Lowering high school drop out rates Thursday, May 17, 2007 In a smart move, the Chamber of Commerce in Indianapolis is focused on lowering the high school drop out rate. "The initiative comprises a number of strategies, but key pieces include identifying 2,000 mentors for high school students and more than $1 million in funding." Read more (In addressing this issue, Indianapolis will need to come to grips with tough issues like faulty drop-out data. With a new web-based tool, you can now map the graduation rates for every district in the country: Learn more.) On Monday, the Secretary of Education challenged inner city schools for focus on this issue: Dropout epidemic haunts inner-city schools. For more background on high school graduation rates -- a critical economic development metric for regions -- see the Alliance for Excellent Education: Understanding High School Graduation Rates. Also, see the Gates Foundation's recently released report, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts 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.

The Web EDPro Weblog