Using data collected from more than 5.8 million high school and college graduates ages 18 to 65 years who participated in the American Community Survey between 2009 and 2021, the authors estimate the internal rates of return (IRRs) for individuals with college degrees in 10 broad majors compared with high school graduates. The analysis shows…

This dissertation uses three empirical papers to examine the relationship between student gender, student's income expectations for the future, and persistence in schooling. First, I use survey data from the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS) to examine how both children's and parent's earnings expectations for students in 12th grade vary by…

Problem: Due to the current resurgence of attention given to high school students' taking courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), research was needed to examine whether a relationship between the number of STEM courses a high school student, who graduates from high school and works in a non-STEM field, completes and…

We examine the relationship between secondary school attainment and early-career graduate salaries in the UK. Based on literature on grade inflation, we hypothesise that there is uncertainty regarding the quality of the signal communicated by degree classifications, and that secondary school grades can be used as a tool to determine the veracity…

This completely updated edition of "The Almanac of American Education" helps users understand and compare the quality of education at the national, state, and county levels. Compiled from official U.S. government sources, this book contains historical and current data, insightful analysis, and useful graphs that provide compelling…

Career academies are specialized educational programs that offer graduates a pathway to acquire the skills, knowledge, and credentials needed to enter the workforce or pursue further education in a specific career field. These programs are designed to improve student engagement, reduce dropout rates, and enhance post-graduation outcomes. The…

This brief is the second 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, which has made it possible to examine both college and…

This brief is the sixth 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), which has made it possible to examine both…

This completely updated edition of "The Almanac of American Education" helps users understand and compare the quality of education at the national, state, and county levels. Compiled from official U.S. government sources, this book contains historical and current data, insightful analysis, and useful graphs that provide compelling…

We conduct an empirical simulation exercise that gauges the plausible impact of increased rates of college attainment on a variety of measures of income inequality and economic insecurity. Using two different methodological approaches--a distributional approach and a causal parameter approach--we find that increased rates of bachelor's and…

This policy brief discusses an empirical simulation exercise that gauges the plausible impact of increased rates of college attainment on a variety of measures of income inequality and economic insecurity. The results reveal that increasing college attainment would shrink gaps between the 90th percentile and lower half of the earnings…

This study examines how the "college earnings premium" (CEP)--the difference in average earnings between workers with and without college education--varies across the United States. Specifically, it compares across cities, states, and rural areas the mean earnings of workers with bachelor's degrees to those with associate degrees, with…

Conventional wisdom regards a college degree as necessary for a well-paying job and a good life. By focusing on average earnings, this conventional wisdom obscures the enormous variability in outcomes at each education level; in fact, the top half of high school graduates earn in the same range as the bottom half of college graduates. However the…

This completely updated edition of "The Almanac of American Education" helps users understand and compare the quality of education at the national, state, and county levels. Compiled from official U.S. government sources, this book contains historical and current data, insightful analysis, and useful graphs that provide compelling…

This brief is the fifth 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), which has made it possible to examine both…