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NASSP Policy Recommendations
2 Policy Recommendations for College and Career Ready Standards in Secondary Schools
Barbara-Jane Paris
President
G.A. Buie
President-Elect
JoAnn Bartoletti
Executive Director
Dick Flanary
Deputy Executive Director, Programs and Services
Chuck Wellard
Deputy Executive Director, Operations
Amanda Karhuse
Director, Advocacy
Jacki Ball
Associate Director, Advocacy
Beverly Hutton
Director, Professional Development
Mel Riddile
Associate Director, High School Services
Bob Farrace
Director, Communications
Jan Umphrey
Associate Director, Communications
Jeanne Leonard
Director, Marketing
Tanya Senef
Associate Director, Graphic Services
David Fernandes
Production Manager
Christopher Stevens
Graphic Designer
Policy Recommendations for College and Career Ready Standards in Secondary Schools 3
Introduction
NASSP has long supported the adoption and
successful implementation of college and career
ready standards that are designed to prepare all
students for success in postsecondary education
and training. To ensure equal educational
opportunities for all children, student profciency
must be measured against a consistent set of high
academic standards that will open career and
college options to students after they graduate.
Such standards will promote equity, comparability
of results, efciency, cost efectiveness,
consistency, collaboration, and innovation (NASSP,
2013).
As a condition for receiving a fexibility waiver
under the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act (ESEA), states were required to adopt a set of
more-rigorous college and career ready standards.
As of February 2014, 45 states and the District of
Columbia have adopted the Common Core State
Standards (Common Core) and tailored them to
suit the unique needs of their states. States that
chose not to adopt Common Core have worked
with their institutions of higher education to certify
that students who have met the standards will be
prepared for entry-level college coursework.
The standardswhich were reviewed by teachers,
school leaders, and education experts across the
countryspecify the knowledge and skills that
students must possess to be college and career
ready upon graduation from high school. These
standards reset expectations to go beyond high
school graduation and encompass successful
completion of postsecondary education and
training. Compared with international standards,
the English language arts standards, in particular,
raise the bar for the nations middle level and
high schools by making literacyreading, writing,
listening, and speakinga shared responsibility
across all content areas.
Instead of simply solving math problems, students
will also be expected to know how and why
to apply mathematics concepts to real-world
situations using higher-order thinking skills. It is
important to note that college and career ready
standards set expectations for what students
should know and be able to do, but the standards
themselves are not a curriculumthey are a road
map to the how. They act as a guide, which allows
for state and local autonomy in deciding both the
curriculum and the teaching strategies that states
and districts will use to meet the standards.
Two consortia of states as well as ACT, Pearson,
the American Institutes for Research, and other
private vendors are developing new assessments
in mathematics and English language arts that
are aligned with the Common Core. Field testing
began in spring 2014 and will require states to
invest heavily in instructional materials that are
aligned with the assessments and to ensure that
they have adequate technology and infrastructure
to complete the online assessments.
Success of the new standards is dependent upon
well-thought-out and long-term implementation
eforts in states and districts that set reasonable
expectations for educators. Standards are not
fxed entities and should undergo a process of
continual review and improvement. As part of that
review, states should sunset outdated standards
and assessments to create more cognitive
bandwidth for new college and career ready
standards. The initial implementation of college
and career ready standards should be viewed as
a culture shifta long-term process that will take
years to accomplish. Further, the implementation
of the standards should be viewed as an ongoing
process of continuous, incremental improvement.
Leadership from principals is pivotal to ensuring
the successful implementation of college and
career ready standards in their schools. A 2014
report from the Fordham Institute that examined
the implementation of Common Core in select
4 Policy Recommendations for College and Career Ready Standards in Secondary Schools
school districts said that success hinges on
principals clearly prioritizing the standards
as the basis for instruction and professional
learning in their buildings (Cristol & Ramsey, p.
10). Nonetheless, principals across the nation
report concerns about the implementation in
their states and the inadequate training they have
received to help them ensure that their teachers
are able to change instructional practices. The
Center on Education Policy (Kober, McIntosh,
& Rentner, 2013) surveyed states in 2013 on
Common Core implementation and found that
only 21 states estimated that more than 50%
of their principals had participated in Common
Corerelated professional development, and only
11 states noted that more than 75% of that group
had been served. If changes in instruction are to
occur on schedule and if students are to be well-
prepared to master the standards, then teachers
and principals must receive efective professional
development to aid them through this transition
(p. 9), the report stated.
