 In 2006, NCEE released "Tough Choices or Tough Times" closely examining the strategies that had been used by one nation after another to surpass the achievement of American Students offering, for the first time, a comprehensive education reform agenda based on NCEE's education benchmarking work over almost 20 years.In 2010, NCEE organized a new program with a $1.5 million planning grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to help the NCEE "work with states and districts" develop their Early College High School (ECHS) programs, through which students can take a mixture of high school and college classes, and receive both a high school diploma and up to two years of college credits.The goal is to insure that "students have mastered a set of basic requirements" and to reduce the "numbers of high school graduates who need remedial courses when they enroll in college."