Ohio High School and Higher Education Alignment Initiative

According to a [Cleveland] Plain Dealer blog post, Ohio has recently announced the Ohio High School and Higher Education Alignment Initiative, an effort to help K-12 and higher ed. get on the same page to improve high school graduates' college-readiness. According to the post, "Ten grants, each worth $100,000 over three years, will be awarded in January to consortia of high schools, universities and career centers that submit the best proposal to create partnerships so that high school students can move successfully into college. Two grants will be awarded in each of five regions across the state".

Partnerships will align high school graduation requirements with college-readiness expectations. Each partnership must include at least four high schools from at least two districts (at least one district must be participating in Race to the Top), as well as two community colleges or four-year institutions. This alignment will be facilitated by the fact that the "state legislature has required public universities and community colleges to jointly establish uniform statewide standards in math, science, reading and writing by 2013", as the blog post states. The post also cites a spokesperson for the Ohio Board of Regents as saying the chancellor supports a 10th grade college readiness assessment.