Venezia Andrea, Jaeger Laura
Future Child. 2013 Spring;23(1):117-36. doi: 10.1353/foc.2013.0004.
The vast majority of high school students aspire to some kind of postsecondary education, yet far too many of them enter college without the basic content knowledge, skills, or habits of mind they need to succeed. Andrea Venezia and Laura Jaeger look at the state of college readiness among high school students, the effectiveness of programs in place to help them transition to college, and efforts to improve those transitions. Students are unprepared for postsecondary coursework for many reasons, the authors write, including differences between what high schools teach and what colleges expect, as well as large disparities between the instruction offered by high schools with high concentrations of students in poverty and that offered by high schools with more advantaged students. The authors also note the importance of noncurricular variables, such as peer influences, parental expectations, and conditions that encourage academic study. Interventions to improve college readiness offer a variety of services, from academic preparation and information about college and financial aid, to psychosocial and behavioral supports, to the development of habits of mind including organizational skills, anticipation, persistence, and resiliency. The authors also discuss more systemic programs, such as Middle College High Schools, and review efforts to allow high school students to take college classes (known as dual enrollment). Evaluations of the effectiveness of these efforts are limited, but the authors report that studies of precollege support programs generally show small impacts, while the more systemic programs show mixed results. Dual-enrollment programs show promise, but the evaluation designs may overstate the results. The Common Core State Standards, a voluntary set of goals and expectations in English and math adopted by most states, offer the potential to improve college and career readiness, the authors write. But that potential will be realized, they add, only if the standards are supplemented with the necessary professional development to enable educators to help all students meet academic college readiness standards, a focus on developing strong noncognitive knowledge and skills for all students, and the information and supports to help students prepare and select the most appropriate postsecondary institution.
绝大多数高中生都渴望接受某种形式的高等教育，但其中有太多人进入大学时，缺乏取得成功所需的基本知识内容、技能或思维习惯。安德里亚·韦内齐亚和劳拉·耶格尔研究了高中生的大学准备状况、帮助他们过渡到大学的现有项目的有效性，以及改善这些过渡的努力。作者写道，学生对高等教育课程准备不足有很多原因，包括高中所教授的内容与大学期望之间的差异，以及贫困学生集中的高中所提供的教学与条件更优越的高中所提供的教学之间的巨大差距。作者还指出了非课程变量的重要性，如同伴影响、父母期望以及鼓励学术学习的环境。为提高大学准备程度而进行的干预提供了各种各样的服务，从学术准备、关于大学和经济援助的信息，到心理社会和行为支持，再到包括组织技能、预期、坚持和适应能力在内的思维习惯的培养。作者还讨论了更具系统性的项目，如“学院高中”，并回顾了允许高中生修读大学课程（即双学分课程）的努力。对这些努力有效性的评估有限，但作者报告称，对大学预科支持项目的研究总体显示影响较小，而更具系统性的项目结果参差不齐。双学分课程显示出前景，但评估设计可能夸大了结果。作者写道，大多数州采用的一套自愿性的英语和数学目标及期望标准——《共同核心州立标准》，有可能提高大学和职业准备程度。但他们补充说，只有在这些标准辅以必要的专业发展，以使教育工作者能够帮助所有学生达到大学学术准备标准、注重为所有学生培养强大的非认知知识和技能，以及提供帮助学生准备和选择最合适的高等院校的信息和支持时，这种潜力才能实现。
