1. Describe the innovation. Shreveport is one of a handful of urban areas in the United States with a functioning consortium which coordinates efforts by all the public education entities. This coordinating council, the Shreveport Urban Services Consortium, shares information about educational programs which its members conduct for the purpose of raising the skill level of the area workforce. The Consortium collaborates with the Chamber of Commerce and the City of Shreveport, the Shreveport Times, the State Department of Vocational Education, Tech Prep, community literacy programs, and social service agencies. The Consortium solicits funding from foundations, state and federal agencies, and from local businesses and organizations and conducts demonstration projects to develop more effective methods of educating the local workforce.

2. What problem(s) does your innovation address, and how? The Consortium was formed to address the specific need to raise the skills of the workforce in Shreveport in order to guarantee the region's economic future. The lack of skills in the workforce has been repeatedly cited as an impediment to economic development. The root of the problem lies in the extensive poverty within the metropolitan area and a general lack of priority on education within the state, witnessed by Louisiana's rank of 50th among the states in average public school teacher salary. The Consortium has developed support for the regional effort to develop school-to-work alternatives for high school students, has extended a JTPA effort into the middle schools by developing a after-school remediation and self-image-enhancement program for at-risk 6th graders, has developed a mobile literacy program for local companies, and has established a small business internship program at the university and the community college. In addition, the Consortium has collaborated with the university and the Shreveport Times to sponsor an annual economic development conference which highlights the role which education institutions play in local economic development. The effect of these efforts and demonstration programs has been to open a new understanding on the part of the educational institutions of their role in economic development, and to establish the educational community as partners and resources for the city's and local business efforts to attract new business.

3. In what ways does your approach represent a creative departure from previous practice? The Consortium is innovative simply because it brings together managers of the local educational institution monthly and thus coordinates and informs their planning. The projects which it conducts have innovative aspects which serve to make more efficient use of scarce resources and expertise. A group of university faculty and students have been organized to develop multimedia software training materials which is used on the mobile literacy lab and shared with the other consortium members and local industry. The literacy program, which is operated through the Regional Technical Institute, uses a motor home outfitted with 15 computers running customized and commercial literacy and job skills software to take training opportunities on-site to factories and social service agencies. The middle school project in one of the city's poorest schools, has captured the imagination of the students and opened a new world of possibilities for them. They have visited the universities to attend cultural events, visited local museums, and devoted time envisioning their future. These are the most likely students to drop out of school in an neighborhood where only 20% of the high school students graduate, and our goal is to improve this rate with early intervention and continued support (a 8th grade after school program at this school was added in our second year). The internship effort seeks to acquaint colleges students at both the university and the community college with the opportunities and circumstances of local employment in a predominantly small-business economy. Employers benefit through the involvement of good students in their business, and the students are both paid for their time and earn college credit. This year an effort has been initiated to include adult students at the alternative high school in the internship program as part of their program to obtain some significant job experience as part of their diploma program (Project Independence is financed by the state and has received several commendations for its effectiveness).

a. The monthly collaboration of institutional managers has led to a sharing of resources. The Consortium director has assisted two local high schools to submit several grants to the U.S. Department of Education. Although after four attempts none have yet been funded, the effort has paid off in helping the high school principals and faculty clarify their goals and realize that some of the things that they have sought support to do can be done one their own. The grant documents are being recycled to other agencies. Collaboration between the community college and the university has improved. Collaboration between the Caddo Career High School and the Regional Technical Institute has improved.

b. Fifteen at-risk 6th graders participated in the "I have a Dream" program in its first year, with 18 participating in the second year and 20 attending the new 8th grade group. School administrators report that these students have a revived interest in academics and have made discernable progress toward returning to grade level.

c. Over 30 college students are participating in a new University 200 Internship and Community Service course which has been established at the university and the community college. In the first two years over 40 employers have participated, several have repeated each semester, and others have hired interns. The number of paid interns at the university has doubled through this program. The community college had no internship program, and it is now placing an average of 5 a semester.

d. The mobile lab serves area business and social service agencies with its clients changing according to demand. A client counsel advises the RTI and evaluates its services. In its first year of operation the lab delivered services on-site at seven local industries, seven public or non-profit agencies, and two charitable agencies. 73% of its clients were employed, 80% were African-American, 53% had less than an 11th grade education, and 93% were over 31 years of age. In the second year four industries, five public/non-profit agencies and eight charitable agencies were served (church and neighborhood literacy programs). The lab conducts an average of 70 sessions a month with an average of 5 students attending each session. The best participation this year has occurred at a pharmaceutical company, a drug rehabilitation center and at the Rescue Mission. In one quarter of participation, 19 students advanced one tier in Math, 18 advanced one tier in Reading and one student advanced two tiers in reading (an average of just under 200 students are served per quarter).

e. Last Spring the consortium sponsored three afternoon workshops following the annual Economic Outlook Conference which it co-sponsored with the university and the Shreveport Times. The conference attracted 85 paid participants to discuss the role of education in economic development. The workshops allowed over 40 attendees to continue their interaction with the featured speakers on the topics of School-to-Work, Higher Education and Workforce Development, or Improving the Workforce in the Workplace. Fourteen high school teachers and public school administrators attended the school-to-work workshop who did not attend the conference. The Economic Outlook Conference had never attracted such interest from the educational community.

Because the Consortium is young, its achievements are as much symbolic as concrete. It has made the case for the high-level coordination of educational program development in Shreveport. It has convinced the educational community and the civic and business community of the benefits of working together. It has publicized the need for school-to-work programs and provided a forum and encouragement to bring the necessary people together to create such programs. It has focused attention on the educational deficits in Shreveport and demonstrated ways in which they can be addressed. With 18% of adults in Shreveport lack a high school diploma and 10% of adults older than 25 have less than a 9th grade education. Ten other community agencies conduct adult literacy efforts, the most significant of which are the adult education programs of the public schools, but the Consortium's Mobile Literacy Lab attracts more publicity and excites more interest among adults. We use that interest to get clients motivated to improve their reading and mathematics, and then refer them to other agencies.

In like manner, Tech Prep and a variety of career education programs in the schools were active before the Consortium took up the school-to-work banner, but the Consortium has been able to bring new expertise and new participants to the discussion and to broaden it from a high school emphasis to a community emphasis. The Consortium acts as a catalyst. It can mobilize its members to address new issues and can speak to the community with an authority which the individual partners lack. It is highly visible and is able to leverage its limited funds to produce matching money and to tip the balance in an agency's decision to embark on a new effort. Its demonstration programs build a track record which creates an expectation and attracts continued funding. It provides immediate services in an area of need and creates a community among the stakeholders, enabling them to articulate their need and benefit for these services to other responsible government and community agencies.

Urban universities are often involved in their communities, but on a department by department or faculty by faculty basis. Similarly for public school corporations and other post-secondary institutions. The concept of a consortium of area educational institutions which spans kindergarten through graduate school is not difficult to imagine, but it is difficult to motivate. It is significant that in our case there was a pressing need for workforce improvement which had already been identified by the Chamber of Commerce and economic development consultants hired by the City. It is clearly recognized that imparting more competitive skills to the regional labor force is essentially an educational enterprise, and therefore it was appropriate that all educational institutions contribute. However, these circumstances are common in hundreds of urban communities which host a university, community colleges and vocational/technical institutions and the example of what the consortium has been able to coordinate in Shreveport may well serve as a motivation for similar communities to establish collaborative bodies.