All agree on value of EAP
Seven years ago, the California State University system developed a test in math and English language arts to help inform high school juniors whether they are on track to attend one of their campuses. The Early Assessment Program – EAP – has become a national model, and many high school students use the results in deciding whether to seek extra math and English help in their senior year.
Now, the heads of the state community colleges and the University of California have gone on record in agreeing that EAP is a solid measure of college readiness. And they’ve pledged to promote its use among their potential students. While that may not seem like a big deal, it’s a strong signal that the state’s staunchly independent higher ed institutions plan to unite in more assertively working with K-12 schools to prepare students for graduation – not simply remediate them once they show up as freshmen.
“We further commit ourselves to work collaboratively to improve the EAP assessment and associated student outreach, intervention, and academic preparation programs,” said a document signed this month but not publicized by CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, UC President Mark Yudof, and Community College Chancellor Jack Scott, as well as Gov. Schwarzenegger, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and a representative of private colleges. CalChamber President Alan Zaremberg and Gary Hoachlander, president of ConnectEd, representing those focused on preparing high school students for careers as well as college, also signed.
Until now, the state’s 112 community colleges haven’t encouraged prospective students to take the EAP; most have developed their own tests for remediation. But 10 community colleges have agreed to use EAP and 15 more are considering it. UC campuses have a longer entrance writing test, and most freshmen have taken higher levels of math than the EAP measures, but UC nonetheless sees EAP as a potential lever to better align high school work with college expectations.
EAP combines elements of the 11th grade California Standards Tests in math and English language arts , 15 additional items prepared by CSU faculty and a 45-minute essay that CSU faculty grade. Only juniors who completed or are taking Algebra II, required for admission to CSU, can take the math portion.
Low passage rate
The passage rate – indicating readiness for college work – has been disappointing. Last year, 36 percent of juniors took the math EAP, but only a quarter of them were deemed ready for college (20 percent conditionally, 5 percent fully ready); In 2009, 79 percent of juniors took the English exam, but only 16 percent of them were deemed ready. Last year, 36 percent of juniors took the math EAP. Of those who took the Algebra II test, only a quarter were deemed college-ready (20 percent conditionally ready, 5 percent fully ready; of those who took Summative Math, with of bits of Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra II, the results were better: 88 percent were ready (67 conditionally and 21 percent fully). The combined result for students who took either test: 57 percent (34 percent conditionally ready, 13 percent fully ready).
For the rest, that still left the senior year to improve, and CSU has prepared an English course and tutorials for students to take. But all three higher institutions agreed that the signals and efforts to prepare students should reach back to eighth and ninth grades. With efforts to find common ground on college and career readiness, one tack will be to encourage more students to Algebra II and the full load of courses, known as A to G, required for admission to a four-year state university.
The document is the first product of the California Diploma Project, a two-year-old effort run by Achieve, an education policy non-profit, and PACE (Policy Analysis for California Education). The Gates, Irvine and Hewlett* foundations have underwritten the effort.
* The usual disclaimer: The Hewlett Foundation also funds The Educated Guess.
Statement on the EAP
The heads of California’s community colleges, California State University and University of California joined others in signing the following:
We come together in a shared commitment to California’s economic future. We believe that California’s position as a global leader in innovation and creativity is inextricably tied to the success of our state’s education system—preschool through college (P-16)—in preparing students for citizenship and careers in a complex, competitive global environment.
The technical and policy analyses conducted by Achieve for the California Diploma Project provide a foundation for development of policies and reforms in curricula, instruction, and educational practices that will bring about closer alignment between students’ performance in secondary school and their readiness for college and careers. Specifically, and as a first step toward a more comprehensive approach to defining and assessing readiness, the CDP has determined that satisfactory performance in Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics as measured by the augmented 11th Grade California Standards Tests (CST) used in the Early Assessment Program (EAP) is one initial indicator of the skills and knowledge needed to enter non-remedial, credit-bearing baccalaureate-level courses in California’s two-year and four-year post-secondary education institutions. The EAP assessment measures many of the expectations articulated by the Inter-segmental Committee of Academic Senates (ICAS), as well as the knowledge and skills represented in California’s K-12 academic standards, at a level that is consistent with national and international academic standards and assessment benchmarking.
We therefore commit ourselves to work together to establish satisfactory student performance on the EAP assessment as a common indicator of readiness for non-remedial, credit-bearing, baccalaureate-level coursework in all of California’s colleges and universities. We recognize that the unique needs and circumstances of different segments and institutions will determine the specific ways in which this indicator is put to use. We further commit ourselves to work collaboratively to improve the EAP assessment and associated student outreach, intervention, and academic preparation programs to ensure alignment across all sectors.
We strongly support further work to establish a better aligned P-16 education system that will help all of California’s students to graduate from high school ready for college and careers, by providing students and their parents and teachers with clear and consistent information about what it means and what it takes to be ready. Among the next steps we envision are:
- A collaborative and comprehensive effort by all postsecondary institutions to help students get ready for college, beginning with programs already in place to support students in high school through the EAP.
- Expanded use of the EAP assessment in all postsecondary institutions as one indicator of students’ readiness for placement in non-remedial, credit-bearing baccalaureate-level coursework.
- Adoption of curricula and instructional strategies in P-12 schools to increase the number of students who meet standards and academic proficiency expectations for post-secondary success.
- Support for increasing the rigor of assessment and accountability systems to more fully assess the additional knowledge, skills and habits of mind that young people need to be ready for college and careers, and that give students meaningful early signals (e.g., success in English and math in grades eight and nine) about whether they are on track toward readiness.
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Congratulations to UC, CSU, Community Colleges, and all the others for signing this very important document! And to Gov. Schwarzenegger for bringing them together!
