Journal Article

College Readiness for All: The Challenge for Urban High Schools

Nagaoka, Jenny, Roderick, Melissa, Coca, Vanessa

2009

Overview

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. College readiness indicators can be developed based on existing data and testing systems. But districts and states will require new data systems that provide information on the college outcomes of their graduates and link their performance during high school with their college outcomes.

• Publisher: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution,Princeton University,Princeton University-Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Academic Aspiration / Academic Education / Access / Access to Education / Achievement Tests / Admissions policies / Adolescent / Aspiration / Aspirations (Psychology) / Attainment / Cognitive-behavioral factors / College Admission / College Bound Students / College graduates / College Preparation / College Readiness / College students / Colleges / Colleges & universities / Districts / Education reform / Educational Attainment / Educational Change / Educational Indicators / Educational Inequality / Educational Measurement - standards / Educational Opportunities / Educational Status / Elementary school students / Emotional Intelligence / Enrollments / Entrance examinations / Ethnic differences / Ethnicity / Exit Examinations / Family Income / Family school relationship / Female / Grade 10 / Grade Point Average / High School Graduates / High School Students / High Schools / Higher Education / Humans / Interpersonal Competence / Knowledge / Low Income / Low Income Groups / Male / Minority Groups / Minority Groups - education / Needs Assessment / Performance standards / Policy making / Poverty / Race / Racial inequality / School Admission Criteria / School districts / Schools - organization & administration / Scores / Secondary school students / Secondary schools / Skills / Sociodemographic Characteristics / Standardized tests / Stress / Students / Teachers / Teaching - standards / Test scores / Underachievement / United States / Urban areas / Urban Education / Urban Population / Urban schools / Writers