Achieve's College and Career Readiness Quiz

Correct! The development of the Common Core State Standards was a state-driven process, led by governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states through their membership organizations (the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers). For the full background on how the Common Core came to be, check out this website.

That’s right! 17 states administer a college admissions assessment, like the ACT or SAT, to all students. For more info, check out page 5 of Achieve’s 2014 Closing the Expectations Gap report. 

No. Unfortunately, just 23 states and the District of Columbia have raised their course requirements in ELA/literacy and mathematics to the CCR level. See page 7 of Achieve’s 2014 Closing the Expectations Gap report for more details. 

Wrong. Approximately half of all recent grads report at least some gaps in their preparation for success after high school. For more details, check out the full results of our Rising to the Challenge survey of students.

Not quite. A whopping 83% of recent grads who took lower-level mathematics courses than Algebra II had to take remedial mathematics when they got to college. See more of what students had to say in our Rising to the Challenge survey results.

Wrong – only one out of four recent high school grads reported that they felt their high school set high academic expectations. See everything the students had to say in our full Rising to the Challenge survey results.

Nope. 61% of employers reported that their newly-hired high school grads had to get additional training or education to make up for gaps in their preparation – up from 42% in 2004. See everything employers and college faculty had to say in our 2015 survey results.

It’s actually all three. Recent grads told us in our 2014 survey that real-world learning opportunities, better communication about necessary courses, and opportunities to enroll in challenging courses were the top three things that would have encouraged them to work harder and be better prepared for life after high school.