To close the expectations gap and better prepare students for college and the workplace, states must first ensure that high school standards reflect the real-world skills and knowledge students need to be successful after they graduate.

Academic standards provide a foundation for decisions on curriculum, instruction and assessment, and they communicate core learning goals to teachers, parents and students. But too often state high school standards are not anchored in the skills and knowledge employers and colleges now demand. As a result, students can graduate high school and believe they've done well, but they can still find themselves unprepared for work and learning. This "standards gap" is reinforced by the fact that high schools offer so many non-academic courses, such as consumer math and community science, in key subject areas.

States cannot hope to build the high-skilled workforce they need to be economically competitive with their neighbors, much less become economic powerhouses around the globe, if they allow students to slide through high school without taking a rigorous curriculum.

To ratchet up standards to what is required in the real world, colleges and universities must clearly define the knowledge and skills necessary for enrolling in credit-bearing courses. Similarly, employers must be clear about the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the global knowledge economy. Then, the K-12 system will need to align its standards and assessments with those college- and career-ready expectations. (Find out more on what states are doing on this issue.)

Why It's Important

Aligned standards provide the foundation to improve curriculum, instruction and assessment and better prepare students for college and the workplace

• 82 percent of teachers said that their instruction has been helped by having clearly specified learning goals for students. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• 19 states have aligned and an additional 25 states and the District of Columbia are in the process of aligning or plan to align their K-12 standards to postsecondary and business expectations. (Achieve)

Students are ready for the challenge

• Four out of five college students (82 percent) and non-college students (80 percent) say that they would have worked harder if their schools had demanded more of them and set higher academic standards. (Achieve)
• Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of recent high school graduates feel strongly that they would have worked harder if schools had demanded more of them, set higher academic standards and raised course requirements for graduation. (Horatio Alger)
• Nearly two-thirds of high school students (65 percent) would work harder if high school offered more demanding and interesting courses. (National Governors Association)

What States Are Doing

Today, more than two-thirds of the states have begun to align standards to college and career expectations. Those that have been at it the longest and are working closely with higher education leaders are achieving the most results, according to Achieve's 50-state review.

Georgia adopted aligned standards and college- and career-ready graduation requirements for all students as a result of the collaborative efforts of the state’s K-12 and higher education systems. The University System of Georgia, which includes 35 public colleges and universities, has a number of long-established academic advisory committees in mathematics, science, English and other fields. These committees, which include faculty from each of the state's two- and four-year public higher education institutions, worked closely with the state department of education to develop the new and highly rigorous performance standards that were adopted by the state board of education in 2007. At the same time, the state adopted high school graduation requirements that are aligned to admissions requirements for the University System.

Moving forward, Georgia is modifying the Georgia High School Graduation Test to ensure its alignment to the new standards. This state is also developing a college-ready cut score in mathematics and English language arts, allowing the test to be used to determine both whether students graduate from high school and where they should be placed in college courses in the state's university and technical and adult education systems.

Indiana began raising high school standards more than a decade ago when it brought together leaders from business, industry, labor, and K-12 and postsecondary education to help align state standards with postsecondary and workplace expectations. The resulting standards, which are as rigorous as the ADP benchmarks, were used by the Indiana Education Roundtable to reshape high school course-taking requirements and establish a new system of end-of-course assessments and have yielded dramatic results. In little more than a decade, the state has gone from ranking 40th to 10th in the percentage of young people who go on to college. Indiana is in the process of revising its aligned standards to keep them dynamic and relevant. (More on Indiana's comprehensive reform efforts.)

Achieve's Alignment Institutes

To facilitate state efforts, Achieve, Inc., has created a series of institutes that bring together K-12, postsecondary and business leaders from ADP Network states to define the core knowledge and skills in mathematics and English that graduates need for college and career readiness and to strengthen their high school standards as necessary. The ADP Network states participating in these institutes include Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. (More on the Alignment Institutes). Of these 19 states, eight – Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey Oklahoma and Tennessee – have adopted aligned standards over the past two years and another six – Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – report plans to adopt new standards in 2008.