Recommendations for Federal
Policymakers
Abandon the punitive provisions of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act and
provide signifcant fnancial resources for states
to implement college and career ready standards
and the related assessments with fdelity.
Delay for two years the use of new assessment
results for high-stakes accountability purposes.
A two-year transition will allow for sufcient
experience with a fully validated and implemented
assessment system consisting of preassessments,
performance-based assessments, and summative
assessments all accompanied by meaningful
and timely feedback to teachers and schools.
Specifcally, we call for a delay in invoking penalties
and sanctions related to test scores on schools,
principals, and teachers.
Eliminate the mixed message sent by current
dual testing practices in which schools are held
accountable for scores on old state assessments,
but teachers are expected to be engaging in
instructional practices that prepare students for
new, yet unseen, assessments.
Encourage states to eliminate outdated state
assessments and provide incentives for them to
participate in feld tests of new college and career
ready assessments.
Continue to fund ongoing, job-embedded
professional development and updated preservice
training to build the capacity of school leaders and
teachers to implement college and career ready
standards and administer assessments aligned
with those standards.
Enhance the capacity of state education
agencies to develop resources for middle level
and high schools with high student mobility
rates and signifcant proportions of low-income
students, English language learners, students with
disabilities, and low-achieving students to help all
students meet high expectations.
Because college and career ready standards
recognize that literacy is a shared responsibility
across all content areas, enact a comprehensive
federal literacy program from birth to grade 12
to ensure that literacy is incorporated across the
curriculum and that struggling students receive
targeted interventions in reading and writing.
Provide funding for research-based programs
that are known to improve math instruction in
middle level and high school and make targeted
assistance available to students who are struggling
in math.
Collect and disseminate the results, data, and
best practices of states that have been successful
in implementing college and career ready
standards.
Policy Recommendations for College and Career Ready Standards in Secondary Schools 5
Conduct research on the types of professional
development that teachers and principals consider
the most valuable in implementing college and
career ready standards to help states make wise
investments in this area.
Provide funding to ensure broadband
infrastructure and adequate hardware that will
support online assessments and professional
development for teachers and principals to
incorporate technology into instruction.
Recommendations for State
Policymakers
Adopt a 510 year plan to appropriately
implement the new, higher standards along with
a plan to sustain the changes wrought by their
adoption.
Eliminate outdated state assessments that
are not aligned with college and career ready
standards and collaborate with principals and
teachers to feld test new assessments and a
process for perfecting them.
Maximize the fexibility provided by the US
Department of Education to delay penalties
and sanctions related to test scores on schools,
principals, and teachers.
Develop an implementation plan that
reexamines current high school graduation
requirements, addresses teacher and principal
preparation programs, and includes professional
development activities.
In collaboration with local education authorities,
design appropriately aligned curricula to meet
college and career ready standards and provide
fnancial resources for updated textbooks and fully
aligned instructional materials.
Also in collaboration with local education
authorities, provide robust support services and
ongoing professional development for principals,
assistant principals, and instructional leaders to
build the capacity of schools around college and
career ready standards.
Provide resources to local education authorities
in the form of grants, research, and professional
expertise to help them build their capacity to more
efectively meet the needs of every student.
Ensure that principal evaluation systems
include multiple measures of student growth
and achievement and also consider the other
leadership responsibilities within a principals
sphere of infuence, such as professional growth
and learning, school planning and progress, school
culture, professional qualities and instructional
leadership, and stakeholder support and
engagement.
Recommendations for District
Policymakers
Continue the process of ongoing professional
development that is designed to shift the culture
of schools and classrooms and build the capacity
of all teachers in middle level and high schools,
particularly in the areas of cross-content literacy,
including argumentative writing, higher-order
thinking skills, application of lessons to real-world
situations, and active engagement of all students.
Ensure that teachers and principals have time
to collaborate with one another and provide
professional development opportunities for
instructional staf members to help build their
capacity to teach to higher standards and provide
students with the supports they need to achieve
them.
Focus principal training on instructional
leadershipnot school managementwhich will
help principals and assistant principals to become
6 Policy Recommendations for College and Career Ready Standards in Secondary Schools
well-versed in college and career ready standards
and give them the ability to coach their teaching staf.
Support principals in setting, developing,
and implementing a robust culture of high
expectations in their schools, which is critical to
transforming teaching and learning and improving
student academic achievement.
Evaluate interim assessments to ensure that
they provide timely and useful feedback to
principals, teachers, and parents on student
learning.
