At the 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools, governors from 45 states joined with business leaders and education officials to address a critical problem in American education: Too few students graduate from high school prepared for the demands of college and careers in an increasingly competitive global economy. To monitor state progress on preparing all students for their next steps after high school graduation, Achieve conducts an annual survey of all 50 states and the District of Columbia on key college- and career-ready policies, including aligning standards, graduation requirements, assessments, and data and accountability systems with the expectations of postsecondary institutions and employers. For each policy area of the college- and career-ready agenda, the story of state--and national--progress is varied. "Closing the Expectations Gap, 2011" is the sixth annual report in this series. The report details state progress implementing the American Diploma Project policy agenda. Appendices include: (1) Achieve Resources; and (2) Methodology. (Contains 17 endnotes.) [For the "Closing the Expectations Gap, 2010: Fifth Annual 50-State Progress Report on the Alignment of High School Policies with the Demands of College and Careers", see ED512100.]