Gender & College Readiness

This 2009 study entitled "Gender Differences in College Preparedness" examined the following questions related to gender & college readiness:

"1. What is the difference in the percentages of boys and girls who were deemed to be college-ready graduates in reading, in math, and in both subjects in the state of Texas?

"2. What is the difference in the percentages of boys and girls who took the SAT or ACT in the 2005–2006 and the 2006–2007 school years?

"3. What is the difference in the percentages of boys and girls who were at or above the SAT or ACT criterion in the 2005–2006 and the 2006–2007 school years?

"4. What is the difference in the ACT averages of boys and girls in the 2005–2006 and the 2006–2007 school years?

"5. What is the difference in the SAT averages of boys and girls in the 2005–2006 and the 2006–2007 school years?"

The researchers found that while not even a third of students surveyed were determined to be "college-ready" in both reading and math based on their SAT & ACT scores, large gaps in the percentage of college ready students persisted (girls being stronger in reading and boys being stronger in math).  Girls had slightly higher rates of preparedness in both areas than boys did.

College Readiness for All: The Challenge for Urban High Schools

From the summary of the study, published in the Spring 2009 issue of The Future of Children

 

"Melissa Roderick, Jenny Nagaoka, and Vanessa Coca focus on the importance of improving college access and readiness for low-income and minority students in urban high schools. They stress the aspirations-attainment gap: although the college aspirations of all U.S. high school students, regardless of race, ethnicity, and family income, have increased dramatically over the past several decades, significant disparities remain in college readiness and enrollment.

 

"The authors emphasize the need for researchers and policy makers to be explicit about precisely which sets of knowledge and skills shape college access and performance and about how best to measure those skills. They identify four essential sets of skills: content knowledge and basic skills; core academic skills; non-cognitive, or behavioral, skills; and "college knowledge," the ability to effectively search for and apply to college. High schools, they say, must stress all four.

 

"The authors also examine different ways of assessing college readiness. The three most commonly recognized indicators used by colleges, they say, are coursework required for college admission, achievement test scores, and grade point averages. Student performance on all of these indicators of readiness reveals significant racial and ethnic disparities.

 

"To turn college aspirations into college attainment, high schools and teachers need clear indicators of college readiness and clear performance standards for those indicators. These standards, say the authors, must be set at the performance level necessary for high school students to have a high probability of gaining access to four-year colleges. The standards must allow schools and districts to assess where their students currently stand and to measure their progress. The standards must also give clear guidance about what students need to do to improve."

More on the Meaning of College Readiness

This article entitled "Common-Core Assessment Consortium Ponders Meaning of 'College Readiness", published in July 2012 in Education Week, discusses current debate on what it actually means to be college-ready.  The debate in this instance centers around what scores on the PARCC assessments will denote "college-readiness" and how those scores translate into the level of achievement in college that a student is likely to experience based on their PARCC scores. 

Between the lines are issues of standardized testing and lowering of standards, never mind the hidden impact of race and poverty on these scores.  Can PARCC scores predict college achievement?  Are they the only measure of college readiness?!?

College Readiness and the Impending Reauthorization of ESEA

One of the things stuck in the molasses of the current Congress is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (most recently authorized under the title of "No Child Left Behind").  This February 2010 policy paper called "REINVENTING THE FEDERAL ROLEIN EDUCATION: Supporting the Goal of College and Career Readiness for All Students", published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, argues their view on what the reauthorized ESEA should include; their view focuses heavily on college & career readiness.

An excerpt:

"It is time to harness this progress and momentum, and convert commitment and proposals into are authorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) designed to address the high school crisis and move toward the goal of all students graduating from high school ready for college and careers.

Federal policy must be updated,not only to maintain pace with the common standards initiative, but also to serve as,a leader and partner in helping bring efforts to fruition. The nation cannot afford to let another generation of students pass through the system, drop out, or exit unprepared for college and careers.

ESEA reauthorization should:

• Establish college and career readiness as the common goal for all students;

• Ensure meaningful accountability for high school outcomes designed around common indicators of college and career readiness and high school graduation;

• Replace the current flawed, one-size-fits-all school improvement process with requirements for state- and district-led systems that are differentiated and data driven, and prioritize addressing the lowest-performing high schools;

• Support strategies necessary to implement, high school improvement at a much larger scale, including district-wide efforts, maximizing the role of entities outside the school system with expertise to contribute;

• Build the capacity of the system to implement innovative solutions—bold approaches to teaching and learning, school organization, and system structure; and

• Provide new funding for the implementation of innovative solutions to address low-performing high schools."

 

College Readiness is about more than just academic learning

Numerous researchers have written about the non-academic skills necessary for a student to have in order to be truly college-ready.  These scholars write about coping skills and general "street smarts" that students need to navigate the college environment, such as study habits, knowledge about where to go for assistance, and simply what college students are supposed to do on a daily basis.

The author of the 2009 article "Social Class and College Readiness" argues that social class affects whether students gain this important knowledge.  The author remarks that first-generation college students are less likely to be aware of how to navigate professors' requirements and college policies than their second- and third-generation peers because their parents cannot impart this knowledge to them.  The author states that this is knowledge necessary for all students entering college but that social class can compound the lack-of-readiness of students from working class backgrounds.

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

Much of the current buzz about college readiness is linked to the Obama Administration's plans for the reauthorization of current federal education laws.  According to an April 2012 article in Community College Week, Obama's goal in creating Race to the Top was to change the focus of schooling from grade-level proficiency, as emphasized by No Child Left Behind, to ensuring that by 2020, all students are college & career ready when they graduate from high school.  These changes, the article states, would mark a drastic departure from federal policy under NCLB and would focus more on positive progress schools make rather than on punishing schools for poor performance.

College & Career Readiness is not just about College

It's also about the military.  One day last year, my assistant principal and I discussed the future of one of our more troubled and troublesome seniors (who ultimately failed to graduate in 2012).  This student had expressed to me a desire to enter the military, which would not have been a good option based on this student's behavior.  But my assistant principal commented that in light of defense cuts and the end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military can be much more selective about who they enlist, and our student would not make the cut.

In this article called "Shut Out of the Military: Today's High School Education Doesn't Mean You are Ready for Today's Army", The Education Trust argues that just as high schools aren't preparing students for college-level work, they also are not providing students with the skills they to pass the military enlistment test (the ASVAB) and pursue military service, and students of color are scoring much lower than their white peers.  The article states "Among white test-takers, 16 percent scored below the minimum score required by the Army. For Hispanic candidates, the rate of ineligibility was 29 percent.  And for African-American youth, it was 39 percent."  While this article does not provide any specific recommendations for strengthening high school programs or for preparing students for greater success on the ASVAB, it does call attention to the fact that the military may not be a viable post-secondary option for many students, especially those who (traditionally?  stereotypically?) are not college-bound.