College- and Career-Readiness for All Students

One of the most effective ways to ensure that all students are prepared for college and career is to hold them to rigorous expectations in the form of standards and curriculum. That is why we applaud Michigan’s efforts in the past decade to raise expectation for all students.

Michigan was a leading state in making college-prep the default curriculum for all students. In 2006, the legislature created the Michigan Merit Curriculum, setting rigorous expectations that all students must meet in order to graduate high school.

In 2010, Michigan took another important step forward in adopting high learning standards in reading and math for students in grades K-12. This aligns student learning expectations:

• year-to-year, so that what students learn in one grade lays a foundation for learning in the next grade;
• peer-to-peer, ensuring that Michigan students are competitive with their peers across the country by holding all students to rigorous standards; and
• career- and college-ready, ensuring that learning in Michigan prepares students for careers, college and life after high school.

This year, our rigorous Michigan Standards are being implemented across the state. Combined with a new, end-of-year, aligned assessment, we will have the important information that we need to see how our students and schools are doing.