Deemphasizing standardized testing
For years I have ben an advocate for using standardized tests as the prime way to evaluate the quality of K-12 schools and to hold them accountable. No more! The appeal of standardized tests was that they moved us away from measuring schools base on inputs (funding per pupil, student to teacher ratios, etc.) to […]
Jobs-altering technology
One of the new economic realities, that can’t be altered by politics or public policy, is that smarter and smarter machines are going to accelerate creative destruction of jobs, occupations and even industries. The job, occupation and even the industry you work in today are less secure than yesterday, and will be even less secure […]
Employment growth by education attainment
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is a constant source of outstanding analysis on the relationship between education attainment and employment and wages. Their new report America’s Divided Recovery is worth reading. The report analyzes changes in employment by education attainment from just before the onset of the Great Recession (December 2007) […]
Michigan jobs and pay by occupations continued
In this post I want to explore how many working Michiganders are not working full time year round and/or are in lower wage occupations. The data come from the American Community Survey for 2014. In 2014 4,448,000 Michiganders worked. Of those 2,914,000 worked full time year round. So 34 percent (1,534,000) of Michiganders who worked […]
Michigan: 1969 and today
In our last post we looked at the unacceptable increase in poverty in Michigan that has occurred over the long term. From 1969 to 2014. Its a consequence of Michigan becoming structurally a low prosperity state. After have been a high prosperity state during the 20th Century. As we have explored previously the cause for […]
The changing nature of Michigan poverty
As we have written frequently, Michigan is now structurally a low prosperity state after having been a high prosperity state during the 20th Century. You can best get a sense of what that means to Michigan families when you compare economic wellbeing over a long period of time. In this post we are going to […]
Michigan jobs and pay by occupation
Seems like a lot of what I write about these days is trying to set the record straight on the value of a four year degree. To counter what increasingly passes for conventional wisdom that if you don’t have a four year degree in a STEM field you are better off pursuing a two year […]
Grand Rapids and Pittsburgh
Metro Grand Rapids’ economy was in the news twice recently. One very positive story, the other not so much. Both are accurate. The differences between the two highlight the importance of how you define economic success. The positive story comes from Bridge Magazine. It documents the strong job growth metro Grand Rapids has enjoyed. Bridge […]
21st Century education outcomes
Michigan Future is working on its first ever state policy agenda. The agenda will be designed to identify state policies that can raise living standards of all Michiganders. A big component of the agenda will be improving education attainment. Below is how we are thinking about education policy. Starting with what capacities are we trying […]
California and Kansas updated
The Washington Post in an article entitled The interesting thing that happened when Kansas cut taxes and California hiked them provides an update on the economic fortune of the two states. Its a topic we covered previously in a post entitled California growing, Kansas not so much: A year and a half later, same results. As the […]