CURRENT PROJECT view project

The AP program is designed to provide an experience to high school students equivalent to what they will encounter in a typical introductory course taught at colleges and universities. Given the increasing importance of the AP curriculum in high schools and its popularity with students, it is incumbent upon AP to ensure that all courses taught under the AP rubric reflect the best of college courses. This helps ensure that students who take AP courses are properly prepared for college success and that high school teachers gear their teaching of AP to the best college practices.

The goal of this study is not simply to update AP content or examinations. Its broader purpose is to inform high school AP teaching so that the proper content focus is emphasized and, more importantly, the crucial attitudes and skills necessary to thrive in a college classroom are systematically developed. Results from this study will shape College Board exams and programs and, by extension, high school preparation programs.

CURRENT PROJECT view project

The College Ready School Diagnostic project is designed to identify the specific ways in which high schools can prepare more students for college success. During the first phase of the project, EPIC conducted site visits at 38 specially-selected high schools across the United States that were identified based on their ability to do a better-than-expected job of preparing their students for college. Findings from these site visits were combined with previously conducted research to develop an online instrument that will allow high schools around the nation to compare their programs to the best practices from this body of research that includes practices from successful high schools. This online system will eventually generate an individualized profile containing recommendations for improvement and links to resources that will help the high school improve its ability to prepare students for college success.

DOCUMENT view document

The Center for Educational Policy Research (CEPR) conducted a three-year study to determine a process to align courses between high school and college. Through this process, the last course in a high school subject area is designed to connect with the first course in a college sequence. The CEPR study resulted in a design for a process as well as a number of concrete examples of aligned courses. These partnerships have been used in the South Carolina and Massachusetts projects and to create Senior Seminars. All are described below.

COMPLETED PROJECT view report

In April 2008, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) contracted with EPIC to facilitate a series of regional workshops and provide technical assistance to strengthen efforts to improve college readiness for all students. The workshops were designed to help support existing high school/college partnerships and to foster new connections between high schools and colleges at the local level. In total, 365 high school and postsecondary instructors and administrators attended the four workshops offered in April.

CURRENT PROJECT view project

Senior seminars are high school exit-level courses designed to prepare seniors for the challenges of college-level work. Senior seminars encourage improved alignment by facilitating collaborative course development between high school and postsecondary faculty.

The Knowledge and Skills for University Success serve as a foundation for the Senior Seminars. By using these college readiness standards, courses that are intellectually coherent and developmentally progressive will enable students in the middle 50 percent of academic ranking to experience the pace and rigor of a college course. Each Senior Seminar emphasizes analytical thinking, critiquing student writing, a challenging pace of reading, the integrating and application of acquired knowledge from other courses, and the free exchange of ideas among class members and instructors. Scoring rubrics are more consistent with what students will encounter in college-level courses.

CURRENT PROJECT view project

The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, in partnership with the Department of Education and the Technical College System, is initiating a series of activities and programs designed to improve alignment between secondary and postsecondary institutions throughout the state. This initiative is being undertaken to help the state's educational system respond to legislative mandates, to adapt to the realities of the state's changing economy, and to accommodate student aspirations.

The South Carolina Course Alignment Project is the first statewide collaborative effort to bring together high school and college faculty from two- and four-year institutions to create greater continuity between high school exit courses in English, mathematics, and science and corresponding entry-level college courses in the same disciplines. The project will conduct research on the current state of alignment between high school and postsecondary education and will facilitate local partnerships to improve alignment through the creation of paired courses and other activities that connect high school and college more directly. The results from these local partnerships will help inform statewide policy decisions designed to improve overall system alignment.

COMPLETED PROJECT

EPIC and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), in partnership with local coordinators, sponsored 14 College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) Regional Meetings throughout the State of Texas. The key outcomes were:

1. Increased awareness/understanding: Community and educational leaders learned about the CCRS and the importance of the standards to the students in their region and how communities could support public education/higher education partnerships to increase student performance.

2. Plans for the future: Participants developed regional plans for action to align curriculum and develop support systems so that all students graduate college and career ready.