Measuring Academic Readiness for College

Recent years have seen increased attention to the high school–college transition. Students are enrolling in college in record numbers, yet they are also taking increasing numbers of remedial courses. How to measure and report on academic readiness for college is an important policy issue receiving attention from the National Assessment Governing Board, Achieve, and several states. The focus of this article is how to create a measure of academic readiness for college, either by building and validating a new assessment or validating and repurposing an existing assessment. After first describing the disjuncture between high school and college and discussing definitions and indicators of academic readiness, the authors identify four strategies that might be used to create a readiness assessment. The pros and cons of each strategy are discussed.