P-20 initiatives could change Columbia educational planning within the year

COLUMBIA — Should the so-called P-20 initiatives be embedded in the state's educational system, Missouri students could expect: a curriculum with logical continuity — from preschool through the end of their college career — that increases success, decreases dropout rates and better prepares students to meet the needs of employers and succeed in a competitive global economy.

Created in 2006 under Gov. Matt Blunt, the goal of P-20 is to fine-tune the "pipeline" students pass through during the course of their education, roughly 20 years from preschool through college.

By ensuring each stage of education is logically connected to the next, the system would better prepare students to get through high school, find success in higher education and, ultimately, get jobs.

The P-20 legislation established a council made up of the state commissioners of education and higher education, the director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, and the chairs of the coordinating board for higher education and the Missouri Board of Education.

"Our focus is to try to get regional councils working with school systems, with businesses," said Tim Gallimore, interim executive director of Missouri's P-20 council and the Missouri Department of Higher Education's academic affairs commissioner.

Missouri's P-20 council is pushing the creation of smaller, more regionally focused programs, though few are currently in place.

"I would say that the average person in education, or even the average parent with students in grade school, middle school, high school or college would perhaps not be very conversant with P-20, which is one of our challenges," Gallimore said.

"Columbia is still waiting to get going in a grassroots way," he said.

The goal would be to get local schools, colleges and universities to coordinate their efforts rather than act in isolation in educating the area's students.

"That is working right now in the northwest. That's the only part of the state where it is that far along," Gallimore said. "Other regions of the state are in early formative stages of this."

He said he hopes to have an organizational structure established throughout Missouri within a year.

The 2006 legislation that established Missouri's P-20 council came relatively late, Gallimore said.

"Many other states are out in front of us — even states in the region," Gallimore said. "Indiana is considered to have one of the better P-20 systems in the country. And there are at least 10 Midwest states that have them."

Despite the fact that the law calling for the creation of a P-20 council was signed over two years ago, Gallimore said few parts of Missouri have seen a formal introduction of the initiatives.

Gallimore pointed to St. Joseph and the surrounding region as an example of successful implementation of P-20 education strategies.

Judith Sabbert, chief operating officer at Heartland Foundation, has worked to develop P-20 initiatives in that region. Northwest Missouri's 60-member P-20 council, of which the Heartland Foundation is a managing partner, includes representatives from all levels of education and the area's business community.

"It started out as a traditional hospital-based foundation. We are attached to Heartland Health," Sabbert said. "But some years ago, we made the decision to refocus our mission and really look for ways that we could empower children and really build healthier, more livable communities.

"When we begin to really understand health, it really does tie back to education."