Alignment: A Local High School/College Model to Eliminate Remediation

A team of faculty from both Stark State College of Technology (SSCT) and the Canton City Schools (CCS) reviewed their respective curricula opposite the Ohio Academic Content Standards, assisted by a crosswalk indicating which of those standards were measured by COMPASS/ESL a widely used college placement test. This study found that the skills needed for first year SSCT courses in math and English language arts (ELA) and the CCS coursework from 7th to 12th grade, on the basis of Ohio Academic Content Standards indicators are more closely aligned to each other than what is reflected by the COMPASS/ESL test and diagnostics measures. This project created what the researcher believes to be a viable charting and comparison measure to assist in future explorations. While the degree of alignment between CCS and SSCT courses proved to be promising and COMPASS/ESL showed to be a viable measure, this study indicates that high school teachers and college professors alike must continue to look at alignment issues together, determining what they mean to each respective institution. Findings of the Ohio Board of Regents on the efficiency of the complete academic core in eliminating high levels of remediation are also supported. (Contains 44 footnotes.) [This paper was written with Ken Brunner, Debbie Jacob-Turner, Wendy Lichtenwalter, Carol Halamsy, Connie Faust, Enyinda Onunwor and Yojana Sharma.]