Indiana's education system is designed to help students make a seamless transition from preschool through high school to college or the workplace. The bedrock of this system is a set of exemplary academic standards.

Before the state developed these standards, it enlisted Achieve's help to compare its previous expectations with the best from other states and countries around the world. Achieve found that Indiana's standards failed to measure up.

Achieve recommended that the state revise the standards to provide more clarity and coherence; reduce repetition across and within grade levels; and measure important and challenging skills and knowledge, with special attention to early literacy, algebra and geometry. The resulting standards now serve as a model for other states and have received high marks from Education Week's Quality Counts report and the American Federation of Teachers.