According to recent headlines, many college applicants are not ready for college. According to the College Board, less than half of students who took the SAT in 2013 are ready to succeed in postsecondary education. The data reported by the College Board, which owns and administers the SAT, are disheartening. Only 43% of the test takers this year met or exceeded the benchmark score of 1550 out of a possible 2400. In addition, only a quarter of students who took the ACT are considered college-ready, ACT, Inc. reported in August.
Poor SAT performance and readiness for higher ed
“Nearly 80 percent of the students who met the benchmark score had taken AP or honors courses,” said David Coleman, President of the College Board. Rigorous coursework will have to become more broadly available for the percentage of students reaching the benchmark to increase, he said.
In general, uneven access to coursework and test preparation opportunities correlated with success on the SAT exam, reports
the Chronicle of Higher Education. For example, many students from low-income backgrounds lack access to the classes needed and test-prep materials of their privileged peers, and therefore may not perform as well on the test.
Improving results & readiness
One way to improve scores is to change the test, and the College Board has plans to better align the SAT exam with the Common Core State Standards—what students should be learning in English and Math from kindergarten through High School. The College Board is also considering changes to the essay section.
Another change is to address the disparity in course offerings. The College Board will work to make AP courses more readily available to schools that serve large minority communities, Coleman said. Other initiatives are underway, as well. For example, the U.S. Department of Education has participated with an Alabama school district giving black students the same access to AP courses that white students have in their secondary curricula.
Beyond income disparity
The shortfall in readiness is not confined to lower income students who score poorly on the SAT. According to Elaine Tuttle Hansen in her column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, faculty members are increasingly put off by the large number of incoming students who are unprepared for college-level course work, even at highly selective universities.
“They have the grades and the test scores to be here,” said a director of undergraduate studies in math at the Johns Hopkins University. “What they don’t have is a deep understanding of why the techniques they’ve been taught work, the actual underlying mathematical relationships. They walk into my classroom and don’t have the study habits or proper foundation to do the work.”
Paradoxically, according to Hansen, the students who show academic promise in elementary and middle school are frequently given short shrift by a system that is more worried about raising the floor than about raising the ceiling for students who are capable of high achievement.
A number of groups such as the Gates Foundation, Lumina and AASCU are investigating the college readiness issue but there are no easy answers.
Deepening the discussion
“Meeting institutional enrollment goals in this changing landscape can be challenging if admissions and enrollment directors are not willing to think creatively,” said Melanie Gottlieb, Director of Admissions Operations & International Campus Liaison, Webster University. “Addressing the needs and interests of the digital native, the adult and nontraditional student, and the transfer student requires a multifaceted approach that is not necessarily cost prohibitive--but does require some technical and analytical skill, a rethinking of staffing structures and skillsets, recruitment models, departmental collaboration, and external partnerships.”
The Admissions Forum @ SEM, preceding the full AACRAO SEM Conference, will provide an environment to discuss these and other important issues related to enrollment management. Featured topics at the 2013 Admissions Forum include:
• Making your enrollment data work for you: understanding the past to predict the future − Harnessing data is essential to our work as enrollment professionals. Knowing how to interpret and use the vast amounts of data available regarding potential students is critical to meeting admissions goals.
• The Transfer Student Moment: A discussion of the national drivers that portend an increasing reliance on the transfer function to serve the enrollment needs of four-year institutions and strategies to strengthen the partnership between two- and four-year institutions around this pivotal student academic transition.
• Realignment for Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness − Examination of the issues around the reshaping of operational models, retooling staff skillsets and rethinking cross-departmental collaborations in support of institutional enrollment goals around freshman, transfer and non−traditional students.
To view the full Admissions Forum @ SEM program, visit the Admissions Forum website.