RD143 - Education Commission of the States 2011 Annual Report


Executive Summary:
Over the past 12 months we have seen significant efforts to move from an education system heavily structured around inputs to a system focused on outputs. Most visible in this movement is the effort to directly tie teacher and principal compensation, evaluation, and recognition to student achievement. This shift is largely propelled by the increased use of state and local accountability as drivers for improvement. Key benchmarks typically include increases in literacy proficiency by 3rd grade, high school graduation, college completion, and successful transitions from school to the workforce.

We are encouraged by the quality and quantity of the collaboration between policymakers and the corporate community to improve the education system across our country.

We have seen a substantial increase in financial support and collaboration with corporate America. Employers are ultimately the end users of students going through our education system. Their ability and the nation’s ability to compete in the global environment are dependent on the preparedness of students leaving the education system and their successful transition into the workforce.

Alignment of the P-20 system, preschool through college, is getting a new look and level of importance. In the past, it was easy to talk about the education system as a general whole. Little was really done to ensure that learning and standards flowed seamlessly from one grade level to the next. With the movement to outcomes versus inputs and the steady rise of rigorous standards, it has become critical to look at the entire P-20 education system as a pathway that aligns not only from grade to grade but that provides for essential benchmarks that must be reached along the way.

Specifically, it is clear states are recognizing how critical early literacy proficiency is to the successful implementation of rigorous, internationally benchmarked standards across our country.

The need for state-level policymakers to collaborate has never been greater. ECS will continue its practice of bringing teams of ECS commissioners together at our annual National Forum on Education Policy. Exposing policymakers to effective policy and strategies aligned to their states’ education policy priorities allows them to take immediate action in their state. The ECS National Forum does this and more.