College-readiness Performance Assessment System
Project Summary
New Methods to Assess College Readiness
The College-readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS) is an innovative formative assessment designed to track the development of the Key Cognitive Strategies (KCS), which are thinking skills necessary for college-readiness and success.
Through extensive research, EPIC's founder, Dr. David T. Conley, identified five KCS necessary for college-readiness: 1) Problem Formulation, 2) Research, 3) Interpretation, 4) Communication, and 5) Precision/Accuracy.
C-PAS is designed to measure the KCS through rich performance tasks that teachers embed within existing curricula and that align with curricular requirements. It is designed to be a powerful tool to help guide and inform a school’s efforts to prepare students for post-secondary success. The information generated from C-PAS measures student development of the KCS over time in grades 6-12. This system is designed to help all students, regardless of current academic skill level, develop the thinking skills necessary for future success.
The ultimate goal of this project is to create a formative assessment system that schools, districts, and states can employ to help ensure students are truly ready for success in college. Current state tests tend to emphasize mastery of specific content knowledge. C-PAS is designed so the results can be used in combination with tests of content knowledge, thereby generating a performance profile of a student that indicates college-readiness along two distinct but closely interconnected dimensions: content knowledge and KCS.
Since Fall 2006, EPIC has partnered with the Urban Assembly (UA) schools in New York City to develop and pilot C-PAS. In Spring 2008, EPIC expanded its school partnerships to include the Foundation for California Community Colleges Early College High Schools, and in Fall 2009 University Park Campus School in Massachusetts began piloting C-PAS. EPIC is currently funded by a development grant awarded by the Carnegie Corporation.
