Activity Guide

Does your school provide a culture that prepares students to be college and career ready? Have your school teams defined ‘college and career ready,’ evaluated student outcomes, and focused on improvements? This activity gives your faculty teams an opportunity to evaluate the college and career ready program implemented by the Health Sciences High and Middle College. Prepare to discuss those missing practices identified in the Reading and consider “missing but needed” areas that might be successfully implemented at your school to improve student outcomes.

Resources

Materials

Process

  • This activity is excellent for use with your school leadership team, steering committee, departmental teams and/or grade level teams. The discussion that follows provides an opportunity to study an exemplary program, evaluate the effectiveness of your college and career readiness program, and explore additional strategies that can deepen content knowledge for each student.
  • Identify participating teams and provide the Reading Link or distribute copies of the Reading to the participants. (Note: Provide the Reading prior to the meeting and ask participants to read the selection closely in preparation for discussion.)
  • Convene the participating team(s) and divide into discussion groups of 3-5. Ask each group to select a member to record two or three successful strategies from the Part I conversation. Use the question prompts below to begin the discussion of the strategies and implementation process used by the Health Sciences High and Middle College. Give answers that specifically reference information from the article.
  • Ask a member of the group to record the salient points of the discussion on chart paper. Select a reader and post the chart paper.
  • Reconvene the team(s) and ask each reader to summarize the group’s discussion points listed on each chart paper.
  • Highlight those strategies and actions recommended by two or more groups.

Extend and Apply

Seek volunteers from the Leadership team or teacher leaders to take the lead in planning initiatives to improve your existing college and career program or to serve as a foundation for a new college and career initiative for students at your school. Volunteers should focus on strategies in place and working on those initiatives that may be missing from your school but are needed to improve your college and career readiness program.

Use the Discussion Guide Planning Templates to design, implement, and adjust your College and Career Readiness initiatives and strategies. Write specific data indicators that measure student outcomes and the success of your initiatives. Provide space for collaborative conversations with administrators and faculty as you draft your plan.