K-12 Education

Governors are leading efforts across the country to ensure that students in their states graduate prepared to succeed in postsecondary, the workforce, and life. The NGA K-12 Education Team supports Governors in these efforts by regularly bringing together Governors’ education policy advisors to connect with and learn from each other and national and state experts in the field; providing ongoing responsive and proactive technical assistance; and through the development of resources and reports that spotlight promising practices and actionable strategies on timely topics, including addressing students’ academic needs and well-being and strengthening the educator workforce.

Latest

Reimagining and Strengthening the Role of the School Principal

State Snapshots For Strengthening The Educator Workforce

High-Quality Youth Development and Out-of-School-Time (OST) Opportunities

Meet The Team

Seth Gerson, Policy Director
Devon Nir, Senior Policy Analyst
Lily Klam, Policy Analyst
Ekaan Ahmad, Policy Coordinator

Major Initiatives

Let’s Get Ready! Chair’s Initiative and Policy Academy

The NGA K-12 Education team partnered with Colorado Governor Jared Polis during his 2024–25 tenure as NGA Chair on the Let’s Get Ready!: Educating All Americans for Success initiative. During this year-long project, NGA convened education experts in Salt Lake City, Denver, Las Vegas, Washington DC, New York City, Vancouver, Colorado Springs, and online to determine how we can better understand and measure what helps students and state economies thrive. The initiative culminated in the Let’s Get Ready! Roadmap for Governors, which offers practical guidance to assist state leaders in strengthening their education systems.

Through June 2027, the K-12 Education team will support a bipartisan cohort of seven states and territories (three Republican, four Democratic) via a technical assistance project as they use the Let’s Get Ready! roadmap to advance their Governors’ visions for education. As part of the Policy Academy to Advance Data Dashboards Measuring Student and System Success, these states and territories will identify a set of metrics for success and develop a data dashboard to track student and system performance.

Phones in Focus

As states and territories take increasing interest in the distractions created by cell phones in schools, the NGA K-12 Education team has partnered with Dr. Angela Duckworth to launch Phones in Focus. This national research initiative will gather input from 100,000 educators nationwide with the goal of developing evidence-based recommendations for policies that support academic success, social well-being, and student focus.

Governors’ Education Policy Advisor Convenings

The NGA K-12 Education Team convenes Governors’ Education Policy Advisors regularly to support state leadership on key K-12 priorities. Past meetings have addressed topics such as academic supports, school finance, school cell phone policies, and educator workforce, all while providing advisors an opportunity to connect with peers from across the country. See recaps of previous meetings.

Timely and Ongoing Resources

The NGA K-12 Education Team regularly holds informative briefings and webinars featuring subject matter experts in the field, Governors’ staff, and state education leaders. This includes the State Strategies for Addressing K-12 Student Needs webinar series, which covers topics ranging from state budgets to family engagement to supports for students with unique needs, as well as the State Snapshots for Strengthening the Educator Workforce series focused on teacher and principal recruitment and retention.

The team also releases an annual analysis of education trends reflected in Governors’ State of the State addresses, offering crucial insight into the trajectory of K-12 education nationwide. See our analyses from 2024, 2025 and 2026.

NGA K-12 Education Library

State Plans for Accelerating Student Learning: A Preliminary Analysis

Governors and state chiefs are moving quickly to develop plans that include a range of new strategies, targeted interventions and grant programs designed to close achievement gaps and prepare all ...

National Governors Association to Work With 6 States to Meet Social and Emotional Needs of Students and Families

Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Oregon, Wisconsin to Advance Whole Child Vision for Students’ Comprehensive Development The National Governors Association (NGA) will collaborate with Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Oregon ...

State Education Trends

A look at major education themes across State of the State addresses. Perhaps not surprisingly, almost all of the trends we identified this year connect back to COVID-19 in some ...

NGA’s Community Renewal Co-Chairs and U.S. Education Secretary Discuss Reopening America’s Schools

Missouri Governor Mike Parson and Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan, co-chairs of the National Governors Association (NGA) Community Renewal Task Force, issued the following statement after meeting with U.S. Secretary ...

Governors’ Education Priorities

In this year's State of the State addresses Governors unsurprisingly focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for students, teachers and education more broadly. by Jon Alfuth, Policy Analyst ...

Strategies for Advancing Equity Through State Education Budgets During & Beyond COVID

This webinar explores opportunities, challenges, and strategies for governors as they create and move forward state education budgets during and beyond COVID-19. Topics of the conversation include how governors can ...

Putting CARES Act Funds to Work: Investing in Education, Investing in Recovery

Federal support is needed to ensure school safety, as well as protect public health, stimulate the economy, coordinate and support vaccine distribution, and help prevent tax increases. Our recovery is ...

COVID-19 K-12 SCHOOL OPENING AND CLOSING POLICIES

Summary of Established State Thresholds (View/Download) Introduction As the country continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring high-quality K-12 education while also minimizing the risk that students, teachers, and staff ...

Child Care for School-Aged Children

The need for child care for both young and school age children, who are learning from home during the day while adults work, has thus expanded to more families and ...