7/27/2019 The Need for College- and Career-Readiness Standards

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CAPITOL FACTS & FIGURES

EDUCATION

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVER NMEN TS

The Need for College- and Career-Readiness Standards

Many high school graduates are not prepared for introductory

credit-bearing college classes.

Only 25 percent o U.S. students meet ACT bench-marks in all our areas testedEnglish, math, reading

and science. The ACT defnes a benchmark score as

the minimum score needed on an ACT subject-area

test to indicate a 50 percent chance o obtaining a B or

higher or about a 75 percent chance o obtaining a C

or higher in the corresponding credit-bearing college

courses.1

Approximately 58 percent o frst-time, ull-time stu-

dents who began seeking a bachelors degree at a our-

year institution in all 2004 completed a bachelors

degree at that institution within six years.2

More than 50 percent o students entering two-year

colleges and nearly 20 percent o those entering our-

year universities require remedial classes. Nearly ourin 10 remedial students in community colleges never

complete their remedial courses.3

Fewer than one in 10 students starting in remedial

courses graduate rom community colleges within

three years and slightly more than a third complete

bachelors degrees in six years.3

Several states are beginning to focus on college- and career-

readiness as important policy tools. Forty-fve states and the District o Columbia have

adopted Common Core State Standards or both math-

ematics and English language arts, while Minnesota

has adopted only the English language arts standard.4

Twenty-three states and the District o Columbia not

only have adopted common core or other rigorous

academic standards, but also have established require-

ments that all high school graduates must complete a

college- and career-readiness curriculum. 5

Eighteen states administer assessmentsincluding the

ACT and SATto high school students that post-

secondary institutions use to make decisions about

students readiness or college; our states have added

such assessments since 2011. 5

Not only are states adopting a college- and career-

readiness curriculum, but they also are supplementing

it by raising the bar on state standards. Four states

Kentucky, New York, North Carolina and Virginia,

plus the District o Columbiaall have raised thetarget requirements or profciency on their state as-

sessments.5

Two assessment consortiaSMARTER Balanced,

or SBAC, and the Partnership or the Assessment o

Readiness o College and Careers, or PARCChave

been vital in working with states to create new assess-

ments.

National education groups advocate a policy agenda that calls

for states to commit to college- and career-readiness for all

students. The Council of State Governments suggests that state

policymakers: Develop more rigorous teacher pre-service programs

and align the academic content o teacher education

programs with college- and career-readiness standards,

such as the common core state standards;

Require schools to incorporate deeper learning prin-

ciples that develop critical thinking, problem solving,

communication, collaboration and sel-directed learn-

ing; and

Develop ormative and summative assessments o

knowledge, skills and dispositions aligned to individual

student needs.

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