P-20 Council for a seamless education

Yesterday Governor Gregoire launched the P-20 Council, which consists of representatives of major state institutions in early learning, K-12 and higher education. The Council’s stated objective is to lead Washington in creating a world-class, learner-focused, seamless education.

Seamlessness is the key, and particular focus will be placed by the Council on key transition points, such as ensuring students are ready when they enter kindergarten; that they are reading at grade level in their primary years; that middle-schoolers are taking math that prepares them for high school; and that high school graduates are ready to pursue post-secondary education without taking remedial classes.

While much of the meeting was your typical background for a new group, there was an interesting discussion regarding proposed indicators of education system performance. Key questions will be:

What factors are most important in determining how the system performs?
What indicators most accurately measure performance in those areas?
And then how do we impact the results measured?

The Council appears committed to identifying key indicators and putting the data systems in place to measure performance against those indicators. This is encouraging, as more often than not, what gets measured gets managed.

The P-20 Council will meet quarterly, with their next meeting in December.