Ready for College
Far too many students need developmental education when they get to college. Of the two million students who took the ACT exam in 2015, only 43 percent met the College Readiness Benchmark in literacy, with only 44 percent meeting the benchmark in math. Even fewer students are prepared to study science in college, with only 37 percent of the students met the College Readiness Benchmark.
SREB’s courses for college readiness, Literacy Ready and Math Ready, were developed specifically to help address the readiness gap. The effectiveness of the SREB Ready courses is documented in this policy brief.
“The SREB Readiness Courses provide rigorous curricula that meet the demands of students by ensuring they develop essential skills needed to be successful in postsecondary course work.” — Jean Massey, Mississippi Department of Education
This course utilizes a disciplinary literacy approach that teaches students strategies for reading and understanding complex texts in different subject areas. Students learn to develop and defend ideas from textbooks and write about them in college-level formats for English, history and biology. The unit structure conforms to the framework of the Literacy Design Collaborative, which addresses college- and career-readiness standards.
The course consists of eight units, with three units in English and language arts, three units in history and two units in science. Discipline-specific content is at the forefront of the curriculum, and literacy skills specific to each discipline are emphasized in the reading and writing assignments.
This course emphasizes understanding of mathematics concepts rather than just memorizing procedures. Math Ready students learn the context behind procedures and understand why to use a certain formula or method to solve a problem. By engaging students in real-world applications, Math Ready develops critical thinking skills that students will use in college and their careers.
Note that Math Ready is not designed to prepare students for advanced mathematics in STEM majors.