Defined benefit (DB) pension plans incentivize "salary spiking," where sharp increases in pay are leveraged into significantly higher levels of retirement compensation. While egregious instances of salary spiking occasionally make headlines, there is little guidance on the definition of salary-spiking behavior or understanding of its…

This policy brief examines one type of "leak" in the Wisconsin educator pipeline, a leak in the number of recent graduates from one of the state's 40+ educator preparation programs (EPPs) electing to work in Illinois or Minnesota public schools. While this group is numerically small, with just 38 Wisconsin 2017-18 EPP completers working…

Even before the coronavirus pandemic began, policymakers, businesses, and workforce advocates were already recognizing that workers were not being replaced by robots, but rather, being called upon to work hand-in-glove with rapidly evolving technology. When the pandemic struck, millions of U.S. companies hustled to change how they did business.…

This paper reports results from a resume-based field experiment designed to examine employer preferences for job applicants who attended for-profit colleges. For-profit colleges have seen sharp increases in enrollment in recent years despite alternatives such as public community colleges being much cheaper. We sent almost 9,000 fictitious resumes…

There is currently more focus than ever on the importance of earning a college degree. At the same time, many students and parents are dubious that America's expensive, one-size-fits-all higher education system can adequately educate students for an ever more diverse and sophisticated world of work. There are other educational options that are…

This report presents the findings of the cost-benefit analysis of Accelerating Opportunity, an initiative designed to help adults with low basic skills earn industry-recognized credentials in high-growth occupations and succeed in the labor market. It compares the value of the benefits associated with AO--principally labor market benefits--with…

Purpose: Studies show that there are far greater numbers of individuals certified to be educational administrators than of positions requiring such certification. Yet concerns regarding shortages abound, in part because of widespread perceptions of a lack of interest by teachers and administrative certificate holders in administrative work. This…

Prior research has classified strategies to facilitate adult learners' transitions to postsecondary opportunities into five broad categories: advising, General Educational Development-plus (GED-plus), English as a second language, career pathways, and college preparatory (Zafft, Kallenbach, & Spohn, 2006). This two-part study relied on…

We study employers' perceptions of postsecondary degrees using a field experiment. We randomly assign the sector and selectivity of institution to fictitious resumes and send them to real vacancy postings on a large online job board. According to our results, a bachelor's degree in business from a for-profit "online" institution is 22…

Despite three decades of scholarship on economic restructuring in the United States, employers' violations of minimum wage, overtime and other workplace laws remain understudied. This article begins to fill the gap by presenting evidence from a large-scale, original worker survey that draws on recent advances in sampling methodology to reach…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how data on the geography of Illinois' new teacher pipeline can be used to inform the design of policies and practices to improve the supply of academically skilled, diverse individuals into teaching in the state's public schools. This study builds on a prior IERC study which connects data for two…

Recent evidence on the large variance in teacher effectiveness has spurred interest in teacher labor markets. Research documents that better qualified teachers typically work in more advantaged schools but cannot determine the relative importance of supply versus demand. To isolate teacher preferences, we document which schools prospective…

If you meet with almost any group of school administrators and ask them what the most critical factor in improving schools and increasing student achievement, they would most likely say having an outstanding faculty is the key. Common wisdom among principals is that nothing is more important to the overall success of the school than selecting…

To determine how a college's curriculum and selectivity may influence enrollment fluctuations, this study analyzed data on 64 private colleges in Iowa and Illinois. Colleges emphasizing arts and sciences had greater enrollment growth during improving market conditions for college graduates; those stressing occupational growth had greater…

The sensitivity of enrollment to conditions in the labor market for college graduates was assessed. A model was developed to determine whether sensitivity of enrollment to labor market changes depends on admissions selectivity and the curriculum. Data from 1965-1981 for 64 independent liberal arts colleges in Iowa and Illinois were evaluated.…