Companies are facing a persistent and growing skills gap, which has been exacerbated by the tight labor market. Employers use industry certifications, college degrees, boot camps, and badges to measure job skills, but until recently it was impossible to compare certifications or degree attainment. This paper describes credential transparency and…

Early research on the returns to higher education treated the postsecondary system as a monolith. In reality, postsecondary education in the United States and around the world is highly differentiated, with a variety of options that differ by credential (associates degree, bachelor's degree, diploma, certificate, graduate degree), the control of…

Five years ago, the Louisiana Board of Regents adopted "Louisiana Prospers," its Master Plan for Higher Education, setting an audacious goal to support economic growth and strengthen quality of life in the state by increasing the percentage of Louisiana's working-age population (ages 25-64) with a credential of value beyond high school…

While the direct impacts of minimum wage changes on employment have received considerable attention, these policy changes have the potential to impact skill attainment by changing the opportunity cost of college enrollment. Using institutional data on college enrollment and program completion, we find that enrollment falls markedly among students…

The rush to short courses and use of micro-credentials prompted by responses to the pandemic has greatly accelerated a trend already underway. However, few studies have examined the impact of short courses or micro-credentials on skills or employment outcomes, and this hasty move draws attention to major problems in the ways in which higher…

Given the rapid growth in short-term programs, and policymakers' fast-growing interest to invest federal higher education dollars into very-short-term credentials, we explore what the research does--and does not--show us about such credentials' utility in the labor market. With concerns about equity, our review of the literature guides us towards…

The education pipeline is characterized by a series of well-defined and extensively documented transitions. From preschool to kindergarten, elementary to middle to high school, and college to work, students at multiple stages of human development experience transitions that shape their downstream outcomes. In this dissertation, I use…

This Executive Summary provides a brief overview of the Annual Report of the Cohort 3 TPSID Model Demonstration Projects (Year 3, 2022-2023). Information is provided about the TPSID (Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disability) projects about program characteristics, student characteristics, academics, academic…

The good news? Texas is growing. In 2022, Texas joined California to be only the second U.S. state with a population of over 30 million people. The bad news? Texas is growing. More specifically, the Texas labor market is growing. One strategy to improve career readiness is the creation of Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH).…

In conducting a multi-disciplinary, multi-degree study of all 83 higher education accrediting organizations in the United States and the 605 academic programs associated with them, our goal was to uncover patterns in the presence of leadership and general workforce competencies identified within the stated learning outcomes employed by these…

In many occupations there has been a trend towards requiring an entry-level qualification where a qualification was previously not required for the occupation. For various other occupations, the type of qualification needed has changed to one of a higher level. Does this so-called 'credential creep' impact on the outcomes for individuals who…

The individual economic benefits of higher education are largely determined by what students learn in the process of obtaining their degrees. Increasingly, for-profit companies that develop and sell digital courseware products influence what college students learn. Employees' pedagogical expertise, content knowledge, and understanding of…

The quality of care children receive from birth to kindergarten sets them on a trajectory for successful entry to school. Children who receive high-quality care, which is provided by qualified early educators with demonstrated mastery of the essential early learning core competencies, enter school ready to learn. Shortages of credentialed early…

Prior research indicates that future workers will not possess enough training to contribute to a robust U.S. labor market, especially in "middle-skill" roles that require some postsecondary education but not a 4-year degree. At the same time, the last 30 years have borne witness to an increased likelihood that middle-skill individuals…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are marketed as opportunities for participants to improve their labor market outcomes, and tens of thousands of students have paid for career-focused MOOC certificate programs. However, there is limited and conflicting research on MOOCs and labor market outcomes. Using two randomized control trials, we test…