So Your Students Aren't Reading!?

Understanding the Gap

HS to College Gap Resources

Dzubak Article

Penn State York Teaching and Learning Newsletter Featuring the Gap

Montgomery College Compares High School to College Expectations

Understanding the High School to College Gap bridge sketch

If students aren't reading as they should, perhaps it is a deficit in their required skills or in their awareness of the different expectations for college-level reading.

Understanding factors involved in the gap can help you design activities that build student awareness of the requirements of college while at the same time help you target and scaffold reading skill development.

If you take a moment to skim the Montgomery College (Rockville, MD) web site comparing the differences between high school and college (Click HERE), you will gain a better appreciation for what your students are used to when they arrive in college.

A few things standout relevant to college reading:

  1. Responsibility for learning has shifted from teacher to student
  2. The sheer amount of reading required has increased substantially
  3. What students need to do with the reading has changed significantly: reading to learn, think, and apply rather than to simply reproduce

Cora Dzubak’s article, What Skills and Whose Standards: Why Are Students Underprepared (2006), succinctly describes the issues that impact student preparedness for college.  She examines three primary variables that contribute to the problem of student underpreparedness:

  1. the gap between the skills and requirements needed for graduation from high school and those needed for success in college courses
  2. societal and cultural changes that can negatively impact educational progress
  3. the fast pace and desire for instant gratification characteristic of life in this country

Students are also changing. Increasingly, we may find students who demonstrate high self-esteem, but low self-efficacy. That is, they have a strong self-concept, but do not connect that success in college is based on their performance which most likely demands significant time and effort on their part. Additionally, we may find students who lack effective problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, and the ability to defend their opinions based on reasoned argument.

English Language Learners (ELL's), first generation students, and adult students returning to school after a significant amount of time bring their own struggles to academic reading. To read more about these issues and the high school to college gap, investigate the resources listed on the right of this page and below.

 

Motivation - > Gap - > Choosing Reading Strategies

Successful academic reading takes time, effort, and the application of specific related skills which we’ll examine in the next section of the module, Choosing Reading Strategies

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Resources

Dzubak, C. M. (2006, February 14). What skills and whose standards: Why are students    underprepared. Synergy: The Journal of the Association for the Tutoring Profession, 1, Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://www.jsu.edu/depart/edprof/atp/Synergy_1/Syn_1.pdf

Shaffer, S. C. (January.February 2007). Student underpreparedness: Bridging the high school to college gap. Retrieved July 19, 2007, from Newsletter of Teaching and Learning at Penn State York Web site: http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/01022007psuindex.htm

Resources from The Center for Educational Policy Research (CEPR)

The CEPR conducted research on student success and bridging the gap. They published 4 main resources available at this web site http://www.s4s.org/cepr.products.php  :

  1. College Knowledge: What It Really Takes for Students to Succeed and What We Can Do to Get Them Ready.
  2. Understanding University Success http://www.pewtrusts.com/pdf/education_understanding_success.pdf  
  3. Work Samples - sample syllabi and activities from first semester courses
  4. Mixed Messages: What State High School Tests Communicate about Student Readiness for College

The Pew Charitable Trusts funded a 3 year project beginning in 2000 entitled, Association of American Universities Clearinghouse Project : Standards for Success, the purpose of which was to "create an Association of American Universities Clearinghouse to translate state standards and performance assessments for high school graduation into criteria for university admissions." http://www.s4s.org/cepr.s4s.php
Student Success in College, by Kuh, et. al., (2005) is another substantial resource in understanding this important topic.

Additional Resources
Baxter-Magolda, M.B. (1992). Knowing and reasoning in college: Gender-related patterns in students’ intellectual development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bellow, L. Understanding students' intellectual development: Implications for the classroom.

Teaching at UNL, Teaching and Learning Center Newsletter, Vol., 22, No. 1,Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from http://www.unl.edu/gradstudies/gsapd/resources/art-inteldev.pdf
  
Building bridges for access and success: Proceedings of the metropolitan higher education consortium’s developmental education initiative. Retrieved February 22, 2007 http://education.umn.edu/CRDEUL/pdf/proceedings/4-proceedings.pdf
  
College Reading & Learning Association links http://crla.net/Links.htm
 
First Generation College Students: A Literature Review - http://www.tgslc.org/pdf/first_generation.pdf

Help for Adults who are entering college for the first time - http://www.collegeforadults.org/
 
IUP Developmental Studies Newsletters http://www.iup.edu/devstudies/lecnews.shtm
 
National Association for Developmental Education http://nade.net/
 
National Center for Developmental Education: What Works http://www.ncde.appstate.edu/whatworks.htm
  
National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy http://www.ncsall.net/
 
National College Learning Center Association http://nclca.org
   
OnCourse Strategies for College Success http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/On%20Course%20Principles.htm
  
The Pedagogy of Possibilities:Developmental Education, College-Level Studies, and Learning Communities. National Learning Communities Project
Monograph Series. Retrieved February 22, 2007 from http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/natlc/monographs/pedagogyIntro.pdf

Perry, William G., Jr. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Bridge graphic http:// www.treehouseteam.com/bridge.html

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