BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana’s progress in linking high school standards, resources and practices to the expectations of colleges and employers is recognized in a national report released today. In the annual “Closing the Expectations Gap” report, published by the non-profit education organization Achieve, Louisiana meets three of the five critical college and career ready benchmarks. That puts Louisiana among only eleven states that meet three or more of the measured criteria.

This is the fifth year Achieve has issued the report, which is published in conjunction with the organization’s American Diploma Project (ADP) Network. Recognizing a disconnect between the knowledge of the nation’s high school graduates and the actual knowledge and skills needed to succeed in college and careers, Achieve has issued a challenge to national and state leaders to take action to close the gap by adopting and implementing college- and career-ready policies for all high school graduates. Louisiana’s strong showing in the report demonstrates the state’s commitment to narrow that gap.

“The value of high school for our students is directly related to how well their experience prepares them for success in their future academic and career pursuits,” State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said. “It is not enough for our students to graduate from high school. They need to graduate equipped with the knowledge and skills it takes to succeed in the global economy, and this report reaffirms Louisiana’s continued commitment to college- and career-ready standards. It also serves as a guide by which we can gauge our progress in meeting the benchmarks that are so essential to our students’ success after high-school.”

"The expectations young people face when they get out of high school today are higher than they’ve ever been, and the stakes are high if they don’t meet them,” said Matt Gandal, Executive Vice President of Achieve. “We commend Louisiana on making college and career readiness a priority and encourage the state to continue to take steps to ensure the expectations remain high so that all students are prepared to succeed regardless of their path after high school."

The survey of 50 states measures the same five areas of reform each year: Standards; Graduation requirements; P-20 Data Systems; Assessments; and Accountability. Specific to Louisiana’s progress in the five policy reform areas are the following findings:

• Louisiana is among 31 states that have developed and adopted high school academic content standards for English and mathematics that are aligned to college and career-ready expectations.
  
  
• Louisiana is one of 14 states that have a component of their high school assessment system that measures all students on college and career-ready content in English and mathematics. The assessment must have credibility with postsecondary institutions and employers, so that achieving a certain score signals being truly prepared for success after high school.
  
  
• Louisiana is one of 16 states that have developed P-20 longitudinal data systems. These data systems allow the state to collect information about the progress of students toward college- and career-readiness between elementary and secondary education and postsecondary education systems and use that data to inform decisions.

Furthermore, Louisiana is one of only four states highlighted in the report for its Emerging Best Practices in Accountability. The report points to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s adoption of statewide goals to measure and provide incentives for college and career readiness. For example, the State has set a goal to increase the percentage of high school graduates completing the college- and career-ready course of study (LA-Core 4) from 58.5 percent in 2006 to 72.5 percent in 2014. (This is in addition to raising the overall graduation rate to 80 percent by May 2014.) The State has also set a goal of increasing the number of Industry-Based Certifications earned in high-demand occupations from 3,600 in 2006 to 10,000 in 2014. Industry-Based Certifications enable high school students to receive training prior to graduation in technical fields such as web development and emergency medicine.

“While we are focused on raising graduation rates in Louisiana, we also recognize our obligation to make sure our students are prepared to thrive beyond high school,” State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) President Keith Guice said. “We will continue to dedicate ourselves to promoting policies and advancing initiatives that will benefit our students in the long-term.”

Achieve is a nonprofit education reform organization that was founded in 1996 by the nation’s governors and corporate leaders. To read the “Closing the Achievement Gap” report in its entirety, please go to achieve.org.