The College and Career Readiness of U.S. High School Graduates

For more than a decade, Achieve has reported on all 50 states’ policies concerning college and career readiness, such as state standards, graduation requirements, assessments, and accountability systems. However, policies alone do not guarantee that students will graduate prepared for college and careers. This latest report from Achieve looks to examine measures and indicators of college and career readiness from each state, including students’ performance on college and career ready assessments, completion of a rigorous course of study, and earning college credit while in high school. It encourages states to focus the conversation on college and career readiness on actual student performance of high school graduates, and states need to improve their metrics to evaluate the progress of college and career readiness.