Achieve and the American Diploma Project

by Erin Castro

“Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.”

(Obama, B.H., 2009)

Citing alarming statistics, President Barack Obama called attention to the serious plight of P-20 education in his address to Congress last month.  He called on American citizens to commit to at least one year of postsecondary education, recognizing the power of education in helping to reshape and revitalize the economy.  However, he also illuminated a disappointing reality: secondary and postsecondary students are not persisting through the educational system.

One organization that is attempting to address the educational issues highlighted in President Obama’s speech is Achieve, Inc. (http://www.achieve.org), a non-profit, bipartisan organization dedicated to helping states systemically raise academic standards and decrease drop-out rates.  Established in 1996 and based in Washington, D.C., this independent organization strives to increase accountability systems in education and improve the assessment of educational policy and programs at the state and local level.  Highlighted as one of America’s most influential education groups by Education Week in 2006, Achieve has helped to focus national attention on the issue of college readiness (http://www.achieve.org/AboutAchieve).

AMERICAN DIPLOMA PROJECT (ADP)

In 2001, in an effort to align high school test requirements and the expectations of colleges and employers, Achieve created The American Diploma Project (ADP). Together with the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the National Alliance of Business (NAB), the ADP helps K-12 schools identify goals and standards to make certain that all students graduate from high school equipped to face the requirements of college and career. Although students can and do graduate from high school competent in what is required of them, many times these competencies do not align with the demands of college or the workplace. Or, as stated by Achieve, “[O]ur [high school] standards have not kept pace with the world students are entering after high school”, and therefore, states need to connect the tests they are administering in high schools to the competencies required by colleges and employers (http://www.achieve.org/files/AboutADP.pdf, p. 1).

In February of 2005, the ADP Network was created as a 13-state coalition to improve high schools and work collaboratively to reshape public education (Maurer, 2005). Determined to close the expectations gap in education, states associated with the ADP Network work together to address a multilayered problem.

Achieve provides various tools and resources supported by contemporary research to aid states in their effort to close the expectations gap, including state alignment and program assessment services. In the same spirit, Achieve and The Education Trust launched Measures that Matter as a joint project to address college- and career-readiness for high school students in the fall of 2008. Through this project, Achieve and The Education Trust provide strategic and technical guidance to states to create “a coherent set of policies designed to get all students college- and career- ready” by the time they graduate from high school (http://www.achieve.org/files/AboutMeasuresthatMatter.pdf).  Measures that Matter was launched as an ongoing project to close the “college readiness” gap between high school graduation expectations and the demands of future college and career endeavors. Currently, Measures that Matter assist states in implementing their own college and career readiness standards (http://www.achieve.org/measuresthatmatter).

Calling on states to address college and career readiness, the Education Trust and Achieve published, Making College and Career Readiness the Mission for High Schools: A Guide for State Policy Makers (http://www.achieve.org/files/MakingCollegeandCareerReadinesstheMissionforHighSchool.pdf). This guide offers major recommendations for states to consider when creating a comprehensive college and career readiness framework, which is imperative to addressing the growing gap between what is expected of high school graduates and what the world beyond high school demands.

The Making College and Career Readiness the Mission for High Schools: A Guide for State Policy Makers Executive Summary (http://www.achieve.org/files/MeasurethatMatterExecutiveSummary.pdf, pp. 1-3) calls on state policymakers to address five major issues:

• Align high school standards with the demands of college and careers;
• Ensure students enroll in a college- and career-ready course of study;
• Provide high-quality curriculum and teacher-support material;
• Build better assessments to measure student learning; and
• Establish information and accountability systems that value and incentivize college and career readiness. 

(The full report is available at www.achieve.org/measuresthatmatter or www.edtrust.org)

ADP AND ILLINOIS

In 2000, after an extensive external review of systemic education reform in Illinois, Achieve recommended to the state of Illinois that it take immediate steps to increase college- and career- readiness in four broad areas:  standards and assessments, teacher quality and organizational capacity, accountability, and public leadership (http://www.achieve.org/files/Illinois-Benchmarking4-2000.pdf, pp. 16-19).  Achieve found that while Illinois’ standards were strong in some areas, they were lower than national benchmarks in core content areas of English, math and science. Addressing specific areas where Illinois could close the gap, Achieve also encouraged Illinois to communicate with its citizenry on the importance of long-term, standards-based reform.  Creating dialogue about the fluidity and transformative aspects of emerging standards would allow programs and policies to adjust to these changes.

