Educators and governments aim to ensure that all high school graduates are prepared for postsecondary education and employment(Dougherty, 2014). To put it another way, high school graduates must be ready to adapt to the ever-changing terrain of a knowledge-based economy quickly. These college preparation takeaways have prompted stakeholders in the K to 12 Program to consider how to appropriately prepare students for the transition from high school to higher education, with the ultimate objective of success in their chosen careers. As a result, international research on college preparation highlights the importance of students being prepared for college (Conley,2010). 

The Philippines implemented the K to 12 programs after enacting Republic Act (RA) No.10533, also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act 2013, in its never-ending pursuit of true academic excellence. The implementation of the K-12 Education Plan, covering Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education (six years of primary education, four years of Junior High School, and two years of Senior High School [SHS]), aims to form students who are not only prepared for further study and work(Official Gazette, n.d.), but who are interactive learners and possess the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitude which are essential in college life.

Since the graduation of the first batch of Senior High School students in 2018, questions about their readiness to proceed to college sur-faced. Past local research used a qualitative approach such as the study of Nishimura (2014)which revealed that there is a relationship among individual perceptions of college and career readiness skills, individual school elements, and school practices like creating a culture of critical thinking that leads a 12th grade student towards tertiary preparation. According to Mohammad (2016), many students had a negative opinion of the two extra years of high school, citing the lack of facilities, teachers, and non-teaching staff as well as the additional bur-den it placed on parents and students by lengthening the time that students had to spend in school. 

There are many disagreements and controversies on what preparedness means and how to assess it, even if it is widely recognized that today’s high school graduates should be college and career-ready (Zwick, 2018). The Department of Education categorically states that the K to 12 program’s success can be measured by various factors, including its ability to ensure that SHS graduates become college-ready, become entrepreneurs, and find work (DepEd,2018). College readiness is the level of preparation a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed – without remediation – in a credit-bearing course at a two-year or four-year institution, trade school, or technical school. In the21st century, college preparation is necessary for all high school students to be prepared for life in today’s “Knowledge Economy” (Baker et al., 2005).

Based on the above, the researchers believe that it is imperative to address difficulties of senior high school graduates entering higher education by evaluating their readiness to confirm the K to 12 Program’s efficacy and achievement of its aim of producing high school graduates who are college ready. The researchers thought that assessing students’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills would produce a more full, thorough, and strong picture of students’ preparation for college. The researchers hoped that evaluating students’ cognitive and non-cognitive abilities would provide a more robust, comprehensive, and complete picture of students’ college readiness. According to ACT (2014), cognitive skills entail conscious intellectual processes like thinking, reasoning, or remembering, whereas non-cognitive or “soft skills” are linked to a person’s personality, temperament, and attitudes. The value of this study was to determine the levels of readiness with the cognitive and non-cognitive standards for first-year college enrolled in a private institution in Northern Mindanao, Philippines. These students were the first graduates of the K-12 Curriculum to complete the two-year Senior High School program.