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Today, a national dropout prevention summit takes place in Washington. The Department of Education is moving toward a standard reporting of dropout rates across the country.

More and more leaders are waking up to the opportunity to reduce dramatically the number of high school dropouts. There's probably no single more effective step we can take to boost long-term per capita incomes, as we move into an era of skill shortages. (Each drop out represents a lifetime earnings loss of about $300,000.)

Here's a new report from America's Promise Alliance. Download the report.

Clearly, old solutions to drop-outs (including pretending that the problem was not all that big) no longer work.

Can we innovate?

The Alliance for Excellent Education has released updated State Cards which provide a summary of vital information regarding the performance of high schools in each state.

To give you some sense of what information is available from these reports, here are some highlights from Ohio's report:

• Approximately 40,700 students did not graduate from Ohio’s high schools in 2007; the lost lifetime earnings in Ohio for that class of dropouts alone are more than $10.6 billion.
• Ohio would save more than $502.1 million in health care costs over the lifetimes of each class of dropouts had they earned their diplomas.
• If Ohio’s high schools graduated all students ready for college, the state would save almost $132.1 million a year in community college remediation costs and lost earnings.
• Ohio’s economy would see a combination of crime-related savings and additional revenue of about $233 million each year if the male high school graduation rate increased by just 5%.

You can download your state report by starting from this page.

You can gather more information drop-out rates on your schools from this page. You can drill down on drop-out rates into individual schools. 

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.

Below is a link to an intersting article published in yesterday's Wall Street Journal describing how some companies are working to combat a feared future labor shortage.

High Schools Add Classes Scripted by Corporations

In North Central Indiana, we're particularly excited about one of our upcoming WIRED-supported programs. We're teaching high school students advanced manufacturing skills within the context of designing and making their own electric guitar. How cool is that? Here are some more details about the project:

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — High school students interested in discovering how to build their own guitar will have the opportunity to learn the science and art behind the craft at two summer workshops offered at Purdue University.

Mark French, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology and organizer of the workshops, said that both workshops will be modeled after the Purdue Guitar Workshop, which will be held for the second year in July.

“We want to reach out to high school students to get them interested in technology and specifically about modern advanced manufacturing processes,” he said. “There was a lot of interest last year from high school students, so we decided to create opportunities for them that contain more of an educational bent but still will be a lot of fun.”

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers High School Workshop will be offered July 29-Aug. 1. It is open to all high school students in 10th and 11th grades. The class will meet daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Knoy Hall of Technology, Room 106, and Michael Golden Labs, rooms 1208 and B217. The cost to attend is $100.

The WIRED High School Workshop will be held Aug. 12-15. It is open to 10th- and 11th-graders from Region 4 in Indiana. Students will stay in on-campus residence halls for the week. The cost to attend is $35.

The workshop is being funded in part by a $35,000 grant from the national WIRED initiative, which was part of a larger grant the university received last year.

Indiana WIRED (Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development) is part of a federal development initiative designed to help state and local communities compete in the global economy. Region 4 includes the counties of Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Fulton, Howard, Miami, Montgomery, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Wabash, Warren and White.

In both workshops, the students will make an acoustic-electric guitar. Attendees will receive a complete kit of materials, including a guitar body and neck with most of the machining already completed. Participants will then be able to tailor the final shape of the body and neck, as well as add other custom touches, such as paint.

The courses will be conducted by Purdue faculty and staff, including French, who has visited Taylor Guitars’ headquarters in El Cajon, Calif., doing structural dynamics testing on about 60 acoustic guitars in Taylor’s factory. French also teaches a class during the academic year on instrument manufacturing and testing in which students build and test an acoustic guitar.

Brad Harriger, a professor of manufacturing engineering technology, will offer insights on advanced manufacturing processes. Richard Couch, director of engagement at Purdue’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing, will offer insights on large-scale manufacturing.

French said he is especially interested in reaching out to women and minorities, groups that he said are traditionally not attracted to careers in advanced manufacturing.

“There is a national shortage of qualified workers in the industry, so getting kids interested early is important,” he said. “There is a huge demand for our students. We want to dispel the myth that using power tools and large machinery is just for boys. Creating a learning environment where everyone isn’t the same is an important step in changing attitudes.”

Each workshop is limited to 15 participants. Those interested in signing up can contact French at (765) 494-7521 or rmfrench@purdue.edu.

The legislature in Washington State is moving ahead with legislation to fund "skills centers" around the state. These centers are integrated into the K-12 system. 

Read more.

You can learn more about the skills centers strategy in Washington State from this web site.