Implementing a College Readiness Indicator System: Insights and Perspectives From the Dallas Independent School District

• In Event: Creating Conditions That Support Students’ Postsecondary Pathways and Success: The College Readiness Indicator Systems Initiative

Abstract

Objectives and Significance

Improving students’ readiness for college warrants intentional and systematic uses of data to inform management, policies, and instructional changes. In the past three years, five sites across the country have been engaged in the implementation of a CRIS in their local contexts. Many have experienced significant changes including staff turnover, reorganization at the district level, and new state policies that influence college-readiness work at the district and school levels.

This paper describes the experience of central office CRIS team members in creating and implementing a college readiness system in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). Written and presented by DISD members, this paper examines some of the major factors and conditions that either promoted or hindered the CRIS implementation process. The presentation will also identify important policy and practice implications for achieving a culture of data use and a sustained focus on getting students ready for postsecondary opportunities.

DISD is the nation’s fourteenth largest public school district with 157,000 students, 20,000 employees, and a $1.4 billion annual budget. The student ethnic composition is 70% Hispanic, 24% African American, and the remainder Caucasian, Asian, and other minorities. Approximately 30% of students are English Learners. Since receiving its first Gates Foundation college readiness grant in 2008, DISD has focused on improving the number of students who enroll in college-level classes (e.g., AP, IB, dual credit) while in high school. The district is also building a data and support system to track its graduates through college and into the workforce.

Framework

The insights of CRIS team members in DISD may help guide other schools and districts seeking to implement their own college readiness system. Using a theory of action for data use adapted from the literature (Marsh et al. 2012; Figure 1), CRIS DISD team members will discuss the challenges and opportunities they encountered at various steps of the data use process: (1) data collection and access; (2) data organization, filtering, and analysis; (3) combining data with expertise and understanding of the local context; (4) using data to inform responses or practice adjustments; and (5) assessing the effectiveness of these actions. CRIS team members will also discuss how the focus and thinking on college readiness has shifted over time due to changes in their local context; they will provide examples of how past and current initiatives have sustained or weakened due to these changes. Undoubtedly, this presentation will touch upon several key issues including investments in the development of data infrastructures, and organizational cultures that enable data-informed leadership and practice. Lastly, this presentation will discuss the CRIS team’s perspectives of how engaging in the CRIS initiative will inform their future efforts around postsecondary education and data use.

Significance

In sum, by providing a personal and descriptive case account of the CRIS implementation process, this presentation will offer important lessons to other school leaders and practitioners and provoke meaningful discussion on effective strategies that help ensure students’ postsecondary success.

Author

• Linda K Johnson, Dallas Independent School District