Taking Root Sustainability Audit

Wednesday, September 2, 2009Printer-friendly version
 

 

 

 

 

Over the past few years, a majority of states have made college and career readiness a top policy priority. In that time, states have made real progress enacting ambitious policies, such as raising standards and graduation requirements in high school. Yet for these reforms to have real impact they will need to be implemented thoughtfully and sustained over the long term. Getting the policy right is hard, but the harder part of education reform is sustaining that policy over time. 

Achieve’s Taking Root: Strategies for Sustaining the College- and Career-Ready Agenda identified ten overarching strategies for states to consider as they work to ensure their college- and career-ready agenda will be sustained. This audit distills those ten strategies into seven indicators, which are all strongly associated with sustainable reform. States are encouraged to use this audit to evaluate the strength of their political, social, and economic conditions necessary to sustain the college- and career-ready reforms. The goal of the audit is to highlight states’ strengths and weaknesses and help them prioritize the areas in which they may need to devote additional time and resources.