College Preparedness Essay

Todays cultivate-age childs face a world influenced by a global economy, technological advances and quick changes in the way we sh atomic number 18 nurture, eliminate and conduct business. It has never been more(prenominal) minute to foster them build the companionship, skills, behaviors and awareness infallible to win headway in college and beyond. Improving postsecondary victory for all our citizens, entirely just about(predicate) desperately for low-income and minority learners, is vital to our nations economic and social health, and global competitiveness.Yet, college remedy and completion rate suggest that umpteen schoolchilds leave mellowed give littleons without the skills and intimacy required to abide by in postsecondary direction. (media. collegeboard. com/Feb. 26,2013) College straightaway marrow much more than but pursuing a four- division power point at a university. cosmos college- groom means being alert for any postsecondary cultivat ion or training experience, including carry at two- and four-year institutions leading to a postsecondary credential (i.e. a certificate, license, Associates or Bachelors level).Being create from raw stuff for college means that a high enlighten day graduate has the English and math acquaintance and skills obligatory to qualify for and succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing college marks without the indigence for remedial extendwork. Although students commence ambitious enlighteningal and career aspirations, some overlook basic development some how to fulfill their postsecondary aspirations.Many students and their parents fail to designing because they do non turn in the substantial reading resources, personal support networks, and structure programs they request to effectively perform educational and postsecondary ingenuity activities (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000 Hrabowski et al. , 1998 McDonough, 1997). Some students and their parents rich person a vague understanding or hold misconceptions close high school course requirements for college opening, the grandeur of teachers in college mean, and college education cost (Choy, Horn, Nunez, & Chen, 2000 Hrabowski, Maton, Greene, & Greif, 2002 Schneider & Stevenson, 1999Venezia et al., 2003). (www. aypf. org/ Feb. 27,2013) There are four-fold steps that students and their parents heap maintain to luckyly intent for postsecondary education and become college ready. These steps build upon atomic number 53 an some other to garter students tie the transition from secondary to postsecondary education and training (McDonough, 1997).The early stages of postsecondary planning mint include, but are not contain to 1) Considering postsecondary education, 2) Deciding to attend college, 3) Maintaining goodgrades, 4) group information about the college admissions address (including college admissions tribulations), 5) Discussing educational and career goals with counselors, teachers , and parents, 6) Obtaining information about colleges and academic programs, 7) Obtaining information about pecuniary helper opportunities, and 8) Exploring college major and career liaisons. (www. act. org/Feb. 27,2013) naturalises should provide the tools, information, and resources to go students and their parents finished the postsecondary planning influence and make successful educational transitions.And it is primal for schools to seat this planning process by the c immortalise of attention school years. This early educational planning flock guide students experiences in midst and high school and help them make informed educational decisions. A secernate aspect of early educational planning involves the exploration of educational and work options. Students cook many another(prenominal) postsecondary choices, including two-year colleges, certificate programs, four-year colleges, the military, and employment.They much begin taking steps to make their educational goals a reality by taking college preparatory courses, maintaining good grades in these courses, participating in additionalcurricular activities, and breeding about ways to pay postsecondary education (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000). And they whitethorn regularly move in conversations about their futures with their friends, parents, teachers, and counselors (McDonough, 1997). College Costs. Most parents retrieve that a college education is the best enthronement they support make for their children (Miller, 1997).Developing a plan to pay college cost is an meaty part of early educational planning, practically leading students and parents to discuss college costs, research motley colleges and their academic programs, and explore pecuniary forethought opportunities (Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper, 1999). However, many parents neglect or are un able to save money, or do not gravel a plan to pay for college when their children are young. These families may dig that they provokeno t afford college. Many students and parents overly want pick outledge and information about college costs and options of paying for postsecondary education.Even among high school juniors and higher-rankings who plan to attend college, few catch accurate information about college costs. take aims can help students discover educational goals by providing career and postsecondary planning information, beginning in the middle school. Counselors, teachers, principals, and other school military group often influence students educational goals and postsecondary planning. end-to-end their school years, most students take exchangeable achievement tests and complete career interest measures to assess academic doing and attention in postsecondary planning.Schools can integrate test information into the course choice process to show students how test results align with anatomyroom performance and what academic skills they carry to uprise by future courses. Counselors and teache rs can study assessment results with students and parents to guide course selection and placement in the proper course level to fit the students academic planning and achievement (Wimberly, 2003). Low-income parents and students often report that they do not receive adequate information about financial aid.They often lack knowledge about the application process and what financial aid is available to them. Consequently, low-income parents and students may not develop a college finance plan (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000). Many high achieving low-income students are more likely to inclose the military than college because of failing to develop a plan to pay for college costs (Choy, 2000). normal media stories about rising tuition costs and budget cuts at colleges and universities may enhance the issue by making it wait that a college education is unaffordable.This, in turn, may cause many students and their families not to look for college finance information. Students often enter t heir senior year of high school believe they are ready for college because they have spotless required courses. This leads to the development of particularly pestiferous study habits and skills during the senior year (Conley, 2001 Kirst, 2000 subject Commission on the High School Senior Year, 2001). In this fashion, the lack of a coherent, developmentally sequenced program of study also contributes to deficiencies in other key areas, including study skills and while management.In fact, it is difficult to create by mental act a preparation program that evinces time management and study skills but does not sequence challenge levels that develop these skills more and more from year to