Today, all students need a challenging academic course of study that provides the skills and knowledge required to succeed. But in many states today, students can graduate from high school without having what it takes to continue learning or to earn a living wage.

What's Causing the Expectations Gap?

Part of the challenge is that, until recently, state officials rarely worked with college and business leaders to define exactly what skills and information actually signify college and work readiness.
As a result, there's no consistency among college and university admissions, course placement, and job-hiring policies. Young people don’t know what courses to take to ensure they're ready. Parents, teachers, colleges and employers have no agreed-upon benchmark for what readiness entails, and they lack legitimacy when they try to communicate to young people that it pays to study.

Meanwhile, the courses students take in high school vary widely in their academic content and rigor. Students can go through high school and be exposed to content-rich and stimulating classes that build college- and career-ready skills. But many young people take a series of courses that offer remedial, non-academic and watered-down content, which does not build these skills and often leads students to become bored and disengaged and ultimately to drop out.

There are few benchmarks available to help students understand at various points in high school if they are on track for success or where they would be placed in college-level courses if they were to enroll. High school educators also lack crucial information that could help improve performance. They receive no data on how well their former students do in postsecondary education and lack the opportunity to take stock of what they could do to improve their teaching and help students succeed.

High schools and postsecondary institutions aren't being held accountable for college readiness and success. K–12 and postsecondary education need to be partners in ensuring that all young people are prepared for work and learning. Both have a role to play in ensuring that students who go on to postsecondary education stay in school and graduate.

Awareness of this expectations gap is part of the national dialogue about the preparation of students for life after high school. Widely acknowledged are persistently high dropout rates and college remediation rates — especially among disadvantaged minorities — and the growing desperation of employers who can't find qualified applicants for high-skilled, well-paying jobs. Mindful of the long-term implications of these problems for our economy and our children, national and state leaders, as well as the general public, share a sense of urgency and are committed to closing the expectations gap.

Closing the Expectations Gap

To close the expectations gap and increase the odds for student success, states need to create better data management tools to track student performance over time, develop and communicate high school graduation and college-entrance requirements that meet the demands of the real world, and encourage shared accountability for student success. States 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 readiness tests for college and the workplace.
• Hold high schools accountable for graduating students who are ready for college or careers, and holding 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.

American Diploma Project Network

Achieve is working with state leaders and broad coalitions in 33 states that are members of the American Diploma Project (ADP) Network. In each state, governors, state superintendents of education, business executives, and college and university leaders have developed action plans to significantly raise the rigor of the high school standards, assessments and curriculum and to better align these expectations with the demands of postsecondary education and work. The Network is furthering the work of the American Diploma Project (ADP), an initiative launched by Achieve in partnership with The Education Trust and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.