Guest blogger Jamie Shkolnik, American Institutes for Research

The Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) was started in 2002 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of improving postsecondary access and success, particularly for student populations underrepresented in higher education. Schools in this initiative are characterized by partnerships with an institution of higher education (IHE) and the goal of having students earn up to two years of college credit concurrently with the high school diploma. AIR and SRI International have been contracted to conduct a national evaluation of the ECHSI.

On March 24, 2008, Jamie Shkolnik and Joel Knudson presented “Credit Where Credit is Due: An Examination of College Course-Taking at Early College High Schools,” at the American Educational Research Association conference in New York City. They presented data on Early College School (ECS) students’ college course-taking to assess the integration of college courses in high school. Data for this presentation came from a school survey administered to the population of ECSs and a student survey administered at a sample of 20 ECSs, both administered during the 2006-07 school year.

Shkolnik and Knudson found that the majority of ECSs (92%) offer college courses, and that most ECS students (65%) had taken a college class. This compared favorably to high schools nationwide, where only 5% of high school students took college classes in 2002-03 (Kleiner & Lewis, 2005). Students were increasingly likely to take college courses as they progressed through high school; 47% of ninth graders reported having taken a course, steadily increasing to 84% of twelfth graders. Students took college courses reported enrolling in an average of three courses per year.

Students also experienced greater integration with the college environment as they progressed through the grade levels. ECSs use variety of models for providing college courses to high school students, including: a) high school teachers with adjunct status teach the courses at the high school, b) college faculty teach high school students at the high school, c) college faculty teach a group of high school student on the college campus, and d) high school students, either individually or in small groups, attend traditional college courses. Shkolnik and Knudson reported that with each successive grade level, higher percentages of students took a course on a college campus, took a course with a college instructor, and took classes with traditional college students. Most students were satisfied with their ECHS experience: 80% said that if they could start over, they would choose the ECS again.

Jamie Shkolnik is a Senior Research Scientist at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). She can be contacted at JShkolnik@air.org. Joel Knudson is a Research Associate at AIR, jknudson@air.org.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, College Preparation

The Sacramento bee on May 22 published an analysis of why students who take algebra in 8th grade instead of 9th are not lowering college remediation and improving college success. California state policy promoted 8th grade algebra to prepare students to take the full math college prep sequence in high school. Many more students are taking 8th grade algebra, but remediation rates of 56 % for Cal State U and nearly 80% for community colleges have not been lowered.
The article speculates on why. Many students get a C in 8th grade algebra, some do not take math in their senior year, and the 1Oth California high school exit test is way below college standards. Moreover, the community college placement tests are not aligned with the high school mathematics test standards for the higher level 11th grade California standards test.
So 8th grade algebra is no silver bullet and needs to be supplemented with many other policies. California ended its algebra professional development for middle school teachers years ago, and this may be a significant cause.

Labels: College Preparation, College Success Studies, College Testing

Title 1 the main funding source for NCLB provides 14 billion annually, but only 6% of this money goes to high schools and 15% goes to middle and high schools combined ! So not much college preparation can be provided to low income students who are at risk of not completing college because of poor academic skills and knowledge. This needs to be a major focus of NCLB reauthorization. Foundation support for college preparation can not come close to matching the potential of Title 1 as a funding source.
I doubt adding new categorical programs for high schools is the best route. Congress is considering a billion for Success in Middle Schools Act, and 2.5 billion for a Graduation Promise Act. But college prep needs to be at the core of NCLB, not an add on through yet another underfunded categorical.

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, College Preparation

I attended a conference on early college high schools that enable
average students to take college courses in high school up to 60
credits. These schools are spreading through Gates foundation grants,
and are impressive. They utilize lots of innovative practices
starting in the middle grades to prepare and nurture students for
college. Most of them are in low income areas and admit by lottery.
But they require students to attend longer hours, and to pursue a
college prep curriculum. But early college high schools have many
supports for students such as mentors, counselors, parent outreach,
and stimulating curriculum. They are smaller and more personalized
than typical big city high schools.

