Ramp-Up to Readiness

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We know that getting to college – especially for a student from a non-college - experienced family – takes incredible persistence through difficulty and boredom and other challenges. To get through those challenges, students not only have to want to go to college, they have to believe they can achieve the goal.^cit.McGrew, Johnson, Cosio & Evans, Expectations for Students with Cognitive Disabilities: Is the Cup Half Empty or Half Full? Can the Cup Flow Over? (Synthesis Report 55). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes. Retrieved at: http://education.umn.edu/NCEO/OnlinePubs/Synthesis55.html When students believe they are able to shape desired outcomes, they are more focused on tasks, cope better in the face of challenge and are likely to persevere after experiencing a set back or failure.^cit.Skinner, E.A., Welborn, J.G., & Connell, J.P. (1990). What it takes to do well in school and whether I’ve got it: A process model of perceived control and children’s engagement and achievement in school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1), 22-32.

Conley’s research has also identified persistence when faced with a difficult or ambiguous task as a key academic behavior.^cit.Conley, D. T. (2007). Toward a more comprehensive conception of college readiness. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center. Other researchers have found that having long-term educational goals, such as graduating from college, is associated with greater self-regulation and use of cognitive strategies for high school and college students.^cit.Greene, B., Miller, R., Crowson, M., Duke, B., & Akey, K. (2004). Predicting high school students' cognitive engagement and achievement: Contributions of classroom perceptions and motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 462–482

Carol Dweck’s research illustrates that mindset greatly influences academic success. Students (and their teachers) who have a fixed mindset believe their abilities are set in stone, while those with a growth mindset believe they can improve their knowledge and skills with effort. In Dweck’s study of students entering junior high with indistinguishable elementary records, those with a fixed mindset had an immediate drop-off in grades, and their performance deteriorated over two years. The students with a growth mindset showed improvement in their grades during junior high.^cit.Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: the new psychology of success. Random House, 2006, p. 57.

Ultimately, Ramp-Up is designed to create schools where students devote their time, energy, effort and talents to achieve the steps necessary for college readiness with the expectation that this personal investment will lead to favorable future outcomes for their career and life goals.