Photo by Allison Shelley/Complete College Photo LibraryAugust 3, 2026 | By Krystal Thomas
What does it really mean for students to be ready for college? Grades, test scores, and course completion rates can help indicate whether students are academically prepared, but they do not always tell the full story. Study habits, motivation, help-seeking, and sense of connection can also play an important role in how students navigate postsecondary pathways and persist through challenges.
A recent College Readiness and Success Collection from EdInstruments, a project of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, offers researchers, institutional leaders, program evaluators, and college access practitioners a practical starting point for identifying tools that measure these important factors. This collection was curated by Krystal Thomas, senior education researcher in SRI’s Education Division, and Beth Kopko of Columbia University.
“Student success depends on more than just academic preparation,” Thomas said. “The right tools help us understand motivation, connection, and persistence.”
The collection profiles more than 30 validated student self-report instruments that measure noncognitive factors tied to college readiness and persistence, including study habits, resilience, goal-setting, help-seeking, and self-advocacy. Because the measures span precollege to postsecondary contexts, the collection can support programs focused on students’ preparation for college and their experiences after enrollment.
“The most useful college readiness measures capture what transcripts can’t: how students navigate challenge, uncertainty, and change,” Thomas said.
Each instrument profile includes information on what the instrument measures, administration, psychometric data, and prior research use. For researchers and practitioners, these details can make it easier to identify measures that fit a specific study, evaluation, program, or student population.
The collection also helps identify areas where additional measurement work may be needed. During project planning conversations, Thomas noted that having measures organized in one place could provide a “quick shortcut” for people working across different aspects of college readiness while also showing where fewer tools currently exist.
This collection may be especially useful to institutions and programs working to better understand students’ college readiness and success. Students enter postsecondary education through a variety of pathways, including community colleges, broad-access institutions, online courses, and workforce-aligned programs. Measures of students’ experiences, mindsets, and learning strategies can offer helpful context for planning supports.
“Too many students struggle in silence during the first weeks of college,” Thomas said. “Better measurement helps institutions respond before students disengage.”
Thomas’s work on the College Readiness and Success Collection connects to SRI’s broader efforts to support student success in postsecondary and online learning environments. For institutions building evaluation plans, selecting measures for applied research, or seeking better ways to understand student needs, the collection offers a free, curated resource to help guide that work.