ACADEMIC READINESS

Lumina Foundation aims to ensure that students are academically prepared to get to college.

Among high school seniors who enroll in college immediately after graduation, less than 16 percent complete an associate's degree within two years, and 53 percent earn an undergraduate degree in four years. Nationally, for every 100 ninth graders who enter high school, only 18 finish college within six years. More »

Too many students need remedial instruction after entering college. Forty percent of four-year college students and 63 percent of two-year college students end up taking at least one remedial course. The cost to taxpayers: more than $1 billion each year.

Efforts that address academic deficiencies in high school improve college readiness. By helping high school students identify specific areas in which they need improvement, they are more likely to be prepared for college-level work. An example is California State University's Early Assessment Program. Working with California high schools, CSU has identified the college-level skills that CSU-bound students need. High school juniors are encouraged to participate in a voluntary assessment to determine their readiness for CSU college courses. For those who do not pass, the senior year in high school is used to work on academic deficiencies before graduating and enrolling in college.
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Academic integration and preparation are primary features of successful models of retention. Between 30 and 40 percent of all entering freshman are unprepared for college-level reading and writing and approximately 44 percent of all college students who complete a two- or four-year degree have enrolled in at least one remedial/developmental course in math, writing, or reading. More »
States vary greatly in their current and projected performance in producing a college-educated population. Currently, 11 states have adopted a definition of "college readiness," according to the report Diplomas Count: Ready for What? Preparing for College, Careers and Life after High School. Fourteen other states are in the process of doing so. As of 2007, 22 states require students to pass an exit exam to earn a high school diploma. In 18 of those states, exams are based on standards at the 10th grade level or higher. According to the National Center for Education Management systems, only eight states are on track to reach the level of educational attainment needed by 2025 to compete with best-performing nations and meet changing workforce demands. More »PDF

The misalignment of institutional expectations, standards, curricula and outcomes from K-12 to higher education directly relates to the poor performance of many students who enter college. In a 2006 U.S. Department of Education report PDF, researchers found that "the overwhelming majority of both college and high school faculty and administrators were unaware of the standards and assessments being used by their counterparts in the other sector."

There is an "expectations gap" between what postsecondary institutions require and what high schools produce. Better alignment of institutional expectations, standards, curricula and outcomes from K-12 to higher education can lead to better student performance and increased productivity in higher education. More » PDF

Income affects college readiness. Students from disadvantaged economic backgrounds face a wider readiness gap than students from affluent families. A recent Jack Kent Cooke Foundation study PDF on high-achieving students from low-income families shows that only 56 percent of lower-income students maintain their status as high achievers in reading by fifth grade versus 69 percent of higher-income students. The rate at which high-achieving lower-income students fail to graduate on time is about twice that of their higher-income peers. The study cites a 2000 analysis in which 48 percent of gifted dropout students were from the lowest quartile of socioeconomic status, while only 3.6 of gifted dropouts were from the top socioeconomic status quartile.