Supporting Collaboration between K-12 and Higher Education: Year One, Interim Report One

In April 2012, more than 100 educators and administrators from across the nation came together in Reston, Virginia, for a full day of meetings and discussions to launch the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center Affinity Network. The Affinity Network's mission is to facilitate students' successful transition from high school to college by: (1) Helping educators across the K-12 and postsecondary sectors understand and agree on common expectations for the nation's students; (2) Serving as an incubator for ideas and solutions for College Board members and for the education field at the institutional, state, and national levels; and (3) Establishing an ongoing process to encourage creative problem solving and strengthen the links between education sectors. Each year, one cohort of educators will be selected to work intently on one major issue for 9-12 months; at the end of this period, both a new cohort and a new issue will be selected. The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center is providing technical assistance, information, research, policy expertise, and facilitation, as well as an online forum to assist Affinity Network participants in their work together. This report is the first in a series to document the process, progress, and outcomes of the teams engaged in the first cohort of the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center Affinity Network. For this inaugural cohort, College Board Advocacy assembled strong teams drawn from 15 institutions (districts, two-year, and four-year colleges) in five states. They are dedicated to addressing the initial charge: how the Common Core State Standards will result in changes in expectations and alignment across the education sectors. This will not be an easy endeavor, but it is an extremely important one if the nation is going to prepare all students to be college and career ready. The Affinity Network will focus on the following key questions: (1) How might the Common Core State Standards result in improvements to the alignment of high school exit expectations with postsecondary entry expectations? What supports need to be in place to successfully accomplish this alignment?; and (2) How might the Common Core State Standards affect the design of remedial education courses on college campuses? Appended are: (1) The Affinity Network Advisory Committee; and (2) Cross-Segment Challenges and Opportunities of the Common Core State Standards. (Contains 11 notes.