We study the 1992 higher education expansion reform in Turkey and examine how the expansion program changed higher education attainment and labor market access, particularly for women, who are disadvantaged on both accounts. We use the 2011 Population and Housing Census and employ a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. We find that the…

Background/Context: Public two-year and technical colleges have experienced declines in enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic. While new data from the National Student Clearinghouse show that enrollment is beginning to increase, it is still below pre-pandemic levels and not all areas are experiencing the same levels of rising enrollment. At the…

The Commission on Education and Employment Opportunities for Young People (Youth Commission) aims to find ways to improve education and employment opportunities for England's 16-24-year olds. The Commission's first report (see ED604277) identified five key challenges: (1) Better supporting 700,000 young people not in education, employment or…

Objective: The process by which students decide to stay in college has been primarily based on models that are independent of geographic context. This article describes the local labor market in which community college students are situated and discusses the multiple and complex ways these labor markets impact student decisions to persist and…

That some form of education beyond high school will be essential to future economic prosperity--both individually and collectively--is widely accepted. It is not lost on students and families, who consistently cite the need to be prepared for the workforce as the most important factor in choosing to enroll. And it is not lost on policy makers, as…

This paper studies the impact of the First Great Migration on children. We use the complete-count 1940 Census to estimate selection-corrected place effects on education for children of Black migrants. On average, Black children gained 0.8 years of schooling (12 percent) by moving from the South to the North. Many counties that had the strongest…

This book examines access, lifelong learning and education for all, which have been policy preoccupations in all countries for more than half a century, but have been overlaid and pushed aside by the development of mass higher education. The authors examine what has been achieved, what lessons have been learnt and what still remains to be done,…

At least 46 states have set postsecondary attainment goals to improve the educational opportunities and livelihoods of their citizens and to meet workforce demands in a changing labor market. While the data is still emerging, the widespread use of administrative holds by postsecondary institutions may be undermining state education and workforce…

It is generally accepted that education is a powerful enabler of social mobility in the modern world. However, access to quality and specialized education is still highly unequal, creating pathways for some groups of people and barriers to others. This dissertation explores three approaches to understanding and addressing inequalities of…

In a prior study, MDRC researchers found that Small Schools of Choice, a SIG-approved high school reform initiative, markedly and consistently increased high school graduation rates in New York City when it was implemented in 100+ high schools between 2002 and 2008. A four-year follow-up study found that the initiative increased students'…

As the number of graduates from institutions of higher education has soared year after year, alongside growth in the demand for high-end talent posed by economic development, a growing number of graduates from undergraduate programs are choosing to continue on to receive graduate education, so as to improve their competitive advantage in the labor…

This paper proposes a theory on how students' social background affects their school attainment and job opportunities. I study a set-up where students differ in ability and social background, and I analyse the interaction between a school and an employer. Students with disadvantaged background are penalised compared to other students: they receive…

Most Canadian provinces offer high-school apprenticeships to facilitate students' transitions to skilled work and address employers' concerns about labour shortages. Using interview data with graduates from high-school apprenticeships in Alberta and Ontario, we analyse the impact participation in these programmes has had on their educational and…

Changing labour markets, increased calls for selection and excellence, and increased diversity and individualisation have repercussions on how educational systems can prepare youth for work, optimise knowledge production, achieve equality of opportunity, and socialise students into active civic engagement. This paper discusses four central tasks…

In June 2015, the Colombian government via the Labor Ministry announced a project for young workers called "40.000 Primeros Empleos". In the framework of this project, the Ministry of Labor signed an alliance with the language platform Duolingo as a strategy to provide participants with English learning opportunities and a free language…