Schools, ECC agree on what 'ready for college' means

A year-old partnership between Elgin Community College and its feeder high schools has local educators redefining what it means to be ready to attend college.

"We thought we were all on the same page," ECC Director of College Readiness Alison Douglas said Tuesday. "It turns out we were all speaking a different language."

Douglas was speaking at the second annual kickoff meeting of the Alliance for College Readiness, a group of about 60 teachers and administrators from ECC and local high schools.

The group, which meets about once a month, was formed to address the fact that most ECC students arrive unprepared for college-level courses.

One of the group's first breakthroughs, Douglas said, was recognizing that parents, high school teachers and college professors all have very different notions about what college readiness entails.

Parents, Douglas said, generally think their kids are ready to attend college if they passed high school.

High school teachers, Douglas said, generally think their students are ready to attend college if they pass the annual battery of standardized tests administered by the state.

Meanwhile, ECC professors encounter scores of students who have passed their high school classes, met standards on state tests and still lack the skills to complete a college-level course.

At ECC, more than half of incoming freshmen must take remedial English and more than 70 percent qualify for remedial math, according to ECC statistics.

Bringing together high school and college educators has helped make both groups aware of the other's expectations, and lead to changes in the curriculum at area high schools, Alliance members agreed.

"We're now looking at specific college readiness standards and how to teach them," said Tom Donausky, director of high school curriculum at Elgin Area School District U-46. "We've become much more aware of the ways in which we can support each other."

ECC professors and administrators have begun attending curriculum meetings at U-46, Donausky said.

At Tuesday's meeting, Alliance members brainstormed ways to make the public more aware of the issues surrounding college readiness.

Suggestions included informational sessions at different sites throughout the community, the creation of college readiness videos and report cards that track a student's progress toward college readiness.