Curiosity from High-Level District Leadership & Access to Postsecondary Outcome Data
At the core of all districts with a strong K-12 strategy are engaged leaders and strategy that is grounded in the data. Without one of these two components, there will be a leader who is creating a strategy based on anecdotes and assumptions about long-term student outcomes, or there will be a series of reports and elaborate dashboards that sit on a desktop but are never used to drive decisions.
Evidence of these enabling conditions being met include:
Access to the most updated postsecondary data for your state/city, which could include:
National Student Clearinghouse (college enrollment data; available to all districts at $425 per high school)
State-specific data from the state’s higher education oversight body
Certification completion (obtained from individual certifying bodies)
Employment data
Military enlistment data
District leader is seeking to develop a clear strategy to increase postsecondary enrollment and completion and has expressed commitment to the work.
District leader has assigned a senior-level team member to take the lead on postsecondary/college and career work.
Strategic plan that has a high-level goal around college and career preparedness.
Note: External forces can provide support to bolster these enabling conditions. With new state-level ESSA requirements, postsecondary success is becoming a higher priority in districts. (See Education Strategy Group’s report, which examines how states are measuring college and career readiness in their state and federal accountability systems.) College access organizations in some cities have been the backbone of the postsecondary work and have provided the support and/or resources to bolster district leaders in their postsecondary vision. (See Achieve Atlanta’s partnership with the Atlanta Public Schools)