White paper

A level playing field: College readiness standards

2013

By: Michael Dahlin, Beth Tarasawa

Description

This study examines the academic growth of 35,000 elementary and middle school students in 31 statesā€”all of them high achievers within their own schoolsā€”over a three-year period. Of particular interest were the growth and performance of high-achieving students within high-poverty schools, where ā€œgrowthā€ focused on change over time and ā€œperformanceā€ focused on single points in time. As the focus of accountability has shifted from basic proficiency to college and career readiness, we wondered whether high-poverty students were ā€œon trackā€ to meet this higher standard by the end of high school. To study this, we compared a sample of NWEA schoolsā€™ achievement scores in elementary and middle school grades, and their associated probability of being on trach to meet ACTĀ® college readiness benchmarks at the end of high school.

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