States Make Some Progress in Raising Preparation Level of High-School Graduates, Report Says

Chronicle of Higher Education 4/19/07

By Erik Vance

A nonprofit organization that monitors states' ability to prepare students for college and the workplace says the nation's high schools are making progress in that regard but still have a long way to go.

The Washington-based organization, Achieve Inc., sponsored a 2005 summit in which the governors of 45 states met with business and education leaders, and acknowledged a gap between the academic proficiency of graduating high-school seniors and the level of preparation colleges and employers expect those graduates to have. The governors pledged to align high-school graduation standards with those expectations and hold high schools accountable until that gap diminished.

The report released on Wednesday, "Closing the Expectations Gap 2007," traces the progress so far, based on a survey of all 50 states.

According to the report, 12 states have aligned high-school graduation requirements with postsecondary expectations, up from five last year. An additional 32 states are either aligning their standards or plan to do so.

The report details state policy changes, such as adopting tracking systems that would allow states to compare students' academic performance in high school and college, rather than individual school performance.

It notes that only five states have tracking systems in place to quantify the academic progress of students from kindergarten through college -- up from just three the previous year. However, it says 42 additional states are planning such systems.

The report found more progress in the area of adopting more-rigorous graduation requirements. It says that 13 states "require students to complete a college- and work-ready curriculum to earn a diploma, 11 more than in 2005," and that 16 additional states plan to adopt such requirements in the future.