College: 2-year

In this conference paper, the author notes that good jobs require access to postsecondary education and training. There is a growing economic divide between adults with and without postsecondary education and training. The author recommends that policies be put into place that assist non-traditional students and students with barriers to access postsecondary education.

This document describes what skills a college and career ready student should have from the perspective of Achieve, Inc. The authors address the questions about college and career readiness that they are most frequently asked including how the organization defines "readiness" and what they mean by "college- and career- ready."

This brief discusses the findings from a poll, funded by Achieve, Inc., to gain insight on how the general public perceives the college and career-ready agenda in education. The results indicate that there is strong agreement that postsecondary education and training of some sort is needed in order to succeed and that strong standards and assessments are needed to ensure students graduate ready for postsecondary education.

This Doing What Works toolkit provides advice for students in navigating the process to apply and attend college and where to find additional resources to assist. The toolkit includes visual diagrams, expert interviews, state and district level examples of how to improve college access, and downloadable planning templates.

This ACT research report looks at the effectiveness of encouraging students to take more rigorous college-prep courses as a means of improving high school student achievement. The author uses data from ACT's 8th, 10th and 11/12th grade tests and compares it to student ACT scores in English, math, science, and reading. The report concluded that taking additional college prep courses or advanced or honor courses did not significantly increase achievement of students post-high school.

This paper examines the the relationship between high school preparation, college choice and postsecondary outcomes for Chicago Public School (CPS) students in an effort to improve educational attainment.

This report from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform discusses whether or not New York City (NYC) public high school graduates are prepared for college success. The author uses national research as well as NYC high school achievement and college admissions and performance data to address four key questions: 1) How should we think about being ready for college? 2) Are New York City public high school graduates ready for college? 3) Is the college readiness system adequate for promoting college readiness?

Information Brief 96-1 illustrates factors that can help ethnic minorities be better prepared for college.

This report from ACT discusses the correlation between student retention, ACT composite scores, and college grade point average. Though ACT Composite scores are effective predictors of academic success in general, the scores are more effective at predicting academic success among returning students than non-returning students. This finding, as well as the mean difference in grade point averages, suggest that students returning for a second year have overcome some of the academic and non-academic obstacles that influenced their counterparts not to return.