Not all paths to college and career readiness pay off equally for Texas students, study finds
Students who took English and math college prep courses were less likely to complete college than their peers who were not considered college-ready at all.
As Texas pushes more high schoolers to prepare for college and the workforce, new research suggests that some of the ways schools count students as ready don’t equally prepare them for success after graduation.
The Texas Education Agency has become increasingly strict with districts regarding college readiness. In the 2022-23 school year, state education officials raised the benchmark for schools to qualify for an A grade in the college and career readiness category: Schools needed to have 88% of graduates ready for life after high school, up from 60% in prior years.
According to The Texas Tribune, researchers from four Texas universities tracked nearly 1 million Texas high school students across eight graduating classes from 2016-23 to see how they fared after high school, including the wages they earned as well as whether they enrolled in college and completed their degree.
While English and math college prep courses have seen a boom in enrollment, the researchers found students in those courses were 5% less likely to earn a college degree or certification within six years of high school graduation than students who were not considered college-ready. They were also 18% less likely to get a degree or certification than their dual credit peers. The results of the study, The Uneven Promise of Readiness, suggest college prep courses offer a false signal of preparedness.
“We could be potentially setting students up for failure because we’re saying, ‘OK, you’re college-ready.’ But you actually get into college, and you’re immediately taking developmental coursework,” said Jacob Kirksey, lead researcher on the study and professor at Texas Tech University. “And maybe you’ve racked up, you know, loans as a result of that process.”
Meanwhile, students who earned a credential in high school — be it an associate’s degree or a certificate — earned 15% to 20% more in wages later in life than students who were not college-ready. Dual credit was also shown to predict the likelihood of enrolling in and completing college.
The TEA has begun a process to review and approve college-prep classes. To date, only a handful of English prep courses have received approval. No math college prep courses have.
Kirksey has also called for Texas lawmakers and state education officials to rethink how college and career readiness is incentivized, offering public schools bigger rewards for higher-quality pathways like dual credit, and smaller rewards for lower-quality pathways like college prep classes. His previous research on the impact of teacher certification on student achievement led the state to phase out uncertified teachers in core classes.