Colorado Governor Jared Polis, currently serving as the 2024-2025 Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), has launched an ambitious plan aiming to redefine educational standards and student readiness across the country. According to the Colorado Governor's Office, the so-named "Education Roadmap for Governors" was developed as part of the Let's Get Ready! Initiative, which Polis spearheaded in an attempt to encompass a broader spectrum of skills in the definition of student 'readiness' beyond academic benchmarks. As obtained by the Colorado Governor's Office, Polis commented, “For too long, our definition of ‘readiness’ has been narrowly focused on basic academic indicators."
The new roadmap is a detailed guide, providing a comprehensive action plan for state governors to follow. It includes substantial steps such as defining a vision for student readiness and assessing current measurement practices, breaking down government silos that impede progress, building infrastructure to measure outcomes, focusing on outcomes through a public dashboard, and evaluating the federal role in education. Polis believes that 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.
This collaborative effort involved input from a diverse group of stakeholders, including fellow governors, students, educators, employers, advocates, researchers, and policymakers. The Let's Get Ready! Initiative crafted a definition of student readiness that centers around four pillars: academic foundations, workforce preparedness, civic engagement, and lifelong well-being. These components aim to meet the demands of both the present and future economic landscapes, ensuring that the education system can adequately prepare students not just for exams, but for life after their academic journeys.
