In this analysis, we consider how a potentially important triggering event in the life course--exclusionary school discipline--may affect students' high school outcomes. We extend the literature to focus on the long-term effects of exclusionary discipline that occurs in the early grades, when students are relatively young and when a significant…

This paper documents the emerging role of education in the well-known decline in US male working hours. An insignificant hours difference between high school and college graduates becomes a significant 2 hours/week advantage for college graduates within a generation. This growing "college hours premium" is confirmed in alternate data.…

Black men and women have different levels of average educational attainment, yet few studies have focused on explaining how and why these patterns develop. One explanation may be inequality in experiences with institutional punishment through exclusionary school discipline and criminal justice exposure. Drawing on intersectional frameworks and…

Over one in three students who started college in 2012 did not enroll in the fall immediately following their high school graduation. Despite the prevalence of delayed college enrollment, however, little is known about its consequences for labor market outcomes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this paper examines…

The children of teen mothers are at elevated risk for becoming teen parents themselves. The current study aimed to identify how levels of mothers' education were associated with risk of teenage childbearing for children of teen versus nonteen mothers. Through structural equation modeling, we tested whether children's environmental and personal…

Over one third of students in the U.S. who started college in 2012 did not enroll in the fall immediately following their high school graduation. Despite the prevalence of delayed college enrollment, however, little is known about the reasons for the delay and the consequences for academic and labor markets outcomes. Conventional human capital…

It is commonly understood that education is one of the most reliable paths to economic security-- particularly for Black and Latinx people and for people from low-wealth families. But it is less well known that the greatest unmet labor market demand is for workers with "middle skills," who have some postsecondary training but not a…

Victimization and problem behaviors during middle school detrimentally influence student learning. However, less is known about how they may cooccur and collectively affect high school graduation and whether the interrelationships vary by gender. Using data from a nationally representative cohort of seventh-grade students from the National…

Existing research suggests that repeated bullying victimization is associated with lower levels of educational attainment. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether a true causal association exists since previously reported associations may be confounded by genetic and shared environmental factors that affect both repeated bullying…

This study examines a range of GED recipients' life course contexts and experiences and their relationship with long-term outcomes. Using descriptive comparisons, bivariate tests, and propensity-score matched regression models to analyze data from rounds 1-15 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, analyses aim to examine: (1)…

Both income inequality and the achievement test score gap between high- and low-income children increased dramatically in the United States beginning in the 1970s. Recent work by Chetty, Hendren, Kline, Saez, and Turner (2014) suggests that, unlike the test score gap, the gap in college enrollment is essentially constant. This article takes a…

Today, many undergraduates are themselves raising children. But does college-going by parents improve their offspring's educational attainment? I address this question using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth--1979 and linked Children and Young Adults Survey. I first model postnatal college enrollment and bachelor's completion by…

This article shows that the traditional narrative of Black-White high school graduation gaps is inverted among economically disadvantaged female students. Two nationally representative surveys and statewide administrative data demonstrate that low-income White females graduate at rates 5 to 6 percentage points lower than Black peers despite having…

Using a sample of youth who graduated from high school in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this paper examines the impact of high school math curriculum on the decision to go to college. Results that control for unobserved differences between students and their families suggest that a more rigorous high school math curriculum is associated with a…

Age patterns of secondary certification and college entry differ in complex and surprising ways for traditional graduates and GED recipients. Although GED recipients are less likely to enter college in their late teens, they catch up to traditional graduates in their 20s. Results show that adjusting for differences in the age trajectories of…