In the July 10, 2006 Issue:

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 Draft Report from Commission on the Future of Higher Education Accuses U.S. Higher Education of Mediocrity
Preliminary findings from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education fault U.S. colleges and universities with wasteful spending and a reluctance to create innovative approaches to 21st century education. A recent document released by the commission calls for major changes in financial aid, higher education funding, K-12 outreach, and educational assessment.

When Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings launched the commission in September 2005, it was charged with developing a comprehensive strategy for postsecondary education that would make the most of national investment in higher ed. A series of shorter reports released earlier this year by Commission Chair Charles Miller made it clear that the commission's recommendations would require a major overhaul of financial aid programs and higher ed spending. The latest release is an early draft of the commission's final report, a version which still lacks conclusions but has already drawn public opposition from higher ed groups and several commission members.

The report finds "equal parts meritocracy and mediocrity" in a national educational system that has become "increasingly risk-averse, frequently self-satisfied, and unduly expensive." Between 1993 and 2003, average tuition and fees at public and private four-year colleges and universities rose 38 percent after adjusting for inflation. The commission associates this rise with the failure of postsecondary institutions to find innovative ways to increase institutional efficiency. Spending on "costly laboratories" and "lavish student dorms" has placed an undue financial burden on the public, as well as individual consumers. The report calls for sweeping changes to U.S. higher education that would create a more transparent and competitive national system.

The current draft denounces what it calls the lack of accountability in higher education. "Beyond lofty vision statements, parents and students have no solid evidence, comparable across institutions, of how much students learn in colleges or whether they learn more at one school than another." Measures of institutional effectiveness would assist policymakers in funding decisions and consumers in assessing the "value-added" from their educational investment. These efforts could also address the growing problem of undergraduate non-completion. Though the proportion of high school graduates who go on to college rose from 52 percent in 1970 to 67 percent in 2004, college completion rates have not kept pace. Transparent data about student outcomes could track student success both before and after graduation.

Several higher education groups have objected to the tone and substance of the report. David Ward, president of the American Council on Education (ACE) and a member of the commission, expressed doubt that the group could create a document that accurately and fairly summarized the state of higher education and its challenges in light of the existing draft.

"I believe it [the draft] is seriously flawed and needs significant revision. I am particularly unhappy with the tone and the hostile, almost confrontational way it approaches higher education. Some of the recommendations are also deeply troubling," Ward wrote on the ACE website.

The American Association of Colleges and Universities has issued a similar statement, charging the commission with "ignoring the many ways that colleges and universities across the country are implementing new solutions to these problems. ... We regret that the commission staff has entirely overlooked this emerging body of twenty-first century practice."

Chairman Miller has reiterated that he expects significant edits to the current version of the report. "This is a work in progress, and the lively debate we anticipate will result in a strong report to the Secretary and the nation," Miller wrote in an email accompanying the current draft.

Key recommendations from the report include:

The current draft of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education's report can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html.

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Maine Issues Guide for the Creative Economy
Maine Gov. Mark Baldacci has unveiled a new handbook intended to help communities to capitalize upon their cultural resources to spur economic growth. Maine's Creative Economy Community Handbook: Maine State Government Resources for Communities offers advice for community leaders interested in building a creative and dynamic workforce. The guidelines it gives for designing a strategic plan could benefit communities across the country interested in similar initiatives.

The handbook is the result of two years of work by Maines Creative Economy Steering Committee following a 2004 conference on the future of the state economy. The study was requested after it was reported that the creative economy was generating $6.6 billion annually in cultural tourism dollars. The committee has drawn upon the work of Richard Florida, who has theorized that networks of educated and entrepreneurial citizens lead to dynamic local economies.

The state's Creative Economy Council estimates that 8.3 percent of Maine's workforce is made up of creative workers. These workers include artists, artisans, engineers, entrepreneurs and researchers. In Maine, this group has an average income 33 percent higher than the rest of the workforce. Florida and other theorists have described this creative class of workers as a decisive factor in determining regional success.

The University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Policy has developed the handbook's most useful tool for communities in other states, a section entitled "Ten Building Blocks of the Creative Economy" that gives economic development groups a starting point to assess and cultivate their creative resources. These building blocks represent vital qualities of a growing creative economy. Each is accompanied by a series of questions, which can illuminate a regions creative strengths.

The Muskie School has assembled these blocks into a model of creativity-led sustainable growth. Two qualities, time and money, are "enhancers," elements that build on a community's pre-existing strengths. With time and money, regions can become more attractive to highly-skilled and creative workers by building upon pre-existing "assets." Creative people, centers of education, cultural/natural amenities, business engagement, and infrastructure are the foundations of the creative economy. They are linked by "connectors," such as leadership, networks and strategies, which determine the availability of enhancers and lead to the effective use of assets. Together, these building blocks can be used to design strategic assessments and plans based on attracting a creative workforce.

To read Maine's Creative Economy Community Handbook: Maine State Government Resources for Communities, visit: http://www.econdevmaine.com/resources/default.asp

Links to this report and more than 4,000 additional TBED-related research reports, strategic plans and other papers can be found at the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center, jointly developed by the Technology Administration and SSTI, at: http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org/.

