In 2014, the Center of Excellence for College and Career Readiness was established at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, as a professional development initiative funded by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. The Center of Excellence’s primary function is to work with teachers and students around the state to improve students’ readiness for postsecondary opportunities.
As part of the initiative, the Center of Excellence partnered with EPIC to develop the South Carolina College and Career Readiness Toolkit to be used as a resource for educators and to generate conversations in communities across South Carolina about the importance of preparing all students for college, careers, and citizenship in the 21st century. While this toolkit contains much information specific to South Carolina, it can serve as a model for any state or district wishing to implement a college and career readiness action plan and to foster secondary-postsecondary partnerships.
The toolkit features
- a definition of college and career readiness, based on David Conley’s David Conley’s Four Keys Model and activities to help actualize the Model
- case studies of innovative college and career readiness work happening in South Carolina
- a collection of college and career readiness data indicators with background information and guiding questions to help interpret them
- examples of strategies to foster both horizontal and vertical alignment between educators
- strategies and resources for creating meaningful secondary-postsecondary partnerships
In May 2015, a collaborative team from the Center of Excellence and EPIC hosted three regional workshops across South Carolina, bringing together secondary and postsecondary administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, and program directors. The hands-on workshops shared excerpts of the toolkit, including recent college and career readiness data, and focused on ways to improve readiness for students across the state.
The Center of Excellence will continue to use the toolkit in its upcoming statewide College and Career Readiness Summit and the Center of Excellence’s Spring 2016 readiness course to give participants a common frame of reference for understanding the current status of college and career readiness in the state as South Carolina looks toward future collaborations.
SC_Toolkit_2015.pdf (6727 downloads)
