On February 26, 2005, governors, policy makers, and business leaders from across the nation met to discuss ways to prevent American students from falling behind their international competitors. The “National Summit on High Schools,” sponsored by Achieve, marked the beginning of the conference, and Bill Gates was there to deliver the keynote address, wherein he made the above remarks. Since 1999 Achieve has received $10,921,771 from the Gates Foundation in order to “help states align secondary school math expectations with the demands of postsecondary education and work,” as well as assistance for encouraging “specifi c states to adopt high school graduation requirements that align with college entry requirements.”2