Welcome to the Education Commission of the States' High School Database

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College-Ready Standards

The College-Ready Standards database provides 50-state policy information on whether all students are required to complete a college/employer-recommended curriculum (defined here as four years of English, three years of math that includes Algebra I and II and geometry, three years of lab science and three years of social studies) or take the ACT or SAT.

Why this issue matters

• Students benefit when high school exit expectations are aligned with college entry requirements.
• Even non-college-bound students benefit from more rigorous (and consistent) curricula aligned with college or workforce expectations.
• Students who might not otherwise consider themselves college material benefit from taking college entrance exams.

Why our methodology matters

• Primary resources: ECS draws its information primarily from state statute, rules and regulations, recently enacted legislation, executive orders, and other primary source documents.
• As needed, policies (and their interpretation) are confirmed with state-level staff.
• We believe that policy helps institutionalize practice.
• Our goal is to document where the underlying authority lies, and where consensus has been strong enough to adopt a common approach.

Related ECS products

• High School Graduation Requirements database
  
• High School-level Assessment database: High school-level assessments include college-ready measures data point
  
• Alignment of high school graduation requirements and state-set college admission requirements database
  
• Policy brief: Ensuring Rigor in the High School Curriculum: What States Are Doing (January 2006)
  
• Policy brief: Embedding College Readiness Indicators in High School Curriculum and Assessments
  
• StateNote: Mathematics and Science Education in the States
  
• StateNote: Alignment of High School Graduation Requirements and State-Set College Admissions Requirements

Staff contact:
Jennifer Dounay Zinth, senior policy analyst
303.299.3689
jdounay@ecs.org

All information available in the College-Ready Standards database for the 50 states, three territories and D.C. CLICK HERE

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Use the diagram below to view the components of state-level high school reform, and their relationship to one another.

Please contact Jennifer Dounay Zinth (jdounay@ecs.org or 303.299.3689) with any questions on the High School Policy Center, or on high school policy and research.