College Readiness for All: The Challenge for Urban High Schools

Abstract

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.

Relationships Among Helicopter Parenting, Self-Efficacy, and Academic Outcome in American and South Korean College Students

“…Prior work on American college students found that those with helicopter parents had lower academic achievement than other students, as measured by students’ college grade point average (GPA) (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2007). Students’ GPA is regarded as a reasonable indicator of academic achievement and success in college (Mailhot & Feeney, 2017; Moore, Shulock, & Jensen, 2009; Roderick, Nagaoka, & Coca, 2009). In contrast, other research has found that for Korean American college students in the United States, helicopter parenting may not be that harmful, and it even had some positive relationship with their academics (Kwon, Yoo, & De Gagne, 2017).…”

Low-Income Latino Students and California’s Early Assessment Program

“…Latino students’ remediation rates compare with the 12% of White students who require developmental courses in English and 15% in math. Students who begin college taking developmental courses are less likely to complete college than students placed in general education classes, and often take more time to obtain their degrees (Roderick, Nagaoka, & Coca, 2009). Despite various efforts to reduce the need for developmental education, its necessity has grown in higher education in the United States and in California, especially for low-income and Latino students (Howell, Kurlaender, & Grodsky, 2010; Long, 2014; Tierney & Garcia, 2011).…”

Development and Validation of the College Admissions Knowledge Evaluation

“…The construct of college knowledge has become a cornerstone for effective college counseling and refers to the knowledge, information, and skills that students, parents, administrators, teachers, counselors, and other stakeholders need to ensure that students are successful in navigating the college decision-making and application process (Conley, 2010;Roderick, Nagaoka, & Coca, 2009). Leading college access advocates (Conley, 2010;Roderick et al, 2009;St. John, Masse, Lijana, & Bigelow, 2015) have anchored the definition of college knowledge to specific information and skills young people need to more successfully navigate the application and enrollment process.…”