Demographic and economic influences on higher education enrollments include the changing size of birth cohorts, age-selective population movements, the value of a college degree in the labor market, and the cost of college attendance. Overall, it is reasonable to anticipate continued low rates, possibly even lower rates, of college attendance in…

This paper considers the distinctive issues demographers face when they must forecast enrollments in a context of court-ordered desegregation. Specifically, it examines whether magnet schools strengthen a district's overall attractiveness to enrollees from outside, or whether they only siphon students away from other nonmagnet schools within the…

This paper discusses demographic analysis and illustrates how it might be used to strengthen educational policy planning. Much of the paper uses techniques of demographic analysis in an effort to describe the current and future demographic context of educational policy planning. The author examines trends in national fertility and age distribution…

Out of a factual description of the national demographic and economic context of higher education in general the authors offer interpretations for community colleges emphasizing three trends significant to educational planners: (1) Demographic pressure that made for increased enrollments in the past will dissipate at the traditional college-going…