The first-year college writing requirement is a time-honoured tradition in almost every college and university in the United States. Many high school students seek to fulfill this requirement before entering college through a variety of programs, such as Advanced Placement tests, concurrent enrollment programs, the International Baccalaureate diploma, and early college high schools. The growth of these programs raises a number of questions, including: Is this kind of outsourcing of instruction to noncollege providers of educational services something to be resisted or embraced?, What are the possible benefits and detriments to students, their parents, their teachers, and the educational institutions? What standards should be met with respect to student readiness, teacher preparation, curricular content, pedagogical strategies, and learning outcomes? How can we create a seamless K-14 educational system that effectively teaches writing to students in the transition from adolescence to adulthood?

Contributors to this volume - including high school teachers, professors at community colleges and universities, and administrators at both the secondary and postsecondary levels - explore the complexity of these issues, offer best practices and pitfalls of such a system, establish benchmarks for success, and lay out possible outcomes for a new educational landscape.