Are Texas' English Language Arts and Reading Standards College Ready?

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College readiness has recently emerged as a national issue, driven in part by repeated findings that many first-year college students are required to take remedial courses. In response, several sets of national college readiness standards (content statements defining what students should know in specific areas) have been developed. Discussions of comparisons between state and national standards continue to evolve.

This study compares how closely two national standards sets—the ACT and the American Diploma Project (ADP) English language arts and reading college readiness standards — align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills English language arts and reading (TEKS ELAR) standards for grades 9–12. It finds that:

• A majority of the content in the ACT and ADP college readiness standards sets is addressed to some extent by the TEKS ELAR standards. Specifically, 14 percent of ACT statements and 48 percent of ADP statements fully align with TEKS ELAR statements and 75 percent of ACT statements and 45 percent of ADP statements partially align.

• The TEKS ELAR standards demand higher levels of reasoning (on a four-level cognitive complexity scale) than the ACT or ADP standards. For example, higher levels of reasoning are required to make complex inferences (level 3) than to retrieve facts (level 1).

This study will inform Texas policymakers, state and district educators, English language arts and reading curriculum directors, higher education professionals, and other stakeholders as they examine the alignment and strive to ensure that all Texas students are prepared for college.

This REL report was released by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance in the Institute of Education Sciences.