U. S. D E P A R T M E N T O F E D U C A T I O N

College- and Career-Ready

Standards and Assessments

Every child in America deserves a world-class education.

Today, more than ever, a world-class education is a 

prerequisite for success. America was once the best educated 

nation in the world. A generation ago, we led all nations in 

college completion, but today, 10 countries have passed us. 

It is not that their students are smarter than ours. It is that 

these countries are being smarter about how to educate their 

students. And the countries that out-educate us today will 

out-compete us tomorrow.

We must do better. Together, we must achieve a new goal, 

that by 2020, the United States will once again lead the world 

in college completion. We must raise the expectations for 

our students, for our schools, and for ourselves—this must 

be a national priority. We must ensure that every student 

graduates from high school well prepared for college and a 

career.

 

President Barack Obama

1

College- and Career-Ready Standards and Assessments

College- and Career-Ready

Standards and Assessments

Reauthorizing the Elementary and 

Secondary Education Act

To help achieve President Obama’s stated goal for the country of ensuring that all students are ready for 

college and careers when they graduate from high school, the 

administration has designed a blueprint for a reenvisioned 

federal role in education through the reauthorization of the 

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The new ESEA 

will call for

▶ Raising standards for all students in English language 

arts and mathematics;

▶ Developing better assessments aligned with collegeand career-ready standards; and

▶ Implementing a complete education through improved 

professional development and evidence-based 

instructional models and supports.

In each of the sections below are set forth the expectations 

for the federal government, states, districts, and schools to 

meet these benchmarks for the college and career readiness of 

America’s students.
2

College- and Career-Ready Students 

The administration’s proposal for reauthorizing ESEA will 

maintain formula grants to high-poverty school districts while 

making significant changes to better support states, districts, 

and schools, including middle and high schools, in improving 

achievement for all groups of students, including low-income 

and minority students, English Learners, and students with 

disabilities. This support will be focused on the following efforts.

Rigorous College- and Career-Ready Standards. Following 

the lead of the nation’s governors and state education leaders, 

the administration is calling on all states to adopt statedeveloped standards in English language arts and mathematics 

that build toward college and career readiness by the time 

students graduate from high school, and high-quality statewide 

assessments aligned with these standards. States may choose 

to: either upgrade their existing standards, working with their 

four-year public university system to certify that mastery of the 

standards ensures that a student will not need to take remedial 

coursework upon admission to a postsecondary institution in 

the system; or work with other states to create state-developed 

common standards that build toward college and career 

readiness. To ensure that all students are learning what they 

need to succeed, standards must be based on evidence regarding 

what students must know and be able to do at each grade level 

to be on track to graduate from high school college- and careerready. Such standards will also give families and communities 

the information they need to determine whether their students 

are on track toward college and career readiness and to evaluate 

their schools’ effectiveness. States will continue to implement 

statewide science standards and aligned assessments in specific 
3

grade spans, and may include such assessments—as well as 

statewide assessments in other subjects, such as history—in their 

accountability systems. Finally, states will develop and adopt 

statewide English language proficiency standards for English 

Learners, aligned so that they reflect the academic language 

necessary to master state content standards.

In all of our conversations with people from 

every state, we’ve heard a consistent message 

that our schools aren’t expecting enough 

of students. We need to raise our standards 

so that all students are graduating prepared 

to succeed in college and the workplace. 

We’ve also heard that people aren’t looking to 

Washington for answers. They don’t want us 

to provide a prescription for success. Our 

role should be to offer a meaningful definition 

of success—one that shows teachers and 

students what they should be striving for.

—U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Testimony Before 

the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee 

and the House Education and Labor Committee on the Obama 

Administration’s Blueprint for Reauthorizing the Elementary 

and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), March 17, 2010

Rigorous and Fair Accountability and Support at Every Level.

Building on these statewide standards and aligned assessments, 

every state will ensure that its statewide system of accountability 

rewards schools and districts for progress and success, requires 

rigorous interventions in the lowest-performing schools and 

districts, and allows local flexibility to determine the appropriate 

improvement and support strategies for most schools.
4

To foster public accountability for results and help focus 

improvement and support efforts, states must have data systems 

in place to gather information that is critical to determining how 

schools and districts are progressing in preparing students to 

graduate from high school college- and career-ready. States and 

districts will collect and make public data relating to student 

academic achievement and growth in English language arts and 

mathematics, student academic achievement in science, and, 

if states choose, student academic achievement and growth in 

other subjects, such as history. At the high school level, this data 

will also include graduation rates, college enrollment rates, and 

rates of college enrollment without need for remediation. All 

of these data must be disaggregated by race, gender, ethnicity, 

disability status, English Learner status, and family income. 

States and districts also will collect other key information 

about teaching and learning conditions, including information 

on school climate, such as student, teacher and school leader 

attendance, disciplinary incidents, or student, parent, and school 

staff surveys about their school experience.

Measuring and Supporting Schools, Districts, and States. State 

accountability systems will be expected to recognize progress 

and growth and reward success rather than only identify 

failure. To ensure that accountability no longer falls solely at the 

doors of schools, districts and states will be held accountable 

for providing their schools, principals, and teachers with the 

support they need to succeed. States will be asked to recognize 

and reward schools and districts making the most progress, to 

provide flexibility for local improvement efforts, and to focus 

the most rigorous support and interventions on the very lowestperforming schools and districts.
5

The administration will call on states, districts, and schools to 

aim for the ambitious goal—by 2020—of all students graduating 

or on track to graduate from high school ready for college 

and a career. Performance targets, based on whole-school and 

subgroup achievement and growth, and graduation rates, will 

guide improvement toward that ambitious goal, and those that 

are meeting all of their performance targets will be recognized 

and rewarded. States, districts, and schools will look not just 

at absolute performance and proficiency but also at individual 

student growth and school progress over time, and at the 

additional data described above, to guide local improvement and 

support strategies for schools.