The costs are higher for early college schools and I wonder what
will happen after the foundation money runs out. However, the results
may be worth the extra money, and I was impressed with the energetic
staff and some preliminary outcomes for students. gates is evaluating
these schools so we will know more in a few years. For an overview,
check the major technical assistance provider for early college - www.jff.org

Labels: academic preparation College Completion, college costs, college information, college knowledge, College Preparation, College Readiness, College Success, curriculum alignment, ready for college

States are making slow progress on k-16 data systems according to a new report by The Data Quality Campaign-www.DataQualityCampaign.org. Only 15 states collect student level college readiness scores. Only 11 states link data for students across k-12 and postsecondary, and just 10 states regularly report postsecondary data to high schools. High schools do not know if their students are prepared for college. At the high school level only 17 states collect student transcript data.
Four states have all the necessary data elements- AR,DE,Fl, and UT. Data is a first step for accountability in the k-16 system, so we are a long way from an outcomes based college preparation state system.

Labels: college information, College Preparation

Achieve has published an outstanding guide for states aligning high school curiculum and standards with college standards- http://www.achieve.org/. It is entitled Aligning High School Graduation With the Real World, and specifies 18 steps that must be completed. It covers the key parameters, accountability, incentives,implementation, building support, and communication. I have never seen anything this logical or systemic. Some parts are too brief in this 29 page document such as professional development for secondary school teachers. But all the key elements are here, and it highlights that numerous interconnected actions must be created to make college preparation and college completion likeley. I wish there had been some estimates of state costs for following this road map.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation

Education Week"s new Quality Counts gives grades to states for college transition policies beginning on page 37. http://www.edweek.org/. State policies average a C ,but the trend line is up. The leading state such as Ma, Mi, and Ga have implemented several policies that Edweek thinks are effective. Only 15 states have a defintition of college readiness that is specific in terms of what content should be learned. Only, 3 states require a college preparation curriculum to graduate from high school .
College transition is increasingly on the state policy agenda, but follow through and passage is still slow.

Labels: College Preparation, curriculum alignment

My second review is the US Education Departments College navigator site www.nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator. It has data on 7,ooo public and private institutions using 16 criteria that cover many aspects of colleges including the setting, security, and major foci. The pop up boxes are useful on clarifying the terms and concepts included.
The site has so much information that it is difficult to use if students do not know what they are looking for, and are undecided about whether they should go to college at all. Moreover, it does not caution students enough concerning the time and study requirements ,if the student is working and has family obligations. Navigator is best for students who have some specific ideas about going to college.
Another website http://www.mycollegepuzzle.com/ shown at the top right of this blog is for the other end of the spectrum-broad access postsecondary education for students who are less clear on their choices ,and the demands of college success and college preparation. This site encourages prospective college students to consider several different factors and elements that could influence their individual college outcome. I plan to commenting on each of the elements or pieces of the college puzzle in future posts.

Labels: college information, College Preparation, College Success

There are a number of websites that designed to help students compare colleges , but they all have serious limitations. It is hard to provide everything in a single website , so students need to use several. My first review is "The University and College Accountability Network"-www.ucan-network.org. This is provided by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and has 6oo colleges.
It has good graphics and data on SAT scores and ethnicity of students. But it is basically restatements of PR from the colleges own websites, with little about job placement and real campus life.
This website is mostly for selective colleges. Our website www.mycollegepuzzle.com at the top right of this blog is for the other end of the spectrum-broad access postsecondary education. Click on it to see the difference concerning college preparation and needed elements for college success

Labels: College Preparation, college sucess

While immigrants struggle to complete their programs at broad access postsecondary education, the University of California 8 campus system reports 54% of their students were born outside the USA, or have at least one foreign born parent. UC has a graduation rate that exceeds 80%. UC- Berkeley has 64% of its students from an immigrant background. These immigrant students are more oriented towards careers in technology and business than the rest of UC students . European American students are the most dominant group in political science and psychology.
The contrast of UC with California community colleges is stark, because only 17% of Latinos in community college complete any program[ including vocational certificates ]after 6 years. High Schools seem to have two tracks, one that leads to honors/ AP and a selective college. Another track is general college prep which has a low probability of college completion and adequate college preparation. Remediation rates for all high school students are 56% at California State University system and 70% at community colleges.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation

A national effort called the Data Quality Campaign encourages states to develop high quality longitudinal data systems on a p-16 basis. They have ten fundemental elements for a statewide data system and stress student level college readiness test scores, high school transcripts for each student, and the ability to match student records between k-12 and higher education systems. Unfortunately, only Florida has all ten elements. The bigest state, California, does not even have individual student records for any level of p-16. Texas is making big progress and may meet the ten elements in a few years.
We cannot understand and solve poor college completion and college preparation without solid longitudinal data. More urgency needs to be given to the existing gaps. See http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/ to see the problem state by state.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation, College Success

Blackboard Inc., a provider of education and software services will launch " a strategic initiative" to help connection and collaboration between k-12 and postsecondary institutions.
The Company appears to have a good grasp of the problems including disconnected systems and the resulting poor preparation for college as well as low postsecondary completion overall.

