New College- and Career-Readiness Data Shows Progress Across States

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released updates to its State Education Reform website, including an overview of the 2011 state high school policies related to college- and career- readiness.  With the advent of the Common Core State Standards, it comes as no surprise that 47 states plus the District of Columbia have aligned high school standards with the expectations of college and the workplace, but many states have made progress in other areas as well.

• 20 states and the District of Columbia have graduation requirements that are aligned with college- and career- ready standards
• 14 states have developed college- and career- ready assessment systems
• 22 states have developed PK-20 longitudinal data systems

States who are leading the pack and have all four of the policies evaluated in place are Alabama, Georgia, Delaware and Texas. Note: This blog post was originally authored under the auspices of the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The National High School Center’s blog, High School Matters, which ran until March 2013, provided an objective perspective on the latest research, issues, and events that affected high school improvement. The CCRS Center plans to continue relevant work originally developed under the National High School Center grant. National High School Center blog posts that pertain to CCRS Center issues are included on this website as a resource to our stakeholders.