Why Focus on College and 

Career Readiness?

Four of every 10 new college students, including half of those 

at two-year institutions, take remedial courses, and many 

employers comment on the inadequate preparation of high 

school graduates.

The schools, districts, and states that are successful in reaching 

performance targets, significantly increasing student performance 

for all students, closing achievement gaps, or turning around the 

lowest-performing schools (at the district and state levels) will be 

recognized as “Reward” schools, districts, and states. States will 

receive funds to design innovative programs to reward high-poverty 

Reward schools and Reward districts. Rewards may include financial 

rewards for the staff and students and for development of and 

participation in communities of practice to share best practices and 
6

replicate successful strategies to assist lower-performing schools 

and districts. Rewards may also include flexibility in the use of 

ESEA funds and, as appropriate, competitive preference for Reward 

states, high-need Reward districts, and high-need Reward schools in 

some federal grant competitions. Reward districts will also be given 

flexibility in implementing interventions in their lowest-performing 

schools, described further below.

At the other end of the spectrum will be “Challenge” states, 

districts, and schools. States will identify Challenge schools that 

are in need of specific assistance. The first category of Challenge 

schools will be the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in 

each state, based on student academic achievement, student 

growth, and graduation rates, that are not making progress to 

improve. In these schools, states and districts will be required 

to implement one of four school turnaround models, to support 

better outcomes for students. Reward districts will receive 

flexibility to implement a different research-based intervention 

model beyond the scope of the four school turnaround models. 

The next 5 percent of low-performing schools will be identified 

in a warning category, and states and districts will implement 

research-based, locally determined strategies to help them 

improve.

Schools that are not closing significant, persistent achievement 

gaps will constitute another category of Challenge schools. In 

these schools, districts will be required to implement datadriven interventions to support those students who are furthest 

behind and close the achievement gap. For all Challenge schools, 

districts may implement strategies, such as expanded learning 

time, supplemental educational services, public school choice, or 

others, to help students succeed.
7

Challenge districts whose schools, principals, and teachers 

are not receiving the support they need to succeed may also 

face significant governance or staffing changes, including 

replacement of the superintendent. Both Challenge districts and 

states will face additional restrictions on the use of ESEA funds 

and may be required to work with an outside organization to 

improve student academic achievement.

Building Capacity for Support at Every Level. As the 

administration asks more of each level of the system, it will 

also build state and district capacity to support schools, school 

leaders, teachers, and students. The administration’s proposal 

will allow states and districts to reserve funds to carry out 

such activities as (1) supporting and complementing the 

adoption of rigorous standards and high-quality assessments, 

and supporting teachers in teaching to those standards; (2) 

supporting the more effective use of data to identify local needs 

and improve student outcomes; (3) improving capacity at the 

state and district levels to support the effective use of technology 

to improve instruction; (4) coordinating with early learning 

programs to improve school readiness; or (5) carrying out 

effective family engagement strategies.

Districts will be required to set aside a portion of funds under 

this program to improve student performance in high-need 

schools by implementing effective school improvement strategies 

and carrying out strategies to ensure the equitable distribution 

of effective teachers and school leaders. Reward districts will be 

allowed flexibility around this set-aside.

Fostering Comparability and Equity. To give every student 

a fair chance to succeed and to give principals and teachers 

the resources to support student success, the administration 
8

will encourage increased resource equity at every level of the 

system. Over time, districts will be required to ensure that their 

high-poverty schools receive state and local funding levels (for 

personnel and relevant nonpersonnel expenditures) comparable 

to those received by their low-poverty schools. In addition, 

districts that use their resources to provide strong support to 

disadvantaged students will be given additional flexibility to 

provide such support. States will be asked to measure and report 

on resource disparities and develop a plan to tackle them.

Assessing Achievement

The administration’s proposal also will maintain support for 

state efforts to improve the quality of their assessment systems, 

and to develop and implement the upgraded standards and 

assessments required by the College- and Career-Ready Students 

program (the $14.5 billion request for the reauthorized Title 

I, Part A, currently the Title I Grants to Local Educational 

Agencies). Improved assessments can be used to: accurately 

measure student growth; better measure how states, districts, 

schools, principals, and teachers are educating students; help 

teachers adjust and focus their teaching; and provide better 

information to students and their families.

States will receive formula grants to develop and implement 

high-quality assessments aligned with college- and careerready standards in English language arts and mathematics 

that accurately measure student academic achievement and 

growth, provide feedback to support and improve teaching, 

and measure school success and progress. States may also use 

funds to develop or implement high-quality, rigorous statewide 

assessments in other academic or career and technical subjects, 
9

high school course assessments, English language proficiency 

assessments, and interim or formative assessments. Beginning 

in 2015, formula funds will be available only to states that are 

implementing assessments based on college- and career-ready 

standards that are common to a significant number of states. 

The program also will support competitive grants to consortia 

of states and to other entities working in partnership with states 

for research on, or development and improvement of, additional 

high-quality assessments to be used by multiple states in such 

areas as science, history, or foreign languages; high school course 

assessments in academic and career and technical subjects; 

universally designed assessments; and assessments for English 

Learners and students with disabilities.

This publication is in the public domain and may be reproduced in 

whole or in part. It comprises excerpts from A Blueprint for Reform: 

The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 

U.S. Department of Education, March 2010. To read the full text, visit 

www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint.

For more information, visit www.ed.gov or call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

May 2010
10
11
 The Department of Education’s mission is to promote 

student achievement and preparation for global 

competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and 

ensuring equal access.

www.ed.gov