“All Americans should have access to education that prepares them for success in life. As the world changes and technology evolves, ensuring all students graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary for success is so important for U.S. economic competitiveness. Our initiative will explore how to better evaluate outcomes from state investments in education, and help drive improved outcomes for learners at all stages of their education journey.”
NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis
As Governors, we lead states facing economic opportunities but also challenges, shortages in workforce, skills mismatch, and widening opportunity gaps that limit true economic mobility for Americans. We must take these indicators as a call to action.
As our economy continues to evolve, our education and workforce systems remain fragmented without direct alignment to outcomes. As leaders responsible for improving outcomes across a wide array of sectors, stewards of state budgets that make significant investments in our education systems, as well as our state’s economic competitiveness, Governors are uniquely positioned to lead this conversation.
While previous conversations about education have led with solutions – this conversation leads with questions. Working with educators, parents and families, students, researchers, and community and business leaders, Governors will consider:
What do learners need to know at every step of their educational journeys to achieve success in life and to ensure that our nation continues to be competitive?
How are we currently measuring outcomes to ensure that education systems are effectively delivering for students and our economy?
How can we do more to shift resources and change policies and practices to do more of what works to achieve these outcomes, and hold ourselves accountable for achieving success?
One regional and one international convening in spring 2025
NGA Summer Meeting in Colorado in July 2025
Next summer, based on the learnings from this initiative, we will release a roadmap to support Governors and states to drive innovation, bolster our capacity to measure what works and what doesn’t, and most importantly, prepare our students for successful futures and our economy for greater success.
For example, based on state context and research, Governors may examine outcome-based measures and optimization for topics including, but not limited to:
Early literacy, numeracy, and high-quality curriculum;
Afterschool, summer, and expanded learning;
Work-based learning and apprenticeships;
Dual and concurrent enrollment;
Skills-based learning and non-degree credentials;
Technology and artificial intelligence in the classroom;
Through the Code Next Affiliates program, organizations — from schools to nonprofits to higher education institutions — can bring the Code Next experience (computer science education to Black, Latinx and Indigenous high schoolers) to their students. Google provides Affiliates with training, funding, resources, and more.
The WGU Skills Library is an open resource of structured skills data that promotes a more equitable skills-driven hiring and education ecosystem that benefits learners, workers, and employers. The Skills Library features more than 175 collections, focusing on occupations and specialty skill areas.
Pearson launched the Skills Map of the United States, an in-depth analysis of the American job market through 2028. Based on an extensive review of 85 million U.S. job ads, economic and labor market data, the Skills Map offers critical insights to help businesses, policymakers and individuals prepare for the future of work.
Two Tennessee schools exited priority status through a state partnership with Cognia. The schools experienced double-digit gains in academic achievement, high statewide growth rates, and significant decreases in chronic absenteeism.
As part of the Let’s Get Ready! Educating All Americans for Success initiative, NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis is hosting a series of regional convenings to support Governors as they work to better evaluate outcomes from state investments in ...
Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success is designed to support Governors in driving innovation to tackle opportunity gaps that limit economic mobility. It starts with identifying those gaps. At the initiative’s first regional convening in Denver, NGA Chair ...
NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ Let’s Get Ready initiative is working with educators, parents and families, students, researchers, and community and business leaders to identify the best education policies to prepare students for successful futures and state economies for ...
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Measuring outcomes is one of the primary goals of NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ “Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success” initiative. How are we measuring outcomes to ensure education systems are delivering for students? How can we ...
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Washington D.C. — Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, Co-Chairs of the National Governors Association (NGA) Education, Workforce and Community Investment Task Force, released the following statement in recognition of the 2024 National Apprenticeship Week. “As Co-Chairs ...
Measuring outcomes is one of the primary goals of NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ “Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success” initiative. How are we measuring outcomes to ensure education systems are delivering for students? How can we ...
In partnership with the Schultz Family Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) is launching a Policy Academy to support states and territories in developing service-to- career pathways as a ...
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