College Readiness System

College Readiness

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Running Head: COLLEGE READINESS AND FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS

Defining College Readiness from the Inside Out:
First-Generation College Student Perspectives
Kathleen Byrd, M. Ed.
Developmental Education Reading and English Instructor
South Puget Sound Community College
132 Plymouth St. N.W., Olympia, WA 98502 [e-mail]. [phone]
Ginger MacDonald, Ph.D.
Director and Professor of Education
University of Washington, Tacoma
1900 Commerce Street, WCG – 324, Tacoma, WA 98402 [e-mail]. [phone]

College Readiness

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Running Head: COLLEGE READINESS AND FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS

Defining College Readiness from the Inside Out:
First-Generation College Student Perspectives

College Readiness

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Abstract
This study provides understanding of college readiness from the perspectives of older firstgeneration college students, transferred from community college. Results indicate life experiences contribute to academic skills, time management, goal focus, and self-advocacy. Research is recommended to improve nontraditional student advising and placement, community college-to-university transfer, and college reading instruction.

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Defining College Readiness from the Inside Out:
First-Generation College Student Perspectives
College readiness is one of seven national education priorities (U. S. Department of Education, 2000). Meanwhile, according to McCabe (2000) in a national study of community college education, 41% percent of entering community college students and 29% of all entering college students are underprepared in at least one of the basic skills of reading, writing, and math. Since the 1980s, colleges have increasingly required placement testing to determine college readiness and offered or required developmental or remedial education for students placing below college level (Amey & Long, 1998; King, Rasool, & Judge, 1994). While

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