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Recommendations for Solving Low Rates of College Readiness at James Monroe High

School, West Virginia

Michael Whitener

School of Education, Liberty University

In partial fulfilment of EDUC 850

Author Note:

Michael Whitener

I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should

be addressed to Michael Whitener.

Email: [email protected]

Literature Review

Overview

This study recommends solving low college readiness rates at James Monroe High

School, West Virginia. The problem is that 28% of the low-income and underserved students

were ready for college compared to an 84% overall college readiness rate (Hines et al., 2021).

This section presents the Narrative Review, the Theoretical Framework, and the Summary.

Related Literature

The objective of the literature review is to assess relevant research and appreciate the

subject matter. This evaluation was conducted to comprehend a recent study concerning low

college preparedness rates at James Monroe High School. This literature covers college readiness

at the state and federal levels, systematic approaches to college readiness, federal legislation in

college readiness, and the recommendations to solve the low college readiness rates at James

Monroe High school (Hofer, 2020).

College readiness at the state and federal level

Legislators at the federal and state levels in the United States are appropriately

empowered to define policy problems through legislation and regulation and choose the

instruments that will be utilized to implement policy solutions. The inability of the federal

government to have a clearly defined role in educational policy limits its ability to influence

education policy, practice, and resources (Leeds & Mokher, 2019).

Systemic approaches to college readiness

The federal government has tried for some time to encourage and even compel college

preparedness. In 1998, the Higher Education Act of 1965 was amended to incorporate the

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) initiative.

This statute was intended to aid in the college preparation of children from low-income and

minority backgrounds (Durand et al., 2022).

Federal legislation on college readiness

By creating bridge programs between high school and university, the state government

seeks to solve the issue of unprepared pupils for college. According to the Education

Commission of the States, 38 states have established P-16 or P-20 councils to help students

transition from primary school to higher education. Curriculum, standards, and measured

competencies leading to the reduction of preparation deficits are the focus of planned K-16

reforms (Vogel & Karakaşoğlu, 2021).

Policy networks aiming at college readiness

Policy networks are the complex connections between interdependent actors which

frequently result in policymaking. Diverse non-profit educational groups, university institutes

and centers, testing companies, and state policymaking associations have significantly influenced

how policymakers define college preparation (Bragg, 2018).

Mandating college readiness

Much of what is known about preparing pupils for college is, at best, incomplete, with

proposed solutions to the problem being more prevalent than actual requirements. Everyone

interested in educational governance appears to concur that the achievement gap between high

school graduates and first-year college students is untenable (Floyd et al., 2022).

A Different Exposition of Incremental Validity

A test is said to have differential validity if its correlation coefficient varies between

samples. Heller (2022) estimated the correlation between SAT scores and HSGPA and FYGPA

by subgroup to test for differential validity.

The ability of high school students to think abstractly and the outcomes of their studies

Extensive research has been performed to ascertain the predictive and differential validity

of the SAT. For instance, Ramist et al. (1994) investigated the differential validity and

predictive ability of the SAT using data from 46,379 students in the first-year classes of 1982

and 1985 from 45 different colleges and institutions (Boyce et al., 2020).

SAT: Scholastic Aptitude Test

Scholastic Aptitude Test (GSAT) is a standardized test used in South Africa to measure

pupils' general intellectual aptitude. The GSAT is a comprehensive revision of past group

intelligence tests. Under specific conditions, test scores can be interpreted as intelligence

quotients (Breves, 2021).

HSGPA: High School Grade Point Average

The significant positive correlation between our students' high school grade point average

and graduating academic achievement indicates that our school admission system, depending on

the high school grade point average, is good (Heller, 2022).

PASS: Planning, Attention-arousal, Simultaneous, and Successive

The PASS (Planning, Attention-arousal, and Simultaneous-successful) Theory of

intelligence was developed by J.P. Das et al. (2021). Planning: The ability to select the best

course of action when faced with a problem or unknown conditions is decision-making.

Attention arousal: This is the initial functional unit of the brain, and it entails the ability to attend

to specific stimuli while ignoring others selectively. Simultaneous processing: This requires the

ability to integrate diverse stimuli/data into our knowledge system as a coherent whole.

Successive processing demands the ability to organize incoming inputs and data logically (Asari

et al. 2020).

Summary

The purpose of this study was to provide recommendations for solving the low college

readiness rates at James Monroe High School, West Virginia. The problem was that 28% of the

low-income and underserved students were ready for college compared to the 84% overall

college readiness rate. This chapter presented the Narrative Review and the Theoretical

Framework (Hall & Kelly, 2021).

References

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