Roadmap Caps Yearlong Initiative: “Let’s Get Ready! Educating All Americans for Success”
Colorado Springs – Colorado Governor Jared Polis released a Roadmap for Governors detailing policy solutions developed through Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success.
As 2024-2025 Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), Governor Polis led the Let’s Get Ready! Initiative to explore education solutions that empower individuals with the skills, knowledge and competencies needed to thrive after graduation.
“For too long, our definition of ‘readiness’ has been narrowly focused on basic academic indicators that only scratch the surface of what a student needs to be successful throughout their lives,” said Governor Polis. “The Let’s Get Ready! Initiative is a call for governors to demand better. As the largest funders of education, at the state level we have a responsibility to drive innovation within our systems, bolster our capacity to measure what works and what doesn’t, and most importantly, to prepare our students for workforce readiness, civic engagement, and well-being. Our citizens, our communities, our states and our nation deserve nothing less.”
During the yearlong initiative, Governor Polis collaborated with fellow governors, students, educators, employers, advocates, researchers and policymakers from across the country to build a roadmap governors can implement to lead their states toward education systems that work better for all learners and for U.S. economic competitiveness.
This week, the Washington Post Editorial Board commended the Let's Get Ready initiative.
Through an original, systematic review of state education practices and challenges, Let’s Get Ready! developed an actionable definition of student readiness comprised of 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 is designed as a jumping off point to begin key conversations about improving ways to define and measure readiness. To catalyze collaboration, NGA is launching a project to support governors in advancing Roadmap priorities and in building a dashboard to track outcomes.
Click here to read the full Roadmap, and visit NGA’s website to learn more about next steps for Let’s Get Ready.
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