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Indeed it is good news that the EAP is being expanded from the CSU system to the UC and CCC systems. Credit should go to David Spence, who as Vice-Chancellor of the CSU system in 2001 saw the potential for the K-12 STAR tests for higher education placement purposes, and initiated the EAP system. Spence subsequently left CA to lead the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) but his vision has been supported admirably by leadership from the CSU system, the SPI, and the SBE over the years. Kudos should go to all involved, now including leaders in the UC and CCC systems. It is noteworthy that the federal Race to the Top Assessment competition just released by ED includes the notion of coordinating higher ed and lower ed assessment systems. The EAP is one program where CA has led the way in recent years, in constrast to Sec Duncan’s opine last year that CA has “lost their way.” Doug McRae, Retired Test Publisher, Monterey, CA
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John First of all CSU did not initiate these tests that was done by the State Board of Education. True CSU, under the Leadership of David Spence got the CSU faculty to sit down with testing folks at the State Board of Education to really look at the STAR tests and then add their items. Second UC and the Community Colleges were begged to come aboard but adamantly refused. It is nice to know that it only took 10 years for them to reconsider-almost. You may want to keep on this story until they actually do something.
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John: Former CSU Chief Academic Officers David Spence does deserve huge credit for pushing EAP and the development of the English/writing course for high school seniors. I hope that UC, CSU and community colleges together develop the equivalent in math.
Yes, a signature does not constitute action but it is a commitment – and hope after, as you point out, a decade of sitting along the sidelines.
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Glad to see they got plenty of participation from K-12 on this deal. Most HS teachers really appreciate having UC/CSU & CC trying to dictate cuuriculum. It’s funny that when CA is “leading the way,” it’s almost always backwards.
Twenty years of trying to drive instruction using tests. Twenty years of abject failure. Meanwhile, as all the back-slapping and congratulations are being passed around, thousands of students cannot be served by UC/CSU & CC because of funding. That’s keeping our eye on the ball.
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To Mockler: Well, awright, you are correct that the state board had the test under design and development before CSU came along. And it was the state board’s test since the then SPI and CDE were promoting their own model (not unlike Linda Darling Hammond’s advocacy discussed in this space last week) which was thoroughly squashed by the state board, sec of educ, gov, and legislature in favor of a more accountability oriented STAR system. And STAR as conceived was capable of bridging needs of both lower ed accountability and higher ed readiness. But the state board did a lousy job marketing their vision to higher ed folks until poor bloke David Spence CSU came along and was smitten by the beauty of the state board’s STARship. He ran with it, selling it to CSU’s turf guardians, and made EAP into a system that had not only test scores but an entry counselling system and Grade 12 college readiness coursework. So, the state board gets credit for vision, Spence gets credit for initiating EAP. Enough credit to go around for a good thing [that is, unless one subscribes to an anti-assessment, anti-accountability point of view, in which case blame may be assigned]. Doug McRae, Retired Test Publisher, Monterey, CA
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There are the knee-jerk reactions to anyone questioning the impacts of standards/testing based reform that go “afraid of accountability!” And that’s about as legitimate as someone suggesting that if you have an association with the testing industry your support for standards/testing rofrm is purely based on self-interest. At least some of us are in either camp becuase we have genuine professional concerns about the direction reform should take or, indeed, that school based reform is even necessary. Allow me to quote Nell Noddings of Stanford: “We’ve just gone test crazy.” And then there’s Ravitch, Rothstein, et al. Standards and testing were the simple answers to the complicated questions of low school achievement. And I, along with others, suggest they were the wrong answers.
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Gary: What does your raving claiming over-testing have to do with EAP? Perhaps I should be more explicit, so let me ask directly. Are you against the idea that colleges should communicate clearly their requirements to high schoolers? Are you against the idea that colleges should make their entry requirements as uniform as reasonable? What exactly is your beef here?
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Good question Ze’ev. My “beef” was that the default solution to any educational question has been “testing” (as well as: standards, raising the bar, accountability, yadda, yadda). That seemed to provoke the classic (and knee jerk) response that if you question assessments as the holy grail of education reform then you are “afraid of accountability.” Another point I was endaevoring to make was that the EAP, focusing and narrowing HS curriculum to the wants and whims of CSU/UC was being done pretty much in a vacuum and without any significant input from the HS teachers who are supposed to trail along in EAP’s wake. As to “raving,” I’ll galdly accept the label from someone who just spouts the Silicon Valley party line.
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I suppose the overall point would have to be: “All” do not agree on the EAP. Some stakeholders haven’t been asked. And “congratulating” Schwarzenegger for an educational accomplishment? Was that a joke?
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Gary: Perhaps we are not talking about the same thing. Otherwise I still cannot see your issue here. For example, for years UC/CSU required 3 math courses–Alg.I & Alg.II & Geo as admission requirement. This has not changed (and, incidentally, that’s what most other 4-year state colleges around the country require) Nothing new here, no narrowing of the curriculum. Testing incoming college freshmen shows that despite having those courses on their transcripts (with a C or above), about 60% don’t actually know the content. I guess high-school grade inflation does exist. So colleges try to be more friendly with high schools and allow students who pass Algebra II test to take a small add-on at the same sitting–just 15 additional items in the same Alg.II and Geometry content–for a chance to get a guaranteed waiver from remedial courses in college. I wouldn’t call adding half an hour to a STAR test a significant add-on testing, particularly that it saves them a much longer college placement testing. And I definitely don’t see any “narrowing” of anything, except making sure that a passing grade in Algebra II course actually means something. Students and teachers seem actually quite pleased with EAP. So are we talking about the same program?
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