Here are some quick links and resources to help you stay ahead of the potential achievement drop coming from the transition to college- and career-ready assessments:

• A great place to start is by getting the basic facts about the Common Core State Standards and common, college- and career-ready assessments, including the rationale of why we need to hold students to higher standards, easily compiled in a Future Ready fact sheets available in PDF and Word, if you want to modify it for your advocacy efforts. Also, look at your state-specific fact sheet and PPT for data and messages on the importance of high expectations.

• Check out Achieve's resources for engaging business leaders, who are critical advocates in the run up to and throughout the initial drop in achievement scores.

• Read op-ed's placed by education, policy and business leaders explaining the upcoming drop in scores.

• Learn from a successful campaign focused on helping stakeholders understand the need to reset the bar by checking out Tennessee’s Expect More, Achieve More, The Arizona Public Engagement Task Force's Communications Toolkit, and Raise the Bar Louisville (including this PSA from a parent).

For all advocacy materials and existing campaigns focused on the college- and career-ready assessments, see here.