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Thursday, August 26, 2010
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.
The winners of Phase 2 of the Race to the Top educational reform competition were announced two days ago, and I was very happy to see Georgia on the list. Along with the District of Columbia, the other winning states are Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island. In total, the Phase 2 winners were awarded $3.4 billion, which will be distributed over four years. Of that, Georgia is receiving $400...
Friday, July 30, 2010
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.
Earlier today, President Obama delivered a speech on education reform at the National Urban League Centennial Conference. After a few comments on the recovery of our economy over the past 6 months, health care reform, Wall Street reform, and even the Shirley Sherrod debacle, President Obama devoted the bulk of his message to the importance of quality education. One of his quotes is something that we preach around here at Market...
Thursday, July 08, 2010
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate. When I was in junior high and high school, my mom sent me to various summer camps at Pineywoods Country Life School, Jackson State University, and Alcorn State University. Each of the programs I attended was focused on academic enrichment in STEM subjects: math, chemistry, computer programming, and the like. It was through these programs that I was exposed to how I could use the math I loved so much in practical ways. By the time I got to college, I already...
Thursday, June 17, 2010
By Ellen Anderson, Director of Research.
University of Phoenix. Argosy. DeVry. Kaplan. You see their commercials on television and likely see their buildings alongside interstates. These universities and others like them represent the growing market of for-profit colleges. Earlier this year The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on the sector’s remarkable growth:
Enrollment in the country's nearly 3,000 career colleges has grown far faster than in the rest of higher...
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
By Will Corbin, Project Associate.
I recently read a very interesting article (see footnote 1) regarding the association between numeracy (the ability to reason with numbers and mathematical concepts) and people who fell behind on their mortgage payments during the recent housing meltdown in the United States. According to a working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (see footnote 2) , even when accounting for differences in income levels, credit scores, and attitudes towards...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.
In October, I wrote a post
highlighting dropout factories and how prevalent they have become. The issue of high school
dropouts is one near and dear to my heart since I tutor students in math and
see firsthand how life circumstances, lack of guidance and vision, and poor
self-confidence in their own abilities and talents can have a major impact on
students and their academic success. The Alliance for Excellent...
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
William Teasley, Project Manager.
Although the news media has focused on the challenges of politics, both locally and nationally, some very good things are coming out of Washington, D.C. these days that will have a dramatic impact on community and economic development. And oddly enough, it seems the reason these things are not making the news is that there is broad and even some bi-partisan consensus that these are very good actions for the nation and the economy.
First, the...
Monday, February 01, 2010
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.
My alma mater, Tougaloo College, which is a private college located right outside of Jackson, Mississippi, offers an early admission program for high school juniors who meet certain criteria, like GPA and ACT scores. A participant in that program, I bypassed my senior year of high school to start college with a full scholarship. In my 15-year-old thoughts, I could not rationalize staying in high school for an extra year when I was planning to go to...
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
By William Teasley, Project Manager.
High quality public education is one of the greatest assets in economic development. The ability to generate a high quality workforce is paramount to the success of existing a future businesses in any community. It is often one of the top three questions asked by business looking to relocate in a community and telling the prospect that you have really good private schools does not address their questions.
In numerous districts across the...
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
By Matt Tarleton, Project Associate.
I recently wrote a piece about the migration patterns of the
college educated ,
identifying some of the metropolitan areas that have been successful in
attracting new residents with average educational attainment levels that exceed
the educational attainment levels of their existing resident population.
A new paper by Chad Moutray, Chief Economist and Director of Economic Research at
the Office of Advocacy of the...
Friday, December 18, 2009
By Matt Tarleton, Project Associate.
“ Change is debilitating when done to us, but exhilarating when done by us .” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter
This quote is one of Mac Holladay’s favorites, and it has quickly become one of mine as well. When looking back on 2009, many of us entered this year hopeful amidst tremendous economic uncertainty. We had elected a new president that inundated us with his messages of hope and change. But when I look back at what have likely been the two...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
By Christa Tinsley, Project Associate.
