A report issued this morning says states have made substantial progress in raising the graduation requirements of their high schools and aligning their high schools’ academic standards with college and career expectations.

But the report, by the nonprofit group Achieve Inc., says relatively few states put in place key mechanisms for ensuring that high schools adequately prepare students for colleges, such as tests of college readiness or data systems that track students’ academic progress from pre-kindergarten through college.

“The pace and the progress of high-school reform efforts are encouraging, but no state has done everything that is necessary to close the gap between what is required of students in high school and what will be expected of them after they graduate,” Matthew Gandal, executive vice president of Achieve, said in releasing the report.

The report found, among other things, that:

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia now make the awarding of high-school diplomas contingent on students’ completing a college and career-ready curriculum that includes four years of challenging mathematics (including Algebra I and II) and four years of rigorous English courses. Twelve states expect to do so. As of three years ago, just two states had such requirements in place. Nineteen states report that their high-school standards are aligned with the expectations of colleges and workplaces, and 26 are in the process of such a standards alignment. Nine states administer college-readiness tests to all high-school students; 23 plan to administer such tests to all of their high schoolers. Just four states hold high schools accountable for college readiness, while seven have plans to do so. Just eight states have systems in place to track students’ progress from pre-kindergarten through college, although 39 states have plans for the development of such tracking systems.

The policies that Achieve tracks arose from a 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools organized by Achieve and involving 45 of the nation’s governors, corporate chief executives, and leaders of colleges and elementary and secondary schools.

The three states that today’s report described as making the most progress in adopting the recommended policies — Louisiana, New York, and Texas — have put in place four of five. Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, and Tennessee have each adopted three.

Nineteen states have not yet put in place any of the policies tracked by Achieve. They are Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. —Peter Schmidt