Work requires broad skills

More evidence that work increasingly requires broad, rather than narrow occupation specific, skills. Terrific article in the Atlantic entitled The Unexpected Schools Championing the Liberal Arts: Military academies and chef schools say the humanities are essential to their graduates’ success. How can that be you ask. Aren’t the liberal arts useless skills that lead to crushing student […]

The case for building broad skills for all

The Partnership for 21st  Century Learning (P21) has developed an approach to education for all children that is designed to develop the skills that employers hire for. Those same skills are the foundation that all of us will increasingly need to adjust to constant change in labor markets. What follows in bullet form is the […]

Prosperity and college attainment II

In my last post we explored the alignment between state’s per capita income and the proportion of adults with a four year degree. Increasing four year degree attainment is a powerful lever in dealing with many of Michigan’s still substantial economic challenges. Here, in bullet form, is that case: Michigan Today Michigan is now structurally […]

Prosperity and college attainment

Data are now available for 2014 for per capita income and education attainment by state. Michigan ranks 35th in per capita income and 34th in the proportion of adults with a four year degree or more. Michigan is now structurally a low prosperity state. Every year from 2006 through 2014 the state has ranked between […]

Two books about poverty

Two highly recommended books about poverty in America: Stuck in Place by Patrick Sharkey $2.00 a Day by Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer In this post we will focus on Stuck in America. I will write about $2.00 a Day in the next. Sharkey (NYU) details how living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty across generations […]