Stanford University education professor Mike Kirst has spent many years on the challenge of building college readiness in adolescents. (See his blog, here, if you don’t already know about it.) He has now written a paper for the Education Commission of the States that makes the case for another of the points he’s long championed: better alignment between high school and college. He lays out things states should do to promote this kind of alignment. (If you want to know more about a state that has done more than most to align high school and college, read my recent story about Texas’ work.)
Those of you who have been interested in the recent conversation about adolescent literacy might want to take a look at a new story by my colleague Mary Ann Zehr, who covers the curriculum beat. She goes to Chicago to look at the track record of the Striving Readers program, which is up for a big boost in federal funding. One of the bloggers on our LeaderTalk blog has some interesting reflections on that Carnegie literacy report, too.
For those of you who have been following the focus on youth violence in Chicago, my colleague Dakarai Aarons has a story out that examines that city’s plans and takes a look at national research on youth violence, as well.