Blackboard's assumptions are that a k-20 community can be built by leveraging technology and spending "over a million dollars". Both of these assumptions are problematic, but Blackboard's specific objectives are sensible. Technology could be an impetus for connecting two systems that rarely talk to each other about crucial issues. Blackboard hopes to build a k-20 online community of educators, promote state and local models of successful collaboration, publish case studies of success, and utilize Blackboard solutions and technology to enhance coordination.

Unfortunately, Blackboard's examples in its press release feature universities, rather than community colleges where the bulk of the problems (like remediation) exist. Something new is needed because k-20 connections are not growing fast enough. Focusing on so many age groups at once has bogged down states and regions as the Education Commission of the States found out in trying to organize around such a huge target. Perhaps Blackboard should focus on grades 8 to 14 as a first step , and not try to integrate kindergarten with college seniors in the same initiative.

I am intrigued by what technology might do, because there are few natural meeting places where k-12 and postsecondary come together face to face to confront their mutual problems and discuss potential solutions. Sectors of education have different governing boards and funding systems. The teacher unions are not well integrated either. Perhaps technology can bridge some of these divides without expensive and time consuming travel to meetings.

Don't forget to visit our sister site http://www.mycollegepuzzle.com/ for one tool that we believe could help students BEFORE they get to college.

Labels: academic preparation, College Completion, College Preparation, College Success

Policymakers, politicians, and parents lament the rift between K-12 schools and college – High schools teach one thing and colleges demand another.

These misaligned expectations results from poor communication between K-12 and our college system – miscommunication that leaves us with far too many students who lack proper academic preparation for college success. And, by the way, these misinformed high school students become struggling college students for whom college completion becomes more dream than reality.

There is a similar, dangerous rift that exists between colleges and companies. Colleges, in general, are not graduating students who can contribute to the American enterprise. Thus, corporations are compelled to invest in, at a minimum, training newly hired workers or, at worst, remediating them with basic skills courses.

Howard Block, who commented for this Blog's previous entry, is frustrated by experts’ frequent lamentations that our economy will fail without more college graduates. Humbug, he says -- it’s not about graduates! It’s about skills. We need more educated, skilled and informed labor, IRRESPECTIVE of graduating from college. The graduation ceremony and diploma should be the byproducts, the accoutrements of the skills and knowledge acquired.

Therein lays the opportunity.

The rift, the miscommunication between traditional colleges and American enterprise is presents a huge opportunity, more significant, in Block's view, as that which faced John Sperling—the founder of Apollo Group--more than thirty years ago when traditional colleges did not address the needs of the consumer. Driven by the failures of traditional colleges, John Sperling built the largest university in this country on the back of a powerful B2C (business to consumer) model.

Now, traditional colleges are not addressing the needs of business. Therefore, winning colleges or companies will build a B2B (business to business) model.

But, in order to do that, postsecondary education companies will need to deploy sophisticated sales professionals who are accustomed to calling on sophisticated businesses. The winning colleges or companies will need a coat-and-tie crew that can dazzle ‘em in the board room.
Colleges will need to approach employers, ask them what they need in terms of skills or competencies. (Most large employers already catalogue the competencies they need to prosper. ) Then, the colleges will contract with employers to provide students with those competencies. This will compel colleges to build curricula that map to the competencies.

This increasing communication between colleges and business would further elevate the ownership taken by employers in student development. This should also compel employers to offer greater levels of tuition subsidy thereby addressing the burgeoning problem of rising tuition.

Labels: academic preparation, College Completion, College Preparation, College Success

The following represent the third of a three-part guest entry to my blog by Michael Staton who works with Batiq – a “social entrepreneurship company that is dedicated to revolutionizing education and creating more purposeful uses for technology.” In simpler terms, Batiq preps students for college.

Staton interviewed students at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Students were asked to describe behaviors of a successful college student. Then all behaviors were grouped and assigned an attribute name. According to these focus groups, nine attributes, overall, describe a successful college student. Attributes are listed in the order from their perceived commonness -- from the most common to the least. Attributes seem to build on each other and become more difficult to obtain requiring more wisdom and skill as the list progresses. The attributes are listed as: Inquisitive, Adaptive, Self-Motivated, Insightful, Passionate, Committed, Creative, Professional, and Synergetic.

