Treating dropouts as an economic development issue Sunday, August 21, 2005 Here is an interesting commentary from Louisiana that makes a connection between high school drop-out rates and economic development. It's more evidence, in my mind, that the attention in economic development is shifting toward developing brainpower. Read more. Since the late 1990's I've mapped education/workforce systems in a wide variety of places: Oklahoma City; the three county region of Charleston, SC; Youngstown and Cleveland Ohio; upstate New York around Corning; the states of Indiana, Maine and New Hampshire; the twenty-three parishes of northern Louisiana, to name some. The story is the same: We are producing too few students with post secondary ambitions and too many drop-outs. If you would like to learn more about this issue, visit the web site of the National Dropuout Prevention Center at Clemson University. I'm passionate about the topic, and I have a presentation ready for anyone interested to hear it. If you're interested, e-mail me. In Virginia, centers taht offer a GED are gearing up to make a marketing push. Over 800,000 adults in Virginia do not have a hgih school diploma. While it is true that a high school diploma no longer guarantees a ticket to the middle class, a GED is the place to start. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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