During the community input phase of each project we work on, a
comment we usually hear repeated in almost every community is regarding the
lack of adequate or quality child care options for working families. In the
past, child care has been seen as a welfare or social services issue, rather
than a critical component of successful economic development; therefore,
business recruitment, retention, and expansion efforts did not...
Monday, November 16, 2009
By Matt Tarleton, Project Associate. One the most common things we hear from communities across the country is a desire to be a magnet for the college-educated. High-tech centers such as the San Diego, San Francisco, and Boston metropolitan areas have had little trouble attracting new college graduates in the pursuit of lucrative careers. The same is true for our nation’s capital, a destination for many college graduates seeking federal government and government-related employment....
Friday, October 30, 2009
By Ranada Robinson.
Have you ever heard of dropout factories? Well, according to a report published last month by the Alliance for Excellent Education, there’s probably one near you, especially if you live in the South. More than half of the high school dropouts in America (which is 1 in every 3 students) come from 12 percent of all the high schools in the nation. In these high schools, called “dropout factories,” 60 percent or fewer freshmen make it to their senior year in...
Friday, October 23, 2009
By William Teasley, Project Manager.
As state and local education budgets have been slashed do to the current economic crisis, there are several ‘green shoots’ in education reform that continue to reassure us that the next generation will have the skills necessary to meet tomorrow’s challenges. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 assisted many districts in avoiding layoffs, maintaining operations and in some cases investing in technology and...
Thursday, October 01, 2009
By William Teasley, Project Manager.
In many of our projects around the country, our clients are interested in seeing best practices from other communities. Our experience and years in this business in a variety of communities has provided us with a wealth of examples to draw from, though there is often a challenge of finding programs and efforts that are "relatable." What works in one place may seem far-fetched for another, particularly if there are significant differences in regional...
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.
Last week, I traveled to Raleigh, NC, to attend the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) convention, for which Market Street was a sponsor. Thursday morning, our keynote speaker was Dr. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. A true inspiration, this presentation left me misty-eyed as students from A.B. Combs Elementary in Raleigh explained to a room full of adults how these seven habits have been infused into...
Friday, July 24, 2009
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.
When I was in the 7th grade, I participated in the Talent Identification Program at Duke University. You see, at the time, I was in the gifted program, and my junior high school made sure that gifted students were on track for college. I took the ACT as an 11-year-old, six years before the average student takes a crack at the sometimes daunting test. Later, as a college student tutoring my peers and students in the local public schools, I started...
Thursday, July 16, 2009
By Christa Tinsley, Project Associate.
On Monday, the White House published the report “Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow” ( PDF ) by President’s Council of Economic Advisors. There aren’t a lot of surprises here for people who have been following the changes in American jobs – manufacturing will continue to decline; health care will keep growing; jobs that require more education are growing faster than those that don’t; etc.
But while communities are...
Monday, May 18, 2009
By Matt Tarleton, Project Associate.
Over the last fifteen years my mother has taught academically gifted students in a few different elementary schools in and around Raleigh, North Carolina. She is an outstanding educator in many regards, and her talents and experience will be missed when she retires in a few years.
Unfortunately, my mother is one of a few million educators in the United States that are currently approaching retirement. In April, The National Commission on Teaching...
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.
Throughout my life, I’ve heard the mantra, “Education is the key to success.” Well, it’s true. Education, on micro and macro levels, make our communities stronger by preparing children for the future as well as by creating talent pipelines for area businesses, which adds to the competitiveness of domestic industries. Recently, a report by McKinsey & Company called The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools argues that...
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Economic development has changed significantly over the past two decades. The days of smokestack chasing have given way to people chasing. Communities large and small are positioning themselves to attract and grow a talented workforce with skills that are in demand by today's companies. Quality public education is increasingly important in the location decisions of companies because of the type of workers it hopes to attract and find. Today's public education systems must teach students the...