Perceptions of College Readiness for High Achieving Black Students

This dissertation explores Black/African American students’ perceptions of college readiness through student demographic questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and focus group data. One objective of this study was to explore how advanced coursework contributed to the college readiness of Black students. Another objective was to examine academic writing readiness for Black students, which is an under-researched aspect of college readiness. The findings indicated that having a fostered college mindset, collegiate academic exposure, and being provided foundational skills and knowledge were aspects of advanced course participation that contributed to postsecondary success for the participants. In terms of writing readiness, writing opportunities and writing skill enhancement contributed to the participants’ college writing readiness and success. However, misalignment between high school and college expectations, mismatch of collegiate level writing expectations, and lack of citation knowledge were other areas related to college readiness that also emerged from the data. This study provides implications for policy, teachers, school personnel, and teacher educators.