Interesting look at the current metrics used to measure college-readiness, what's wrong with them, and what should be used instead. The paper raises a bit of a dilemma: since college courses are very different from high school courses (consider the workload alone!) tests of high school achievement may not be good indicators of college readiness, yet because the tests are so important, students focus on passing them rather than obtaining the real competences needed to succeed in college. So what are the complences? The report lists cognitive skills, key content areas, academic behaviours, and contextual awareness. I think there's merit to this argument (I will withhold judgement on the mechanisms proposed to measure these competences). T cognitive skills, for example, include intellectual openness, inquisitiveness, interpretation, precision and accuracy, and problem solving - all things not really value in today's "tell and test" methodology. The paper is from 2007 but I'm seeing it today thanks to Lisa Michelle Nielsen.
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