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

How to Build Sustainable Principal Pipelines

Dr. Ellen Goldring from Vanderbilt University joins NGA to talk about how states can support districts in building and sustaining principal pipelines. Resources Implementing for Sustainability: Principal Pipelines in Four ...

Let’s Get Ready to Close the Achievement Gaps for All Students

The conviction that every student can succeed is one of Let’s Get Ready’s core tenets. As achievement gaps between top-performing students and students needing support widen, Let’s Get Ready has ...

How States Are Expanding Quality Summer Learning Opportunities

Dr. Julie Fitz from the Learning Policy Institute joins NGA to talk about how states are expanding quality summer learning opportunities. Resources Fact Sheet Report Brief Full Report Summary In ...

Let’s Get Ready for Improved Educational Outcomes

At NGA, we take best practices seriously, with dedicated teams who work with state policy leaders and other experts to foster information sharing between states and develop innovative solutions to ...

Understanding Lapses in Learning

The following letter to editor, regarding “Have We Quit on Learning?,” originally appeared in the New York Times on May 25, 2025 To the Editor: Governors are rising up — ...

Let’s Get Ready to Improve the Value of Education

How can we reshape the education system to promote economic mobility? How should we assess the value of a diploma? What role do life skills play in career success, and ...

Education Themes in 2025 State of the State Addresses

As Governors across the country have taken the podium to deliver their 2025 State of the State addresses, they have used this platform to spotlight one of their largest and ...

Governors’ Top Education Priorities in 2025 State of the State Addresses

In their 2025 State of the State addresses, governors across the country recognized student progress and shared optimism for their state’s future while acknowledging challenges that need to be addressed ...

Let’s Get Ready to Improve Education and Support Rural Communities

The third panel discussion of the Let’s Get Ready! New York Convening featured Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, a public charter school network that manages ...