Building College Readiness: Theories and Practices

The purpose of this study was to 1) explore theories and practices inbuildingcollegereadiness;2)examinetheEthiopiancollegereadinesspolicyandtheEthiopianpreparatoryforhighereducationcurriculumthrough the lens of the theories and practices around the world.Materialsandmethods.To achieve these objectives, extant literaturereviews were conducted. The international research databases suchas Scimago Journal and Country Rank, Web of Science, and GoogleScholar were used for the collection of the resources. Some localgovernment reports and research findings were accessed in hardcopy. The resources reviewed in this study consist of quantitative,qualitative,mixed-methodsempirical research reports, andsystematicreviews. This systematic review mainly focused on 1) searching for interventionist approaches, theories, and practices of building college readiness across k-12 education beyond the traditional school-based teaching and learning arena; 2) how the trends in building college readiness focused on narrowing the gap between theory and practices through student supports from early years of schooling as well as how the practices focused on managing and monitoring student learning outcomes effectively.Results. The review analysis shows that the current practice ofbuildingcollegereadinesshasspreaditsrootsinsocietalandecologicalgroundsthaneverbefore.Forthisreason,thetraditionalschool-based college readiness building tends to be more supplemented by the advanced, research-oriented, and community-based, or ecologicallygrounded early support and monitoring of student progress. TheEthiopian college readiness curriculum, admission processes, andpracticesinteaching-learningarehighlyschool-basedandtraditionalcompared to the contemporary practices of building college readinessaround the world. The early warning and support systems are highlydependent on the teachers’ classroom tests and national assessmentsthat are administered at some grade levels only.Conclusion. Building college readiness is a significant factor inpromoting college success and higher education student learningoutcomes. The contemporary college readiness and transition tohighereducationishighlyaffectedbymultiplepersonalandecologicalf a ctors ,i n add itio n t o the traditional school, curriculum, and teachinglearning factors. Multiple community-based and research-orientedearly interventions and support systems need to supplement the role of schooling in building college readiness. The curriculum andteaching-learning processes need to be rich enough in narrowing the gap between theories and practices. The teachers play a great role in building college readiness.