Ready or Not Executive Summary

Friday, December 10, 2004Printer-friendly version


Ready or Not is the culminating report of the original American Diploma Project (ADP), a multi-year research project that led to the development of the ADP Benchmarks, end-of-high school expectations in mathematics and English Language Arts.

Based on both statistical analysis of employment data and extensive research involving over 300 faculty members from two- and four-year postsecondary institutions, managers, and high school educators, the American Diploma Project benchmarks concretely define the English and math that graduates must master to succeed in credit-bearing college courses and high-performance, high-growth jobs. Key findings: employers' and colleges' academic demands for high school graduates have converged, yet states' current high-school exit expectations fall well short of those demands.