It is not unusual to hear a member of the faculty and staff claim that many of their students are not ready for college. High schools, socio-economic conditions, parents, and students themselves are blamed for this problem, even as there is debate as to what college readiness means or whether career readiness should be prioritized over college readiness. While some propose doubling down on efforts to prepare students for college, the authors of Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, Tia Brown McNair, Susan Albertine, Michelle Asha Cooper, Nicole McDonald, and Thomas Major, Jr., seek to promote a paradigm shift. The book’s central argument is that there is an overemphasis on college readiness and not enough on colleges becoming student-ready, which the authors define as a college that “strategically and holistically advances student success, and works tirelessly in its pursuits to educate ALL students for civic and economic participation in a global, interconnected society (p. 158).” The authors seek to address the overemphasis on college readiness by offering a structure for campus discussions and self-examinations that will help institutions become more student-ready.
Read the review: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1521025116680218?journalCode=csra.
Purchase Becoming a Student-Ready College: https://www.aacu.org/publication/becoming-a-student-ready-college-a-new-culture-of-leadership-for-student-success.