This post was originally published on October 22, 2020 but has been updated.
Bill DeBaun, Senior Director
Secondary leaders lay the foundation for students to be lifelong learners and determine their own future. In today’s world, that means preparing them to succeed in their chosen postsecondary path. In the realm of K-12 education, each week brings new, impactful tools and insights that add to our growing knowledge base.
OneGoal, an NCAN member, developed the OneGoal Leadership Network, in which they partner with school and district leaders to ensure postsecondary planning, preparation, and support aren’t treated as extracurricular activities, but as integral components of the high school experience for all students. The network helps eliminate equity gaps and increases college and career readiness by assessing districts’ postsecondary readiness, including them in a supportive community of peers and experts, and guiding them every step of the way on a path to improvement.
The OneGoal Rubric for Postsecondary Readiness supports a baseline assessment of districts' status against seven focus areas of postsecondary readiness:
Shared Postsecondary Vision, Plan & Framework
Postsecondary Data Systems & Structures
Continuous Improvement Cycles
Adult Capacity Building
Institutional Partnerships
Student Supports & Advising Programming
Aligned Human & Financial Capital
Users consider their current activities in each of these areas and then place themselves into one of three levels:
Beginning – “We have not yet started plans in this area. We consistently display most of the descriptors in this category.”
Practicing – “Plans are in place to implement these practices and processes and they occur with some regularity. We consistently display most of the descriptors in this category.”
Persisting – “Practices and processes have moved from plans to habit and routine and serve as a model for others. We consistently display most of the descriptions in this category.”
The reason this is so valuable is it allows current (or prospective!) stakeholders to take stock of current practice and set some aspirational goals for improvement.
OneGoal, a national organization, offers programs to ensure that students from low-income communities earn a postsecondary education credential that leads to economic mobility and family-sustaining wages.
OneGoal’s district-level rubric is a perfect pairing with NCAN’s 15-month K-12 calendar. This calendar, which NCAN intends to update quarterly, will be refreshed with the very best resources related to topics like training and professional development, financial aid and FAFSA, data, and postsecondary advising, among others. Once districts and schools go through the rubric and determine places they might want to concentrate on shifting practice, NCAN’s K-12 calendar will connect them with resources to help them accomplish that shift.
NCAN looks forward to exploring the use of OneGoal’s rubric and connecting K-12 stakeholders with this resource.
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