State education leaders want 60 percent of Texans 25 to 34 years old to have some kind of post-secondary certificate or degree by the year 2030. But to get there, students need to be ready to take college-level classes, and it can take leaders time to agree just who qualifies as prepared.
Depending on which test scores you look at, the percentage of students ready to do college work differs slightly.
If you look at the students who take the SAT, it鈥檚 32 percent. But only 27 percent of ACT test takers are college-ready. And according to Texas鈥� own college readiness test, the TSI, 30 percent can do college work. But, one thing is clear: The number of students prepared for college is lower than education officials want it to be.
鈥淐ompare that number to the 60 percent we want to be college graduates, you have a very clear indication that we have a long way to go,鈥� said Raymond Parades, the commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He spoke to the State Board of Education this week.Paredessaid these benchmarks are a good indicator. But he and others agree they aren鈥檛 the only way togaugecollege readiness.
鈥淪AT and ACT isn鈥檛 the end-all, be-all. What you want is students who actually finish in their post-secondary environment. That鈥檚 a pretty good indicator that they were ready,鈥� said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath when speaking to the State Board of Education.
鈥淥ur outcomes today are better than they鈥檝e ever been as certainly is measured by apples-to-apples benchmarks in SAT and ACT," Morath said. "It just so happens that the demands of the economy are far more sophisticated than they were 20 and 30 years ago.鈥�
Ninety percent of job sectors showing growth today require a post-secondary degrees鈥攚hich takes us back to the 60 percent by 2030 goal: increasing the number of people who get post-secondary credentials and can get jobs.
One possible solution to increasing college readiness: better teacher preparation programs in colleges and universities 鈥� something Paredes admits could use improvement:
鈥淵ou鈥檒l never hear me claim that universities are doing an excellent job of training teachers. In fact, that鈥檚 a discussion I frequently have with university presidents, and there鈥檚 no doubt that we need to do a lot better. I also lament we haven鈥檛 shown much improvement in the time I鈥檝e been here," Paredes says.
Still, he says, he鈥檚 seen more interest among university leaders to improve teacher training than in the past.
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