This dissertation comprises three essays that empirically examine the educational outcomes of for-profit college students, military enlistees and immigrant youth. All of these are groups of "non-average" students that, in different contexts, pose challenges to the traditional provision of education. Therefore, their outcomes need to be…

Americans like to believe that theirs is the land of opportunity, but the hard facts are that children born into poor families in the United States tend to stay poor and children born into wealthy families generally stay rich. Other countries have shown more success at lessening the effects of inequality on mobility--possibly by making public…

This book contains 11 essays that compare economic and social conditions in Appalachia to those in rural regions of other countries. These rural, frequently mountainous, regions suffer similar economic problems due to their peripheral position in the national economies of their countries. Among the topics of particular educational interest are the…

This book encompasses a systematic, comparative study of change in educational stratification in 13 industrialized countries, exploring which societal conditions help reduce existing inequalities in educational opportunity. The contributors show that in most industrialized countries inequalities in educational opportunity among students from…

This document contains three papers on distance learning and human resource development (HRD). "An Exploration of Perceived Differences in Teaching Roles between On-Site and On-line Instruction" (James J. Kirk) reports on a study in which 144 online instructors at selected institutions across the United States were asked to share their…

This book contains five papers on the role of institutions in changing labor markets in Europe. "Introduction" (Peter Auer) explores the following topics: institutions and labor market forces; macroeconomic policy; redistribution of working times; equality of opportunity; and industrial relations and social dialogue. "Small-Economy…

This document contains 35 papers from the program development section of an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The following are among the papers included: "Using Quality Indicators to Create World-Class Curricula: From Concept to Application" (Curtis Finch,…