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Improving College and Career Readiness for all Students
Federal Way is focused on an advancement of a college-going culture and expanding STEM access to all students. An analysis of transcript and scheduling data helped them identify ways to improve college and career readiness for all students in the district.
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Problem
Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) implemented a brand new high school schedule in 2014. At the time, every school in the district had its own set of graduation requirements, without an agreed upon set of common metrics for College and Career Readiness.
FWPS sought to align improvement and accountability measures across the district, and understand the impact of master scheduling practices on student access to rigorous coursework, instructional time, and resource efficiencies. They outlined the following goals for their secondary schools:
- Boosting college and career readiness metrics and increasing equity
- Increasing instructional time per course
- Improving student enrollment and maximizing resources
Strategy
FWPS engaged the team at School by Design (now Abl) to conduct a District Scheduling Audit focused on College and Career Readiness metrics, instructional time, student enrollment, and equity in the district.
- College and Career Readiness: Are student schedules structured to ensure academic preparedness?
- Use of Time: How many hours of instructional time are students participating in per course credit?
- Course Enrollment: How many students are enrolled in partial versus full academic schedules, and how is this impacting resource allocations through the state funding formula?
- Equity: Do levels of academic rigor for students’ coursework differ, on average, between subgroups (e.g., by gender or ethnicity)?
Result
Abl’s data analysis identified the following trends in their analysis:
A College and Career Readiness audit identified significant discrepancies in student course-taking patterns between schools and student subgroups. On average, the course schedules of White and Asian students had a higher Academic Intensity Measure (AIM) than the course schedules of African-American and Latino students.
An audit of the district base schedule focused on instruction time found that per course, students in Federal Way were with an instructor 43 hours less(approximately 8 weeks less of instructional time) per course credit than school districts on a six-period day.
By their third and fourth year, many students who had completed the required number of courses were enrolling in partial schedules: starting the day late, leaving early, or engaging in non-course activities (e.g., teaching assistant positions). In addition to limiting time for college and career preparatory activities, this practice also decreased the amount of state funding allocated to the district. From these findings, Federal Way outlined a clear action plan to pursue its goals:
- FWPS is implementing a variety of College and Career Readiness initiatives, including intentional improvements in student schedules to maximize rigorous coursework. The district is measuring impact using a variety of metrics, including data on student enrollment in 2 and 4-year programs directly after high school graduation, as well as persistence in those programs; senior exit surveys and student perception data; and college-bound scholarship data.
- Federal Way launched a task force to study the findings from this audit and provide tailored and strategic recommendations for adjustments that improve the students’ learning time. Federal Way instituted a new policy to prevent students from being assigned to non-course activities or having open periods in their schedules.
- The percentage of students with open periods in their schedule decreased.
- This has elevated students’ ability to access different courses that will set them up for success after graduation while simultaneously improving state funding.
Auditing Schedules to Improve Equity and Efficiency
With the second largest student enrollment in the state of Iowa, Cedar Rapids Community School District strives to have every learner future ready and is based on a guiding philosophy of continuous improvement.
Academic Acceleration for High School Students
Since 2018, the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has led the implementation of the Academic Acceleration Policy for High School Students, in all Washington public school districts. The goal of OSPI’s work is to ensure all students, regardless of demographic group, are provided access and entry into the next most academically intense course, including AP, IB, and dual enrollment opportunities.
Improving College and Career Readiness for all Students
Federal Way is focused on an advancement of a college-going culture and expanding STEM access to all students. An analysis of transcript and scheduling data helped them identify ways to improve college and career readiness for all students in the district.
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