Commitment to Quality Education
For nearly a decade, GPL has taken the lead, both as a convenor and collaborator, in advocating for quality education in Arizona. November 29, 2006, the Arizona Board of Regents recognized GPL for “Outstanding Service to Higher Education”.
GPL set the course early, designing P-20, An Approach to Integrated Learning, as the overall architecture of a seamless education, preschool through graduate school and employment. The four primary areas of focus in P-20 are: school readiness, K-12, higher education and workforce development.
Key to the strategy is facilitating collaboration among the diverse groups involved. To support the P-20 approach, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano formed a P-20 Advisory Council comprised of education, government, business and civic leaders to enhance the cooperation and collaboration among educators across the full spectrum of P-20. The primary goal of the P-20 Council is to systemically address educational alignment in programs and policies focusing on:
- School readiness: ensuring that all children begin school safe, healthy and ready to succeed,
- K-12: enhancing equal opportunities for all students, providing challenging courses in middle school and high school and connecting graduation exit exams and standards for entry requirements into post-secondary work,
- Higher education: creating a progressive, globally competitive system with the capacity to match Arizona’s rapid growth, and
- Workforce development: going beyond P-16 to include education and training programs for employees.
Looking forward, as a steward of the P-20 process, GPL’s priority issues include:
- Building a quality data base of student achievement to make accurate, timely and reliable recommendations to establish strong policy,
- Advocating to explore legislation for school unification,
- Maximizing revenues from state land trust funds,
- Establishing an educational fund for direct student aid for students in need,
- Continuing to train school board candidates in accountability and quality,
- Working with a national education trust to ensure that existing high school students have the skills to move to higher education or enter the workforce,
- Increasing the number of students enrolled in the Arizona Academic Scholars Program,
- Increasing the number of college goers an completers, and
- Building leadership capacity and identifying high performing principals to utilize as mentors and coaches.