States and school districts are searching for strategies to raise the college and career readiness of high school graduates--imperative in an era when postsecondary credentials are the key to good jobs, better pay, and stronger economies. The creation and implementation of higher graduation standards aligned to college and career expectations is…

Nations other than the U.S. elicit better performance from their students through the use of high-stakes graduation exams. Along these same lines, Michigan now links college scholarships to high school test results. Michigan has rejected the use of minimum-competency exams, largely because it wanted the state's high-school test to reflect more…