Successful students also have a professional attitude and demeanor, even for school. They understand appropriate behavior and dress, and can communicate articulately to different audiences using different voices. They have worked with people from different backgrounds, and shown themselves a valuable team member. They have earned the trust of organizations and supervisors by their punctuality, their consistent commitment, and their exemplary productivity. They have shown commitment to their organizations, but also worked with and mobilized other organizations with mutual interests towards the same common goal.

While being professional is the ability to work within organizations, being synergetic is the ability to lead organizations for superior outcomes. Exemplary individuals can bring people together with seemingly little in common and bridge cultural or communicative gaps. They can articulate a common goal that did not preexist, and clearly identify roles for each person or organization. They see the value in every person, and bring out the productivity and energy of all involved by using each according to their individual strengths and goals. Individual weaknesses are mitigated through strong leadership and individual conflicts are mediated by offering effective compromises or win-win solutions. Synergetic leadership is often founded upon strong integrity and excellence in the other eight areas.

One may conclude that students’ college persistence, college completion and college success would all increase along with an increasing count of the attributes described above.

Labels: College Preparation, Successful College Student

Jon S. Twing of Pearson Educational Measurement recently critiqued a prior Blog entry. Twing acknowledged that my January entry ("Alignment Needed to Enhance College Completion") caused him to ruminate regarding a concept that he works on everyday -- the validity of assessment systems.

My entry, according to Twing, argued that K-12 and post-secondary education systems are not integrated. He agreed with that crucial premise, but had much more to say. I respect Twing’s perspective as he has spent much of his career providing support for many large-scale, statewide assessment programs, some of which include end-of-course testing, college readiness components and consideration of school-to-work transitions.

This is the 2nd entry (the 1st entry was "Boomerang ..." dated June 23rd) in which I share Twing’s perspective.

Twing took issue with the state policy possibilities which I mentioned that may help resolve the problem. He argued that I ignored the cause of the problem, namely that policymakers have not defined what is to be accomplished by all of the testing.

Twing argues that policymakers are trying to accomplish the notion of a linked academic system, an intrinsically rational system. An intrinsically rational academic system would be required to survive the scrutiny of a rational human asking if such a linked system was valid. For example, if Algebra II skills are required for success in post-secondary efforts, an intrinsically rational system would suggest secondary school systems would prepare students by teaching them the same Algebra II enabling skills post-secondary requires. Similarly, such an intrinsically rational system would require the primary school system teach the content standards required as pre-requisites by the secondary school system such that students coming to high school would be ready to learn the information they needed to be successful when they got to college. As a result, college readiness would be elevated for many more students.

Twing acknowledged that “several obstacles appear to stand in the way of achieving an intrinsically rational ‘all encompassing’ system”. The lack of a linked system is not simply the lack of the secondary system understanding or preparing students for college success.

First, the post-secondary system may have difficulty agreeing on a single set of educational standards. Twing believes that the independence of college faculty and others in the post-secondary arena might preclude a single set of well articulated standards from being developed. He doubts that universities are inclined to prescribe curriculum for not only introductory courses but also subsequent courses that build on the skills acquired in these beginning courses. Just how likely are universities going to be in persuading all faculties who teach, say, introductory sciences courses, to ensure they cover the same big ideas, let alone the same scope and sequence? Compared to, arguably the sometimes flawed but nonetheless vertically articulated, statewide curriculum the post-secondary corpus of content seems disjointed.

I'll continue sharing Twing's perspective on my prior critique in my next entry.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation, College Readiness, College Success

Now that the senior year of high school has ended, it is an appropriate time to examine its impact upon college preparation and college completion.

The American educational system does little to discourage high school seniors from focusing on matters other than academic work. Rather than using the senior year to complete their secondary education and continue to prepare for postsecondary education, many seniors take less demanding courses and pay less attention to them. Some students use this time for goofing off; others earn money for college or complete nonpaid internships.

For the 70% of students who go on to postsecondary education directly after high school, the primary academic tasks for senior year are, in their view, to graduate on time and to secure admission to college. The first of these tasks may be accomplished by taking the easiest courses that meet the school’s graduation requirements. The second of these tasks usually does not require any effort after the first semester of senior year, since college admissions decisions do not rely on second-semester grades and colleges rarely withdraw an admissions offer to a prospect whose grades drop sharply.

