ACT: 25% are ready for college
Twenty-five percent of ACT test takers in 2012 were prepared for college, according to ACT’s 2012 Condition of College and Career Readiness report. Sixty-seven percent were ready to pass a college writing course, 52 percent were prepared to read a social science textbook, 46 percent were ready for college algebra and 31 were likely to pass [...]
States expand college readiness testing
Thirty-eight states are measuring 11th-graders college readiness, reports the Community College Research Center in Reshaping the College Transition. Some use state exams,while others use the ACT, SAT or community college placement tests. Even more states are expected to start testing when Common Core State Standards’ assessments are available. Twenty-nine states are using catch-up courses or online [...]
California’s rocky path to prosperity
Unless California helps low-income parents learn basic skills, train for jobs and pursue higher education, the state’s prosperity is at risk, concludes Working Hard, Left Behind. The Campaign for College Opportunity, the Women’s Foundation of California and Working Poor Families project collaborated on the report. California leads the nation in low-income working adults and in [...]
Hispanic grads pass whites in college enrollment
Hispanic high school graduates are now more likely than whites to enroll in college, the Pew Research Hispanic Center reports. In the class of 2012, 69 percent of Hispanic graduates and 67 percent of whites enrolled in college that fall. Latinos are less likely to complete a high school diploma, but that’s improving too, reports Pew. In 2000, [...]
North Carolina OKs readiness diplomas
In a few years, high school graduates in North Carolina will earn diplomas showing their readiness for university, community college or careers, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. Each seal requires a minimum 2.6 grade point average, basically a C+. To earn the community college readiness seal, graduates must have completed Algebra II or integrated math III. [...]
NCEE: Rethink readiness
What Does It Really Mean to Be College and Work Ready? Community colleges expect little of first-year students — and get even less, concludes the National Center on Education and The Economy. The report paints a grim picture. High school graduates have trouble reading textbooks written at the 11th- to 12th-grade level, so instructors provide study [...]
No math, no job
Weak math skills disqualify would-be workers, manufacturers say. High school graduates applying for jobs at Tacoma’s General Plastics Manufacturing have to take a math test. The company makes foam products for the aerospace industry. Eighteen questions, 30 minutes, and using a calculator is OK. They are asked how to convert inches to feet, read a [...]
Reading, writing and knowing
Core Knowledge got its start from E.D. Hirsch’s years teaching literary theory as an English professor, he writes in How Two Poems Helped Launch a School Reform Movement in The Atlantic. He discovered the importance of background knowledge when he looked at ways to improve college students’ writing. When the topic was familiar to readers, you could measure the [...]
JFF: ‘Early college’ boosts college enrollment
Students in “early-college high schools” are more likely to complete high school and go on to college, reports Jobs for the Future. Ninety-three percent of students in JFF’s network – 246 early-college schools with 75,000 students — complete a high school diploma in four years, compared to a national average of 75 percent, according to the JFF [...]
Employers help with dual-credit career classes
Data can be powerful, writes Mandy Zatynski on Education Sector’s The Quick and the Ed. Two years ago, Steve Schneider, a high school guidance counselor in Sheboygan, Wisc., had been fairly satisfied. More than 90 percent of his students graduated every year, and according to senior exit surveys, about three-quarters went to a four-year institution, with the [...]
