The Treasure Valley Education Partnership this week released what it calls a baseline report card. The coalition of schools, businesses and nonprofits wants to “advance a world class education system” for the area’s children. Jake Alger with the United Way says before the group launched any projects it wanted to know what it was up against.
The report card doesn’t have any new information. Instead it compiles information on education in the state and the Treasure Valley from a variety of sources. Alger says it’s meant as a starting point for the partnership to talk about the future.
“And say these are the stats both good and bad, because there are some really good numbers in there along with some areas for improvement,” he says. “And we can work from that data to decide what the biggest areas of need are from early education through post-secondary education.”
One of the good numbers according to Alger: 64 percent of Treasure Valley students went on to post-secondary education in 2010. That’s up from 57 percent five years earlier and better than the state average. One of the areas for improvement Alger mentions: fewer than 60 percent of Treasure Valley children have the skills they need when they start kindergarten, a number that has remained relatively flat in recent years.