Closing the Expectation Gap

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Closing theExpectation Gap

• Fourth Annual 50-State Progress Report on the
  Alignment of High School Policies with the
  Demands of College and Careers

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Align Standards with the Expectations of College
and the Workplace
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The expectations gap

• In todays economy, all students need a
  challenging academic course of study to succeed
  in postsecondary education and to get a good job.
• But in many states, students can graduate from
  high school without having what it takes to
  continue learning or to earn a living wage.

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Closing the expectations gap

• To close this expectations gap, Achieve created
  the American Diploma Project Network.
• The Network includes 34 states that together
  educate nearly 85 percent of the nations public
  school students.
• Network states have committed to four policy
  actions to better prepare students for college,
  the workplace and citizenship.

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American Diploma Project Network agenda

• Align high school standards with the demands of
  college and careers.
• Require students to take a college- and
  career-ready curriculum to earn a high school
  diploma.
• Build college-and career-ready measures into
  statewide high school assessment systems.
• Develop reporting and accountability systems that
  promote college and career readiness.

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Why should states align standards to real-world
expectations?

• Academic standards are the foundation for
  decisions on curriculum, instruction and
  assessment.
• Standards communicate core learning goals to
  teachers, parents and students.

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Standards help teachers
Percentage of teachers who said their instruction
has been helped by having clearly specified
learning goals for students
82
Source The Chronicle of Higher Education, SCHOOL
COLLEGE,http//schoolandcollege.com/articles/20
06/03/01a00901/index.htmlviews.
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State high school standards are not always
anchored in real-world expectations

• In many states, standards reflect a consensus
  among discipline-based experts about what would
  be important for young people to learn not a
  reflection of what would be essential to know to
  succeed at the next level.
• A growing number of states postsecondary faculty
  and employers have verified that state high
  school standards reflect their expectations.

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Had high schools demanded more, students would
have worked harder
If your high school had demanded more of
students, set higher academic standards and
raised the expectations of how much coursework
would be necessary to earn a diploma, would you
have worked harder?

• Wouldnt have worked harder

82
80

• Would have worked harder

• Strongly feel I would have worked harder

High school graduates who did not go to college
High school graduates who went to college
Source Peter D. Hart Research Associates/Public
Opinion Strategies, Rising to the Challenge Are
High School Graduates Prepared for College and
Work? prepared for Achieve, Inc., 2005
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Current students agree
Percentage of students who feel strongly that
they would have worked harder if schools had
demanded more of students, set higher academic
standards and raised course requirements for
graduation
72
Source The Horatio Alger Association of
Distinguished Americans, The State of Our
Nations Youth, 20052006, 2005.
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Current students agree
Percentage of students who say they would work
harder if high school offered more demanding and
interesting courses
Source National Governors Association, summary
of RateYourFuture.org survey findings, 2005.
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What states need to do

• Colleges and universities must define clearly the
  knowledge and skills necessary for enrolling in
  credit-bearing courses.
• Employers must be clear about the skills
  necessary to succeed in todays economy.
• The K12 system then needs to align its standards
  and assessments with those college- and
  career-ready expectations.

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23 States have aligned standards
Aligned standards formally verified by Achieve
Aligned standards not verified by Achieve
Only math standards aligned
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14 states anticipate adopting aligned standards
in 2009
In process, anticipate adoption in 2009
In process, anticipate adoption after 2009
Planning to align standards
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Achieves Alignment Institutes

• Achieve has worked or is currently working
  with 26 states through the Alignment process.
• Bring together K12, postsecondary and business
  leaders from each state.
• Define the core knowledge and skills in math and
  English graduates need for college and career
  readiness in each state.
• Revise state high school standards as necessary
  to align to those expectations.
• Secure commitments from postsecondary system to
  use standards in decisions about course
  placement, dual credit programs, scholarships and
  special programs.

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The Common Core

• The efforts by individual states to set college-
  and career-ready standards for high school
  graduates have actually led to a remarkable
  degree of consistency in English and mathematics
  requirements.
• Achieve analyzed college- and career-ready
  standards for English in 12 states and for
  mathematics in 16 and found that when states set
  college and career readiness as their goal, not
  only does the rigor of states standards
  increase, but a COMMON CORE of English and math
  also emerges across states.

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International Benchmarking

• States increasingly are interested in ensuring
  their students are not only graduating ready
  college- and career-ready expectations, but also
  ready to compete with their international peers.
• To meet this demand, Achieve is analyzing
  standards from high-performing countries to
  identify what their students are expected to know
  and be able to do by the end of high school. This
  analysis will inform Achieves work with states
  on improving their standards moving forward.

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What can we expect?

• Implementation takes time and effort. States
  must
• Monitor efforts.
• Communicate effectively.
• Invest resources wisely.
• Use data to protect investment.

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These efforts matter

• All students need and deserve to be prepared for
  success in both postsecondary education and the
  labor market.
• This is not easy work but this is possible
  and this effort is essential.

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