College readiness beyond remediation: a comparative study of native freshmen on program satisfaction and meaningful socialization through a summer bridge program

Over 29% of all students in public four-year institutions have taken remedial courses (Skomsvold, 2014), and therefore, have not been considered "college-ready" upon entering college (Conley, 2007; Jimenez, Sargrad, Morales, & Thompson, 2016; Jones & King, 2012; Rothman, 2012). Of these students, 40% will not graduate with a bachelor's degree in six years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2001, 2012a; Sablan, 2014). In terms of racial background, disparities show that 30.4% of Asian, 35.8% of White/Caucasian, 52.6% of Hispanic, and 65.9% of black students took remedial courses in any field (Chen & Simone, 2016). Consequently, in the current era of high-stakes testing, pressure and tension continue to negatively impact low-income and underrepresented students' pathways toward college (Darling-Hammond, Wilhoit, & Pittenger, 2014; Reardon, 2013; Welton & Williams, 2015). For many of these students, this pressure and tension can affect the ways in which they prepare for and socially integrate into the college culture (Weidman, 1989; Welton & Williams, 2015). Based on this evidence, it is important to consider how socialization processes can help shift the way in which we determine college-readiness beyond the parameters of remedial education. In order to examine first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students' transitions into college, this study will examine the impacts on students' program satisfaction and meaningful socialization through their participation in a transitional summer bridge program (SBP).