All students should graduate from high school ready for college, careers, and citizenship.
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Not quite. In 2005, just five states — California, Indiana, Nebraska, New York, and Wyoming — could verify that their high school English and mathematics standards aligned with the expectations of colleges and employers. Today, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have college- and career-ready standards in place. For more, see our 2014 Closing the Expectations Gap report.
Correct. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You’ve got some understanding of what’s going on with college and career readiness in the U.S., but you could use some study time. Read through our 2014 Closing the Expectations Gap report and surveys of recent grads and college faculty and employers to brush up on your CCR expertise. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, sign up for our monthly newsletter, and stay tuned to achieve.org for new resources and policy updates!
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