Downloads | Hindsight | A Chorus of Strong Voices | The Road Ahead
The Alaska Progress Report is a statewide dashboard of objectives and key performance indicators in the areas of education, the economy, the environment, health, public safety, community, and government. The APR was designed to clearly communicate the consensus of Alaskans developed in the multiyear Alaska 20/20 civic engagement effort. Ken Osterkamp served as executive director from 2002 to 2006, during which he produced the first two editions of the APR.
Alaska 20/20 was the largest civic engagement campaign in the history of Alaska, an unprecedented effort to engage Alaskans in defining a shared vision for our great state. From 1999 to 2006 thousands of Alaskans came together in hundreds of local and statewide meetings to discuss what public policy objectives we should be striving for, and how we should measure our progress.
The APR is linked below and may be reproduced without permission for personal, educational and nonprofit use only. Permission to reproduce for other purposes can be obtained by emailing us.
Downloads
- 2020 Alaska Progress Report complete (2.4MB)
- Introduction and measures 1-2 (812KB)
- Education measures 3-9 (1MB)
- Economy measures 10-19 (992KB)
- Environment measures 20-27 (939KB)
- Communities measures 28-41 (1.3MB)
- Government measures 42-49 (940KB)
Inherent in the People is a chapter by Ken Osterkamp in Alaska at 50: The Past, Present, and Next Fifty Years of Alaska Statehood. It was published in 2009 by the Alaska Humanities Forum.
Hindsight
Alaskans built a solid foundation of civic dialogue beginning with the Alaska State Constitutional Convention in 1955. The Brookings Institution visioning forum sponsored by the Legislative Council in 1969 deliberated uses for the more than $900 million from the North Slope oil lease sale. The 1997 Principles and Interests Conference asked Alaskans to consider the future of the Permanent Fund, and the 2004 Conference of Alaskans in Fairbanks used the original convention model to bring together 55 Alaskans to discuss public finance.
The Alaska Humanities Forum played a key role in bringing together Alaskans from across the state and across the political spectrum. In December 1999 the Forum resolved “to launch a process to engage their fellow citizens in a long-term, ongoing dialogue ─ to learn first what we Alaskans value now, and to help the state plan a strategy to influence and direct the future economic, social and community development of the last frontier.”
The participants named the process Alaska 20/20, a nonpartisan, facilitated dialogue involving every part of the state, giving Alaskans an opportunity to share their values and ideas ─ and to become engaged in creating a common vision for the future. The process would include a report card to measure Alaska’s progress towards realizing this common vision, setting Alaska 20/20 apart from earlier efforts and ensuring transparency and accountability.
A Chorus of Strong Voices
In the fall of 2001 a statewide Alaska Values Survey of 1,000 households was conducted to identify issues important to Alaskans. Focus group meetings in selected communities around the state followed the survey. The results were presented in November 2001 at the Conference on Alaska’s Future, where more than five hundred Alaskans met in Anchorage for two amazing days. They raised what University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton called “a chorus of strong voices,” to develop the visions and goals that would become the focus of a statewide conversation.
Young and old, urban and rural, Alaskans from across the state shared their hopes and dreams for the future of the Alaska’s education, economy, environment, communities and government. The conference report was distributed statewide to more than 180,000 newspaper readers.
Following the publication of the report more than 2,000 Alaskans weighed in with their views on the future of Alaska, filling out a survey distributed statewide and made available on the Internet. Throughout 2002 over a hundred meetings were held statewide to gather the thoughts and opinions of Alaskans.
In 2003 Alaska 20/20 and the First Alaskans Institute worked together to design A Survey of Native Perspectives on Alaska Issues. 500 Alaska Native households were surveyed by telephone and the results were incorporated into the Alaska 20/20 goals and objectives, ensuring participation by Alaskan Native people.
The Road Ahead
In 2003 five public workgroups reviewed the progress of Alaska 20/20 and presented their recommendations at a Report Card Workshop in December 2003. A group of more than sixty Alaskans representing a wide range of organizations discussed and participated in an advisory vote on what they believed were the best measures of progress.
These findings were compiled into a draft report card that was released at the February 2004 State of the State Conference. Participants discussed priorities among the various issues and strategies for making progress on them.
The first Alaska Progress Report was published in October 2004, and over the next year more than 9,000 print copies were distributed and thousands more accessed online. In 2006 the decision was made to publish a second progress report and to dissolve Alaska 20/20. The following year the
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