College-Readiness Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
Keywords:
one-size-fits-all, college-readiness, career-readiness, literature reviewAbstract
The purpose of this article is to provide a critical analysis of the one-size-fits-all college-readiness agenda that now guides curriculum and expectations in our nation’s secondary schools. Although President Obama, in 2010, emphasized the need for college- and career-readiness for all high school graduates, the emphasis is clearly on college-readiness, at the exclusion of other educational alternatives. College- and career-readiness may be the mantra for the 21st century, but politicians and educational leaders tend to lean heavily on college-readiness when curricular requirements are increased and accountability measures become more stringent, which tends to anchor academic-preparedness. In this article, educational policy reports, legislative acts, and scholarly journal articles were examined and discussed to illuminate the one-size-fits-all college-readiness agenda and explore the extent to which students should be college-ready. In the review of recent college- and career-readiness literature, the indication is that, in all likelihood, the one-size-fits-all college-readiness agenda is a dichotomous variable rather than a continuum, which would allow students to make more informed decisions about college goals and career aspirations.
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Authors retain copyright without restrictions. Unless otherwise indicated, from 2021 all articles are published under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license. For more information visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Articles published prior to 2021 used a CC-BY-NC-SA license.