The key cognitive strategies
In his Four Keys of College Readiness, Conley (2013) identified five key cognitive strategies that students should have in order to be successful in college-level courses. These are strategies that students should be able to apply across content areas and various learning situations. Each strategy Conley (2013) outlines has two components (See Figure 1 in the Introduction). For this discussion:
Choose one of the grade levels from one content area of the CCSS. Keep in mind that there are literacy standards for history/social studies, science, and technical subjects in addition to the mathematics and English standards.
Analyze whether and in what manner the key cognitive strategies are addressed in the standards. Determine to what degree each strategy is addressed and whether strategies are missing or could be addressed more strongly.
Choose one standard and explain one performance task that students at that grade level should be able to complete in order to demonstrate mastery of strategy and the standard.
Support your statements with evidence from the required studies and your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.
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I am attaching the information for the assignments for this week for reference.
KEYS TO COLLEGE READINESS AND THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
College readiness requires specific and rigorous preparation in key cognitive strategies and key content knowledge. One of the primary reasons students have trouble in college is because of the gap between a student’s high school experiences and the expectations once they reach college. This is reflected in the number of remedial courses students take upon entering college and the low numbers of students who graduated from high school prepared for college-level coursework (Brown & Conley, 2007; Conley, 2007b; Lee & Rawls, 2010). Aligning expectations to a college level would increase college readiness and is one of the strategies Conley (2005, 2007a) recommends to close the high school to college gap.
In the first dimension of Conley’s (2010) model, he describes key cognitive strategies, which include a student’s ability to conduct research, communicate verbally, analyze, and formulate problems. Key cognitive strategies also include a student’s ability to interpret information and to complete tasks with precision and accuracy. Figure 1 is a visual model of the key cognitive strategies.
Key content knowledge, the second dimension, represents a student’s understanding of the major concepts of a content area. In addition to the four core content areas, this key encompasses content area knowledge in world languages and the arts, as well as the overarching academic skills of reading and writing.
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College readiness includes the skills, content knowledge, and behaviors necessary for college success. Students who are college ready are able to complete their first-year college experience successfully without any required remediation of skills or content knowledge. College readiness is thus determined by a student’s performance at the college level rather than with meeting admission requirements. A student’s successful performance is built on the foundation of well-developed key cognitive strategies (KCS). Conley’s (2010) Key Cognitive Strategies Model [Figure 1] presents five strategies: Problem Formulation, Research, Interpretation, Communication, and Precision/Accuracy.
The first four strategies are placed on a continuum that represents a logical process of thinking, though they do not always occur in only that order. The fifth KCS, Precision/Accuracy, stands on its own but influences performance of all other strategies. Each KCS has two aspects, which are described in the KCS graphic.
Problem Formulation: The student formulates the problem by hypothesizing about potential outcomes and planning strategies.
Research: The student identifies resources and prioritizes and collects resources and information.
Interpretation: The student interprets information and data. He or she analyzes evidence and evaluates findings and conclusions.
Communication: The student organizes reasoning and constructs a final product to communicate the solution.
Precision/Accuracy: The student demonstrates precision and accuracy at every stage of the entire process. He or she monitors quality throughout and confirms product quality. (Educational Policy Improvement Center, 2015, Sample Tasks section, para. 8)
Unlike college eligibility, college readiness is not always evident in a high school record. The high school transcript provides limited utility in predicting college readiness or success. For example, course titles make the language of a transcript uniform but do not speak to the content of the course or the rigor of instruction offered throughout the course. The same can be said of grade point averages, which are increasingly complicated by grade inflation and weighting systems for student grades in advanced or honors coursework. Dougherty and Mellor (2009) noted that one cannot assume that students have learned the content of a course simply because they have earned the credit. Course content may be unclear or unknown; therefore, a comprehensive curriculum is the critical element in ensuring that all students acquire the key content knowledge and cognitive strategies necessary for college readiness and success. The scope and sequence of the curriculum must be aligned to content standards, which, for most states, are now in the form of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Examining the content and cognitive keys in relationship to the Common Core State Standards is the objective this week. Discussions analyze each of the keys and their connections to the standards. The assignment for the week focuses on the development of a school profile that synthesizes the four keys and the work you have done in the course to this point.
References
Brown, R. S., & Conley, D. T. (2007). Comparing state high school assessments to standards for success in entry-level university courses. Educational Assessment, 12(2), 137-160. doi: 10.1080/10627190701232811
Conley, D. T. (2005). College knowledge: What it really takes for students to succeed and what we can do to get them ready. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Conley, D. T. (2007a). The challenge of college readiness. Educational Leadership, 64(7), 23-29.
Conley, D. T. (2007b). Redefining college readiness, 4. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center.
Conley, D. T. (2010). College and career ready: Helping all students succeed beyond high school. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Dougherty, C., & Mellor, L. (2009). Preparation matters. Austin, TX: National Center for Educational Achievement. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED516789.pdf
Educational Policy Improvement Center. (2015). ThinkReady: An innovative, formative assessment of student’s cognitive abilities. Retrieved from https://collegereadyinfo.epiconline.org/thinkready…
Lee, Jr., J. M., & Rawls, A. (2010). The college completion agenda 2010 progress report executive summary. New York, NY: The College Board. Retrieved from http://helmut.knaust.info/resource/2010CBAPC.pdf
WEEKLY OBJECTIVES
Through participation in the following activities, the candidate will:
Make linkages between dimensions of college readiness and Common Core implementation.
Key Cognitive Strategies
What’s the Big Idea?
School/Organization Profile
Identify the key dimensions of college readiness and their connection to Common Core State Standards.
Key Cognitive Strategies
What’s the Big Idea?
School/Organization Profile
REQUIRED STUDIES
The following materials are required studies for this week. Complete these studies at the beginning of the week and save these weekly materials for future use.
College and Career Ready (Conley, 2010)
Chapter 2: Ways to Develop Key Cognitive Strategies and Key Content Knowledge
Getting Ready for College, Careers, and the Common Core (Conley, 2013)
Chapter 3: The Four Keys to College and Career Readiness
Chapter 7: A Closer Look at the Common Core State Standards
Chapter 8: The Common Core State Standards and College and Career Readiness
Read
Read the Standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative, n.d.) [Web page]
A Complete Definition of Career and College Readiness (Conley, 2012) [Web page]
teaching techniques 1 pages, Single Spacing College and Career Ready
Answer preview to the key cognitive strategies
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