Education
College Readiness Report
The transition of students from high school into postsecondary education is an important but under-informed policy issue. To address this research question, the Arizona Community Foundation and Arizona State University tracked high school graduates from the classes of 2005 and 2006 who enrolled in either the Maricopa community college system or one of Arizona’s three public universities the year following graduation from high school.
These previously unreleased data provide school-level results on the percentage of high school graduates from Maricopa County district and charter high schools who enter postsecondary education ready for college-level coursework. For the purpose of this study, college-level is defined as any course categorized by the postsecondary institutions as:
- English – Freshman English or above (courses designated as Pre-Freshman English and Other Lower Division English were not designated as college-level).
- Mathematics – College Algebra or above (courses designated as Pre-Intermediate Algebra, Intermediate Algebra and those designated as Other Lower Division Mathematics were not designated as college-level).
Limitations:
- The results do not include students who attended college outside the state of Arizona.
- The results do not include those students that entered a postsecondary institution but did not enter an English or Mathematics course.
- The results do not include students who enrolled in a community college elsewhere in Arizona, outside of Maricopa County.
Future iterations of this study intend to address these limitations to provide a more complete picture of the transition of Arizona’s high school graduates. The subset of students in the analysis, however, is important because they represent those students that remained in the Arizona educational pipeline.
Data Source(s):
The underlying data were provided by the Arizona Board of Regents and the Maricopa County Community College District office in accordance
with the reporting requirement of §ARS15-1822 - Report; academic performance of high school graduates.
Definition of Categories in College Readiness Results:
- High School - High school name
- District or Charter Holder - District or charter holder name
- College Enrollment (Students) - Number of students from the respective high school class enrolled in either an Arizona public university or a Maricopa County Community College in the academic year following graduation
- College Enrollment (Rate) - Percent of graduates that enroll in either an Arizona public university or the Maricopa Community College system
- Readiness Rate (English) - Percentage of college students enrolled in college-level English course
- Readiness Rate (Math) - Percentage of college students enrolled in college-level Mathematics course
- School Type (Charter) - Charter school indicator
- School Type (Alternative) - Alternative school designation as defined and approved by the Arizona Department of Education
Please contact author for permission to cite or publish the results: David R. Garcia, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University College of Education
