This study compared dual-degree master of social work/master of public health (MSW/MPH) and MSW-only graduates with 3 or more years of postgraduate experience. Thirty graduates from an MSW/MPH program were matched with 30 MSW-only graduates. All subjects were randomly selected from the alumni directory and interviewed via telephone. Results showed…

Previous literature has suggested that ascribed characteristics, such as gender and ethnicity, achieved characteristics such as highest degree earned; and institutional characteristics such as size and public or private affiliation of the college, may serve as determinants of salary among senior student affairs officers. This research, however,…

The California Postsecondary Education Commission recently adopted three reports dealing with postsecondary education and the economy, as part of its Higher Education Performance and Accountability Framework. The reports examined three specific measures: (1) Educational attainment of the population; (2) Links between degree attainment and…

A major development in the American workforce has been the increased labor force participation of women. In 1970, only about 43 percent of women age 16 and older were in the labor force; by 1999, that figure had risen to 60 percent. From 1999 to 2004, women's labor force participation rate receded slightly to 59.2 percent, still well above the…

Over the past 30 years, there has been significant progress in the educational advancement of women in the United States and New England. Nationally, the percentage of adult women with four-year college degrees increased from 8 percent in 1970 to 24 percent in 2000. Women narrowed the gap with men in college completion, as the female-to-male ratio…

A large proportion of the gender wage gap is usually left unexplained. In this paper, we investigate whether the unexplained component is due to misspecification. Using a sample of recent UK graduates, we introduce variables on career expectations and character traits, variables that are typically not observed. The evidence indicates that women…

For the past 15 years, economist Ronald Ferguson has investigated the myriad factors that combine to create racial disparities in academic performance. Beginning with his analysis of the impact of test scores in predicting racial wage gaps, Ferguson has explored how rates of progress in narrowing gaps have varied over the recent decades, the roles…

Distance education (DE) is now closer to being main stream than many faculty and administrators in universities thought it would be, however, for many faculty members, losing the apparent locus of control from the traditional classroom to that of the technology mediated classroom is not comfortable. In addition to changes in faculty teaching…

We report the results of an experiment designed to elicit students' subjective beliefs about the economic returns to college education. An important feature of our experimental design is the inclusion of financial incentives for accurate reporting. We also consider the extent to which individuals' beliefs about their own returns differ from their…

Stratification by gender occurs in many occupations, including the academic profession. When examining salaries of those in higher education, it is "well established" that "women faculty earn less than their male counterparts." Getting students to understand the important sociological issues of gender stratification as it occurs in the workplace…

Academic achievement--the credentials of schooling completed and degrees attained, as well as the skills and capabilities associated with these credentials--is an important determinant of socioeconomic success. Few if any personal characteristics are more strongly and positively related to an individual's later occupational attainment, employment,…

This paper reports estimates of the distribution of individual private rates of return to undergraduate and community college education by field of study for Canada. It is important to know the dispersion of the private rate of return to post-secondary education, as well as its average level. There are very different implications for…

This paper estimates the returns to retraining for older displaced workers--those 35 or older--by estimating the impact that community college schooling has on their subsequent earnings. Our analysis relies on longitudinal administrative data covering workers who were displaced from jobs in Washington State during the first half of the 1990s and…

This book represents the second of two volumes in a two-volume set where educators explore the intersection of gender and education. Their entries deal with educational theories, research, curricula, practices, personnel, and policies, but also with variations in the gendering of education across historical and cultural contexts. The various…

At a time when many states are becoming increasingly diverse, the need for more complete and useful measures of educational equality among ethnic and gender groups is critical. This study--funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education--examines disparities in educational attainment among race/ethnic and gender groups in the U.S. and within each…