Everyone, it seems, suddenly wants to know what American students need to know to succeed in college. In the last six months, a variety of groups across the country have issued calls to action: a newly formed group is calling for national standards of readiness; a National Writing Commission is championing the cause of better writing instruction; the National Science Board is declaring the nation's future in science and engineering imperiled.

The reports may sound familiar—you've been hearing similar messages about readiness for a long time from ACT™. ACT's Educational Planning and Assessment System/EPAS assesses what students know and can do at three key points—with EXPLORE in eighth grade, PLAN in tenth grade, and the ACT Assessment in eleventh or twelfth grade. ACT's Standards for Transition™ help educators interpret those assessment results precisely, telling what students know at each step and what they are ready to learn next. The Standards are based on ACT's unique National Curriculum Survey™, conducted every three years to gain insight into what high schools are teaching and what colleges expect incoming freshmen to know.

Despite these efforts, this year's ACT Assessment results confirm a continuing and alarming disconnect between students' aspirations and their levels of readiness to achieve them.

The good news is that education professionals now are echoing ACT's messages. Perhaps together we can prepare all of our high schoolers to the college readiness standard, in all fields—English, reading, mathematics, science, and writing.