To help states build strategies for sustaining their education agendas over the long run, Achieve launched Taking Root: Strategies for Sustaining the College- and Career-Ready Agenda.

As an increasing number of states embark on the college- and career-ready agenda, it is vital that they take the long view and ensure that the agenda is implemented and sustained so that it can take root and meet the goal of graduating all students from high school prepared for college and careers.

After reviewing the existing research base, Achieve conducted resesarch on state education policies that had been sustained successfully for a decade or more and developed case studies on:

• Indiana's Core 40
• The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993
• South Carolina's Education Improvement Act
• Texas' standards-based reforms

Achieve hopes this work will help other states, wherever they may be on their road to reform, replicate successful strategies and accelerate systemic reform in their own states, particularly around the college- and career-ready agenda.

Taking Root also includes a "Lessons Learned" paper - drawn from the four case studies, a review of existing research on sustainable education reform, and Achieve's experience with states - that offers ten key strategies for states to consider as they adopt and implement college- and career-ready policies.  The paper also provides guiding questions for states to use as they evaluate both whether they have conditions necessary for sustainability in place and whether those conditions are built for success so that education reform can take root and prosper.

In addition, Achieve also created a sustainability audit tool to help states assess the likelihood that their college- and career-ready policies are sustainable.

All states, no matter where they are in the college- and career-ready policy agenda, need to consider how they will sustain their efforts over the long haul. Achieve is committed to providing all states with the tools and guidance they need to engage in and successfully consider this critical issues as they move forward.