than 70 percent of all American public high school students will be required to take and pass one or more exit exams to receive a high school diploma.
“In today’s economy, it’s important students understand that if they are planning to go to college or planning to enter a workforce training program, the preparation and skills they’ll need are essentially the same,” said Daniel Fogarty, manager of Human Resources Information Systems for Carpenter Technology Corporation in Reading and co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on College and Career Success. “It’s critically important that Pennsylvania restore meaning to the high school diploma so business and industry have an assurance that prospective employees with high school diplomas possess the knowledge and skills required to succeed — and that we won’t be required to provide remediation in basic skills.
“GCAs will provide a statewide assessment tool to ensure that all of the Commonwealth’s high school graduates, regardless of where they went to high school, have the academic background they need to be productive employees,” Fogarty added
Providing Rewards that Build a Bridge to the Future
Having dreams of attending college and having the financial resources to get there are two different things. Approximately 33 percent of the Commonwealth’s young people — ages 12 to 17 — live in low-income families, less than 200 percent of federal poverty income guidelines. College simply isn’t affordable to many Pennsylvania students and their families.
Over the past several years, the share of family income (even after financial aid) needed to pay for college expenses at public four-year institutions has increased from 30 to 39 percent; for the 20 percent of the population with the lowest income, it has risen to 94 percent of their income.
At the Commonwealth’s 14 community colleges, full-time (32 credit hours per year) tuition and fees average $3,360 a year. Tuition and fees for resident undergraduate students at the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) universities averaged $6,464 per year with room and board costing an additional $5,936 (2006-07).
According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the average financial aid package for low-income community college students in Pennsylvania is $969 per year leaving students to pay or borrow nearly $2,400 a year. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education calculates the average grant and scholarship package for students who are eligible for financial aid and are attending PASSHE universities to be $4,003 per year, leaving students to pay or borrow $2,461 a year (no room and board) or nearly $8,400 (including room and board).
PPC recommends that Pennsylvania implement a college access strategy to ensure all youth have an opportunity to attend a postsecondary institution. Pennsylvania should help facilitate college access for low-income youth up to 200 percent of poverty through a last-dollar scholarship program for 2-year community colleges, 4-year PA State System of Higher Education institutions, and private and state-related colleges and universities willing to take the same payment level as the PASSHE schools. (Last-dollar scholarship is funding that picks up the expenses after all other financial aid resources have been tapped.) This pool of resources will help make college accessible for low-income youth and reward them for being committed to their high school education. The program should also be available to people 25 years of age or younger who are returning to college or who have dropped out and have gone back and earned their high school credentials.
It’s important that youth see the vital connection among their schooling, postsecondary education or training and careers and how successful navigation of each destination builds a bridge to the future and yields a rewarding career that pays a family-sustaining wage.
“A postsecondary education can no longer be an option for only those who can afford it; it is a necessity for every high school graduate in order to earn a family-sustaining wage,” said Donald W. Snyder, president, Lehigh Carbon Community College. “The future economic and social strength of our Commonwealth will be based on a better skilled and better educated population.
“That strength will only be as great as Pennsylvania’s commitment to ensuring that all young people, including the economically and educationally disadvantaged, have the opportunity to access the education they need to be equipped with lifelong learning skills and attributes.”
Building a Bridge to the Future
The chasm between school district haves and have-nots is wide in Pennsylvania. For many years, we have continued to increase funds for public education at the state level but have failed to drive our resources through a rational funding formula. Rather, we have tweaked the edges veering around the obstacle that is firmly in front of us — inadequate and inequitable funding for public education and a decrease in the state’s share of total education dollars.
