Skip to content
Home » Blogs » Thom's blog

Recent Resources related to College Readiness

October 7, 2009 by Thom

Thom's picture

Preparing students for success in the workforce and in college is a matter of major concern in the US.  Careers in the future are more apt to require advanced education and training than they do today.  Yet, only about 55 percent of Hispanic students and 51 percent of black students will graduate on time with a regular diploma, compared to 79 percent of Asian students and 76 percent of white students.  Wealthy students are going to college and succeeding, poorer students, not so much.  There are two parts to the problem – college readiness and college success.  In the past three years a host of studies and whitepapers have addressed these issues in various ways.  

Here is a list of 27 of what we think are the most important research reports that have addressed these issues.  

  1. ACT. (2008) The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students Are on Target for College and Career Readiness before High School. http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/ForgottenMiddle.pdf
  2. Alliance for Excellent Education (August, 2009).  The High Cost of High School Dropouts:  What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools.   http://www.all4ed.org/files/archive/publications/HighCost.pdf
  3. Balfanz, R., Almeid, C., Steinberg, A., Santos, J., Fox, J.H., (July, 2009) Graduating America: Meeting the Challenge of Low Graduation-Rate High Schools. Everyone Graduates Center, Johns Hopkins University. (52 pp). http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/graduating_america_072209_0.pdf
  4. Bond, L. (2009). Toward Informative Assessment and a Culture of Evidence. A report from Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC). Stanford, Cal: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
  5. http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/dynamic/publications/elibrary_pdf_778.pdf
  6. Calkins, Andrew., William, W., Grace Belfiore, G., Lash, D., (2007). The Turnaround Challenge: Why America’s Best Opportunity to Dramatically Improve Student Achievement Lies in Our Worst-Performing Schools. Boston, MA: Mass Insight Education.  http://www.massinsight.org/resourcefiles/TheTurnaroundChallenge_2007.pdf (116 pp)
  7. Center for American Progress. (2008). Ensuring Equal Opportunity in Public Education: How Local School District Funding Practices Hurt Disadvantaged Students and What Federal Policy Can Do About It.  http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/comparability.htm
  8. Center for Community College Student Engagement. (2008). Imagine Success: Engaging Entering Students (2008 SENSE Field Test Findings). Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, Community College Leadership Program. http://www.ccsse.org/sense/survey/SENSE_2008_National_Report_March_18.pdf
  9. Conley, D.T. (2007) Redefining College Readiness, Vol. 3. Eugene Oregon: Educational Policy Improvement Center. http://www.s4s.org/upload/Gates-College%20Readiness.pdf
  10. Conley, D.T. (2003) Understanding University Success. Center for Educational Policy Research, Eugene, Oregon (82 pp). http://www.s4s.org/KSUS_introduction.pdf
  11. Dounay, J., (November 2008). Strategies to Empower Low-Income and Minority Students in Gaining Admission to and Paying for College. Education Commission of the States. http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/79/03/7903.pdf
  12. Easton, J.Q., Ponisciak,S., Luppescu, S., (October 2008). From High School to the Future: The Pathway to 20 (ACT). Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago Urban Education (32pp)   http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/Pathway%20to%2020%20Report-final.pdf
  13. Education Trust. (2005). Gaining Traction, Gaining Ground: How Some High Schools Accelerate Learning for Struggling Students. Washington, DC: The Education Trust. http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/default
  14. Frederick, M., Hess, F.M., Schneider, M., Carey, K., Kelly, A.P. (2009) Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Colleges Actually Graduate their Students (and Which Don’t). http://www.aei.org/docLib/Diplomas%20and%20Dropouts%20final.pdf
  15. Gewertz,G. (2009) Editorial Projects in Education, Diplomas Count 2009: Broader Horizons: The Challenge of College Readiness for All Students. Education Week 28, no. 34 (2009). http://www.edweek.org/login.html?source=http://www.edweek.org/ew/article...
  16. Goldberger, S., Santos, J. (2009) The Early College High School Initiative. Lessons from the Lone Star State: Designing a Sustainable Financial Model to Expand Early College High School in Texas (28 pp).  http://www.earlycolleges.org/Downloads/ECHStexasmodelXS.pdf
  17. Hahn, R.D., Price, D. (November 2008) Promise Lost: College-Qualified Students Who Don’t Enroll in College. Institute for Higher Education Policy. (47 pp). www.ihep.org
  18. Hart Research Associates. (2009). Learning and Assessment: Trends in Undergraduate Education A Survey Among Members Of The Association Of American Colleges And Universities (13 pp). http://www.aacu.org/membership/documents/2009MemberSurvey_Part1.pdf
  19. Jacobson, L., and Mokher, C. (2009) Pathways to Boosting the Earnings of Low-Income Students by Increasing Their Educational Attainment. Hudson Institute Center for Employment Policy (75 pp). http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/Gates%2001-07.pdf
  20. Jobs for the Future. 2009. A Portrait in Numbers. Boston, MA: Jobs for the Future. http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/ECHSPortrait2009.pdf
  21. McKinsey & Company. (2009) The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools. McKinsey & Company, Social Sector Office.  (24 pp) http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Images/Page_Images/Offices/SocialSecto...
  22. Pathways to College Network.  (an alliance of national organizations that advances college opportunity for underserved students by raising public awareness, supporting innovative research, and promoting evidence-based policies and practices across the K-12 and higher education sectors. Pathways is directed by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC. http://www.pathwaystocollege.net/index.html
  23. Sagawa, Shirley, and Schramm J.B. High Schools as Launch Pads: How College-Going Culture Improves Graduation Rates in Low-Income High Schools (Washington, DC: College Summit, 2008). www.collegesummit.org
  24. Savitz-Romer, M., Jager-Hyman, J., Coles, S., (2009) Removing Roadblocks to Rigor Linking Academic and Social Supports to Ensure College Readiness and Success. Institute for Higher Education Policy. (32 pp) http://www.pathwaystocollege.net/pdf/Roadblocks.pdf
  25. The Schott Foundation for Public Education, (2008). Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males. www.blackboysreport.org
  26. Southern Education Foundation (2009). No Time to Lose: Why America needs an Education Amendment to the US Constitution to Improve Public Education. (60 pp). www.southerneducation.org
  27. Tierney, W. G., Bailey, T., Constantine, J., Finkelstein, N., & Hurd, N. F. (2009). Helping students navigate the path to college: What high schools can do: A practice guide (NCEE #2009-4066). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/higher_ed_pg_091509.pdf
Permalink

Current Activity