Indeed, the college admissions calendar encourages college-bound students to work hard in their sophomore and junior years—since those grades are reviewed by admissions officers—and provides no incentives for continuing to study hard or take challenging courses in their senior year. It is not unusual for the highest-achieving students to take AP courses in their junior year in order to gain admission to a highly selective college and then drop challenging courses after receiving early admission in the fall of senior year.

The students’ view is, of course, shortsighted. But it is hard for students to see beyond the twin goals of high school graduation and college admission. And in their minds, these goals are not only sufficient but discrete: They do not realize that meeting their high school graduation requirements does not mean that they are prepared for college (ACT, 2000). Nor do they think about using their senior year to prepare for the placement exams that may await them when they enroll in college.

One result is that many students who received good grades in high school spend part of their freshman year in college enrolled in remedial writing, math, and science classes. For example, 56% of the students admitted to the California State University campuses fail a placement test and must take a remedial course; at the more selective University of California campuses, almost a third of freshmen fail the writing exam.

Among those who fail college math placement exams are students who took math courses during their junior year in high school, but took no math their senior year. By the time they arrive on campus, they have forgotten their algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Instead of moving on to college-level work, they must revisit topics they studied in high school. Remediation is a particularly acute problem for low-income students who proceed directly from high school to postsecondary education (ACT, 2000).

The colleges know this—they know how many of their freshmen fail their placement tests, how many are on academic probation, and how many drop out because they are not academically prepared for college-level work. But most colleges, like their applicants, have been more concerned about access to higher education—about admissions—than about academic preparation. For example, most community colleges have an open admissions policy, which fulfills their mandate to provide access.

But community colleges send weak signals to high school students about the knowledge and skills they need to acquire in high school in order to succeed in college. Only when these students arrive for orientation or registration do they discover that they will not be allowed to take for-credit courses until they have passed the college’s English and math placement exams.

The fault, of course, does not lie solely with higher education. Part of the problem is that the high schools view their curriculum more as a set of discrete courses than as a coherent program that culminates in the senior year. Seniors continue to accumulate the units needed for graduation with little guidance about the knowledge and skills they will need to succeed in their next endeavor, be it college or a vocation. Despite the cliché about viewing high school graduation as a commencement, the high schools largely treat the completion of senior year as an end in and of itself.

In addition, the senior year has been left out of the accountability movement in the K-12 schools. New York’s state K-12 assessment includes the senior year; other states stop by the 11th grade and most stop at the 10th grade level. The K-12 assessment movement has no strategy for accountability for the senior year.

From this perspective, senior slump appears to be the rational response of high school seniors to an education system in which no one claims the academic content of the senior year as a basis for further education. Neither the K–12 system nor the postsecondary system provide any incentives for high school seniors to work hard. To understand this institutional disinterest in senior year, we must look at the almost total disjuncture between K–12 education and postsecondary education.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation, College Readiness, College Success

Can any test of high school students predict college success and indicate adequate college preparation?
Probably not -- if the only data used for prediction is a single test like ACT or SAT.

There are inherent problems with any single test as reported by the National Research Council’s Lessons Learned About Testing. Below are some relevant direct quotes from the NRC report:

There is measurement error related to the fact that the questions on a test are only a sample of all the knowledge and skills in the subject being tested – there will always be students who would have scored higher if a particular test version had included a different sample of questions that happened to hit on topics those tested students knew well.

Other examples of factors that contribute to measurement error are students’ lucky guesses, physical condition, state of mind, motivation, and distractions during testing, as well as scoring errors.

Therefore, a test score is not a perfect reflection of student achievement or learning.

Another common problem is the tendency to use what are single, inexact measures to make very important decisions about individuals. Testing professionals advise that when making high-stakes decisions it is important to use multiple indicators of a person’s competency, which enhances the overall validity (or defensibility) of the decisions based on the measurements. It also affords the test-taker different modes of demonstrating performance.

High Stakes (1999) concludes that tests should be used for important decisions about individual students only after implementing changes in teaching and curriculum that ensure that students have been taught the material on which they will be tested.

A major rebuttal to Professor Ericksson’s contention that tests are the best predictor of college success is provided by

Labels: College Preparation, College Success, College Testing

With the exception of the AP program, there are no major efforts to provide curricular coherence and sequencing between the senior year and postsecondary education, and the role of the senior year in high school as a forum for general education is rarely discussed. Nor has anyone proposed a conception of liberal education that relates the academic content of the secondary schools to the first two years of college.

