Three institutes of higher-education research released a report Monday asserting that states must improve how well their public-school systems prepare students for college. The report calls for greater coordination between high schools and colleges, attempting to ensure that what is expected of students in high school correlates with what is needed to be successful in college.

The report suggests states need to incorporate data systems to track individual students' success over time in order to review the affordability of their public colleges and take similar measures to bridge the gap between public high schools and colleges.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction acknowledges there is a problem and said the department is working to improve the situation with new programs.

"In Wisconsin, there is a tremendous amount of coordination to ensure that students are prepared for college," DPI Communications Officer Joe Donovan said.

This coordination comes in the form of a program called PK16, which stands for pre-kindergarten through grade 16. One of the program's goals is to focus on keeping students motivated and challenged during the transition from their senior year of high school to college.

Fran Garb, senior academic planner in Wisconsin's Office of Academic and Student Services, explained PK16 has been successful in improving the sharing of data between high schools and colleges, as recommended in the report. She also noted that public high schools in Wisconsin will be creating a complete database.

"We are hoping to be able to use this opportunity of having a K12 database and a university system database to share info across that PK16 divide," she said.

Garb said ACT results indicate the state should be concerned about college readiness.

"ACT data indicated that a fairly low percentage of the Wisconsin students were prepared to succeed in the university based on their performance," she said.

Another issue of concern, according to Garb, is "the gap between the performance on the ACT test between students of color and majority students, even when they had the same course-taking pattern. This suggests that the high school experience for those two groups of students is somewhat different."

Florida is mentioned in the report as a state that is making reforms to change the lack of coordination between colleges and high schools. Heather Sherry, director of the Office of Articulation at the Florida Department of Education, said the state wants to provide more challenging coursework, starting at the middle school level.

"We will definitely acknowledge that there are improvements to be made, and that is why there is a big focus on increasing rigor, starting in middle school and moving all the way up into college," Sherry said. "We know that the curriculum starting in middle school and going on into high school is the most important factor regarding whether or not a student is prepared or successful in college."

Sherry also described Florida's Brighter Future Scholarship Program, which she said has received a lot of publicity. The program aligns state-university entrance requirements with high school curricula, encouraging students to go above and beyond the high school graduation requirements.

"We encourage all students to take those more rigorous courses so they are prepared [for college coursework]," she said.

Tom Reason, assistant director of admissions at the University of Wisconsin, said students need to be accountable for their high school work and take advantage of the resources provided for them.

"Preparation for college certainly has something to do with the nature of the opportunities available to students," he said. "But it has equally as much to do with how the students take advantage of those opportunities."

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research and the Institute for Educational Leadership authored the report.