Idaho state schools Superintendent Tom Luna told the Legislature’s K-12 interim committee this morning that there’s a “stark reality” about education in Idaho: The state has a “very high graduation rate, one of the highest in the country,” but one of the lowest percentages of students that go on to further education after high school. “And then we see that of those that do go on, almost half of them have to take remedial courses … 38 percent of them do not go on to their second year.” As a result, fewer than 40 percent of Idaho adults have some sort of degree or certificate beyond high school. “That’s in a world where 60 percent of jobs require some form of post-secondary degree or certificate.”

Luna said Idaho students are showing strong results in meeting state standards while they’re still in K-12 schools, but the data for what happens after that shows the standards aren’t high enough. “That’s why Idaho is moving forward with higher academic standards for all students … this school year.” He called the move to the new Idaho Core Standards “a necessary and critical change in Idaho’s education system.”

He went on to highlight Idaho's efforts in recent years to transform how it tracks student progress through a longitudinal data system, saying, "We want an education system that is based on results. In order to accomplish that, we must have high-quality data." You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.