Among North Carolina's 11 Black colleges and universities, it is possible to see them as a representative sample of the 105 institutions that make up the historically Black college and university community in the United States. While leaders at the state's HBCUs express optimism over the potential they envision their individual campuses…

We offer a concise history of teacher retirement plans in the United States, highlighting the increase in the generosity of the plans over the past 25 years. We employ data from plans in all fifty states to estimate the impact of a set of social and economic variables on the plans' replacement rates for a hypothetical teacher. We find that, at the…

Rural industrial restructuring, including growth in meat processing and other nondurable manufacturing, has generated employment opportunities that have attracted Latino in migrants to new nonmetropolitan destinations. Long-time residents, however, are not always receptive. While some observers point to economic and social benefits of a Latino…

The labor force is the number of people aged 16 or older who are either working or looking for work. It does not include active-duty military personnel or institutionalized people, such as prison inmates. Quantifying this total supply of labor is a way of determining how big the economy can get. Labor force participation rates vary significantly…

Previous studies have shown that as the percent black or percent Hispanic grows, that group's residential segregation from whites tends to increase as well. Typically, these findings are explained in terms of white discriminatory reaction to the perceived threat associated with minority population growth. The present analysis examines whether…

The population of recent college graduates has been growing more slowly in New England than in the rest of the United States, and New England states are concerned that an inadequate supply of skilled workers may hamper economic growth. In some sense, New England is a victim of its own success. The region's colleges and universities excel at…

Literature on leadership and change suggests that leaders help drive and sustain first- and second-order change and that they help to motivate people towards a vision based on common values; therefore, leaders do need to be prepared for significant responsibility. Leaders should ask, what "grand narrative" are today's leaders, this…

For more than a century, communities across the United States legally employed strategies to create and maintain racial divides. One particularly widespread and effective practice was that of "sundown towns," which signaled to African Americans and others that they were not welcome within the city limits after dark. Though nearly 1,000…

Situated in the heart of the fertile San Joaquin Valley twenty miles north of Fresno, the city of Madera has a population of 56,710 people. Agriculture is the driving force behind the local economy; the area produces more than 100 crops including raisin grapes, almonds, figs, pistachios, alfalfa, corn, milk, cattle and poultry. The total value of…

The racial and ethnic demographic landscape of American society and postsecondary education is changing at an accelerated rate whereby people-of-color are becoming the numerical majority. Yet, little is known about the response to these changes particularly in the area of leadership. There is minimal evidence to suggest that members of racial and…

This study was designed to investigate school principals' perceptions on school public relations in five areas: community demographics, parental involvement, internal and external communications, school council issues, and community resources. Findings indicated that principals' concerns were as follows: rapid population growth, change of…

This report contains and analyzes statistical information about the financing of California postsecondary education from the 1965-66 fiscal year through 2010-11. CPEC (California Postsecondary Education Commission) compiles, analyzes, and disseminates this information to provide policymakers with comprehensive and comparable financial data that…

Between 1990 and 2000 the U.S. Hispanic population increased by 14 million, which is the largest decadal population rise in United States history. This increase was not spread evenly throughout the United States, nor was it isolated to locations that already had large Hispanic populations. On the contrary, areas that previously had a relatively…

This report marks the inaugural edition of a regular summary report in Brookings' "State of Metropolitan America" series. It focuses on the major demographic forces transforming the nation and large metropolitan areas in the 2000s. In this sense, it previews what people will learn from the results of the 2010 census, as well as supplements those…

This report gives an overview of the existing evidence base on class size and education in England. In particular, it considers how class sizes have changed over time; the impact of the increase in birth rate on pupil numbers and how this could affect the teacher requirement and class sizes; and the impact of class size on educational outcomes.…