project rationale
Project Rationale
This project will develop and field test a protocol that can gauge the degree a high school prepares all students for postsecondary readiness. The process to develop this instrument will include data collected from visits to approximately 30 high schools nationally already demonstrating success at enabling more students from underrepresented groups to be ready for postsecondary education. The protocol will serve as a common reference point for schools, researchers, policy makers, and others seeking to understand college-readiness in both a comprehensive fashion and in relation to the programs and practices of a specific school. Furthermore, the information from the instrument will yield a profile suggesting what a school can and should do to prepare more students successfully for college.
The principal investigator, Dr. David Conley, has just completed an in-depth analysis of college-readiness for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the purpose of which was to seek a consensus national definition of college-readiness (Conley, 2007). The analysis was framed by a four-component nested model of college-readiness developed by the author. The analysis goes on to identify many specific, observable elements that are associated with the four components of the college-readiness model.
This project proposes to take the next step in the process of developing and operationalizing a definition of college-readiness. The purpose is to create an instrument that can be used to improve high schools as well as to evaluate them by developing a protocol for gauging the degree to which a high school's entire structure, culture, and instructional program prepare students to succeed in college.
The framework for the protocol is the four-component model of college-readiness developed by the author. The project will validate and operationalize the model by collecting field data and validating the instrument at up to 30 independent sites. In this fashion, the resulting observational/analytic protocol for college-readiness will be based upon a foundation that integrates a theoretical framework with empirical data gathered from schools. This integration strengthens both the credibility and functionality of the instrument as well as providing a methodology to improve and sharpen the instrument continuously and systematically as it is used in more schools, and as advances in the theories and concepts of college-readiness take place.
The research design includes a literature review and analysis of the college-readiness model to develop items for the initial draft of the protocol. At the same time, the project will employ a purposive sampling strategy to select schools that have demonstrated the ability to prepare students for college more successfully than comparable schools. During the first round of site visits, data will be collected via observations, interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. Results will be integrated into a revised instrument that will be field-tested, validated, and modified during a second round of site visits and data collection. Simultaneously, an online data entry system will be developed that will generate an individualized profile for each school that completes the instrument. The profile will contain recommendations for ways to improve college-readiness at the school. Finally, the instrument will be disseminated through a series of channels including a dedicated website, links from other key portal websites, education-focused media outlets, and targeted presentations with key education opinion and policy leaders.