Instead, students face an “eclectic academic muddle in Grades 10–14” (Orrill, 2000) until they select a college major. In Ernest Boyer’s metaphor, postsecondary general education is the “spare room” of the university, “the domain of no one in particular” whose many functions make it useless for any one purpose (Boyer and Levine, 1981). The functional “rooms,” those inhabited by faculty, are the departmental majors.

There are no recent assessments of the status of general education. Adelman (1992) analyzed college students’ transcripts from the National Longitudinal Study, data from the early to mid-1970s, which proved to be a low point in general education requirements. He reported that students took very few courses in the fields comprised by general education. Less than one-third of college credits were from courses that focused on cultural knowledge, including Western and non-Western culture, ethnic, or gender studies. Among bachelor degree recipients, 26% did not earn a single college credit in history, 40% did not study any English or American literature, and 58% had no coursework in foreign languages.

When attention is paid to general education, two contending theories predominate. One holds that the purpose of general education is to prepare students for a specialized major; the other, that the purpose of general education serves as an antidote to specialization, vocationalism, and majors. Clark (1993) hoped that somehow the specialized interests of the faculty could be arranged in interdisciplinary forms that would provide a framework for a coherent general education, but there is little evidence that this is happening.

In sum, the high school curriculum is unmoored from the freshman and sophomore college curriculum and from any continuous vision of liberal education. Policymakers for the secondary and postsecondary schools work in separate orbits that rarely interact, and the policy focus for K–16 has been more concerned with access to postsecondary education than with the academic preparation needed to complete a postsecondary degree or certificate. Access, rather than college preparation, is also the theme of many of the professionals who mediate between the high schools and the colleges: high school counselors, college recruiters, and college admissions and financial aid officers.

The number and influence of mediating groups is, for Stocking (1985, p. 263), an indicator of the “amount of disorder and confusion that has grown through the years in the relationship between the school and the university in America.” In addition to the mediating professionals employed by the high schools and the colleges, “A major role is assumed by the major private testing organizations, whose tests have become powerful tools for allocating students to different types of universities and colleges. And increasingly prominent is the mediating influence of federal government as it has attempted to increase equity in American education and now seeks to emphasize excellence” (ibid.).

Labels: College Preparation, College Readiness

More than 70% of high school graduates now go on to postsecondary education. Yet, a new study of high school student engagement reveals some major concerns about the level of college preparation of those students.

See “Voices of Students on Engagement: A Report on the 2006 Survey of Student Engagement”.

Using a national sample of grades 9-12, the survey found that:

· Fewer than half of the students go to high school because of what happens within the classroom environment
· A great majority of students are bored every day, if not in every class

· 43% spend 0-1 hour doing written homework, 83% spend 5 hours or less

· 55% spend 0 or 1 hour per week reading and studying for class, 90% spend 5 hours or fewer

· Students want more active learning such as peer working groups and presentations

· Girls report being more engaged across all dimensions of high school engagement than boys. (Girls were 58% of 4 year college graduates in 2006).

Engagement within a high school context is about a student’s relationship with the school community (adults, peers, curriculum, facilities, etc). Importantly, however, I believe that this study should raise concerns that many of these high school students will become at-risk college students who will not experience college success for the very reason that they were not sufficiently engaged in high school.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation

It is useful to highlight some particularly good state studies and actions regarding college student risk factors and college support for struggling students. A superb report was released on February 12, 2007 by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education through their Developmental Education Task Force. It is entitled Securing Kentucky’s Future. It has six core recommendations:

1. Update college admissions regulations
2. 
   Create an integrated accountability system tied to performance funding
3. 
   Fund infrastructure improvement
4. 
   Align college readiness standards and tie to educator professional development
5. 
   Better link educator preparation to college readiness
6. 
   Develop early student interventions

Among the specifics in the report is a detailed plan on how to help students with poor college preparation once they enter college. A key passage is quoted below:

Best practice, as implemented in the Council’s admission regulation, will require that under-prepared students (a) receive developmental help in their first semester of college (or perhaps before that in summer workshops); (b) be required to stay in developmental education until they successfully complete the course(s); and (c) take the appropriate credit-bearing course(s) immediately following completion of developmental work.

Implementing these changes will require improved (and more directive) advising, revisions in course registration procedures, and additional resources to increase the availability of developmental education in the first semester for all students in need.

Labels: College Completion, College Preparation, College Success, ready for college