by Coy Holcombe.
I hope everyone had a great weekend. The activities for this week include:
Monday – UIL realignment announced at 9:00 AM. Tweets will be sent out when we know the results. Check our homepage for updates.
Tuesday – HS basketball at Kemp; Soccer vs Quinlan; Softball scrimmage at Malakoff
Thursday – MS basketball – Girls at Van, boys host Van – games start at 5:00
Friday – FFA blood drive; HS Basketball hosts Wills Point; Soccer vs. Lindale; Softball Scrimmage at Rains
Saturday – UIL Solo & Ensemble
One of the speakers that I heard at Mid-Winter was Dr. Raymund Paredes, Texas Higher Education Commissioner, who spoke on improving postsecondary readiness. Below are some of the points from his speech:
- One of the major obstacles is that K-12 has a different set of expectations than higher education.
- College and Career Readiness Standards are being developed. Once they are finished, they need to be adopted by local boards, implemented by local districts, and curriculum needs to be aligned.
- Between 20% & 25% of high demand jobs don’t even exist yet.
- Students in high school today will change careers about 4 times during their life (not jobs, but careers).
- 60%-90% of high paying/high demand jobs will require some type of postsecondary preparation.
- There is a need for development of more dual credit courses. These courses must be at the level of a college course.
- Key areas that need to be addressed
- Implement college readiness standards and use models for cooperation between K-12 and higher education. The key is faculty talking with one another.
- Preparation of teachers – best universities train the fewest teachers
- Remedial and developmental education – students that start or fall behind almost never catch up; if you have to take a developmental math class in college, you have an 11% chance of ever passing the credit level math course with a grade of C or better.