Yesterday Governor Inslee announced a new statewide,  state-agency centered performance initiative that identifies key goals of his administration and measures the progress towards these goals.

According to the Governor’s Office, Results Washington aims to make state government more effective, efficient, accountable and transparent. Governor Inslee’s goals for Results Washington reflect what the Inslee Administration believes matters most to Washingtonians.  As stated by the Administration, by routinely measuring and monitoring each goal and implementing improvement plans, the state will drive towards producing results in five goal areas:

• World-Class Education
• Prosperous Economy
• Sustainable Energy & a Clean Environment
• Healthy & Safe Communities
• Efficient, Effective & Accountable Government

Higher Education

Results Washington identifies the goal of a World-class education through outcome measures that increase access to education to provide students with 21st century skills to succeed from early learning to higher education.

To achieve this goal the framework identifies two outcome measures for higher education that identify the results the Inslee Administration wants to achieve.

• Increase the percentage of population enrolled in certificate, credential, apprenticeship, and degree programs.
• Increase the attainment of certificates, credentials, apprenticeships, and degrees.

The progress on each of these outcome measures will be determined by a set of specific, detailed, quantifiable indicators. For higher education these include to date:

• Increase the number of students enrolled in STEM and identified high-demand employment programs
• Increase the percentage of students entering public higher education who access and complete high-quality online learning
• Increase the percentage of eligible students who sign-up for the College Bound program
• Increase the percentage of eligible students who receive the State Need Grant
• Increase the number of families saving for postsecondary education training expenses using the GET from 152,000 in 2012 to 182,000 in 2017.
• Increase project-based, career workplace, community learning opportunities that provide STEM and 21st century skills
• Increase number of STEM graduates in 4-year colleges
• Increase the number of STEM graduates in community and technical colleges
• Increase the percentage of adult basic education and English-as-a-second language students who transition to precollege or college level within one-year from 10% to 13% by 2017.

Specific percentage increases and by what date for the majority of these indicators have yet to be determined. Data is expected to be included within the next six months as the Governor’s Office and higher education stakeholders continue discussions.

Next Steps

In the coming weeks the Inslee Administration will continue outreach efforts to collect feedback. For example, two events are scheduled in the near future.

• On September 12 at 10:00 a.m. Governor Inslee  will host a Town Hall providing a Q&A session on Twitter.

• Between September 17 and October 1 the Governor’s Office will host an interactive, moderated website where users can share, comment and vote on feedback and ideas submitted by other users.

The next iteration of this work, scheduled to be released in mid to late October, will reflect the feedback provided from stakeholders, state employees and the public.