Closing the Expectations Gap 2007 - Achieve

Align High School Standards with Real-WorldExpectationsFor the past 15 years, states have been developing and revising academic standards intendedto articulate the core knowledge and skills that students should learn from kindergartenthrough grade 12. These standards play an important role in the U.S. education system:They provide a foundation for decisions on curriculum, instruction and assessment, and theycommunicate core learning goals to teachers, parents and students. Unfortunately, very fewstates anchored their K–12 standards in the skills necessary for postsecondary success, sothese “first generation” standards have had a limited impact on the preparation of highschool students for college and careers.Aligning high school standards withcollege and workplace expectations canbe accomplished only with the formalinvolvement of the postsecondary andbusiness communities. Working withK–12 educators, postsecondary systemsmust clearly define the skills that highschool graduates need to be ready totake and succeed in credit-bearing,non-remedial courses; business leaders,likewise, must articulate the skillsthat graduates need to be successfuland advance in their careers. High schoolstandards then need to be anchored inthese real-world expectations.Progress Since the SummitSince 2005, 44 states have committedto re-examining the alignment of theirhigh school standards to ensure thatthey reflect the knowledge and skillsthat high school graduates need to besuccessful in college and the workplace.Among these are the 29 statesin Achieve’s ADP Network.• Twelve states report that their highschool standards are aligned withreal-world expectations, more thandoubling the number from a yearago, on the first anniversary of the2005 Summit. Then only fivestates — California, Indiana,Nebraska, New York and Wyoming— reported that they had alignedtheir high school standards. Thisyear, seven new states — Arkansas,Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana,Michigan, Rhode Island and WestVirginia — report having alignedand adopted college- and careerreadyhigh school standards.Achieve has reviewed formally orverified the standards in Arkansas,California, Indiana, Kentucky,Louisiana, Michigan and RhodeIsland and found that they are well2006 20075 7 27 5aligned with the college- andcareer-ready knowledge and skillsdefined in the ADP benchmarks. 5• Twenty-seven states report thatthey are in the process of aligningtheir standards. Ten of the 27states report that their alignmentprocess is expected to concludesome time this year.• Five additional states report plans toalign their standards with collegeandcareer-ready expectations:Connecticut, Mississippi, Montana,South Dakota and Utah.• Only six states — Alaska, Illinois,Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota andVermont — report that they have noMany States Are Aligning College- and Work-Ready High School StandardsIn process ofaligningPlan toalign5 12 39 44Number of statesSource: Achieve Survey/Research, 2007Alignment completeClosing the Expectations Gap 2007 7