From High School to College. Improving Opportunities for Success in Postsecondary Education (review)

In the climate of increased college-going nationally and improved standards and expectations for preparing all high school students well for college, surprisingly little is known about the pathways between high school and college and the policies that shape them. This very timely book presents an integrated series of studies on students' preparation for college and the influence of state and local policies and practices. The research profiles six states that are innovators in P-16 policy making, and shows their mixed results for institutions and students. It is the outcome of Stanford University's "Bridge Project: Strengthening K-16 Transition Policies," a six-year investigation of policies, perceptions, and practices related to transitions from high school to college.

The book is a rich resource for students, scholars, and reformers of public K-12 and postsecondary education. It sharpens the student transition discussion around key areas for policy and institutional intervention—test alignment; articulated course requirements between high school graduation and college enrollment; improved resources to communicate college entrance and placement requirements and costs; longitudinal data to track student performance across levels; and other K-16 mechanisms.

The book begins with a well-researched background on the general inadequate readiness for and college preparation of high school students, and the consequences as revealed in college remediation rates, dropping out, and low degree completion rates. It sets the stage for understanding differential impacts on students based on their family SES and racial/ethnic backgrounds. It concludes by proposing a theoretical framework in which admissions and placement standards and institutional arrangements are viewed as policies that "communicate signals, meaning and expected behavior to students and secondary schools" (p. 19). The authors' intent through the remainder of the book is to explore the clarity, consistency, and reinforcement of these signals to enhance college-going knowledge, access to preparation and success, and related inequities.

The next six chapters use a similar structure to present the relationship between public secondary and postsecondary education systems and the experiences and perceptions of students from various high schools. The six states are California, Texas, Illinois, Oregon, Georgia, and Maryland. Each begins with an overview of new and existing public policies that frame public postsecondary access (standards, assessments, and selection). Next, the related practices (selection criteria, admissions and placement policies) of at least two representative public institutions (selective and nonselective) are profiled. Third, the book profiles four to six high schools about their honors course availability, college counseling, and related resources and advice. Student focus group and survey results then show the extent of student aspirations for postsecondary education and college knowledge concerning tuition costs, curricular requirements, placement tests, and admissions selection criteria. A comparison of the results by grade level, race/ethnicity, SES, and academic track, and a further comparison with parents' college knowledge, highlights both the disjunctures and differential impact. The book also includes a chapter on the role of community colleges in the college transition, looking at six community colleges in three of the states.

Throughout the book, the juxtaposition of state policy intents, postsecondary institutions and high school practices, and student and parent perceptions and college preparation knowledge puts in stark relief the deep divide between public secondary and postsecondary education on testing, course requirements, and access information. Moreover, each case study spells out the specific misperceptions students have for the profiled public colleges, revealing the potential negative consequences for their college futures, particularly among urban, low-SES and non-honors track students.

In the concluding chapter, the authors underscore the message that emerges in all six case studies: Students lack a good sense of what they need to be admitted into college and succeed there, and K-12 teachers and counselors lack sufficient knowledge and resources to help them. Recent state and institutional policies, in many cases, exacerbate the confusion with more assessments and changing eligibility standards. As the authors concluded, in...