Ramp-Up to Readiness

Printer-friendly version

Too often in traditional secondary schools, students simply move along a predetermined path with their peers based upon age and/or previous performance in school. That may work well for students whose path leads to college readiness, but we know that the assembly-line approach won’t work for students who encounter difficulties along the way or who face unique challenges.

Those students need additional structures and supports beyond the core components of Ramp-Up or even of a high-quality school program that will work for most students. This support may be short- or long-term in duration. It may be relatively intensive or fairly low-key.                     PYRAMID OF INTERVENTIONS

On-Ramp Interventions have been developed to help students get back on track to meeting each of the five Readiness Goals. They are organized around the Readiness components that support each goal. Download the attached Ramp-Up Interventions chart below.

Students can be identified for On-Ramp Interventions at any point when they begin to get off-track. Hopefully, the first to realize this will be the student, which will prompt the type of individual action that will be critical to success in postsecondary education.

However, schools also need to have organized and explicit points at which students’ need for On-Ramp Interventions is assessed and acted upon. This should happen every time a student creates or revises the Postsecondary Plan, evaluates his or her progress against the Readiness Rubric or takes the Personal Readiness Inventory.

If a student is identified as being off-track in any one of those areas, sometimes the best approach will be to take no immediate action but instead to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis. If, however, it is clear that additional support is needed, then school staff should consult the list of On-Ramp Interventions below or should develop other approaches based on best practices and research.