Michigan has been a partner with Achieve since 1998, when the state, under the leadership of the governor, helped launch the pilot study that became the Benchmarking Initiative. Achieve evaluated the quality of the state's academic standards and assessments in elementary, middle and high school.

Since that time, Michigan has made steady progress by developing grade-by-grade content expectations in reading/English language arts and math to serve as the basis for annual assessments. (December 1998)