As we reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped our daily lives, we are reminded of how lucky we are to work and live in North Carolina. We have one of the best education systems in the country and our state and local leaders are working hard to capitalize on resources across our education and workforce sectors. They are leveraging this time to rethink how we deliver education and supports to result in better college readiness, and higher college enrollment and completion rates with degrees and credentials that align with business and industry needs.
We also know North Carolina’s regions and counties are the true frontiers of the state’s attainment efforts. In many communities across the state, good work is already underway to increase postsecondary attainment and alignment with workforce.
myFutureNC is a new nonprofit organization that is working across sectors to support our efforts to close the educational attainment gap in North Carolina, ensuring that by 2030, two million North Carolinians have a high-quality credential or a post-secondary degree.
To help local North Carolina communities develop action plans grounded in data, myFutureNC partnered with Carolina Demography to create and publish myFutureNC County Attainment Profiles that highlight their attainment levels and performance on key myFutureNC metrics. The county profiles are intended to facilitate decision-making on local priorities to increase attainment by highlighting county and regional performance and specific opportunities for improvement.
On August 10, 2020, all 100 county attainment profiles were released at dashboard.myfuturenc.org. The creation of the profiles is only the beginning. In the coming year myFutureNC will work collaboratively with county leaders across North Carolina to establish local goals and take action based on these profiles. This year, myFutureNC will also develop a suite of action-oriented tools and resources that will be made readily available to all stakeholders. If you would like to receive these resources, please sign up for updates here.
Editor’s note: This piece was first published by The Hunt Institute as part of the myFutureNC blog series. It has been posted with the author’s permission.