College Readiness Strategies

During the past year the Principal's Leadership Program has developed several resources that can help you and your staff help to prepare students for college. The research shows that four factors are critical to student success.

1. They take the right classes in middle school and high school so that they can take rigorous classes in high school and college. The course selection should be guided by the rigor of the class, not the course title.
2. They develop the cognitive and meta cognitive skills for success beyond high school. This includes critical-thinking, problem analysis, synthesis, inquisitiveness, and intellectual openness.
3. They have a supportive structure in high school that embraces their college aspirations and provides them with the knowledge and skills to navigate in a very different social structure.
4. Students and their families are provided accurate, up-to-date information about admission requirements, timelines and availability of financial assistance.

A paper prepared by EPI for Oregon GEAR UP Principals titled Pathways to College is available at www.educationpartnerships.org/pdfs/Pathways%20to%20College.pdf. It is accompanied by a Research Brief on the Transition from Middle School to High School, and one on the Transition from High School to College. Both are available at the EPI website.

Assessing Your School Cultue

Every school has a culture, a set of shared basic assumptions that are passed from generation to generation and taught to new members. Culture reflects the unspoken norms about a school, its operations and its values.

Over time every school develops its own culture, shaped by the people who work there, the community the school serves, the students who attend the school and the way these groups respond to the successes, tragedies, and daily events at the school.

Culture is a powerful set of rituals, traditions, and practices that reflect the values of a school. It often appears irrefutable but principals are able to impact their school's culture by using these symbols to promote other institutional values and the school's core mission. Importantly, if you understand the power of culture, you can use its symbols to telegraph messages about "what is important."

A good place to begin is to assess your current culture. I'd like to suggest four strategies you might use.

• At a staff meeting, ask each person to list five adjectives that describe the school's culture. Organize the words into common themes and discuss their meaning.
• Walk the halls of your school. What do you see? What artifacts are visible that convey messages about student success? About the values of challenging work? About a commitment to not accept failure? About college attendance? About persistence?
• Talk with a cross-section of teachers and students. What gets them excited about their work? About their learning? What do they find joy in?
• Consider the past three months. What have you done to show your enthusiasm for learning? For student success? How have you recognized and rewarded students and staff?

I'd enjoy hearing from you about the way you work with you teachers and families to improve your school culture.