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Recommendations for Solving Low Rates of College Readiness at James Monroe

High School, West Virginia

NARRATIVE REVIEW ROUGH DRAFT

Michael Whitener

School of Education, Liberty University

In partial fulfillment 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]

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Literature Review

Overview

The purpose of this study was to provide recommendations for solving 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 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 and synthesize the relevant research and

to 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 rates of

college readiness at James Monroe High school.

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.

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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. It included programs that provided financial aid for college, academic

support services, and information on the importance of a college education to families.

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, which aim to legally consolidate education from kindergarten through the final semester

of undergraduate school. Horizontal policy actors, such as K-12 districts and higher education

institutions, collaborate, compete, share, and learn from one another locally to enhance kids'

college readiness (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 and how it should be addressed in educational

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policy. As we study the issue of students not being prepared for college, several groups form and

collaborate to push the policies they support.

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, Garcia Falconetti &

Camacho, 2022. Study skills, collection, organization, and information retention. However,

definitive policy decisions are complicated by ongoing debates over whether the achievement

gap should be addressed in high school or college and which characteristics contribute most to

college preparedness.

In education, federal and state policy mandates regularly address complex public policy

concerns. For instance, the national No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 required that all pupils

achieve competence in reading and mathematics by 2014. A supplementary strategy is

establishing high-quality syllabi for all courses, aligning high school and college syllabi, and

implementing external syllabi reviews, similar to what colleges do. The third strategy is to create

senior seminars to keep students engaged throughout all four high school years and imitate

college life.

A Different Exposition of Incremental Validity

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

samples. To test for differential validity, we estimated the correlation between SAT scores and

HSGPA and FYGPA by subgroup. We determined the relationship between SAT scores and the

first-year and cumulative grade point averages for each gender, race/ethnicity, and native

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language. The institution-level analyses were then pooled for the overall sample size (Heller,

2022).

A student's likelihood of being admitted to college is often determined by their

performance on an admissions test or series of tests (Boyce et al. 2020: Bragg, 2018).

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, Lewis, and McCamley-Jenkins (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 (Hines et al., 2021).

SAT: Scholastic Aptitude Test

Overall 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). Simply put, the standard curve provides a catch-all category into which

most students can be categorized. The 'bell' shape of the curve results from more students

congregating in the umbrella's center than at its ends. Remember that standard deviation is

another essential idea.

HSGPA: High School Grade Point Average.

The significant positive correlation between our dental 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). Instead of focusing on

the final product, you should focus on the student's learning process and specific needs. Based on

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how students interact with your eLearning courses, generate personalized reports illustrating the

amount of learning that has occurred. For consistency and discrepancy studies to be significant,

the self-reported HSGPA and the school-reported HSGPA must be measured on the same scale.

Following the 2005 U.S. Department of Education High School Transcript Study, which

surveyed high schools nationwide, researchers correlated students' HSGPAs with their likelihood

of graduating on time (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, Jack Naglieri, and Kirby (Hall & Kelly, 2021). They

argued that three unique brain regions govern a person's level of intellectual engagement.

Planning: The ability to select the best course of action when faced with a problem or

unknown conditions is decision-making. The establishment of objectives, tactics, and expected

outcomes. The brain's frontal lobes are crucial for planning.

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. Arousal maintains the condition of

being vigilant and awake. The thalamus and brain stem are typically believed to be in charge of

arousal processes. Individuals with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) struggle in this regard.

Simultaneous processing: This requires the ability to integrate diverse stimuli/data into

our knowledge system as a coherent whole. The occipital and parietal lobes are believed to play

a substantial role in these processes. The Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM) Test is an

example of a test in which participants are shown a preliminary design. We must choose one of

six options to complete the plan (Assari et al., 2020).

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Successive processing demands the ability to organize incoming inputs and data

logically. Sequential processing includes memorizing numerical and alphabetical information,

tables, multiplication tables, etc.

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.

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