Symposium Report on Aligning Texas Four-by-Four High School Curricula and First-Year College Courses

Abstract

This report describes two symposia convened to address the process of implementing the recently published Texas College and Career Readiness Standards, which are intended to help educators aid students in bridging the gap between high school and college classroom expectations. In 2009 and 2010, these two symposia for chemistry education professionals focused on understanding what is expected of chemistry students from various high school settings (e.g., small and large schools; rural, suburban, and urban locales) in order for students to succeed in first-year college-level lecture and laboratory courses. The first symposium was attended by 45 secondary school teachers and many representatives of universities, junior colleges, technical colleges, and private colleges. This symposium began a dialogue on how graduating high school seniors could become successful first-year students in college. The goals were to begin recognizing how the new standards evolved and to acknowledge the gaps between high school and college chemistry curricula. The first symposium also discussed what it means for students to be ready for postsecondary experiences and raised awareness of developments underway in high schools, including dual-credit courses, early college programs, and how colleagues in mathematics support efforts to improve chemistry education in Texas. The second symposium, which brought together more than 120 chemistry teachers in two locations via a teleconference, continued the dialogue established in the first symposium. Mathematics colleagues were invited to join the chemistry teachers in the second symposium so that the alignment issues between the disciplines could be addressed.