A study conducted a questionnaire survey of 70 refugee women in Illinois and 2 service provider focus groups to assess the effects of welfare changes on refugee women and to identify barriers to workforce participation. Survey findings were that refugee women in the workforce are concentrated in low-wage jobs and do not earn enough income to move…

This paper uses direct measures of literacy skill levels provided by the International Adult Literacy Survey to estimate the return to literacy skills. Using a very simple human capital earnings equation and standard ordinary least squares regression, it tested estimates of the return to literacy skills for their robustness to alternative scalings…

Many economists and policymakers believe that the growth in inequality in the last 2 decades reflects mostly an imbalance between the demand for and the supply of employee skills driven by technological change, particularly the spread of computers. However, the empirical basis for this belief is not strong. The growth in inequality was…

The overall participation and performance of disabled students in vocational education and training (VET) programs in Australia in 2000 were analyzed. The analysis was based on data from National Centre for Vocational Education Research collections and surveys. The following were among the key findings: (1) the number of VET students reporting a…

Connecticut's Jobs First program, which began operating in January 1996, combines a time limit on welfare receipt with generous financial work incentives and requires recipients to participate in employment-related services targeted toward rapid job placement. The impacts of the Jobs First program were examined by following several thousand…

This paper examines the historical perspective of women in higher education, the problems facing women moving into leadership roles, the impact of Title IX on women, and finally the implications of these factors on women's ability to advance in higher education. The paper begins by examining the effect of affirmative action on women's progress,…

Data are presented on: average full-time faculty salaries (1995-96) by academic rank; racial and ethnic distribution of college and university personnel, including resident aliens (fall 1993); and characteristics of full-time faculty with teaching duties, by gender, institution type, discipline, and rank (fall 1992). (MSE)

An annual national survey by the American Association of University Professors found an average faculty raise of only 3% in 1996-97, falling behind the inflation rate for the first time in four years. Data are displayed by academic rank, institution type (private, public, church-related), annual increases since 1986-87, in relation to cost of…

Argues that in higher education, values and priorities of the enterprise's "producers" have little in common with those of the "consumers," and identifies areas in which this is apparent, including tuition, college choice, selection of a president, program development, faculty rewards, state subsidies, institutional budgeting, and school…

The status of women faculty in social work is evaluated, based on a review of literature and statistics. Findings show women are seeing some progress toward equity in employment policy and patterns but also indicate that inequalities continue. Strategies for supporting development and retention of women faculty are suggested. (Author/MSE)

Drawing on various theories, compares relative labor-market positions of graduates from two types of Dutch higher education systems in business administration and economics. Analysis of earnings and job opportunities show that university study generates more human capital and job matchings than higher education vocational study. (Contains 17…

The effects of fatherlessness on children's educational attainment and entry-level wages were examined through a method-of-moments analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a national panel study of 12,686 youths who were aged 14-22 in 1979. Two special features of the NLSY were used: its subsample of siblings and its…

The wages and benefits of students enrolled in college-level cooperative education programs throughout the Midwest are compared in this report. It describes the survey process, in which 119 college cooperative education program directors received 3,890 survey questionnaires and accompanying materials to forward to employers they had selected to…

New studies dispel the fear that high academic standards set up some students to fail or drop out. This research finds that raising academic standards has a positive impact for all students in the following ways: (1) students take more demanding courses, learn more, and score higher on tests; (2) nationwide, dropout rates are falling and high…

Both minorities and women are underrepresented in school administration when compared to either the number of minority and women educators or to the number of minority and female students. In 1978, 8.1 percent of public school administrative positions were occupied by minority men but only 3.4 percent were occupied by minority women. Blacks are…