First administered in 1998, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) immediately caused controversy when only 48 percent of students passed the math test.

To help the public see the importance of high expectations and ensure the test measured critical material, Massachusetts asked Achieve to analyze the quality of its high school math and English standards and the MCAS graduation test's alignment with those standards. Achieve's analysis showed that the standards are high quality and the 10th-grade test is well aligned to the standards.

Rather than lower the standards, the state held the line, providing help to struggling students and sparking reforms in urban high schools. Student performance improved dramatically. In the class of 2003 — the first class to face the MCAS graduation requirement — 95 percent of students passed, and the gaps between groups of students closed dramatically.

Now, based on the results of Achieve's comparative analysis of six states' exit exams, Massachusetts is considering raising the passing score on its tests.