Four Key Dimensions Of College Readiness

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Who or what is to say that a student is ready for college? No one person or entity can tell a high school graduate concretely that they are or are not ready to enter into the higher institute of learning. What they can do is provide relevant insight or guidelines to self assess if one believes they are ready for college. College readiness is not a term that can be packaged in one definition. There are numerous definitions for college readiness. Conley has defined the word in similar but different terminology himself. With the varying definitions, there is some commonality between all the definitions. The focus for defining college readiness is to state if a student is prepare to enroll and go through college. In the coursework for Good …show more content…

The four dimensions are semi-independent, key cognitive strategies, key learning skills, and key transition knowledge and skills. When viewing the dimensions closely, the descriptors can be seen in each. For example, if one examines the dimension of key transition knowledge and skills, this would relate to the descriptor of a student needing to be familiar with the college environment. The skills will come about when the students does a campus visit and apply what they have learned to determine housing, transportation need, clothing, and other related factors to college life. The dimensions and the descriptors help provide comprehension as to what is truly means to be college …show more content…

Once again the definitions may differ in wording, but the commonality is still present. One such organization is the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). “The NAGB established a technical panel to determine how the results from the 12th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) could be used as a tool to report CCR. NAGB and the technical panel defined preparedness as a subset of readiness (NAGB, 2009). College preparedness is defined as the academic knowledge and skills required to qualify for placement into entry-level college credit coursework without remediation” (Wayne, 2013, p. 22). This definition focus only on how the student is prepare academically for college. Students will need much more than academics to succeed in college. As stated in the descriptors, one will also need to possess a level of emotional and social maturity. SAT and ACT are both descriptors and the board has formed a validation framework for these assessments (NAGB, 2009), but grades alone will not suffice. Some view being ready for college as the curriculum a student takes on in secondary schools. Achieve (2004) views college and workplace readiness as taking rigorous course to prepare for college and passing English and Mathematics benchmarks. This definition is closely related to the one provide by the NAGB. The students’ readiness is based on assessments and grade point averages. The whole

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