Charter School Movement

We had a fantastic discussion yesterday at our Economic Impact Forum on Charter Schools. More than 40 business and community leaders joined us for an opportunity to chat with three of the charter school leaders in our region:

Greg Abel - Langston Charter Middle School
Fred Crawford - Greenville Tech Charter High School
Mike Sinclair - Brashier Middle College.

The level of energy, passion and knowledge that each of these leaders brings to their jobs was evident at the meeting.

A few summary points about the discussion:

1. Charter schools are public schools and their student population reflects the demographics of the general community. They have as many children in poverty, with special needs, etc. as does a "regular" public school. They are not "skimming" the best students from the system.

2. Charter schools can act as the R&D arm of the public school system, demonstrating what works (and, in some cases, what doesn't) so that those practices can be integrated into the larger systems. This is what Clayton Christensen's book Disrupting Class is all about.

3. Charter schools are similar to small, entrepreneurial firms in that they are very customer-focused and have to be very agile to activate and respond quickly to issues that arise with the students they serve. There is a lot of promise in their small size.

4. The results from these particular charter schools are extremely promising, with almost all students moving on to higher education. They operate under that assumption that there is a major difference between being college-eligible and being truly college-ready.

5. For students that complete at least 20 transferable credit hours of college coursework, there is a 90% chance of their graduating from college. Thus, a good deal of energy is spent ensuring that students are availing themselves of the college courses at Greenville Tech.

6. How can businesses get engaged? One area is in spreading the word about charter schools to your peers. Currently, many of the applications being submitted for entrance to charter schools comes from word of mouth. Help spread the word. Other ways of getting involved include serving as an evaluator on senior projects for Greenville Tech Charter High School, offering to speak in classrooms or even to serve on boards.

For you can find additional information on these Charter schools at:

Langston Charter Middle School
Brashier Middle College
Greenville Tech Charter High School

A great resource for learning about what charters are all about can be found at Palmetto Charter Network.

Advantage Greenville Program Survey

Thanks to Adam Landrum of Merge and other members on the Advantage Greenville Program Sub-Committee. They are currently conducting an internet survey about what our members want to hear about in 2010. They are also calling members of AG.

Full results of the survey are not yet available, but, for what it's worth, here is the tag cloud generated from the question - I consider my membership in AG valuable when..

able build business community connect continue development economic economy effort environment events exclusive feel general goal going greenville grow growth helps ideas impact important increased information interesting issues keeps leaders learn local meet members membership network opportunity participate people programs provides relationships specific toward trends truly understand upstate utilize value

created at TagCrowd.com

I think the terms listed show some of the inherent value found in our group and it's an interesting way to visualize survey results, too! More details to follow.

Senator Graham addresses Advantage Greenville

We had about 130 business and community leaders in attendance today as we heard from US Senator Lindsey Graham. He laid out his vision on Afghanistan, health care, energy policy and more. Thanks to our presenting sponsor - Brown Mackey College.

Our next luncheon will be held on December 3rd. Stay tuned for details!

Advantage Greenville Events

The fall is a busy time for AG. Here are a few of the things coming up for our members:

October 15th - 12th Annual Oyster Roast at CU-ICAR
October 19th - Luncheon with US Senator Lindsey Graham
November 11th - Charter Schools Economic Impact Forum
December 3rd - Health Sciences South Carolina luncheon.

Thanks to Brown Mackey College for sponsoring our luncheon on the 19th.

Behind the scenes, we are working on a community talent attraction, retention and development strategy for 2010 and beyond. We have also created several sub-committees for volunteer engagement: Economic Scorecard, Marketing and Membership and Programming.

Look for some good things ahead for AG! We hope you will join us.

AG at NEXT Innovation Center

About 40 Advantage Greenville members met yesterday for lunch at the NEXT Innovation Center to learn more about NEXT and how the new facility fits into the economic development strategy of the community. For a great overview of the NEXT facility, check out this video on www.GreenvilleHD.com.

A major point made at the event - While the community needs to continue to recruit industry (e.g., branch plants) to the area, we also need to build our own companies that are headquartered in Greenville. With the latter, you keep more of the wealth in the community and the impact on quality of life is several factors higher than with branch plants. This is NOT to downplay the importance of branch plants to the region. We just need to grow more ScanSources, Datastreams and Hollingsworth-type companies.

With that said, the Innovation Center is already drawing attention on a regional and national level which will help us recruit more high-impact entrepreneurs to the region.

NEXT continues to build the regional entrepreneur eco-system. We hope Advantage Greenville members take some time to learn more about the programs offered as well as about the new facility. Take that information and help spread the word in the region as well as beyond when you are traveling. You never know where it might lead..

Missing Advantage Greenville?? - Part I

If you didn't participate in Advantage Greenville event in July, you missed two great events. First, Mark Bounds, Deputy Superintendent of Education for the State spoke about Jim Rex's five points for education:

• Dramatically Accelerating Innovation
• Improving Choice
• Increasing Accountability (while lessening test burdens)
• Elevating the Profession of Teaching
• Ensuring Fair & Equitable Funding.
  

Bounds shared at least three or four initiatives under each of these areas that are helping to move the needle on education in South Carolina.

He recommended a book that is seems to be undergirding a lot of thought and activity in Columbia - Disrupting Education by Clayton Christensen. Many of us in the economic development community know Christensen's seminal work - The Innovator's Dilemma. Christensen has taken the same lens of theoretical research to the education sphere. I highly recommend the book. It has changed my opinions on many things about education, especially about how valuable charter schools can be to enhancing innovation in the system. More on that and other Advantage Greenville happenings later..

Are you ready to Grow in Greenville? Attend the Greenville Grow Expo. http://www.greenvillechamber.org/growevite.htm