My literature review was conducted as both a review of relevant research applicable to each of my problems of practice and in the form of document analysis of the Constitutional themes, laws, codes, regulations, and procedures. In this way my review of the literature took an approach of examining world, national, state, and contextual considerations for what post-secondary environments student are situated in, and what current practices may be identified for improvement. The literature review was conducted in concert with my theoretical frame works and previous cycles of action research. In this way, the nested systems of Bronfenbrenner Ecological System Theory (EST, Bronfenbrenner, 1994; 1997) provided the framework with the purpose of understanding post-secondary environments being required to establish the positive goal setting being sought aligning with Snyder's Hope Theory (HT; 2002). The following is a brief overview of more than 100 sources reviewed and presented in the full chapter.

Student preparedness for post-secondary success is a complicated matter and may be both a problem and a symptom of other societal issues (Anyon, 2009). A review of this problem found that it may meet the criteria to be considered a wicked (Camillus, 2008; Rittel & Webber, 1973) or super wicked problem (Levin et al., 2012). Wicked problems thinking may need a more prevalent role in educational decision making (Jordan et al., 2014). Action research (Mertler, 2014; Mills, 2011) has attributes that may position it to be a vehicle for addressing wicked problems within a local context (Mertens, 2015).

Our Children's Inherited World

To consider what students might be need to be prepared for in a globalized economy, I conducted a review of the literature. I found that students will be entering a society with the following attributes: (a) a lower level of economic freedom (Miller & Kim, 2016; Miller et al., 2016); (b) a comparatively lower level of peace and safety (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2015); (c) a higher rate of being imprisoned than those in other countries (Kaeble et al., 2015); and (d) lower levels of educational expectations, attainment rates, and performance indicators when compared to students in other industrialized countries (Stephens et al., 2015; OECD, 2013; OECD, 2012). Thus, in a neoliberal globalized economy our students need to be equipped with the skill, habits, and mindset to deal with considerable extenuating factors and may need a different chronosystem goals established that considers these factors.

Current Chronosystem Expectations

To date, 48 states have implemented graduation requirements (Carlson & Planty, 2012). Graduation requirements are set to establish minimum standards for receiving a high school diploma. In line with national trends, the state and local expectations as expressed through education code, administrative regulations, and school site practice may not prepare students for success in post secondary environments. In California, state graduation requirements were implemented beginning in the 1986-1987 school year (California Department of Education, 2016). California (CA) Education Code (EDC) section 51225.3 (CA EDC § 51225.3, 2015) set minimum requirements.

However, those requirements do not meet the need of the University of California or the California State University systems which have set their own entrance requirements (UC 'a-g') that constitute a disconnection in the chronosystem event. As outlined in CA EDC § 51225.3, each LEA may set their own graduation requirements if they exceed those of the state. A growing trend in California has been for districts to adopt the university entrance criteria as their own graduation requirements. For example, San Diego Unified, Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified, San Jose Unified, and San Francisco Unified Districts all have adopted UC ‘a-g’ as their default graduation requirements. Schools are also empowered to set expectations for student's to meet, but do not hold the authority, in most systems, to formally hold students accountable for those expectations so long as the student meets district requirements as expressed in the adopted regulations of the district.