Transition: High School to Career

This brief from Achieve identifies the key areas that state policymakers should consider in order to implement the new Common Core State Standards with fidelity. The brief provides suggestions for aligning these new standards with their existing standards and course requirements, as well as aligning assessments for collecting data and measuring achievement. The brief lists steps each state can take to ensure they are implementing the standards effectively.

In this report, the author discusses the shift to a mentality that all students need to go on to college in order to be successful in life. He identifies several reasons within the changing economy that support this belief and describes skills that are crucial in today's workforce.

This report provides a profile of 38 schools and details how these schools have implemented strategies to promote and advance college readiness. The report outlines each school, characteristics that make the school unique, and lessons learned from undertaking particular strategies. The report is organized into six sections: 1) alternative schools, 2) charter schools, 3) comprehensive schools, 4) early college high schools, 5) magnet schools, and 6) private schools. In several cases, schools may have utilized more than one strategy to achieve their goal.

In this conference paper, the author notes that good jobs require access to postsecondary education and training. There is a growing economic divide between adults with and without postsecondary education and training. The author recommends that policies be put into place that assist non-traditional students and students with barriers to access postsecondary education.

This study looks at reforms successfully sustained in four states – Texas, Indiana, Massachusetts, & South Carolina – to develop strategies and processes that can be implemented by others to achieve similar sustainability in their efforts of college- and career ready education reform. It discusses ten strategies used within these four states and summarizes the lessons learned from each.

The Math Works materials are part of an online toolkit from Achieve, Inc. that provide resources for policymakers, educators, and other education stakeholders on the importance of rigorous math to postsecondary life. The toolkit includes a series of brochures that illustrate how math is used in a variety of work areas, as well as fact sheets that provide specific arguments as to benefits of high school math on other aspects of life.

This brief from ACT illustrates that taking core work in high school does not guarantee the student will graduate or be prepared for life after high school. Further, it examines the gap between secondary and postsecondary education in the U.S. The author recommends a focus on successful strategies for eliminating this gap so that all high school graduates learn the essential skills they need to be successful in college and work.

This paper from the Center for Public Education is aimed at defining the educational skills needed in the 21st century. The author first outlines how the world is changing and the impacts on work and life. This includes automation of formerly human-performed tasks, globalization of the economy, and restructuring of traditional organizational hierarchies, along with a rapidly changing and more diverse demographic population who have more individual responsibility over their lives.