Middle Grades Students in College: The Potential of University-School Partnerships to Facilitate College Readiness

• In Event: Roundtable Session 67
  In Roundtable Session: Assisting Adolescents as They Journey Toward Adulthood

Abstract

College readiness and responsive, experiential curricula are important for middle grades students. The College Immersion program presented here illustrates an effort to get students ready for college by going. Educators from an urban middle school collaborated with university faculty and administration to provide middle grades students a full week of college life. Researchers studied five years of student surveys taken after the College Immersion program and found that students (1) expressed new understandings of college behaviors (i.e. working hard); (2) developed an appreciation for how college works (i.e., lecture hall) and (3) reported a positive view of college life while acknowledging the “hard work” needed for success.

Authors

• Mary Beth Schaefer, Saint John's University

• Lourdes M. Rivera, Queens College - CUNY