year. What does it mean to be college ready? Previous research suggests that being ready for college means having the academic contented knowledge and skills needed to pass college level courses (Conley 2007 Roderick, Nagaoka & coca plant 2009), including course grades, standardized test scads, a nd the degree of rigor of courses taken.Additional research suggests that motivational or non-cognitive factors can be cardinal determinants of success in college (Dweck, Walton & Cohen 2011). These factors include perseverance maintaining a positive attitude toward development and being able to persist when the press release gets tough. Being college ready also encompasses having college knowledge that includes knowing how to apply to college and for financial aid (Conley 2007).Because college is truly unlike from high school, college readiness is first harmonicly polar than high school competence. Students fresh out of high school may think a college course is very much like a similarly named high school class taken previously only to surface out that stick outations are fundamentally different The college teacher is more likely to emphasize a series of key intellection skills that students, for the most part, do not develop extensively in high school.They hold back stud ents to make inferences, interpret results, analyze contradictory explanations of phenomena, support arguments with evidence, solve multifactorial problems that have no obvious answer, stint conclusions, call explanations, conduct research, engage in the exchange of ideas, and generally think deeply about what they are being taught (National Research Council, 2002). College is different from high school in many important ways, some obvious, some not so obvious. College is the first place where we expect young quite a little to be adults, not large children.Almost all of the rules of the hazard that students have so carefully learned and mastered over the preceding 13 years of schooling are any discarded or modified drastically. The pupil-teacher family changes dramatically as do expectations for engagement, single-handed work, motivation, and intellectual development. All of this occurs at a time when many young population are experiencing significant independence from fa mily and from the affair of child for the first time. No revere that the transition from high school to college is one of the most difficult that many people experience during a lifetime.At the very(prenominal) time, college rung consistently report that first-year students need to be expense some twice the time they indicate spending currently to prepare for class (National descry of Student Engagement, 2006) These students do not enter college with a work ethic that prepares them for instructor expectations or course requirements College freshmen who are most successful are those who come prepared to work at the levels faculty members expect.Those who do not are much less likely to progress beyond entry-level courses, as witnessed by the highfailure rates in these courses and the significant proportion of college student who drop out during the freshman year. Finally, the relationship between teacher and student can be much different than in high school. An oft-cited examp le by college faculty is the first-term freshman who is failing the course, shows up at office hours near the end of the term, and requests extra credit in order to be able to pass. College instructors are often beat by such requests.The students are every bit mystified by the instructor reaction, since this system has worked very well for the student passim high school In other words, the cultural and social expectations about learning and performance that students encounter tend to be vastly different as well. The scores students receive on defer of matter tests may not be good indicators of college readiness, but students may believe that passage of the state test is just such an indicator. recent data from the National Assessment of educational Progress (NAEP) suggest a fundamental disconnect between trends and scores on state tests and on NAEP tests, which has triggered a federal official study of state definitions of proficiency (Cavanagh, 2006) When performance on state tests is compared to NAEP performance, significant differences survive from state to state, and students can show come along on state tests and not correspondent improvement on NAEP In other words, it is very difficult to know what successful performance on a state test really means.A student who meets all aspects of the college readiness definition would gain in several ways. One is, the student would be comfortable in basically any entry-level general education course. This is an important level to attain because failure to succeed in one or more general education courses during the first year is closely associated with failure to continue in college (Choy, 2001 Choy, Horn, Nunez, & Chen, 2000).A definition of college readiness must also address the issue of how students commingle the various facets of college readiness. For students, the combination is more complex because it includes the elements under the schools realize along with those that are not. In particular, st udents need to understand what it really means to be college-ready. They need to understand what they must do as well as what the system requires or expects of them.They must, first and foremost, understand that college admission is a reasonable and realistic goal that can be attained through planning and diligent attention to necessary tasks. Successful academic preparation for college is grounded in two important dimensionskey cognitive strategies and content knowledge Understanding and master key content knowledge is achieved through the exercise of broader cognitive skills embodied inwardly the key cognitive strategies.With this relationship in mind, it is entirely proper and worthwhile to realize some of the general areas in which students need strong grounding in content that is foundational to the understanding of academic disciplines The case for the importance of challenging content as the example for developing thinking skills and key cognitive strategies has been made elsewhere and will not be repeated in erudition here (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000).Our study clearly shows that many students and their families are not considering college finances as part of their early educational and postsecondary planning. As early as sixth grade, schools can help reverse this trend by encouraging families to explore college finance options. School personnel should be knowledgeable about financial aid and scholarship opportunities, the financial aid process, and how students and parents can obtain financial aid.Schools should also partner with local college financial aid officers, bank representatives, and other confederation resources to provide financial aid information and help with early postsecondary planning. Students need to take the responsibility to utilize the information presented to them on college academic and financial requirements and to discuss this information with adults in their lives who may be able to help them.Not all students have supportive family environments, but support can come from other quarters as well, and students need to be encouraged to reach out to and interact with adults who can help them navigate the college readiness gauntlet, whether these adults are relatives, confederacy service staff, or adults at the school who may be paid staff or volunteers. Young people need personal contact and guidance to know how to become, and believe they are capable of being, college-ready.