The College Readiness for All Toolbox is an effective set of well-researched tools, lessons learned, resources, and documents designed to do the following:

• Create a college-ready culture for ALL students.
• Enhance student expectations, achievement, and access.
• Provide educators and outreach professionals with self-assessment
  and evaluation activities.
• Help students and educators collaborate on postsecondary success.
• Provide an understanding of the change process.
• Create an easy to use roadmap for program implementation.

Educators, guidance counselors, outreach professionals, and policy makers will find the tools easy to use and adaptable to meet the unique needs of all learning environments.

Take the first steps to creating a college ready culture, and begin exploring the tools, resources, and activities available in the toolbox!

The challenges of the 21st century demand that educational systems support high achievement and the development of lifelong learning skills for all students, regardless of background. A comprehensive and collaborative approach is needed to reach the large numbers of students who, with equal learning opportunities, encouragement, and support, are capable of preparing for and succeeding in postsecondary education or careers.

Efforts by school and college outreach practitioners must focus on improving and expanding the capacity of personalized learning environments, outreach programs, community-based initiatives, and colleges and universities to ensure that ALL students achieve successfully at the postsecondary level. To guarantee that this happens, and a sustainable and effective college-ready culture is created in your school, we have developed a toolbox that is an easy-to-use set of strategies and resources capable of meeting the needs of many stakeholders within the secondary school environment.

Users of the toolbox are guided through steps that manage the change process when implementing initiatives designed to enhance college-ready expectations, achievement, and access, while providing  well-researched educational best practices that support a postsecondary culture - we call this the intergration of the "what" and the "how."

• We have identified four core concepts - Initiating Change, Enhancing Expectations, Enhancing Achievement, and Enhancing Assess - and tools and resources that align with each and support a college-ready culture for ALL students. This is the Content (the WHAT) aspect of the Toolbox, i.e., the Expectations, Achievement, and Access educational best practice materials.
• The Pathways Implementation Model provides a roadmap for identifying desired changes, and a methodology for successfully implementing them. This is the Process (The HOW) aspect of the Toolbox, i.e., it is a model (9 steps) that insures changes will be bought into and sustained. This information has been included to insure users do not perpetuate the typical 80-90% failure rate of major change initiatives. To keep this idea front and center when using the Toolbox, a description of where each tool fits in the implementation process is provided. This helps users keep the "big picture" in mind when planning a new initiative.

We believe that by providing outreach professionals, guidance counselors, and educators both the tools and resources that help develop a college-ready culture and an implementation process (9-step model) to assure sustainability and effectiveness of all programs and initiatives, a positive and challenging learning environment will be created that prepares ALL students for 21st century success.