The New York City Department of Education took a bold step recently when revealing for the first time how well high schools are preparing students for higher education or well-paying careers.
According to information included in the latest school report cards, only one in four students who enter high school in New York City is ready for college after four years, and fewer than half enroll.
Apparently the city’s measure of college readiness is based largely on data from the City University of New York, but that baseline may not be pushing students or schools far enough.
How would students fare if they were expected to meet the standards of a private college?
Readiness is something that we discuss a lot in meetings at my school. Our grade level focuses on helping our students become ready for kindergarten. I know then the primary teachers focus on preparing them for middle school and so on. However, are we all looking at “ready” the same way. Is there some sort of scope and sequence that starts from prek and goes to the “college-ready” stage? That was what I was hoping for when I first heard about common core standards, but unfortunately it has taken a turn that I don’t like. This article isn’t focused on common core standards — but I think looking at how we define readiness at ever level is important.
