PARCC results and college readiness: Most suburban students aren't ready?

I recently came across data about PARCC results stating that most suburban students are not ready for college. Can someone explain what exactly this means? What does being 'ready for college' entail according to PARCC? Any insights would be helpful, I'd like to understand this better.

Being 'ready for college' according to PARCC, or the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, refers to a student's preparedness in terms of academic skills to take on college-level coursework. It means that the student has achieved proficiency in key areas such as English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics, and can therefore tackle the rigor of typical first-year college coursework in those subjects without needing remediation. This is largely based on the scoring levels that PARCC uses for its assessments.

PARCC testing assesses students on a 5-point scoring scale. A score of 4 indicates that a student has met expectations, and a score of 5 suggests the student exceeded expectations. When it is said that a student is 'ready for college', it generally means that they've scored a 4 or 5 on the PARCC assessments.

If the data you've come across indicates most suburban students aren't ready for college, it means that a majority of students in these areas didn't score in the 'meeting' or 'exceeding' expectations range. This might be due to various reasons such as schools lacking resources to adequately prepare students, students having trouble adapting to the standardized testing format of PARCC, or educational disparities that exist within different groups of students.

It's also important to note that PARCC results are only one metric of college readiness. Other factors like the rigor of a student's course selection, their grade point average, and their commitment to extracurricular activities can also play a crucial role in determining college readiness.