Performance,Perseverance, and the Full Picture of College Readiness |
| |
| Authors: | Matthew N Gaertner Katie Larsen McClarty |
| |
| Abstract: | Although college readiness is a centerpiece of major educational initiatives such as the Common Core State Standards, few systems have been implemented to track children's progress toward this goal. Instead, college‐readiness information is typically conveyed late in a student's high‐school career, and tends to focus solely on academic accomplishments—grades and admissions test scores. Late‐stage feedback can be problematic for students who need to correct course, so the purpose of this research is to develop a system for communicating more comprehensive college‐readiness diagnoses earlier in a child's K‐12 career. This article introduces college‐readiness indicators for middle‐school students, drawing on the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of educational inputs, contexts, and outcomes. A diversity of middle‐school variables was synthesized into six factors: achievement, behavior, motivation, social engagement, family circumstances, and school characteristics. Middle‐school factors explain 69% of the variance in college readiness, and results suggest a variety of factors beyond academic achievement—most notably motivation and behavior—contribute substantially to preparedness for postsecondary study. The article concludes with limitations and future directions, including the development of college‐readiness categories to support straightforward communication of middle‐school indicators to parents, teachers, and students. |
| |
| Keywords: | college readiness nonacademic skills principal components analysis |
|
|
