Achieve's College and Career Readiness Quiz

Correct. 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. 

That’s right. 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.

Correct! Across both consortia, no student was denied graduation / a diploma based on his or her PARCC or Smarter Balanced scores.  For more details, see page 25 of our 2014 Closing the Expectations Gap report.

That’s correct – 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. 

Correct. 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.

That’s right. When the ADP network, which was established to help states work together to make college and career readiness a priority, was launched in 2005, just Arkansas and Texas had statewide CCR graduation requirements. You can read more about the current status of graduation requirements across the country in our 2014 Closing the Expectations Gap report. 

Not quite. 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. 

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.