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Academic success depends, too, upon students’ exercising the stamina and persistence useful in other areas of their lives. Those who play sports, learn a musical instrument, or master difficult dance routines learn,
over time, the value of practice.

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Students need to form questioning habits when they read, especially
material found on the Internet where students must evaluate materials for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance,
and fairness.

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We caution readers against seeing competency as mere lists or
sets of discrete “skills.” Rather, we urge you to consider the contributions each
makes to a larger, more holistic “competency” or “ability.”

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. Yet all second language
learners are expected to control the same set of competencies for success as other students upon entering post secondary institutions.

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Competencies for entering students cannot be reduced to a
mere listing of skills.

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All students who enter college without having developed essential critical listening skills or who have not had ample practice speaking in large and small groups will find themselves disadvantaged.

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The California Language Arts Content Standards were designed by appointees of the State Board of Education without officially recognized participation by post secondary faculty. Adopted by the State Board of Education, these standards are mandated for all public K-12 schools. The
table in Appendix B includes the most relevant standards, those for grades 11-12.

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Writing in college is designed to deepen and extend discourse in the
pursuit of knowledge

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Only 1/3 of entering college students are sufficiently prepared for the
two most frequently assigned writing tasks

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83% of faculty say that the lack of analytical reading skills contributes to students’ lack of success in a course.

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Analytical thinking must be taught, and students must be encouraged to apply those analytical abilities to their own endeavors as well as to the work of others.

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In order to be prepared for college and university courses, students need greater exposure to and instruction in academic literacy than they receive
in English classes alone

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Academic literacy should be learned in high school.

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We affirm the role of California schools in enhancing democracy, and we
believe that literacy skills serve as the foundation for greater equity

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It then combines our colleagues’ views with research and our collective professional experience to produce specific
recommendations that will improve the level of literacy among first-year
students in all segments of higher education in our state.

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What attitudes facilitate student
learning?