The Unfinished Work of the Standards Movement
By Michael Cohen, President, Achieve, Inc

State governments have been the driving force in education reform for more than 20 years. State leaders accomplish the most in their own states when working in partnership with leaders from other states to create a supportive national environment, one which keeps the attention of state education leaders - governors, chief state school officers, higher education officials and business leaders - focused on the right questions at the right time. In the movement to set rigorous standards for America's students, that's Achieve's job.

At the 1996 National Education Summit, governors and business leaders came together to renew their commitment to increasing student achievement through standards-based reform. Under the leadership of then IBM Chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., they founded Achieve to help governors sustain their attention to standards-based reform, and to help states improve the quality of their standards and assessments. We've now helped more than half the states answer these key questions: How good are our standards compared to the best state, national and international standards? How can we make them better? How well do our assessments measure what we want our students to learn?

At the time of the summit, only 14 states had in place standards that defined what students should learn in core subjects. By 2001, every state had such standards in place, and their quality has improved over time. Today's standards are generally more rigorous, clear and usable in the classroom. Assessments in many states have improved as well, doing a better job of measuring the higher-level content and skills in state standards.

Focused and sustained leadership has made a difference, but state standards and assessments are not yet where they need to be. Our research over the past several years has shown that in nearly every state a student can meet state standards at the end of high school, but not be academically prepared for postsecondary education and work. Through a series of studies called the American Diploma Project we found that neither postsecondary institutions nor employers have verified that state standards reflect the knowledge and skills essential for success. In all but three states, the courses students must take in order to earn a high school diploma do not teach many of the rigorous skills students will need after high school. High school graduation tests, required in nearly half the states, typically measure content students are taught in late middle school and early high school, not the skills that will equip them to have real options after high school.

No wonder that 30% of first year college students are required to take remedial courses, that 40% of recent high school graduates report that they are not well prepared for the world they have stepped in to, and that similar percentages of employers and college faculty report that recent high school graduates are not well prepared for the work they must do.

Earlier this year, Achieve and the National Governors Association organized the 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools, which brought the governors of 45 states together with leaders from the business, K-12 and higher education communities. This was the fourth such summit since Achieve was founded, and the first one focused specifically on high schools, the long-neglected step-child of the standards movement. We framed the summit in part around a new set of questions, including: If students meet your state's standards, are they academically prepared to succeed in postsecondary education and work? Does earning a high school diploma result in choices for students, equipping each to enter the workplace or go to college, depending on individual goals and aspirations?

The summit was designed to focus attention and to spur action. And states are indeed beginning to act. Eighteen states have joined Achieve's American Diploma Project Network and committed to work together to align their systems of standards, assessments, curriculum and accountability with the real world demands students will face after high school.

Each state will revise high school standards so they fully reflect the knowledge and skills necessary to enter and succeed in credit-bearing courses in state postsecondary institutions and in the workplace. They will begin to develop and implement rigorous high school assessments that tell students whether they are prepared for college-level courses. Providing this type of diagnostic information will give those who need to a chance to make up skill deficiencies while they are still in high school, instead of enrolling in, and paying tuition for, remedial courses in college.

States will also look to the examples set by Arkansas, Texas and Indiana, which require all students to take a college- and work-prep curriculum -- including Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II -- unless they and their parents specifically opt out of that program. This is a dramatic change from current practice in most high schools, where students must opt in to a college-prep curriculum.

This is an ambitious agenda. Success will require a different kind of leadership in states. Governors and business leaders will remain essential. But united leadership from K-12 and higher education leaders, at the state and local level, will be just as important, though is not yet commonplace. And Achieve will continue to play a supporting role, providing tools and analyses for advocacy, policy development and implementation, helping states learn from one another, and serving as a consistent source of upward pressure on state education systems.

Additional information about Achieve, the 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools, and the American Diploma Project can be found at www.achieve.org.