This morning the Washington Student Achievement Council adopted a Ten-Year Roadmap to increase educational attainment in Washington.
The Roadmap identifies two bold goals for Washington by 2023:
- All adults in Washington will have a high school diploma or equivalent
- At least 70 percent of Washington adults will have a postsecondary credential.
The Council will monitor progress toward the goals annually to evaluate their long-term impacts by examining increases in the number and percentage of Washingtonians completing a high school diploma or equivalent; in the percentage of the population enrolled in a postsecondary certificate, apprenticeship, or degree program; and the number of postsecondary certificates, apprenticeships, and degrees awarded annually.
To achieve these goals the Council has identified twelve action steps:
- Ensure Access
- Ensure cost is not a barrier for low-income students
- Keep college affordable
- Ensure all high school graduates are career and college ready
- Streamline and expand dual credit and dual enrollment programs
- Increase support for all current and prospective students
- Enhance Learning
- Align postsecondary programs with employment opportunities
- Provide greater access to work-based learning opportunities
- Encourage adults to earn a postsecondary credential
- Leverage technology to improve student outcome
- Prepare for Future Challenges
- Respond to student, employer and community needs
- Increase awareness of postsecondary opportunities
- Help students and families save for postsecondary education
The top 2013 Roadmap priority is to ensure costs is not a barrier for low-income students. To that end the Council will advocate for full-funding of the College Bound Scholarship and the State Need Grant programs. In addition work is underway to develop a funding policy to better guide legislative appropriations to institutions. Finally, the Council will prioritize the remaining Roadmap actions during the development of the 2014 Strategic Action Plan, which will outline policy and funding needs for the 2015-17 biennium.