A valleywide collaboration of educators, businesses and nonprofits met Thursday to report efforts toward a sweeping goal: To make sure every Idaho child gets a good start in school and academic success that carries beyond high school and into the career of his or her choice.

This won’t be a short process, but it’s getting off to a strong start, said Bishop Kelly High School President Rich Raimondi, one of 20-plus members of the Treasure Valley Education Partnership’s core team.

Since a two-day “design institute” in late January, the core team and other partners have created an action plan, mission and goals as well as assigning leaders for teams to work on each of the partnership’s six goals, from preparing children to enter school to providing support through the former child’s career progression. Teams will meet this summer, and partners will continue to work on ways to measure progress and gain community collaboration, Raimondi said.

Thursday’s gathering was the first of what are expected to be quarterly meetings of TVEP’s loose-knit advisory group, which includes any community members who want to participate. The next meeting is Oct. 18.

TVEP’s underlying goal is ambitious: to improve the number of Treasure Valley students who go on to postsecondary education, currently in the 50 percent range, to 80 percent by 2016 and 100 percent by 2020. A nationwide education initiative called Strive provides a framework for their efforts and a network of other communities to share ideas and best practices with.

One of those communities is Portland, which launched the Strive-based All Hands Raised initiative a couple of years ago. All Hands Raised CEO Dan Ryan attended Thursday’s meeting, saying the Treasure Valley has an advantage as it gets going because there is already a strong focus on improving kids’ educational experience and opportunities.

Ryan suggested TVEP focus on two or three priorities so they can readily see progress.

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447