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Ohio State Commits $100M for Global R&D Impact
As the authors of the recent Swedish report, The Internationalization of Corporate R&D, pointed out, industrial R&D may increasingly be found concentrated around public and private research institutions with strong research capabilities related to the specific corporation's interests. As companies become increasing global in their structure, so, too, will the location of the research expertise that they draw on. State investments to strengthen university R&D capacity and expertise, then, could be a logical approach for regions to remain or become significant players for the knowledge economy. Fortunately, that's a fundamental approach for many state TBED strategies.

With its Third Frontier Project, Ohio provides just one example. But Ohio State University (OSU), the state's largest research institution, is taking the matter into its own hands, as well. On July 7, the university announced plans to invest $100 million over five years to support 10 research projects deemed "high-impact." While most major research universities use internal dollars to fund faculty research, OSU believes the size of its investments will help make a difference in the scope of the research undertaken and benefits accrued.

Competing in a globalized R&D environment is one of the explicit reasons university officials gave for making the awards though a competitive program called Targeted Investment in Excellence, or TIE, program.

"The programs chosen are ones that will provide the greatest return on our investment, elevating not only the university's academic stature but, ultimately, the quality of human life," OSU Executive Vice President and Provost Barbara Snyder said. "These are well thought-out and, in many cases, interdisciplinary programs that will allow Ohio State to gain world-wide visibility as a top research university."

Many of the projects are interdisciplinary in design, reflecting yet another trend in how R&D has changed over the past decade. Recipients include:

The university will reallocate approximately $50 million in central funds over the next five years toward the competitively chosen projects; these funds will be matched on a one-to-one basis by the participating colleges. The 10 TIE projects were selected from 46 proposals submitted from across the campus.

More information is available at: http://www.osu.edu/news/newsitem1380

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Useful Stats
Public High School Graduation Rates by State, 2002-03 School Year
Proponents for a higher skilled workforce may be concerned with troubling new statistics regarding high school graduation rates. A new report from the EPE (Editorial Projects in Education) Research Center and Education Week shows that more than 30 percent of the nations ninth-graders fail to go on to graduate from public high schools. The report, Diplomas Count: An Essential Guide to Graduation Policy and Rates, details data on 2002-03 public high school graduation rates for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the 50 largest school districts in the nation.

The graduation rates were calculated by using the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI), which estimates the probability that a student in the ninth grade will complete high school on time with a regular diploma. The CPI rate depicts a four-step process a student must take in order to graduate: The first three steps include the completion of one grade to the next (i.e. 9-10, 10-11, 11-12) and the final step is the completion of grade 12 to graduation.

According to the data, New Jersey ranked highest in the nation with an 84.5 percent high school graduation rate. Four other states (Iowa, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin) experienced a graduation rate of more than 80 percent.

The national rate for public high graduation for the 2002-03 school year was 69.6 percent. Nineteen states experienced a graduation rate less than the national average, with South Carolina ranking last at 52.5 percent. Nevada (55.9), Georgia (56.3), New Mexico (56.7), and Florida (57.5) round off the final five.

SSTI has prepared a table showing summary stats for all 50 states at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/071006t.htm

Diplomas Count: An Essential Guide to Graduation Policy and Rates: http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/06/22/index.html

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SSTI Job Corner
Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

The University of Texas Health Science Center (HSC) at San Antonio is seeking someone to serve assistant vice president for technology transfer. This position reports to the vice president for research and is responsible for oversight, supervision, management, and coordination of activities within the Office of the Vice President for Research related to technology transfer and economic development activities of the HSC. This includes supervision of the Office of Technology Ventures, value creation activities, such as marketing, licensing, new company start-ups, financial valuation, business alliances, internal and external investment in technology development and dealing with highly specialized contract issues regarding sponsored research, collaboration, Bayh-Dole compliance, patent prosecution, materials transfer, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and internal controls.

The Oregon Economic and Community Development Department (OECDD) is recruiting to fill the position of innovation and economic strategies policy analyst within the department's Innovation & Economic Strategies Division. This position provides policy and research support to assist the Oregon Innovation Council, a governor-appointed policy group created in 2005. In addition to supporting the work of the council, this person will conduct best practices research and collaborate with other agency staff and external partners to develop policies, incentives and programs to promote Oregon's innovation economy. Qualified candidates will have expertise and extensive knowledge of economic development, emerging knowledge-based industries and project management. A bachelor's degree in business or public administration, behavioral or social sciences, finance, or political science - or any degree demonstrating the capacity for the knowledge and skills - and five years of professional-level evaluative, analytical and planning work, is required.

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People

Ernest Andrade, director of the Charleston Digital Corridor, announced he is stepping down as a city council member, effective Aug. 30.

Thomas Bowles was named science advisor to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, succeeding a number of fellow Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists serving the governor.

Lori Clark is the new coordinator of agency relations and research park initiatives at Northern Illinois University.

Joey Dean was named vice president of economic development for the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and as executive director of the Metro Little Rock Alliance. Dean succeeds Jay Chesshir, the chamber's newly named president and CEO, in both positions.

President Bush has nominated Charles McQueary to be director of operational test and evaluation at the Department of Defense. The president also has nominated Nathaniel Wienecke to be assistant secretary of commerce for legislative and intergovernmental affairs.

The Clovis, Calif.-based Central Valley Business Incubator selected Craig Scharton as its new chief executive, replacing outgoing chief executive Glenn Patch.

Donald Siegel has accepted a position as professor of entrepreneurship and associate dean with the University of California at Riverside's A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management.

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