What Is College Readiness??
There is no consensus on this term so confusion abounds when it is mentioned. On a recent NAEP panel we distinguished readiness from academic prepardness which means can be measured by some types of tests or assessments.
College readiness is an elusive and multi-faceted concept that has no standard definition. Consequently, there is confusion among terms like “college readiness”, “college culture”, “college preparedness”, etc. This blog will provide some arbitrary definitions based on my judgments from the most appropriate literature. The overall design starts with secondary school student readiness attributes and then moves to cultures in secondary schools that build readiness. It ends with analysis of measuring dimensions of readiness. My themes are how complex readiness is and how many dimensions need to come together in order to embody and help produce readiness.
David T. Conley has the broadest view of college readiness, so it is the best starting point (Conley, 2007- see www.epiconline.org paper on College readiness). He breaks readiness down to four integrated components:
- Habits of Mind – patterns of intellectual behavior that lead to the development of cognitive strategies and capabilities necessary for college work. Among these are: intellectual openness, inquisitiveness, analysis, reasoning, interpretation, precision and problem solving. Multiple choice tests cannot measure all these elements.
- Overarching Academic Skills – writing, research, English, math, science, social studies, world languages, etc. These include skills such as: evaluate source material, synthesize, access information from a variety of locations, and written argumentation.
- Academic Behavior – metacognition, mastery of study skills, time management, note taking, communication with teacher and advisers.
- Conceptual Skills and Awareness – this is sometimes called “college knowledge” and encompasses teamwork, communication with others, understanding of college admission/placement, college options, financial aid applications, testing, college cultures, and expectations of postsecondary education.
Dr. Conley provides four solid components to consider as we strive to identify and share the essence of “college readiness.” There is, however, another one which I would to propose here and that involves Family/Community Social Networks. All of the four components that Dr. Conley sets forth are within the cognitive domain and can be taught within the context of a high school curriculum or through participation by students in UpWard Bound, Title III, or GEARUP Programs. The component that I am proposing is one which is grounded in the life of the student since birth and which continues during the years that they are in a social circle. These are rarely explored and for disenfranchised, first-generation students, mostly female and ethnic populated, this component is the one which has no direct relevant to the one of successful white students who enter the same colleges and universities and have had many opportunities, including the economic means to participate in social networks that more closely mirror those of the institution that they are enrolling in.
I will more research on this item as I make progress. Please give me your feedback.
Thank you
B. A.Acevedo, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor of Educational Leadership and Research
UT Pan American
Your comment is correct and look at the research of professor Patricia MCDonough at UCLA for more on your point
Dr. Acevedo,
You are quite right. I actually explored the socio-cultural and family based dimension of college readiness in my doctoral treatise prepared for the doctoral program in community college leadership at UT Austin. Since we are neighbors, perhaps we can meet sometime to discuss this aspect of college readiness.
Wallace Johnson, Ed.D.
South Texas College
Dr. Michael W. Kirst,
Thank you for posting Dr. Conely’s work. It’s most important for students and faculty alike to understand that “college readiness” is an elusive term. Not understanding the distinction between readiness from academic preparedness, is what I believe, causes much of the anxiety experienced by most new students. Students struggle to the degree in which they are uncertain of the skills necessary to thrive in a college environment and ultimately succeed. Hopefully with a more concrete definition of college readiness we can reverse engineer the components Dr. Conley and others present and better prepare our students with a solid foundation for academic success.
Mark Abella
Online Educator
Better the better question concerns if colleges are ready for today’s students and how they learn.
Interesting but misguided in considering college readiness. Colleges are as ready today as at anytime in the past. This means in my opinion they were never ready for the challenges of preparing college age minds for the needs of the next 40 years of progress. Perhaps this is why there are so many who are out of work with college degrees.
It is a shame that the focus seems to be on preparing colleges and not into how to mold students so they want to develop skills that will be useful over a lifetime. I remember my computer programming classes from the early 70’s. We spent a lot of time on keypunching cards so they would run through the univac computer. A little outdated skill but if it is ever needed again I am prepared.
I suggest we focus on social skills, personal development, language skills, and presentation skills. They will all be needed in the future.
Edward