With all 50 states having adopted college- and career-ready standards (CCR) in English language arts/literacy and mathematics, Achieve‘s eighth annual “Closing the Expectations Gap“ report shows how all states are aligning those standards with policies to send clear signals to students about what it means to be academically prepared for life after high school.
Achieve conducts an annual policy survey that asks all 50 states and the District of Columbia whether they have adopted standards, graduation requirements, assessments and accountability systems aligned to the expectations of two- and four-year colleges and employers. The national survey of state education leaders has measured the same areas of reform each year since the National Governors Association and Achieve co-sponsored the National Education Summit in 2005.
All states now have college- and career-ready (CCR) standards and most states are on track to have high-quality assessments that will drive instruction of the standards at the level of rigor students need for readiness. However, fewer than half of the states will require all students to learn those standards by high school graduation because they do not require students to take courses that deliver those standards. Progress on building comprehensive college- and career-ready accountability systems has nearly stalled. The major findings of the survey include:
Standards: All 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted standards aligned to the expectations of college and careers. Forty-six states and DC have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), while four have state-developed CCR standards on their own. For these standards to be realized in classrooms, they must be implemented with fidelity. Ensuring access to high-quality aligned instructional materials and supporting training and professional learning opportunities for teachers and principals is critical – as is deploying strong performance metrics to monitor implementation progress.
Graduation Requirements: Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia have adopted college and career-ready graduation requirements. However, more than half the states in the country that have adopted CCSS/CCR standards have not raised their graduation requirements to match those standards. This misalignment means that students may graduate unprepared for college and careers since they will not have taken courses that deliver the CCSS/CCR standards or demonstrated their mastery of the CCSS/CCR standards through competency-based methods.
Assessments: 19 states have or will administer college- and career-ready high school assessments capable of producing a readiness score that postsecondary institutions use to make placement decisions. The 42 states and District of Columbia participating in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) or the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium working to develop CCR assessments will face many key decisions in the months and years ahead, including how these next generation assessments can support aligned and rigorous instruction, how to ensure postsecondary use of the results, and how and whether to factor the results of new assessments into high-stakes graduation decisions for students.
Accountability: A majority of states, 35, have now incorporated at least one of four accountability indicators that Achieve has identified as critical to promoting college and career readiness. No state meets Achieve’s criteria regarding the use of all indicators in its college- and career-ready accountability system, and overall state progress in creating accountability systems anchored in CCR has been slow – and often stalled – even with the adoption of new accountability systems under ESEA flexibility waivers.
Even as states continue to make gains on the college- and career-ready agenda, states have further to go to ensure successful implementation of standards and related policies. States cannot make the transformation from systems that require minimal performance to systems that propel all students to college and career readiness without significant changes to policy and practice in all four areas of standards, graduation requirements, assessments and accountability. Progress in a few areas provides a foundation for change, but only when attention is paid to all four policy areas will states have exercised the policy levers that can influence student outcomes. Their sum is far greater than their parts, and they work best when they are aligned and reinforce one another.
To see a full copy of the report, go to
www.achieve.org/ClosingtheExpectationsGap2013.
