All students should graduate from high school ready for college, careers, and citizenship.
Statement from Michael Cohen on the Release of ACT's "Ready to Succeed: All Students Prepared for College and Work"
May 8, 2006 - A generation ago, college-bound students were placed in a college-prep curriculum to gain the academic skills and knowledge they needed to succeed in college. The vast majority of students were placed on a general or vocational track to gain the minimal skills required for entering the workforce. But today, readiness for work requires much more, and to have an opportunity for jobs that pay well and provide opportunities for advancement, all students now need advanced math, reading and writing skills.
ACT's study adds strong empirical evidence to the growing body of research documenting that the knowledge and skills required for success in college are the same as those required for workforce training programs. In short, preparation for work is preparation for further learning and training.
The policy recommendations that ACT has drawn – aligning high school standards, curriculum, assessments and accountability with the demands of postsecondary education and work and providing students with the supports they need to reach the standards – are precisely those that the twenty two states in Achieve's American Diploma Project have been working to address in the past year. This study lends important new support to their efforts, and underscores the urgent need to press forward in order to better prepare today's students for their future.