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…

Governors are increasingly aware that the emerging economy will provide few well-paying jobs for workers who have not earned a postsecondary degree or a relevant workforce certificate. Fifty years ago, nearly 80 percent of all jobs required only a high school diploma or less and most paid a good wage. Fast-forward to data from 2013 and that number…

This publication summarizes research from AspenWSI's Courses to Employment project, which studied how six community college-nonprofit partnerships work together to help low-income adults succeed in the classroom and the labor market. The report provides an overview of the approach and strategies these partnerships use, how these partnerships are…

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.…

This report provides a policy framework for specific programs that will improve the achievement of minority students in the Illinois educational system. All levels of education from pre-kindergarten through graduate education must be involved in designing and making such programs work. Education is the key element that can enable minorities to…

This extrapolation paper is intended: (1) to present a model of a pretechnical curriculum that has as its focus the self-empowerment of the individual and (2) to describe how the curriculum could be implemented in the schools. The first part of the paper discusses the need for a pretechnical curriculum in terms of a model for self-empowerment.…

This report identifies aspects of Illinois' regionalization plan and includes 11 major topics: (1) education for employment policy; (2) definition of schooling; (3) articulation, coordination, cooperation; (4) sharing resources; (5) student services and access; (6) teacher involvement and inservice education; (7) labor market information,…

The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project was undertaken to identify effective strategies for helping low-income parents work more steadily and advance in the labor market. The 15 ERA demonstration projects that were operating in nine states (California, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, South Carolina; Tennessee, and…

This document is intended to help practitioners plan and implement activities for observance of Career Development Month in Illinois. Part 1 examines the following topics: the definitions of career development and education-to-careers; the rationale for devoting a month to career development; a career framework; and suggested Career Development…