The Bridge to College Project provides college preparatory math and English courses to high school students. It has expanded from 37 districts in 2014-15 to over 80 districts in 2017-18. Teachers and students respond positively to the courses, which focus on developing skills like critical thinking. Research shows the courses employ effective instructional practices. The legislature supports the courses as an alternative way for students to demonstrate meeting graduation standards. The 2018-19 plans include sustaining teacher professional learning and the placement agreement allowing students to enter credit-bearing college courses.

1. Bridge to College Project 2018-19
Bridge to College Courses are funded by: College Spark Washington
Wednesday January 24, 2:30-3:30 P.M.
Bridge to College Leadership Team:
Bill Moore, Director of K12 Initiatives, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
Kathe Taylor, Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Teaching, OSPI
Sally Hanson, Project Manager, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
Molly Berger, English Language Arts Specialist, OSPI
Katy Absten, Math Specialist, OSPI
Dutch Henry, English Faculty, Shoreline Community College
Megan Luce, Math Faculty, Cascadia Community College
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2. Agenda
• Current status of Bridge to College Math and English
• What we have done and what we are seeing
• Course updates
• What we know today about graduation requirements
• Moving to sustainability
• Teacher and School Expectations
• Support
• Registration process
•
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3. Bridge to College Project
Pilot math &
English course
materials
(37 districts, 42
high schools)
80 districts
125 high
schools
260 teachers
97 districts
154 high
schools
276
teachers
2014-15
2015-16
2016-17
2017-18
81 districts
128 high schools
270 teachers
(~5500 students)
Bridge to College has continued to
develop
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4. Teachers respond positively
94% of math teachers and 99% of ELA teachers agreed or strongly agreed that
the course made their students more college ready.
100% of ELA teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the course provided
sufficient opportunities for students to develop the ability to read closely and
delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text.
98% of Math and 97% of ELA teachers agreed or strongly agreed that they
received the support they needed to teach the course.
Bridge to College Survey, June 2017
Ready Washington Video, What Is Bridge to College, June 2017
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5. Student response and success is strong
• The number of students responding to a survey who did not feel
prepared for college at the beginning of the course, dropped from
47% to 3%.
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Bridge to College Student Survey, June 2017

6. “I would recommend this class to other students because from my
experience, there were real life lessons that I learned and could
really apply to many other aspects of my life. Through the readings
and assignments I became a critical thinker and was able to analyze
texts that I initially felt were too challenging at first.”
“It takes what I think are the best parts of math, understanding how
we can apply it to the real world and how you can use it outside of
school.”
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Bridge to College Student Survey, June 2017

7. 2015-16 Grades for Bridge to College Students
Grades
Number
of
Students
%
A 444 17%
B 880 34%
C 692 26%
D 365 14%
F (or
other)
244 9%
Total 2625 100%
Number of
Students
%
663 21%
840 27%
791 25%
505 16%
343 11%
3142 100%
Math English
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8. BERC Research Group findings show
effective instructional practices in Bridge
to College Courses.
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9. Bridge to College Math – Focus on Thinking
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43
17
60
24
42
20
26
33
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6
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
BtC Math
Treatment (n=12)
BtC Math Control
(n=13)
HS Math STAR
Average (n=577)
Percent
of
Classrooms
Did students demonstrate thinking through
reflection or metacognition?
1=Not Observable 2 3 4=Clearly Observable
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BERC, Bridge to College Report 2017

10. Bridge to College English– Focus on Thinking
42
18
60
25
53
20
20
29
20
13
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
BtC English
Treatment (n=17)
Btc English Control
(n=13)
HS ELA STAR
Average (n=686)
Percent
of
Classrooms
Did students demonstrate thinking through
reflection or metacognition?
1=Not Observable 2 3 4=Clearly Observable
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BERC, Bridge to College Report 2017

