How We Created a Vision: People and Process

PROCESS FOR CREATING THE VISION

To create a vision for the future of education in Utah, a team of experts gathered over a two-year period to share knowledge and extensively research and discuss options for improving education. Members of the Education Action Team were selected by Governor Gary Herbert and Envision Utah to represent a spectrum of professional experience and political persuasions. Team members included educators, legislators, administrators, and other experts from across the state. From 2013 to 2015, the action team met to identify Utahns’ choices related to education, create scenarios for public input, and synthesize a vision for the future. The process of creating this vision also included the following components:

A 2014 VALUES STUDY

This study was conducted to identify (1) what factors Utahns view as affecting their quality of life the most and (2) the underlying emotions and values tied to those factors. The study determined that for Utahns, education is important because it gives people more opportunities and creates better communities. The study also found that Utahns prioritize education above almost any other issue; it ranked second only to water in terms of importance to Utah’s future. The state’s educational achievement, however, was ranked very low, second only to air quality in terms of how poorly the state is performing on the issue.

The “BUILD YOUR 2050 UTAH” WEB APP

This app allowed Utahns to identify what factors concerning education are most important to them and to visualize in an interactive module the effect certain decisions would have. More than 3,000 people across Utah gave input through the app, and the information gathered generated the following findings:

Utahns think it is very important to foster quality teachers and increase families’ participation in students’ education.

The majority of participants believed that instituting a list of proposed strategies would significantly increase the number of Utahns with a postsecondary education by 2050.

The action team used this information to create four different scenarios for the future of education in Utah. The four scenarios differed in the amount of investment, types of strategies, and levels of educational success achieved by Utahns in 2050. These scenarios were presented to the public in the Your Utah, Your Future survey in spring 2015, and 52,845 Utahns weighed in.

After receiving public input on the four education scenarios, the action team met to frame a vision, including goals and strategies, to achieve what Utahns said they wanted for education in 2050.