Why college readiness

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High School Grad Requirements Do Not Assess College Readiness According to a recent report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education , college-preparatory curriculum does not ensure that students develop the critical thinking skills associated with reading, writing, and math that are necessary for college-level learning.

So then, how do high schools ensure that students graduate from high school college-ready? In another project that was completed for the Nebraska Department of Education NDE , REL Central reviewed college and career readiness indicators used by education agencies and researchers.

This project supported NDE in considering indicators to incorporate into its innovative district accountability system — the Accountability for a Quality Education System, Today and Tomorrow. Projects such as these enable state and local education agencies to examine how well their schools and districts are preparing students for colleges and careers.

If you have further questions about college and career readiness assessments, be sure to fill out an online Ask A REL form. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Admissions Why South Central? College Readiness. Find Us Here. However, there exist general benchmarks that will provide insight into how well you will perform in college.

How you score on these tests may indicate how prepared you are with regard to academic material. Another marker of your college readiness can be your high school grades, or GPA. Along with the difficulty level of your courses regular, Honors, Advanced Placement , you may be able to gauge how well you know the material. You may be taking college-level coursework during high school, but the environment of college is different from high school.

It will demand more self-paced work and personal motivation. To be better prepared for college, you can always work on honing these skills that will make all the difference. College provides students with a lot of freedom and flexibility. This is even more true when students attend an online university because they can set their own schedule. They are intended to be flexible. Although flexibility is a good thing, it means that students need to manage themselves.

Proper self-management includes eating healthily, managing responsibilities, getting enough sleep, etc. Communication in college will be both written and verbal. It will happen between peers, professors, mentors, and the like. As such, practicing good communication is a lifelong skill that will reap benefits in professional, academic, and personal relationships.

Like when you enter the workforce, college also requires you to work with others. Some people prefer to work independently.

As such, this is often a skill that needs to be practiced. Learning how to collaborate with others will happen in college naturally when provided with group assignments. Also, some people elect to set up study groups to do this, too.

College creates an environment where students have to question their beliefs. Courses often push boundaries and test limits. They are designed this way to support critical thinking and problem-solving.

Problem-solving will be a critical skill in any future career as well. College readiness is important for all students, and even more so for those who seem to struggle in high school. The statistics show that more than half of students who enroll in community colleges are testing below the necessary college level in Math and English. In order to ensure that students are in fact ready to move onto higher education, measurements of college readiness should be taken seriously.

Parents, teachers, third-party organizations, and schools can all take this role upon themselves to help students succeed in their future. Students themselves can also make a serious effort to prepare for college in advance by practicing and mastering the aforementioned skills.

However, this is unlikely to be the case. Rather, high school graduation requirements focus on the bare minimum. Students and parents often have to take it into their own hands to prepare for college. Some ways to do so include:. College readiness can provide you with insight into how you may perform in your college career before you start.

From standardized test results to grades, these benchmarks will showcase your academic abilities.