Talent Dividend Prize Update: College Pays Off
Posted by Bridget Marquis on August 09, 2011
New Report: The College Payoff
Further support of the Talent Dividend from a new report by Anthony Carnevale at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. The College Payoff finds that post secondary degrees pay handsomely. In fact, "the difference in earning between those who go to college and those who don't is growing -- meaning that postsecondary education is more important than ever." The report finds that those with bachelor’s degrees, no matter the field, earn vastly more than counterparts with a high school diploma, or some college.
Reminder: Challenge Grant Deadline
If your city applied for the Talent Dividend Prize Challenge Grant program, please note that September 15 is the deadline to submit documentation of matching funds. Your $10,000 grant check, available through the generous support of The Kresge Foundation, will be sent upon receipt of this documentation.
Please contact Bridget Marquis with any questions.
Increasing Adult College Completion with Pam Tate
There are currently 40 million adults in the U.S. who have started college, but not completed a degree. In fact, in most metropolitan areas at least 20 percent of the adult population falls into this category. As part of our Talent Dividend work, how can we reengage and complete these adults with some college credit, but no degree?
To help answer this question, last week CEOs for Cities hosted a Talent Dividend Webinar featuring Pam Tate, CEO of The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). This webinar on increasing adult college completion provided an opportunity for Talent Dividend cities to learn more about prior learning assessments and CAEL’s new platform, LearningCounts.org.
If you missed it, you can view the webinar recording here.
This is the first in what we hope becomes a series of webinars highlighting programs, strategies and tools to help cities across the nation achieve the Talent Dividend. If you have ideas for future webinars, please send them to Bridget Marquis.
Leveraging the Talent Dividend in Cities and States
- Congratulations to the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE) on receiving a $450,000 award from the Ohio Board of Regents to increase college attainment in Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown. With a focus on increasing college-going behavior and success among traditional aged students, their strategies include expanding dual enrollment programs and developing college-access education curriculum for educators and school counselors. Read the full announcement here.
- Complete College America has selected ten states as recipients of $1 million grants aimed at boosting college graduation rates. At least 12 Talent Dividend cities may have a chance to leverage this award, including Baltimore, Chattanooga, Denver, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Nashville, San Diego and Stockton. Two additional winning states will be announced later this month.
- Eleven states, including eight states with Talent Dividend cities have been named recipients of a grant to improve the quality of adult education for greater degree completion. Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin will each receive $200,000 as part of a new program called Accelerating Opportunity.
- Community colleges in four states, all of which have Talent Dividend cities, have been selected by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their Completion by Design initiative. Colleges in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas will receive grants to develop programs to raise college graduation rates. Check out the initiative's free knowledge center for links to research and planning documents on degree pathways.
Invitation: PromiseNet 2011
Since the announcement of The Kalamazoo Promise in 2005, a growing number of communities have launched their own universal, place-based scholarship programs to raise educational attainment levels and promote economic development. Each year the leaders of these initiatives gather at the PromiseNet conference to share successes and to help new communities get their local efforts started.
Pittsburgh, a Talent Dividend Prize city, is the host of PromiseNet 2011 to be held October 19-21. Lee Fisher, President and CEO of CEOs for Cities will be featured on the agenda, which will include a series of workshops for communities just beginning to explore Promise strategies. So, if your Talent Dividend efforts include a focus on increasing the rate of college continuation among high school students, then join Lee and your Talent Dividend colleagues in Pittsburgh this fall.
Click here for more information and online registration.
Connect with colleagues online through the National Talent Dividend Network’s LinkedIn Group.
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