The Talent Dividend Tour

Click the markers on the interactive map below to learn more about the cities participating in the Talent Dividend tour.

View Talent Dividend Map in a larger map

Memphis*   Atlanta    Chattanooga*    Cincinnati*  New Orleans  Milwaukee*  Stamford    Pittsburgh     Billings*    Indianapolis*  Richmond*  Detroit*  Miami*   Dallas*   Northeast Ohio*  San Jose*   Denver*  NY State   Tulsa*  Jackson   Tampa Bay*  Baltimore*  Columbus   Seattle*  Houston  Philadelphia*  Phoenix  Portland*  Oakland  Washington, DC   Grand Rapids*  Gary

* Represent cities that are founding members of the National Talent Dividend Network.

More on the Talent Dividend   |   Recommended Reading

CEOs for Cities recently traveled to Phoenix to introduce city leaders there to the Talent Dividend. A one percentage point gain in college attainment would yield a $3.1 billion increase in per capita income in the Phoenix Metro Area.

"[Vice President Biden] said the $125 billion allocated to education will pay dividends to municipalities. According to Biden, a 1% increase in the number of Chicago residents earning college degrees will produce $7.2 billion to the local economy." - The Wall Street Journal

Read more on the Vice President's speech on the CEOs for Cities blog.

About the Talent Dividend

We know that educational attainment is the biggest predictor of success for cities and metro areas today. The research is unassailable.

The more educated a city’s population, the more robust its economy will be.  In fact, in his speech to a joint session of Congress President Obama put the issue of talent squarely on the federal agenda when he said, "The… challenge we must address is the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America. In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a pre-requisite.”

However, few urban leaders are focused on the relationship between education and the economy. In fact, producing more college-educated citizens is rarely found in any city’s economic development plan.

In a move to increase the political and civic will to produce more college graduates and thereby help cities capture real economic gains, CEOs for Cities has calculated the Talent Dividend. Increasing educational attainment, measured by raising the four-year college attainment rate by one percentage point in each of the 51 largest metropolitan areas, would be associated with an increase in per capita income of $124 billion per year for the nation. Monetizing these achievements serves as a powerful motivator to urban leaders to act urgently to achieve results.

To jumpstart local efforts, CEOs for Cities, in partnership with the Lumina Foundation for Education and with additional support from DeVry, Inc., has launched a national tour around the Talent Dividend to engage in local conversations with cross-sector groups of urban leaders on the development strategies to move people up the education pipeline and ultimately increase the number of people who come out of it with a college degree.

More on the Talent Dividend

The Talent Dividend is part of CEOs for Cities latest research on the City Dividends.  The City Dividends calculates the monetary value to cities and the nation of increasing college attainment rates by one percentage point (Talent Dividend); reducing vehicle miles traveled by one mile per person per day (Green Dividend); and reducing poverty rates by one percentage point (Opportunity Dividend). 

If each of the top 51 metros achieved these modest improvements in each of the three dividends, there would be a combined national dividend of $166 billion each year. You can download the full City Dividends report here.

The Talent Dividend defined: Per capita income and college attainment rates are closely correlated. Using data from 2006, each additional percentage point improvement in aggregate adult four-year college attainment is associated with a $763 increase in annual per capita income. Raising the national median of the top 51 metro areas from 29.4 percent to 30.4 percent would be associated with an increase in income of $124 billion per year for the nation.

Watch the video below on the Talent Dividend:

National Talent Dividend Network Meeting

On April 21-22 CEOs for Cities in partnership with FutureWorks hosted the first gathering of the National Talent Dividend Network.  With 19 cities participating, this network is composed of cross-sector teams of urban leaders committed to achieving the Talent Dividend.  Presentations and more information on this event can be found here.

Recommended Reading

For city leaders endeavoring to achieve greater numbers of college graduates in their city, those people who have some college or began study but did not complete their degree represent an enormous opportunity. In order to develop strategies to get pre-graduates to complete a four-year degree, however, their special needs must be better understood.  

Through ethnographic research on pre-graduates and interviews with experts, opportunities for increasing access to college and college attainment were identified.  From this research ideation salons were held to develop 101 new ideas for reclaiming a nation of pre-graduates.

Process & Personas contains the full background and detailed ethnographic personas, while Ideas captures the entire list of 101 ideas and visually displays the top five.  Both can be downloaded here.

This work was made possible by a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education.

The Education Trust released two reports that investigate the gaps in college graduation rates among minority students. By comparing rates at similar colleges, the studies find that while nationally 60 percent of whites, 49 percent of Latinos and 40 percent of African Americans complete bachelor’s degrees in six years, there are some schools that are extremely effective at graduating minority students.

This opinion piece by Julian Alssid in The Huffington Post points to the current dilemma facing our nation: high unemployment rates coupled with employers whose recruiters site a lack of qualified candidates as their greatest hiring challenge.

College enrollment set a record in 2008 with nearly 40 percent of our nation's 18-24 year olds enrolled according to this New York Times article. The increase in the enrollment rate of young adults was almost entirely due to increases in community college enrollment.

Newsweek reported that layoffs are not being distributed equally.  With the national unemployment rate at 8.5 percent (and growing), the unemployment rate for those over 25 with a college degree was half that – 4.3 percent.   For anyone without a high-school diploma, the rate was 13.3 percent. 

Thomas Friedman writes in his New York Times column about a study from McKinsey that looked at the cost of the United States’ decline in K-12 education compared to other countries over the past 50 years.  “If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, United States G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher.” The dollar amounts go up when you close the achievement gaps among minorities and low-income students.

A recent Sunday New York Times Magazine piece, "The Big Fix," tells us that the answer to our economic woes is more college graduates.  Yes, that's right.  It's the Talent Dividend, exactly what we've been saying.  And it's worth $124 billion to the nation... every single year.

National Talent Dividend Network

As we launch our National Talent Dividend Network in partnership with FutureWorks we’re eager to accelerate the achievement of the Talent Dividend in all of the participating cities.  With talent explaining 58% of a city’s success as defined by per capita income, what could possibly be more important than reaching this goal?

Baltimore, Billings, Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Northeast Ohio, Philadelphia, Portland, Richmond, San Jose, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Tulsa are committed to the work.  What strategies will they pursue?  Which will be the first to increase their college attainment rate by one percentage point and win the big economic prize? 

If your city would like to participate in the network, please contact Bridget Marquis or Stephen Michon to add your city to the list of those seriously pursuing this critical near term goal.