• CCR Primer
  • 21st-Century Skills
  • Why College and Career Readiness?
  • What Is College and Career Readiness
• Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative
  • Background
  • Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
  • Organization of the TexasCollege and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS)
• Preparing Your School for CCR
  • English/Language Arts Standards
  • English/Language Arts Courses
  • Other Courses
  • Mathematics Standards
  • Mathematics Courses
  • Other Courses
  • Science Standards
  • Science Courses
  • Other Courses
  • Social Science Standards
  • Social Science Courses
  • Other Courses
  • Cross-Disciplinary Standards
• Bibliography
• Printable Version

Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative

Background

Over the past decade, Texas has focused on ensuring that its students are prepared for a changing and increasingly complex future. In elementary and middle schools, test results have improved, especially among students of color, and more students of all backgrounds are entering and completing postsecondary education programs. However, it is still clear that many K–12 students, along with their parents, are uncertain about what students must know and what intellectual skills they must possess to be successful beyond high school.

Recognizing the importance of a world class education, the 79th Texas Legislature, Third Called Special Session, passed House Bill 1, the "Advancement of College Readiness in Curriculum." Section 28.008 of the Texas Education Code seeks to increase the number of students who are college and career ready when they graduate high school. The legislation required the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to establish Vertical Teams (VTs) to develop College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) in the areas of English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. These standards specify what students must know and be able to do to succeed in entry-level courses at postsecondary institutions in Texas.

In the spring of 2009, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was launched under the auspices of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to develop a common core of state K–12 English language arts and mathematics standards. Texas decided not to join the NGA and CSSO Common Core State Standards movement because the Texas College and Career Readiness Program had already been approved.

TEA's justification for this decision is as follows (Feb 23, 2010):

Texas' English and mathematics college and career readiness standards meet and, in many cases, exceed national standards, according to an analysis. Teams of higher education and public school educators and content specialists conducted a comparison of the Texas College and Career Readiness Standards, adopted in January 2008, and the national Common Core College Readiness Standards created by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA). Texas was the first state to adopt college readiness standards, concepts that are to be taught in the public schools that help prepare students for success in the workplace or in college or university courses. The standards were jointly created through a process that included Texas public education, higher education and business community stakeholders.

The comparison of the Texas and national standards, known as a "gap analysis" or crosswalk, found that the Texas standards contained everything that is included in the national standards. But the Texas standards are more comprehensive, covering additional areas of college readiness that are missing from the national standards.

A team of analysts for each subject area compared the Texas standards to the national standards to determine how much they were alike. To ensure an accurate and thorough comparison, another team reversed the process and compared the national standards to the Texas standards. An external evaluator then reviewed the teams' methodology and work product.

The review focused only on English language arts and mathematics standards because those are the only subjects for which national Common Core standards have been prepared. Texas also has college and career readiness standards in social studies and science.

The findings from the gap analysis are available at: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=8019.

The college and career readiness project is developing readiness standards and working with educators and policymakers to weave these standards into the existing knowledge standards for secondary (high school) curricula in four subjects: English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.

Teams of K–12 educators and higher education faculty members provide the core element of collaboration necessary to make the project successful by forging consensus about what students must know to be truly college and career ready.

More than just standards, the CCRS program is also creating a college and career readiness culture in Texas education. This culture has its nexus in a series of three important policy relationships:

• Creating—The Texas Legislature inspired and continues to provide direction to the College and Career Readiness program.
• College and Career—The Texas Education Agency and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board are working collaboratively to create and implement educational standards that will enable students to be college and career ready.
• Culture—The increased academic rigor and higher academic expectations derived from the standards set an expectation for educators and students alike that will lead to increased opportunities for the students of Texas.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Vertical teams in each of the four core content areas have compared the existing Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) to the new college and career readiness standards and identified gaps in the existing standards. These analyses can be found at http://www.txccrs.org/more/research.htm. Gaps are being eliminated as refined TEKS are adopted by the State Board of Education.

Organization of the Texas College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS)

The CCRS consist of a multi-level framework that focuses not only on subject matter, but also on the way it is organized and presented in the classroom. The CCRS should not be construed as a checklist. Generally, however, the more standards a student can demonstrate successfully, the more likely it is that he or she will be college and career ready.

The goal of the Texas CCRS is to establish what students must know and be able to do to succeed in entry-level courses offered at institutions of higher education. These CCRS are organized into four levels of specificity. The levels are defined and will appear as follows: