Common Core State Standards & Career and Technical Education: Bridging the Divide between College and Career Readiness outlines a set of strategies state and district leaders can leverage to ensure the implementation of Common Core State Standards engages, informs, benefits, and benefits from the career and technical education (CTE) community, a partner in the broader college- and career-ready agenda.

This report identifies the types and ranges of college- and career-ready skills reflected in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy, using two sets of skills statements – the Deeper Learning Standards and the Career Cluster Essential Knowledge and Skills Statements – as benchmarks.

As states adopt and implement bold education reforms intended to dramatically increase a student’s likelihood of graduating from high school prepared for college and career, there is a strong sense among many states that reporting the right data to the right people at the right time, and reporting it well, is an essential path toward meeting their college and career readiness (CCR) goals.

Achieve, in partnership with Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), conducted a national survey of almost 4,700 human resource (HR) professionals from across nine industries to better understand how the skills mismatch affects companies’ hiring practices — and how companies’ hiring practices affect the skills mismatch. The report shows that organizations are demanding more education and technical training than before, a trend expected to continue in the future.

To inform and rally more advocates within the business community, Achieve and the GE Foundation have developed Business Resources for a College- and Career-Ready America for business leaders interested in supporting college- and career-ready education reform.

New 50- State Report From Achieve Details States' Commitment to College and Career Readiness

Achieve commissioned an original analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics/O*NET data to identify low skills jobs, opportunities for advancement within and out of those low skills jobs, and the skills most required across those jobs (compared to those skills required for middle skills jobs).

In this literature review, Achieve summarizes and synthesizes that research to help policymakers and advocates understand the research base and its connection to college- and career-ready reforms. Specifically the paper includes sections on the future (projections, composition, and demands) of the U.S. workforce; the mismatch between workers’ skills, education levels and job requirements; the many education paths to middle skills jobs; and middle skills jobs and access to middle class jobs. The report also lays out recommendations for steps policymakers and researchers can pursue to ensure all students graduate high school on track to access the career of their choice.

Achieve prepared the Race to the Top: Accelerating College and Career Readiness guides to help state leaders take advantage of this exceptional competition. The guides look at RTTT through a college and career ready lens, offering specific advice and promising practices to help ADP Network leaders build on the work they have already begun and maximize the new opportunities presented through RTTT. In four separate briefs, we share recommendations for meeting the Race to the Top challenge and pushing above and beyond the minimum criteria in each of the four core reform areas states are asked to address in their RTTT reform plans.

Measures that Matter is a joint effort by Achieve and The Education Trust to provide strategic and technical assistance to states in creating college- and career-ready assessment and accountability systems that ensure that all students graduate from high school ready to succeed. Achieve and The Education Trust created Measures that Matter by bringing together an advisory group of state and national experts to explore various approaches to high school assessment and accountability. Achieve and Education Trust conducted research and commissioned white papers on critical topics, and emerged with guidance designed to provide states with the best possible advice for advancing their efforts.