University of Kwazulu-Natal

Ready For College Adlit

Bonisiwe Shabane
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ready for college adlit

Why are so many high school graduates taking remedial classes in college? What can be done to better prepare students for the demands of higher education? Our panel of experts discusses the academic rigor and skills and the “softer” skills-like self-advocacy and teamwork-that teens need to succeed in college. Learn how parents, counselors, classroom teachers can get students thinking about and working toward college, and prepared to succeed when they arrive. Nevin Brown is a Senior Fellow in the Postsecondary Initiative at Achieve in Washington D.C. Mr.

Brown is responsible for advancing Achieve’s mission through engagement with the postsecondary community. Previously he held positions at the Education Trust, where he worked on community-based school-university collaborative initiatives in a number of U.S. cities. Barbara Taveras is the Director, Community Engagement at New Visions for Public Schools, where she oversees services provided to community stakeholders and parent networks. Prior to joining New Visions, she served as President of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation and as a Policy Analyst in of K-12 education for the New York City Office of the Mayor.

Jennifer Glaser is a school counselor at West Springfield High School in Fairfax County, Virginia. She works on post-high-school planning and college readiness, with an emphasis on first-generation college-bound students. Delia Pompa: Why are so many high school graduates taking remedial classes in college? What can be done to better prepare students for the demands of higher education? Please join me for the AdLit.org webcast, Ready for College. <img alt='' src='https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cc9cce06830ec0abe8cc24490fd26654ff3ab6f6ada4e62abb70f3a984582e57?s=40&#038;d=blank&#038;r=g' srcset='https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cc9cce06830ec0abe8cc24490fd26654ff3ab6f6ada4e62abb70f3a984582e57?s=80&#038;d=blank&#038;r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-40 photo' height='40' width='40' decoding='async'/>by Lisa Endlich Heffernan | May 10, 2025

I sent three kids to college without fully thinking about whether they were ready. When I saw some red flags in high school — missed homework assignments and poor time management — I chose to ignore those problems, rationalizing that there is a lot of growth between ages... I reasoned that if my kids were accepted to a college, they must be ready. They seemed to recount their life stories in those applications; indeed, the college admissions committee would know if they were up to the task. Time works magic, but not that much magic. All of the college/teen experts I consulted made the same point: the signs of a lack of college readiness are almost always evident in high school.

Few students develop problems freshman year without exhibiting any symptoms in high school. Students’ information to colleges says a great deal about their academic readiness while still living at home surrounded by supportive families, friends, and high school teachers, but it does not reveal much more. Emotionally ready? Mature enough? Psychologically prepared? How do you know if your kid is ready for college?

Applications do not answer these questions. Graduates believe they are college ready. Evidence suggests many are not. High school graduation season confronts us with a grim reality. Graduates generally have a collective illusion about their college readiness. Almost nine out of 10 2023 seniors (86%)—the class that started high school in the first year of the pandemic—report being “very” or “mostly” ready for college, according to American College Testing (ACT) research.

In reality, college readiness has declined for years, according to testing information from the two major standardized tests used for college admissions, the ACT and SAT. For example, the ACT reports that only one in five 2023 ACT test-taking graduates (21%) is ready to succeed in core college introductory classes. Their college readiness scores dropped for all four core subjects—reading, English, math, and science—with the composite score at a 32-year low. Tragically, young people are told too often that the college pathway is the best way to prepare for a profitable career and adult success—regardless of whether they are ready for college. Thus, many borrow money to attend college but never complete a degree. In fact, four out of 10 undergraduates leave college without a degree.

That ratio in the 2021-2022 academic year amounts to 40.4 million who attended college—and gone into debt—but earned no degree or other credential, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. It’s never too soon for students to begin thinking of themselves as college material. Middle and junior high students should be developing the habits and skills of successful students and taking challenging courses to prepare themselves for the increasing rigor of college prep classes in high school. Articles in this section address academic rigor, early college awareness, college access programs, and social supports for the college bound. Resource Link: https://www.adlit.org/topics/college-readiness Sharing successes High school ELL educator Christine Rowland describes the ways she helps her students apply for college — including sharing the successes of fellow students.

The importance of community colleges ELL educator Bobbi Houtchens discusses the important role and advantages of attending community college. College readiness Sociologist Dr. Pedro Noguera talks about the reasons that schools need to make college readiness more accessible for children whose parents haven’t attended college. College readiness is a multi-faceted concept that includes factors both internal and external to the school environment. A list of knowledge, skills, and attributes a student should possess to be ready to succeed in entry-level college courses. Whether you’re aiming for a degree, a certificate, or a new career path, going to college as an adult is a big step.

It’s exciting – and sometimes overwhelming. That’s why The Literacy Project offers support for adults who are ready to take that step but aren’t sure what comes next. College isn’t just for teenagers. It’s for anyone ready to learn, grow, and reach for more. “Within two weeks of starting at The Literacy Project, Because all of a sudden, I was learning.”

Our free college readiness classes are here to help you build those skills and take that leap – when you’re ready. Price: $25/quarter (scholarships available) Sign Up for ABE, GED, High School+ classes: To start ABE, GED, or HS+, please fill out the inquiry form below: In Transitional Studies we have 3 programs that get you college-ready as you start your pathway/degree to a living-wage, high-demand career. Ready WA Storyteller Helîn updated this blog post, which initially featured national and international opportunities, with a whole new section about opportunities in Washington!

We’ve added the new section about Washington up top, for easy access, but you can still access the other opportunities Find videos, fact sheets, and stories to help you support students as they explore their interests and plan for their futures. Find tools like videos and fact sheets in multiple languages to support your students on their education journey. Get advice from high school graduates and find information to explore your future options. The following section discusses some of the changes that could occur in high schools and on the part of students to achieve better and more complete readiness for college. Using these criteria, the most important thing a high school can do is create a culture focused on intellectual development of all students.

Intellectual development has several elements. The first element involves students interacting with appropriately important and challenging academic content. For students to do so requires that the school have an intellectually coherent program of study that is systematically designed to focus on what Wiggins and McTeague (1998) describe as the “big ideas” of... They then teach those big ideas by exposing students to a series of “enduring” and “supporting understandings” that create an overall intellectual and cognitive structure for the content, a structure that can span multiple... Second, key cognitive strategies should be developed over a sequentially more challenging progression throughout four years of high school. If the content of the program of study is carefully organized around the kinds of key organizing and supporting concepts and information as described previously, it is then possible to use this structure of...

Third, the academic program should be structured to cause students to demonstrate progressively more control and responsibility for their learning as they approach the college level. This does not necessarily mean students have more choices over what they learn, but rather they are expected to work independently and semi-independently outside of class on progressively larger, more complex pieces of work. For example, students need to become better at critiquing their own work and then rewriting or modifying that work so that it conforms more closely to expected performance and output.

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