Instructors of entry-level college courses consider the common standards in mathematics and English/language arts good reflections of the skills students must master to be successful in courses in a range of disciplines, according to a survey released last week. The study, "Reaching the Goal," aims to verify a key premise of the academic standards that have been adopted by all but five states: that they prepare students for college by defining the skills and knowledge that are crucial to success in entry-level coursework. Although college instructors served on the panels that crafted the standards, the new survey is believed to be the only study to test that premise by putting the question directly to higher-education faculty members. In conducting the study, a team led by David T. Conley, the chief executive officer of the Educational Policy Improvement Center, in Eugene, Oregon, posed two types of questions to the instructors of 1,897 courses at 944 two- and four-year colleges across the country. First, the "applicability" question: Do the high school standards reflect material that will be covered or reviewed, or considered a prerequisite, in your course? If instructors answered yes, they went on to the "importance" questions, rating on a scale of 1 to 4 how crucial mastery of each broad "strand" or "conceptual category" of standards--and scores of standards and substatements within them--is to success in their courses.