Preparing All Students for Tomorrow, Today.

At the 1996 National Education Summit a bipartisan group of governors and corporate leaders decided to create and lead an organization dedicated to supporting standards-based education reform efforts in the states. To do so, they formed Achieve as an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization. To this day, Achieve remains the only education reform organization led by a Board of Directors of governors and business leaders. This unique perspective has enabled Achieve to set a bold and visionary agenda over the past 15 years, leading Education Week in 2006 to rank Achieve as one of the most influential education policy organizations in the nation.

Supporting State Education Reform: Achieves Early Years

At the direction of the Achieve Board, much of Achieves early endeavors involved working with states to review and improve the quality of their academic standards, assessments and related education policies. During this same period, Achieve, in partnership with other organizations, convened National Education Summits in 1999, 2002 and 2005. These Summits brought together national and state officials, including governors, business and (K-12 and postsecondary) education leaders. The Summits helped sustain the standards-based reform work that states had undertaken and kept public attention focused on the importance of improving education. As Achieves work progressed, it became increasingly clear that the high school diploma was no longer a meaningful indicator of readiness for next steps in a competitive global economy where at least some postsecondary education and/or training was increasingly necessary to secure, and advance in, a good job. This sobering reality caused Achieve to undertake from 2001-2004 a major research projectthe American Diploma Projectin which employers and two- and four-year college faculty identified the core literacy and mathematics skills high school graduates need to be successful. The research confirmed what many suspected: there was a sizeable gap between what students were required to learn in order to earn a high school diploma and the actual knowledge and skills they need to be successful in college and careers. Achieve coined this disconnect the expectations gap and issued a challenge to national and state leaders to take action to close the gap in Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts, a report considered among the most influential research studies in the field.

Closing the Gap: College and Career Readiness for all High School Graduates
Armed with the ADP research, Achieve successfully undertook a series of activities with states to close the expectations gap. Major initiatives and accomplishments include: Founding the American Diploma Project (ADP) Network: At the National Education Summit in 2005 Achieve launched the ADP Network. Starting with 13 states, the network has grown to 35 states educating about 85% of the nations public school students. Participating states, led by governors, school chiefs, and state higher education and business leaders have committed to change their standards, graduation requirements, assessments, data and accountability systems to reflect the demands of college and careers. Achieve assists states in the Network by providing access to policy research, technical assistance and networking so that state leaders can learn from and collaborate with one another.

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Creating the Foundation for Common Standards and Assessments: As ADP Network states, with assistance from Achieve, raised their states English and math high school standards to the college-and career-ready level, they created a common set of expectations across the states reflecting real world demands of high school graduates. These standards stood in sharp contrast to the state standards they replaced, which were, quite literally, all over the map. In the process they demonstrated the feasibility of working together to create common standards, providing the foundation for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) K-12 State Progress on College and Career Readiness standards in English and math that are collegeWhen Achieve formed the ADP Network in 2005, few states and career-ready and internationally had college-and career-ready policies; today, with Achieves benchmarked. Achieve served as a critical help: partner in this effort. To date, over 40 states 47 states and Washington DC now have standards aligned have adopted the CCSS. with college and career readiness, including those that have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Likewise, in 2005 15 ADP states joined together to create high-quality Algebra I and II end-of20 states and Washington DC require students to complete course tests, that can be used for multiple college- and career-ready graduation requirements to earn purposes, including comparing results across the a high school diploma. states. These exams demonstrated the feasibility 14 states administer an assessment used by postsecondary of common state assessments and have served institutions to make placement decisions to all students. as part of the foundation for the Race to the Top 22 states have P-20 data systems capable of tracking common assessment work, leading to the launch student progress across the education pipeline. of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a 25-state A number of states have begun to incorporate indicators of assessment consortium of which Achieve is the college and career readiness into their reporting and project management partner. accountability systems. Providing a World Class Education: To ensure that U.S. students are prepared for college and careers means ensuring students have access to a college- and career-ready education that is internationally benchmarked against the highest-performing countries in the world. Achieve has extensive experience in this area including researching the literacy, math and science standards of high-performing countries. Achieves international research in literacy and math was part of the research base for the CCSS. Achieve has also worked with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to develop the 2012 mathematics assessment framework for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which will be used in over 60 countries next year. Making College and Career Readiness a National Priority: Perhaps the biggest change since Achieve released Ready or Not is the broad acceptance of its agenda. When Achieve began promoting the college- and careerready agenda, it was considered a bold idea. In just a few short years, college and career readiness has become a priority for national and state policy leaders, educators, business and the foundation community. A nationwide survey of American voters conducted by Achieve in 2010 found broad, deep and fully bipartisan public support for policies aimed at preparing all high school students for college and careers. Moreover, there is widespread agreement that all students need additional education and training beyond high school, whether that means university, community college, technical training or vocational school, to get ahead.

Looking Ahead
States in the ADP Network have led the way in making the case that education and opportunity are critical to Americas ability to innovate, compete and grow in an increasingly sophisticated and technologically-driven world economy. While an impressive amount of progress has been made in the 15 years since Achieve was founded, the education reform movement is at a critical juncture where translating good policy into practice

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will be essential to getting results. Over the next few years, Achieve is positioned to be at the center of some of the most critical reform work, including: Common Core State Standards Implementation: With over 40 states having adopted the CCSS, the work now turns towards implementation to ensure the standards reach every student, in every classroom. Our ability to convene key leaders makes Achieve well positioned to successfully work with states and districts to create the tools they need to fully implement the standards. Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC): Achieve is serving as the project management partner for PARCC, a consortium of 25 states that was awarded a Race to the Top assessment competition grant. PARCC is committed to developing a computer-based assessment system aligned to the math and English CCSS that tracks students progress toward college and career readiness by the end of high school, provides students the support they need to succeed, ensures maximum comparability across states, provides teachers with timely information, informs accountability at all levels, and assesses the full range of the CCSSpushing beyond the boundaries of current state tests. The first exams will be given in 2014-15. Next-Generation Science Standards: In partnership with the National Academies of Sciences National Research Council (NRC), National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Achieve has begun a multi-year project to develop next-generation science standards, based around the big ideas in science that will help organize curriculum, teaching and learning across the nation. The project has two major steps; the first is the NRCs drafting of a framework for science education. The NRC framework will be grounded in scientific research; an important first step since it has been 15 years since K-12 science standards were last revised. Once the final conceptual framework is released in 2011, Achieve will manage a state-led process to develop next-generation science standards that are faithful to the NRC Framework, internationally benchmarked, and rigorous. Advancing the College and Career Ready Agenda: Achieve will continue to work with states to advance the college- and career-ready agenda. With work on standards implementation and assessment underway, critical related policies such as graduation requirements and accountability must be addressed. Additional related policies that reinforce college and career readiness for all are also top priorities. For example, Achieve has recently worked with the American Council on Education to ensure that future versions of the GED are aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

College and career readiness has become the new norm for education reform in America. The next few years will be critical and will test the resolve of policymakers, states, districts, schools and the public. The results could be transformative if we continue to push together to create schools and classrooms that ensure that a K12 education enables students to reach their full potential and prepare them for the real world they will enter after high school graduation. Achieve is pleased to be at the nexus of such critical work and hopes to continue to lead the education reform agenda, for the benefit of students, their communities and the nation.

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