Achieve, Inc.

Created in 1996 by the nation's governors and corporate leaders, Achieve is an independent, bipartisan, nonprofit education reform organization based in Washington, D.C., that helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments, and strengthen accountability. In 2006, Achieve was named by Education Week as one of the most influential education groups in the nation. Achieve has led the effort to make college and career readiness a national priority so that the transition from high school graduation to postsecondary education and careers is seamless. Both directly and indirectly, Achieve has been at the forefront of much of the standards-based reform in the United States.

Achieve is governed by a board of six sitting governors (three Republicans and three Democrats) and six leaders of some of the country's most influential corporations. Lou Gertsner, Jr., former chairman and chief executive officer of the IBM Corporation, spearheaded the creation of Achieve along with then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, among others, as an outcome of the 1996 National Education Summit where the nation's governors and business leaders pledged to work together, state by state, to raise standards and enhance academic achievement in public schools. Achieve's founding president, Robert B. Schwartz, now serves as the academic dean of Harvard Graduate School of Education. Since 2003, Michael Cohen became Achieve's president, having previously served in senior education positions in the Clinton administration including Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, Special Assistant to the President for Education Policy at the White House, and Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley.

Achieve went on to host National Education summits in 1999, 2001, and 2005. The 1999 summit examined the capacity of schools and school systems to deliver on the promise of high standards for all children, and it produced an unprecedented set of commitments across the states to improve the quality of teaching, provide support to struggling students, and tighten accountability systems so that no children are left behind.

In 2001, the summit focused on helping states address two key challenges: increasing the capacity of teachers and schools to meet higher standards and expanding testing and accountability systems to provide better data and stronger incentives for high student achievement.

In 2004, Achieve published the landmark report Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts, which it developed with the Education Trust, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and the National Alliance of Business. This report, [Page 18]designated by Education Week in 2006 as one of the most influential education policy reports of the past decade, identifies the knowledge and skills all students need to be successful in college and careers. The report established the American Diploma Project (ADP) benchmarks (i.e., model K–12 academic standards in mathematics and English) that reflect the knowledge and skills graduates need to succeed after high school. In addition, it put forth a policy agenda that served as the basis for the 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools. At the event, Achieve launched the American Diploma Project Network. Starting with only a handful of states, the Network has now grown to include 35 states educating nearly 85% of all U.S. public school students. Through the ADP Network, governors, state education officials, postsecondary leaders, and business executives work together to improve postsecondary preparation by aligning high school standards, graduation requirements, and assessment and accountability systems with the demands of college and careers. Achieve tracks states' progress in its annual report, Closing the Expectations Gap.

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