This study describes five key strategies and 98 action steps for creating a successful, knowledge-based economy in the Northeast Wisconsin region. The Northeast Wisconsin economy has been hammered by the loss of manufacturing jobs during the last four years, and many workers have lost good-paying jobs. The study focuses on the need to move toward a different, knowledge-based, economy. It also emphasizes the need to create a regional approach to economic prosperity and the challenges to achieving it.

In the midst of a challenging economic recovery, the nation’s policy makers and education leaders are seeking new and potentially more effective strategies to align personal and public educational investments with job creation, increased levels of employment, small business development, and entrepreneurial activity. Reaching the 2020 national college completion goal will require powerful and fully implemented innovations in two-year colleges, particularly in states and regions where economic difficulties are more deeply entrenched. Grounded in the Midwest context, this special issue examines several promising policies and innovations that re-envision the role of two-year colleges in developing regional rather than local solutions to the emerging economic and educational challenges. This is the 157th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

This book addresses the growing interest in cluster and targeted economic developments, reviewing the socioeconomic theoretical foundations of industry targeting and suggesting alternative methods of identifying industries for targeting.