Chapter 6: Exploring a New Paradigm for Higher Education

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Traditional approaches to education policy fragment the areas of decision making. Policy makers and stakeholders at every level of education – K-12, private colleges, community colleges, large universities – all represent and evaluate their own interests in the policy arena. A new approach, dubbed “P-20,” challenges the necessity and validity of this approach.

 

Standing for “pre-school through graduate school (grade 20),” the P-20 approach involves the creation of panels, committees, councils, and groups which are dedicated to policy-making and policy recommendations which keep in mind the overarching view of student and institutional success. Thus, when a student begins to have trouble in grade 5, P-20 argues that this has implications for success all the way through graduate school. As such, comprehensive and effective educational policy ought to approach decisions made at every level as decisions for the entire system of education.

 

Currently, 38 states have P-16 or P-20 councils. The Illinois legislature commissioned the creation of a P-20 council in 2007, but it has yet to fully take shape. Of the existing programs, several stand out as being particular effective and/or groundbreaking in their activities and programs. Approaches include participation in nation-wide programs which encourage growth in retention and graduation rates, teacher quality, and improve math and science education. Additionally, successful programs have access to informative and thorough research on questions of particular concern to P-20, especially on graduation and retention rates and students’ performance on national standards examinations. Finally, successful programs have concrete goals which are set and subsequently met by the appropriate stakeholders including but not limited to governors, legislative leaders, presidents and administrators of colleges and universities, teachers, and other people who understand and experience educational policy.

 

On the one hand, a P-20 approach to education will improve the quality of students who enter Illinois colleges and universities. This will increase Illinois’ standing in the U.S., and it will also strengthen the Illinois economy. Secondly, institutions of higher education are able, as a result of their resources, to help instantiate P-20 principles in schools. University and college professors and administrators know the qualities necessary to succeed in college and in the work force; as such, their input and their participation in programs with high school and K-12 students may prove invaluable to making P-20 work.

 

Ultimately, P-20 is both a policy tool and a mindset with respect to education. Taken seriously and implemented in a goal-oriented way, a P-20 council in Illinois promises to engage and help institutions of higher education.