Beyond College Readiness: College Awareness as a First Step

This policy brief states that a student’s first steps toward college attendance begins with the student’s awareness of college and career options. However, in order to make students aware of postsecondary opportunities, state boards must first enhance their college readiness standards with college awareness initiatives. To that end, this brief provides two examples of initiatives in Oregon and Idaho that have done just that. The brief first looks at Oregon’s education plan initiative, which aims to ensure students are thinking about their postgraduate options while planning their paths through high school. The brief then gives a succinct account on Idaho’s counseling standards, a comprehensive school counseling program that requires all students to create and maintain an annually updated, parent-approved learning plan to assist students with educational and career development.