This brief is the seventh in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) that has made it possible to examine both…

With grant and scholarship aid as well as family resources unable to keep pace with college costs, loans have become a fact of life for millions of college students each year. In deciding how and how much to borrow, these students are making highly consequential decisions that will impact their future in unknown ways. Policy should aim to reduce…

Most empirical teacher attrition research focuses on estimating the effect of either the alternate occupation opportunities or the teacher work environment on teacher attrition. In this paper, we use non-teaching wages of former teachers to estimate the determinants of teacher attrition, including the wage differential between teaching and…

This paper examines whether a rise in house prices that occurs immediately prior to children entering college has an impact on their earnings as adults. Higher house prices provide homeowners with additional funds to invest in their children's human capital. The results show that a 1 percentage point increase in house prices, when children are 17…

In this article, the authors found that the economic circumstances of military families are good, certainly much improved compared with even a decade ago. The military context is nonetheless challenging, with long hours, dangerous work, frequent transfers, and stressful absences during deployment. Service members receive relatively high pay and…

KIDS COUNT has used data to help call attention to emerging trends impacting kids in communities across the state. This year, the Colorado Children's Campaign marked the 25th birthday of KIDS COUNT in Colorado! by exploring this important question: What has changed for Colorado kids in the past 25 years? Long-term trends are not possible for every…

There are sizeable earnings differentials by gender and race in the U.S. labor market, with women earning less than men and most racial/ethnic minority groups earning less than whites. It has been proposed in the previous literature that the effects of gender and race on earnings are additive, so that minority women suffer the full disadvantage of…

This report, provides detailed analyses and projections of occupations in healthcare fields, and wages earned. In addition, the important skills and work values associated with workers in those fields of healthcare are discussed. Finally, the authors analyze the implications of research findings for the racial, ethnic, and class diversity of the…

Many youth in the United States lack clear occupational aspirations. This uncertainty in achievement ambitions may benefit socio-economic attainment if it signifies "role exploration," characterized by career development, continued education and enduring partnerships. By contrast, uncertainty may diminish attainment if it instead leads…

Restoring the value of the minimum wage and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by family size could significantly reduce family poverty and "make work pay." Recent poverty policies have largely ignored those who work but still remain poor. The majority of these working poor are in their prime working years (aged 22 to 64),…

Attaining a post-secondary credential has become increasingly important for securing opportunities to get high-return jobs in the United States in the 21st century. Students from low-income families are underrepresented at every milestone in the educational pipeline, limiting their ability to attain post-secondary credentials and break the…

This paper is a draft of Chapter 8 of a planned book, "Preschool and Jobs: Human Development as Economic Development, and Vice Versa". This book analyzes early childhood programs' effects on regional economic development. Four early childhood programs are considered: (1) universally accessible preschool for four-year-olds of similar…

Examines the Social Security benefit inequities between male and female workers and between one- and two-earner families and traces the cause of such disparities. Discusses the evolution of today's Social Security System and presents two proposals for a possible reform of the system. (CT)

The U.S. Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report to help inform policymakers about the progress of education in the United States. Using data from across the center and from other sources of education data, "The Condition of Education 2015" presents 42 key indicators on…

This paper measures the relationship between employment growth and employment opportunities for noncollege-educated males, examining variations across metropolitan areas in the living-wage employment ratio for prime-aged males with at most a high school education (less educated). Living-wage employment is full-time, year-round employment yielding…