Implement schoolwide initiatives that emphasize
close reading, various forms of writing, and
listening and speaking across all content areas.
Implement interdisciplinary numeracy initiatives
that reinforce mathematics skills across all content
areas, especially in science courses.
Facilitate vertical articulation discussions
between middle level and high schools and their
feeder schools to ensure K12 alignment of
mathematics and literacy curricula with the college
and career ready standards.
Assess and align all schools technology capacity
to accommodate the requirements for computer-
based assessments.
Ensure that students have multiple opportunities
to practice with new hardware and software
before state assessments are administered.
Hold public awareness forums with educators,
parents, and community leaders to explain the
rationale for adopting college and career ready
standards and their aligned assessments and
discuss how best to implement them.
Communicate directly with parents to help
them understand the value of college and career
ready standards and changes that will be made
to teaching and student learning in schools and
to encourage them to allow their children to
participate in feld tests and other assessments.
Resources
Achieve Inc. (2013). Closing the expectations gap:
2013 annual report on the alignment of state k12
policies and practice with the demands of college
and careers. Retrieved from www.achieve.org/
ClosingtheExpectationsGap2013
Achieve Inc., College Summit, NASSP, & NAESP.
(2013). Implementing the Common Core State
Standards: The role of the secondary school leader.
Retrieved from www.nassp.org/Content/158/
RevisedSecondaryActionBrief_Final_Feb.pdf
Barth, P. (2006). Score wars: What to make of state
v. NAEP tests. Retrieved from the Center for Public
Education website: www.centerforpubliceducation.
org/Main-Menu/Evaluating-performance/The-
profciency-debate-At-a-glance/Score-wars-What-
to-make-of-state-v-NAEP-tests-.html
Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy
of the 21st Century. (2007). Rising above the
gathering storm: Energizing and employing America
for a brighter economic future [Executive summary].
Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010).
Frequently asked questions. Retrieved from
www.corestandards.org
Cristol, K., & Ramsey, B. S. (2014). Common core
in the districts: an early look at early implementers.
Washington, DC: Thomas Fordham Institute.
Cronin, J., Dahlin, M., Adkins, D., & Kingsbury, G.
G. (2007). The profciency illusion. Washington,
DC: Thomas Fordham Institute and Northwest
Evaluation Association.
Policy Recommendations for College and Career Ready Standards in Secondary Schools 7
Dillon, S. (2005, November 26 ). Students ace state
tests, but earn Ds from U.S. The New York Times.
Retrieved from www.nytimes.com
Hall, D., & Kennedy, S. (2006). Primary progress,
secondary challenge: A state-by-state look at student
achievement patterns. Retrieved from the Education
Trust website: www.edtrust.org/dc/publication/
primary-progress-secondary-challenge
Hunt Institute. (2010). Implementing the Common
Core State Standards. Blueprint for Education
Leadership, 4. Retrieved from www.ode.state.or.us
Kober, N., McIntosh, S, & Rentner, D. S. (2013). Year
3 of implementing the common core state standards:
professional development for teachers and principals.
Retrieved from the Center on Education Policy
http://www.cep-dc.org/displayDocument.
cfm?DocumentID=422
Liu, G. (2006, December). Interstate inequality
in educational opportunity. New York City Law
Review, 81, pp. 20442128. Retrieved from http://
www.nyulawreview.org/sites/default/fles/pdf/
NYULawReview-81-6-Liu.pdf
Scholastic Inc., & Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
(2014, February). Primary sources: Americas
teachers on teaching in an era of change. Retrieved
from http://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/
PrimarySources3rdEditionWithAppendix.pdf.
Wight, V. R., Chau, M., & Aratani, Y. (2010). Who are
Americas poor children? The ofcial story. Retrieved
from Columbia University, National Center for
Children in Poverty website: www.nccp.org/
publications/pub_912.html
About NASSP
The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the leading organization of and
national voice for principals, assistant principals, and all school leaders in middle level and high schools
from across the United States and in 36 countries. The association connects and engages school leaders
through advocacy, research, education, and student programs. NASSP advocates on behalf of all school
leaders to ensure the success of each student and strengthens school leadership practices through
the design and delivery of high-quality professional learning experiences. Refecting its long-standing
commitment to student leadership development, NASSP administers the National Honor Society, National
Junior Honor Society, National Elementary Honor Society, and National Association of Student Councils.
National Association of Secondary School Principals
1904 Association Drive
Reston, Virginia 20191
703-860-0200 www.nassp.org