Each year, policymakers, educators, and the general public engage in debates around the statewide average teacher pay figure that the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) publishes on its website and reports to the National Education Association. These debates take up the important consideration of whether or not teachers are…

In this dissertation, I explore how international migration and environmental pollution shape human capital accumulation and labor market outcomes.The first chapter examines how college enrollment and major choice decisions of young adults in migrant-sending countries are affected by the removal of international migration barriers. My…

Most public school teachers in the United States are enrolled in defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Using administrative micro data from four states, combined with national pension funding data, we show these plans have accumulated substantial unfunded liabilities -- effectively debt -- owing to previous plan operations. On average across 49…

Many community college students start college in developmental education and leave before enrolling in college-level coursework or making much progress toward a degree; thus, developmental education courses represent the primary education these students receive. Using student-unit record data from two large community college systems linked to wage…

The evolution of community colleges from their origins as junior colleges to institutions with dual missions to provide both academic and workforce preparation raises questions about the impact of a college's mission focus on their students' labor market success. We examine this question using the 58 colleges in the North Carolina Community…

In this paper, the authors examine the relative labor market gains for first-time college students who enrolled in the North Carolina Community College System in 2002-03. The medium-term returns to diplomas, certificates, and degrees are compared with returns for students who accumulated college credits but did not graduate. The authors also…

The evolution of community colleges from their origins as junior colleges to institutions with dual missions to provide both academic and workforce preparation raises questions about the impact of a college's mission focus on its students' labor market success. We examine this question using data from the 58 colleges in the North Carolina…

The extent to which community college students experience labor market success depends on both the attributes of the individual students and the characteristics of the community colleges they attend. In this paper, we examine the impact of community college characteristics on the earnings of first-time college students who enrolled in the North…

Research has consistently shown that teacher quality is distributed very unevenly among schools, to the clear disadvantage of minority students and those from low-income families. Using North Carolina data on the length of time individual teachers remain in their schools, we examine the potential for using salary differentials to overcome this…

The engineering profession is very sensitive to the new changes in the engineering job market demand. The engineering job market is changing in a much faster rate than the engineering/engineering technology education. A 13-year study will be presented. The study focuses on the factors affecting the survival rate, student academic performance,…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential for salary-based policies to generate a more equitable distribution of teachers characterized by strong qualifications across schools. The analysis is based on rich longitudinal administrative data on teachers and schools in the state of North Carolina. The authors' analysis first confirms the…

In an effort to increase the quantity and quality of available teachers, states have begun to offer alternate methods of teacher certification. This means that in addition to traditional teacher training, which involves graduation from an accredited teacher-education institution, states provide alternate routes to enable teachers to transition to…

Research has consistently shown that teacher quality is distributed very unevenly among schools to the clear disadvantage of minority students and those from low-income families. Using information on teaching spells in North Carolina, the authors examine the potential for using salary differentials to overcome this pattern. They conclude that…

Despite recent increases in teacher salaries, the earnings of teachers as compared to those of other college graduates in the Southeast have changed little in the last five years. This report compares the average annual earnings of teachers to the average annual earnings of college graduates in full-time, salaried nonteaching positions in the six…

What are the financial rewards and job protection provisions currently being negotiated into superintendent employment contracts? This article presents the results of a study of superintendents' contracts in three states--South Carolina, Florida, and North Carolina. All 268 superintendents in the three states were surveyed and an analysis made for…