What does it mean to be college and career ready?

My oldest son is a senior in high school, so the idea of college and career ready has a duality to me as both a parent and as an educator. I am seeing my seventeen year old son, who has so much academic potential, lack so much in the way of the soft skills that will determine success or struggle in college or career. I am continually trying to find the balance between pushing my son and letting him fail forward. It is the same for us as educators - trying to find the balance between academic proficiency and the kind of self-management and independence that will ultimately make the difference for our kids.

In this article from Educational Leadership called "What Makes a Student College Ready?," the author identifies four key pillars that relate to college success - Key Cognitive Strategies, Key Content Knowledge, Key Self-Management Skills, and Key Knowledge About Post-Secondary Education (Educational Leadership, 2008, 66:2). As a parent,  I am concerned about my son and those self-management skills - things like being able to get up on time, manage his own time, manage his own deadlines, and manage the stress of everything happening at once. As an educator, I worry about the students in my school who lack key content knowledge because they have struggled with being below grade level or they lack experiences that would give them prior knowledge to connect to. I also worry that so many of our students lack knowledge about post-secondary education and that will impact their ability to successfully complete college and be ready for a career.

David T. Conley (2010)

Our children, both biological and school, must have support from their teachers in being ready for college or career. Ensuring that our students have the skills that they need starts in elementary school and continues throughout their schooling. If we are going to ensure the future of our communities, we must ensure that our students have the skills they need to be ready for college and career. That's what I want for my own children and for the children in my school.