How Schools and States Are Addressing the Challenge

Nationwide, thousands of businesses and business people have led the charge for improved preparation of public school students for college and careers. A growing number of states have committed to ensure that all high school graduates have the skills and knowledge to be successful in the workplace, but more needs to be done.

To close the expectations gap and increase the odds for student success after high school, states and school districts need to commit to four policy actions:

• Align high school standards and assessments with the knowledge and skills required for success after high school.

• Require all high school graduates to take challenging courses that actually prepare them for life after high school.

• Streamline the assessment system so that the tests students take in high school also can serve as placement tests for college and hiring for work.

• Hold high schools accountable for graduating students who are ready for college or careers, and hold postsecondary institutions accountable for students' success once enrolled.

Advancing this agenda is the only way we can be sure that a high school diploma is a passport to success in life for young people, rather than a one-way ticket to nowhere.

Skills Required for College and Work are Converging

The American Diploma Project (ADP), an initiative launched by Achieve in partnership with two other leading national education organizations, The Education Trust and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, has determined that the skills needed for success in demanding jobs and in entry-level college courses are similar.

In 2004, ADP published Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma that Counts, the result of two years of research conducted in colleges, universities and high-performance workplaces across the country. The research indicates that, whether recent graduates head to a public two- or four-year college or to the workplace, all graduates need much more advanced mathematics and English skills than most graduates have today.

The report includes English and mathematics benchmarks that describe the specific content and skills that graduates must have mastered by the time they leave high school if they expect to succeed in postsecondary education or in high-performance, high-growth jobs. Subsequent ADP reports have assessed the rigor of state high school exit exams and high school course-taking requirements.

The research shows that the real-world ADP expectations are significantly more rigorous than current high school standards, resulting in an expectations gap that explains why many high school graduates are not prepared to succeed when they arrive at college or the workplace.

Click here to see more studies confirming the ADP research.

33 States Have Joined ADP Network

As a commitment to addressing these challenges, 33 states have joined Achieve's American Diploma Project Network. ADP Network states are responsible for educating nearly 80 percent of all U.S. public school students. In each participating state, the governor, the state superintendent of education, a business executive and a higher education leader are working together to address the four policy priorities in the ADP policy agenda.

Although all ADP Network states have committed to a common set of key policy priorities, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Each state has developed its own action plan for carrying out the agenda. Many states already have made significant progress in some areas. View a summary of the ADP Network states' action plans. To view each state's individual plan, click on the state in the map here. To see Achieve's report on the progress states have made on this agenda, see Closing the Expectations Gap 2008