Policy Research Promoting College Readiness

Making College and Career Readiness: the Mission for High Schools: A Guide for State Policymakers, Achieve, Inc. and The Education Trust, November 2008.
A report that advises States to create a new approach to the system of standards, tests, and accountability in high school––one that makes college and career readiness the central driver and acknowledges where greater state leadership and state resources are essential to success.

21st Century Skills: Education and Competitiveness, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2008.
A report that asserts the modern economy is being driven by rapid innovation and every level of the American educational system must retool to respond.

Redefining College Readiness. by David T. Conley,  Education Policy Improvement Center, 2007. 
 Redefining College Readiness suggests that "college readiness" has been defined primarily in terms of high school courses taken, grades received, and scores on national tests. It proposes widening the scope of the definition to include Key Cognitive Strategies, Key Content Knowledge, Academic Behaviors, and Contextual Skills.

Connecting Education Standards and Employment:  Course-taking Patterns of Young Workers, by Anthony P. Carnevale and Donna M. Desrochers, The American Diploma Project.
A study that examines the shift in the knowledge and skills required for today’s job market.

Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma that Counts, Achieve, Inc., 2004.
Based on both statistical analysis of employment data and extensive research involving over 300 faculty members from two- and four-year postsecondary institutions, managers, and high school educators, the American Diploma Project benchmarks concretely define the English and math that graduates must master to succeed in credit-bearing college courses and high-performance, high-growth jobs.

Pathways to Prosperity Project, Harvard University, 2011.
A report that highlights the growing skills gap between what employers need and what the U.S. education system provides.

Making Sense of Data Driven Decision Making in Education, RAND Education, 2006.
 This report brings together information systematically gathered from large, representative samples of educators at the district, school, and classroom levels in a variety of contexts. The paper further provides a comprehensive examination of the many facets of current DDDM policies and practices and suggests a research agenda to advance the field.

Creating College Readiness, by David T. Conley, PhD, 2009.
Creating College Readiness announces studies by the Educational Policy Improvement Center of 38 U.S. high schools with proven success in preparing students for life after graduation. The selected schools represent a diverse cross-section of the U.S. education system. This document profiles each school and contains comprehensive and tangible examples of successful student preparation.

Is College Worth it?, Pew Research Center, May 15, 2011.
The Pew Research Center examines the monetary value of a college education.

Designing Texas Undergraduate Education in the 21st Century, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, January 2009.
This report details the recommendations developed by the Undergraduate Education Advisory Committee and are founded on the committee’s recognition that higher education must transform itself to meet the needs of 21st-century global society, and the social and economic needs of Texas and the U.S.

The Metlife Survey of American Teachers: Preparing Students for College and Careers, Metlife, Inc., May 2011.
This MetLife Survey examines the priority that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers, what being college- and career-ready entails, and the implications of this goal for teaching. It includes the views of public middle and high school teachers, students and parents, and business executives from Fortune 1000 companies.

Affirming the Goal:  Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?, ACT, Inc., 2011.
This study asserts that the U.S. is losing its competitive edge by not properly preparing all students for post-secondary education.

Centers

Center for Educational Policy Research
The Center works with educators, school districts, higher education administrators, and policy makers to research current systems, to develop realistic programs, and to offer suggestions and training to achieve this goal.

Educational Policy Improvement Center  
The Center conducts a range of policy-related research studies and is distinguished by its pioneering use of state-of-the-art, criterion-based, standards-referenced methods of course and document analysis.

Data 

The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems 
This website provides higher education policymakers and analysts with the data and information needed to make policy decisions.

AP Report to the Nation
The 7th Annual AP Report to the Nation uses a combination of state, national and AP Program data to provide each U.S. state with the context it can use to celebrate its successes, understand its unique challenges, and set meaningful, data-driven goals to prepare more students for success in college.

Texas University Data  
This site provides detailed enrollment and demographic data for colleges and universities in the state of Texas.

National Student Clearinghouse
 A unique program designed to help high school districts more accurately gauge the college success of their graduates.