By Colorado Governor Jared Polis
Last week, over 20 governors, both Democrats and Republicans, came together in Colorado Springs for the National Governors Association (NGA) Summer Meeting. As Chair of the bipartisan group, I was proud to launch a new Roadmap for Governors, Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success.
Over the past year, I worked alongside educators, employers, innovators, and leaders across the education and workforce ecosystems, to dive deep into a question that is top of mind for so many of us – how can we better set our students, and our economy, up for success now and into the future?
For too long, our definition of “readiness” has too narrowly focused on basic academic indicators that only scratch the surface of what students need to be successful throughout their lives.
We hear from educators and from job seekers alike that it’s time to innovate and rethink how we build future-ready learners. It’s time now to redesign our education systems to provide more high-quality choices that keep pace with the technology and innovation.
Metrics like diplomas and test scores are important but not sufficient to determine if students are career- or college-ready. These measures have value as accountability yardsticks, they tell employers next to nothing about actual skills.
For most states, education is the top line item in our state budgets, making Governors uniquely situated to lead the way to drive innovation, elevate our return on investment, and most importantly, to better prepare our students for lifelong success.
With the Let’s Get Ready! Initiative, we are embracing the opportunity to re-imagine the skills we teach in school and how we can drive better outcomes for our students and our economy.
We took the lessons, best practices, and data gathered throughout the year to compile a robust, actionable roadmap for Governors to tailor and apply to the unique needs and context of each respective state.
Through an independent review of state education practices and challenges, Let’s Get Ready! developed an actionable definition of student readiness comprising four essential elements: academic foundations, workforce preparedness, civic engagement, and lifelong well-being.
The Roadmap for Governors outlines action items for governors across five categories:
- Define a Vision for Student Readiness and Assess How Your State is Measuring It
- Eliminate Government Silos that Impede Progress
- Build Systems and Infrastructure to Measure Outcomes
- Maintain Focus on Outcomes with a Public Dashboard
- Consider a More Effective Federal Role in Education
The roadmap speaks to the opportunities and action steps that Governors, as well as leaders across the education and workforce spaces, can take to set our students and our economy up for success. To align skills learned in the classroom with the skills needed to get a good job.
With the tools and action steps outlined in the Roadmap, we’re hitting the ground running, with excitement for the opportunities and innovation ahead.
What People Are Saying About the Education Roadmap
The Washington Post Editorial Board commended the Let’s Get Ready initiative: “How to track educational performance? Here’s a good start.”
Axios: How Colorado’s governor is reimagining education
“The legacy Gov. Jared Polis wants to leave behind is a roadmap for educating the next generation…
“The big picture: The plan is outlined in a 48-page report released Thursday ahead of the conclusion of Polis’ tenure as chair of the National Governors Association.
“In a discussion at the NGA conference between Polis and U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, he thanked her for releasing $66 million in withheld federal dollars now headed to Colorado school districts.”
KKTV: Governor Polis maps out education initiative after National Governors Association chairman position
“As Governor Jared Polis ends his term as chairman for the National Governors Association, he’s looking toward improving the nation’s education quality and the resources students have.”
Colorado Springs Gazette: Gov. Polis discusses future of education with U.S. Ed. Secretary McMahon, entrepreneur Mark Cuban
“Gov. Jared Polis revealed the culmination of his work as both the state’s highest elected official and chairman of the National Governors Association in improving public education Friday during the association’s summer meeting.
“Pulling from his own initiatives spearheaded in Colorado and innovations in education across the world, Polis presented a ‘road map’ for fellow governors to follow and apply in their respective states.
“‘For too long, our definition of success has been too narrow, focused on academic indicators,’ Polis said at the meeting. ‘Two points on that. One: academic indicators are important. We do measure them and we certainly don’t do it well enough… But we also know that academic indicators just scratch the surface of what students need to know, to do, and to be, to be successful in life…'”