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Here's a good idea. Bring together all the people in your region who are teaching entrepreneurship. Share the best ideas and provide some recognition to leading edge thinkers and doers.

That's what happened at Colorado Mountain College recently:  a  “Best Practices for Teaching Entrepreneurship” Conference. Learn more.

Educational attainment is the single most important driver of regional economic development. So, it's no surprise that leading communities are starting to explore how to boost educational opportunities, as an economic development strategy.

As this strategy evolves, the separation between economic development and workforce development will dissolve.

Last week, two important events took place. Both involve new types of scholarship programs.

PromiseNet 2008

Since its launch a couple of years ago, the Kalamazoo Promise has focused civic leaders on new approaches to create incentives for education. The initiative provides college scholarships to children in the Kalamazoo City Schools. Watch a video briefing of the Kalamazoo Promise.

Educational incentives -- directed toward people -- have a direct impact on economic outcomes (higher incomes over a lifetime).Economic incentives directed toward companies generally do not work and are largely a waste of money.

PromiseNet 2008 brought together representatives from 75 communities across the country to explore college scholarships for city school children. The event marks the beginning of a national movement toward community scholarships.

Read more: Kalamazoo PromiseNet conference to share programs' expertise.

Early child education scholarships

In another event last week, I attended a conference at the Federal Reserve in Minneapolis for the Big Ten schools and the University of Chicago. We focused on the importance of education (human capital, as the economists would have it) to economic outcomes in the Great Lakes. Our major research universities are exploring new avenues of collaboration.

At lunch yesterday, Art Rolnick, an economist with the FRB in Minneapolis, briefed us on a new scholarship pilot that focuses on early child care. The scholarship program is remarkably simple: it awards parents of young children with a scholarship for early education. This focus on early education as an economic development strategy has a strong foundation of evidence to support it. Read more.

The prestigious Committee for Economic Development in Washington DC strongly supports this strategy. The focus on early childhood development is closely connected to new learning in brain development. Here's an excellent overview by Joan Stiles, a cognitive scientist at UCSD.

EDPros are often frustrated about what to do with K-12 school systems that do not work very well.

The solution, of course, is to innovate.

One important innovation in high schools is career academies. Ft. Wayne is one city that has committed itself to this strategy, and it will pay off in the long run, as employers continue to look for talent. 

In Washington yesterday, the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation released an important study on the impact of career academies. The report represents the first rigorous evaluation of career academies.

After evaluating graduates from nine career academies, the authors found that eight years after graduation, the career academy graduates had significantly higher employment and earnings.

The report also dispels one of the more dangerous myths we share today: that career and technical education in high school limits post secondary options.

To quote from the summary (in language that is a bit stilted, but you'll get the idea):

The findings demonstrate the feasibility of improving labor market preparation and successful school-to-work transitions without compromising academic goals and preparation for college. Investments in career-related experiences during high school can produce substantial and sustained improvements in the labor market prospects and transitions to adulthood of youth. In fact, Career Academies are one of the few youth-focused interventions that have been found to improve the labor market prospects of young men.

There are about 2,500 career academies across the U.S.

You can can read more about the report here.

Here's a suggestion: Send the article and report to school superintendents and other civic leaders in your region. Suggest that they connect with the Career Academy Support Network at UC Berkeley to learn more.

The Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America (ASTRA) has released a new series of state level reports on STEM education (science, technology , engineering and math).

In a companion series, ASTRA also issued scorecards on state research and development.

You can download a copy of both reports for your state from this page. While the graphics are a little goofy, the data provides useful state-level snapshots.

Last night, C-Span had an excellent program with Robert , producer of 2 Million Minutes, a documentary about high schools in the U.S., China and India. The program gives you the "back story" for this important program. 2 Million Minutes refers to the amount of time that a high school student spends in high school.

The program documents the different level of expectations for young people in the U.S. China, and India. 

You can watch the C-Span program here.  

You can order the video 2 Million Minutes here. 

In the years ahead, economic competitiveness will depend on the pool of talent within a region.  The deeper the pool, the brighter the prospects.  Educational attainment, promoting the idea that education must continue past high school, will represent one of the key metrics defining the competitiveness of a community or region.

Rural communities are often in a difficult position trying to offer advanced courses to their high school students.  For a number of years, experiments that under way to offer these advanced courses through distance learning.  Here's an example from Utah.  Read more.

Every community and region should start focusing on the foundations in their economy for talent development. Worker shortages will be spreading across the country in the years ahead, as Baby Boomers retire. Companies will locate in regions where leaders understand the importance of 21st Century Skills  and can design career pathways from schools to business firms quickly.