In the fall of 2008 as the 34th state to join, Illinois signed on to the ADP Network making a serious commitment to better prepare students for the demands of college and career endeavors. In a presentation titled, Important P-20 Developments in Illinois:  Longitudinal data and membership with the American Diploma Project at the first annual Educational Organization and Leadership Graduate Student Conference at the University of Illinois in March 2009, State Superintendent Christopher Koch and Assistant Superintendent Linda Tomlinson highlighted the relationship between The American Diploma Project and P-20 education in Illinois. This partnership allows the state to review current learning standards in math, English/Language Arts, and science curricula to make sure that students are leaving high school with “21st century skills,” such as critical thinking and problem solving, global awareness, self direction, and social responsibility (Koch & Tomlinson, 2009). Illinois will also seek to align assessments, such as the Illinois State Achievement Test (ISAT) and the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) and hold postsecondary institutions accountable for student success once they have been admitted to higher education. 

As a result of joining ADP, Illinois will assess the intensity of coursework in light of the knowledge and skills necessary for post-high school success. In addition to developing strategies to improve teaching and learning, ADP will allow Illinois to track courses completed with long-term career and educational endeavors. The state will also match “student-level records across K-12 and higher education” as a way to increase the efficacy of current and future educational policies and programs (Koch & Tomlinson, 2009). To realize the educational goals set forth by the project, Koch and Tomlinson called for a state-wide longitudinal data system to measure the effectiveness of college and career strategies. 

Earlier this month, those calls were answered as Illinois was chosen by the U.S. Department of Education to receive nearly nine million dollars in grant money to fund a longitudinal data system (Illinois State Board of Education, 2009).  The Illinois State Board of Education will use this grant money to continue establishing the statewide identification system and collect student-level data beginning pre-kindergarten and continuing through high school and post-graduation (Illinois State Board of Education, 2009).  The ability to collect these data is a significant step toward creating a college and career readiness framework.

LOOKING AHEAD

As of 2008, Achieve reported increasing the number of states that now require Algebra II as a graduation requirement from two to thirty. Also, twenty states now require a college and career ready diploma (Cohen, 2008).  These are necessary and important advancements and ones that should continue to improve schooling in America. 

Looking to the future, President Obama proposed that by the year 2020, “America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world” (Obama, B.H., 2009). Programs like ADP are helping to actualize this national vision by partnering with state systems eager for improvement. By focusing attention on high schools, increasing the rigor of their course offerings, and drawing connections between what students are required to do in high school and their college and career aspirations, ADP helps states to reconcile the expectations gap in education. Addressing this multifaceted issue by focusing on aligning standards, course requirements, and curricula contribute to the national goal of equipping students to be successful once they graduate from high school.

REFERENCES

Achieve, Inc. About Measures that Matter.  Retrieved online April 9, 2009 from http://www.achieve.org/files/AboutMeasuresthatMatter.pdf

Achieve, Inc. The American Diploma Project:  Closing the expectations gap.  Retrieved online March 19, 2009 from http://www.achieve.org/files/AboutADP.pdf

Achieve, Inc. (2000).  Taking Stock:  A report to education policy makers in Illinois.  Retrieved online March 19, 2009 from: http://www.achieve.org/files/Illinois-Benchmarking4-2000.pdf

Achieve, Inc. & The Education Trust (2008).  Making college and career readiness the mission for high schools:  A guide for state policy makers.  Retrieved online March 25, 2009 from http://www.achieve.org/files/MeasurethatMatterExecutiveSummary.pdf

Cohen, M. (2008).  Annual ADP Network Leadership Team Meeting.  ADP Network Leadership Team Meeting, September 11, 2008, Washington D.C.  Retrieved online March 19, 2009 from:  http://www.achieve.org/files/MikeCohen-Opening-ADPLTM2008.ppt#967,1,Slide1

Illinois State Board of Education (2009, April 6).  Illinois selected to receive $9 million grant to improve education data infrastructure, [News Release]. Retrieved online April 8, 2009 from: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/news/2009/apr6.htm

Koch, C. & Tomlinson, L (2009).  Important P-20 Developments in Illinois: Longitudinal Data and Membership with the American Diploma Project.  Educational Organization and Leadership Graduate Student Conference, March 6, 2009, Champaign, Illinois.

Maurer, M. (2005).  Achieve, Inc. Announces 13-State Coalition to Improve High Schools.  Retrieved online March 19, 2009 from: http://www.achieve.org/node/698

Obama, B. H. (2009).  Remarks of President Barack Obama---Address to Joint Session of Congress Tuesday, February 24th, 2009, Washington, D.C.  Retrieved online March 19, 2009 from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/remarks-of-president-barack-obama-address-to-joint-session-of-congress/

Erin Castro is a Ph.D. student in the department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She currently works as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Office of Community College Research and Leadership and can be reached at ecastro2@illinois.edu.