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…

These Key Indicators on Education, Skills and Employment (KIESE) are a collection of statistics that are part of a broader set of indicators proposed by the European Training Foundation (ETF) to enable an assessment of developments in the field of human capital in the partner countries. They include data on vocational education and training (VET),…

The "2016 Data Report" identifies and measures state-level indicators linked to outcomes to inform decision-making among Massachusetts education leaders. These indicators focus on critical stages in learning and development from school readiness and early learning to the emergence of a strong and productive workforce. Important…

Population censuses record considerable volumes of personal information, which when aggregated and tabulated provide significant insights into national societies. South African censuses have recorded levels of educational attainment since their inception in the mid-nineteenth century, initially measuring literacy and later the level of education…

In this article, the authors use a large, recent, and accessible data set to examine the effect of economics major on individual earnings. They find a significant positive earnings gain for economics majors relative to other majors, and this advantage increases with the level of education. Their findings are consistent with Black, Sanders, and…

The 2007-10 growth spurt (18 percent over three years) in U.S. undergraduate economics degrees stalled out in 2011. Degrees awarded have been relatively constant over the past three years.

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other U.S. jurisdictions (see appendix A for a list of other U.S. jurisdictions). This "First Look" presents findings from the preliminary data of the…

The U.S. has a core constitutional and founding commitment to equality of opportunity for all citizens. Whether viewed as an end in itself or a means to fostering increased national achievement and competitiveness, the 21st century United States conversation about equity reflects a national consensus about the many benefits of and necessity for…

The recent significant increase in student loan delinquencies has generated interest in understanding the key factors predicting the non-performance of these loans. However, despite the large size of the student loan market, existing analyses have been limited by lack of data. This paper studies predictors of student loan delinquencies using a…

Using detailed administrative data from Virginia, this paper examines how and why the community college pathway to a baccalaureate influences students' degree attainment and short-term labor market performance. We find that the community college pathway sharply reduces the likelihood of earning a bachelor's degree but does not have a significant…

Lack of financial resources to pay for postsecondary education--perceived and actual--has been cited as a barrier to student access and persistence, particularly for Latino students. This study investigates the following question: "To what extent does financial aid affect the educational attainment of Latinos enrolled in Associate's degree…

The purposes of this equity indicators project are to: (1) report the status of higher education equity in the United States and identify changes over time in measures of equity; (2) identify policies and practices that promote and hinder progress; and (3) illustrate the need for increased support of policies, programs, and practices that not only…

This article seeks to make sense of the seeming contradiction that the number of degrees awarded annually and the attainment rate of the adult population in the US have both grown, even as the country has fallen behind many global competitors on the latter indicator. Two reports issued in 2012---one by the Pew Research Center, the other by the…

This paper reports on progress to date with a project underway in New Zealand involving the extraction of data from multiple government agencies that is then combined into one comprehensive longitudinal integrated dataset and made available to trial participants in a way never previously thought possible. The dataset includes school leaver…

Master's and doctoral degrees are required credentials for entry into the professional class. Although they do not guarantee the recipient an intrinsically rewarding career or a position of leadership, it is increasingly difficult to attain those positions without a graduate degree. The representation of persons of color among graduate degree…