11. The Legislature is supportive
ESHB 2224: High school transition courses and the
assessments offered in association with high school
transition courses shall be considered an approved
locally determined course and assessment for
demonstrating that the student met or exceeded the
high school graduation standard.
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12. The Bridge Course Answers “The Call”
According to the National Conference of
State Legislatures remedial education is
widespread (2015). What is remedial
education? It is defined by the classes
that are taken on college campuses that
are below college-level. Students still pay
tuition and can use financial aid for these
courses, but they do not earn college
credit.
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The basic college readiness challenge
in Washington is
• Too many students place into
precollege courses at college entry
• Too few of those students succeed
in completing college-level
coursework
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13. Statewide, OSPI Data Analytics show that 32.9% of
Washington high school students were placed in remedial
math or English classes in Washington colleges.
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14. Higher Education Placement
Agreement
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• The agreement has been endorsed by all 34 Washington community and technical colleges.
• The agreements offer high school students the opportunity to use their scores on the high school
Smarter Balanced assessment to establish their readiness for college-level coursework when entering
higher education institutions in Washington.
• Over time the goal is to increase the number of students enrolling directly into college courses without
remediation by:
a) offering students an early opportunity to know whether they are ready for college-level academic work
through reflective practice in the course;
b) providing an incentive for achieving the Common Core standards as reflected in the Smarter Balanced
assessment; and
c) creating alternatives for students, if necessary, to use their senior year more effectively in getting ready for
college-level work.
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15. Professional Learning Support for
Teachers
Communities of Practice
Successes and challenges in implementation
Instructional practice reflections
Define and calibrate the meaning of college ready
“What is a B?”
Summer Institute
Course principles
Course structure and content
Instructional practices
Collaboration with other teachers,
schools and with higher education
faculty partners
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16. Math Course Specifics
PRINCIPLES TO ACTION, STANDARDS, HABITS OF MIND,
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS FOR MATH PRACTICES
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17. Bridge to College Mathematics
• Addresses key standards in Common Core to prepare students for
success in non-calculus pathway college math classes
• Embeds explicit emphasis in Standards for Mathematical Practices
throughout the course
• Built with rigor, innovative instructional strategies, and a
concentration on contextual learning that departs from
procedural memorization and focuses on engaging the students
in real world contexts.
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18. Principles to Action (NCTM) & High
Leverage Teaching Practices
Teachers…..
• Establish mathematical goals to focus learning
• Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving
• Use & connect mathematical representations
• Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse
• Pose purposeful questions
• Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding
• Support productive struggle in learning mathematics
• Elicit and use evidence of student thinking
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19. ELA Course Specifics
OUTCOMES, PRINCIPLES, AND COURSE CONTENT
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20. Course Outcomes:
• Washington Literacy Learning Standards
• Rhetorical writing with emphasis on audience, purpose, and situation
• Development of inquiry questions
• Emphasis on critical thinking in development of text based argument
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21. Course Outcomes: Habits of Mind
• They become self-directed learners who can engage in academic tasks
independently.
• They demonstrate “grit” and persistence during academic tasks.
• They demonstrate metacognitive awareness.
• They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and
discipline.
• They comprehend and critique.
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22. Course Principles
• Student-centered in design and implementation
• Habits of Mind are integral to college and career success
• Course outcomes emphasize college and career readiness
• Teacher is the professional in the room
• Fidelity (Integrity)to the essential characteristics of the course design
(the module template or instructional process)
• Use of agreed upon summative assessments to determine student progress
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23. Course modules
• Complete a minimum of 6 modules over the course of the year
• Teacher choice of modules and choice of strategies within the modules
• Move from reading rhetorically to developing own thinking to writing rhetorically
(module “template”)
• Contemporary issues using nonfiction and literary texts
• Modules from a variety of sources, but many are locally developed by
Washington educators within the last year
• Emphasis on regional and local issues and high student engagement
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24. 2018-19 Plans for Courses
• Develop strategies to sustain the professional learning and delivery model statewide
• Placement agreement is continuing based on adherence to course principles and
curriculum
• Students earn the agreement to enter credit-bearing math or ELA standards at
Washington community and technical colleges and Eastern Washington University.
• Math students who earned a 2 on the SBA and earn a B in the class
• ELA students who earn a B in the class
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25. • Continued emphasis on open educational resources
• Teachers who are eligible to teach course can earn “badge”
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26. 2018-19 Professional Learning
Expectations
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Teacher Expectations School Assurances
• Attend summer training
• Participate in a community of practice
meetings throughout the school year
• Teach the course with integrity
• Support teachers to attend summer
training*
• Provide release time for teachers to
attend communities of practice
*Grant funds may be available to offset district costs.

27. 2018-19 Materials
• All course materials will be available digitally on the online course site. Schools
may print these materials.
• For the English course, 2 book-length texts are required. These are purchased
by the school.
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28. Bridge to College Courses and
Graduation Requirements
The legislature is still in session, but at this point
•Bridge to College Courses are transition courses and, along with their embedded
assessments will count as an alternative assessment for the SBA in 2018-19 for
seniors.
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29. Registration and
Course information is
available on OSPI
website
www.k12.wa.us/
CurriculumInstruct/
BridgetoCollege
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30. Questions
Frequently asked questions:
http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/BridgetoCollege
Bill Moore, Project Director, bmoore@sbctc.edu
Sally Hanson, Project Manager, shanson@sbctc.edu
Molly Berger, OSPI ELA Specialist, molly.berger@k12.wa.us
Katy Absten, OSPI Math Specialist, katy.absten@k12.wa.us
Thank you!
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