ADP and partner organization staff spent nearly two years gathering empirical evidence to codify the knowledge and skills — in both English and mathematics — that all high school graduates actually need to do credit-bearing coursework at state colleges and universities or to embark successfully on career-track positions in high-growth, highly skilled "good" jobs.

Working closely with two- and four-year postsecondary English and mathematics faculty; with a wide array of humanities, sciences and social sciences faculty; and with front-line managers in those high-growth, highly skilled occupations (within and beyond ADP partner states of Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nevada and Texas), we were able to identify the "must-have" competencies in English and mathematics for success in all of these arenas.

Step One: Defining Workplace Expectations

Commissioned by ADP, Educational Testing Service (ETS) researchers Anthony P. Carnevale and Donna M. Desrochers used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Education's National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS) to determine which jobs are "good" jobs — ones that pay enough to support a family well above the poverty level, provide benefits and offer clear pathways for career advancement.

The researchers then identified which courses people in these jobs took in high school and what their grades were. Building on the study data, two panels of curricular experts helped ADP delineate the content that comprises those courses to develop a set of preliminary workplace expectations for English and mathematics.

For results of the 2002 study, download a PDF file of Connecting Education Standards and Employment: Course-taking Patterns of Young Workers.