Lessons from the Talent Dividend Network meeting

By Dan Ash

How can a community best grow its economy? The answer is abundantly clear: focus on education. The best predictor of increases in per capita income is education attainment. For every one percent increase in the population attaining a postsecondary degree, there is a $760 increase in per capita income according to Joe Cortright, President of Impresa Inc. Such a boost in the economic health of communities was a strong motivation for CEOs for Cities, a nonprofit network of urban leaders, along with the Lumina and Kresge Foundations, to announce a competition to boost the number of residents with postsecondary degrees. A $1 million Talent Dividend prize will be awarded to the city that produces the greatest increase in postsecondary degrees over the next three years.

Kathy Zandona and I attended the Talent Dividend Network meeting on May 9 and 10 in Chicago along with representatives from 56 other cities vying for this prize to learn more about the details of the competition and share ideas on ways to encourage education attainment. We explored a variety of topics and heard from a multitude of experts concerning communication of educational issues, means of translating real world experience into college credit, how to best serve diverse college students, strategies for helping adults complete their education, and the use of talent analytics as a means of understanding the business benefits of employer support for employees’ educational pursuits. One particularly interesting idea that is catching on in several cities is the practice of “reverse articulation”. Many students who transfer from community college to a four year institution do so before they complete their associate’s degree. Several locations have now set up reverse articulation agreements which monitor these students as they pursue their four year degrees. When the student successfully completes the courses at the four year institution that, combined with previous courses, are equivalent to an associate’s degree, the community college and student are notified and the associate’s degree is then awarded. This process is especially beneficial for those students who are working as they pursue their bachelor’s degree because the associate’s degree credential is instrumental in securing a good job.

As we interacted with representatives from the “competitor” cities it became abundantly clear that Greater Louisville leaders showed prescient insight in establishing 55,000 Degrees. We are clearly at the forefront of a growing realization that leaders from all sectors must work diligently together to help our community pursue and complete postsecondary education if we are to prosper. In the coming months we will keep you updated on how Louisville and 55,000 Degrees is progressing in the pursuit of the Talent Dividend award. For more information on the award go to www.talentdividendprize.org.

Communities Learning in Partnership (CLIP) meeting

By Mary Gwen Wheeler

Hold a citywide college day for all seniors where they visit a college campus and enroll? Sounds like our Close The Deal program on steroids! San Francisco's Bridge To Success partnership did just that last week. Called Frisco Day, every public school senior visited City College, filled out an application and learned about financial aid. See this news story. I am learning about other practices to promote college-going such as this at a 3-day network meeting.

One of the driving principles underlying 55,000 Degrees is that by working collectively, we can have greater impact than what can be achieved by individual effort alone. I am attending a convening in San Francisco of 11 cities who have created similar collective efforts focused on postsecondary success. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and administered by the National League of Cities, the Communities Learning in Partnership initiative seeks to improve PSE outcomes, particularly for low-income young people, through collective action.

Another great idea: Philadelphia held a financial aid phone-athon. Two TV stations each donated the commercial time slots, one in a morning show and the other in the evening, for a phone-athon where students and parents could call in to get answers and information about financial aid. The phone banks were manned by area college admissions and financial aid counselors. Over 2000 callers were helped in one day!

I'll blog with more learnings tomorrow.

Turning up the Heat Together

By Mike Kennedy

Louisville Metro United Way (MUW) and The Community Foundation of Louisville (CFL) have turned up the heat together and given away $250,000 to 27 local organizations, schools and school systems that are helping to create a college-going culture in Louisville.

At yesterday’s grant presentation at Actors Theatre, CFL CEO Susan Barry spoke about her experiences as a first-generation college graduate. MUW CEO and 55,000 Degrees board member Joe Tolan talked about what it was like growing up as an immigrant’s son, and how important it is for Louisville to set “bold goals.”

Mayor and chairman of the 55K Board Greg Fischer asked the crowd, “Why shouldn’t we have the best public school system in the country?” He said there is nothing more important in this community than education, because Louisville is not just competing with cities in the US, but also cities around the world. He noted that one-third of children born today will not graduate from high school, and another one-third will not graduate from college. “Everyone must have a degree,” Fischer said. “If not, we’ve given up on their potential.”

The awards were designed to target five key tipping points: transition to college or career, high school graduation, middle school transitions, early grade reading, and early childhood education. Grantees will create learning networks for each tipping point in order to share promising approaches with the community at large. Both funding organizations expressed the desire for a similar collaborative next year.

To see the list of winning groups and programs, click here.

To see pictures from the event, click here.

Student Achievement and the Arts

By Mary Gwen Wheeler

What is the importance of an arts-rich education on later overall education attainment? Research presented yesterday by Dr. James S. Catterall from the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development, showed that those who had intensive involvement in the arts in grades 8-12 were more likely to attend college and complete degrees. In his talk at Actor’s Theatre, sponsored by Louisville’s Art and Cultural Attractions Council, Dr. Catterall showed the correlation between arts education and involvement to increased student achievement and higher levels of community engagement in adult life, such as voting. Particularly relevant to 55K, a rich arts education led to a significantly greater likelihood to get an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. (See chart). Importantly, these effects were even greater for low-income students.

He also shared interesting findings from neuroscience. It turns out the same parts of the brain that indicate empathic behavior also light up when the person is involved in an arts activity. So kids involved in the visual and performing arts are building skills in collaborative problem solving, teaming and communication (particularly listening) – all the attributes employers say are important in the 21st century workplace.

Learn more about this connection in Prof. Catterall’s book, Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art (2009 Imagination Group/I-Group Book.)