"Child Care Helps America Work and Learn" is a new publication produced by the Child Care Bureau. This new series will highlight some of the many Recovery Act-funded child care success stories from communities across the country that illustrate how the Bureau is working toward the shared goal of supporting children and families. This…

Running schools on the basis of nonpublic investment has been a basic characteristic of nongovernment or non-public-sector operated education in China since the advent of reform and opening up. This is not merely an unavoidable choice for school operators who have no other alternative; it is an inevitable option at a given period in the…

This article presents a process for valuing a portfolio of learning assets used by line executives across industries to value traditional business assets. Embedded within the context of enterprise risk management, this strategic asset allocation process is presented step by step, providing readers the operational considerations to implement this…

The author offers innovative approaches to 3 topics that are typically only briefly mentioned (if at all) in money and banking courses. The first topic is a Treasury bill auction experiment in which students have an opportunity to participate directly. The results from a class of 14 money and banking students are used to explain how an instructor…

The authors describe a Web-based classroom experiment with two assets: cash and a stock that pays a random dividend. The interest rate on cash, coupled with a well-chosen final redemption value for the stock, induces a flat trajectory for the fundamental value of the stock. However, prices typically rise above this value during a session. The…

After an initial inventory of community indicators in its 2008 Shreveport-Bossier City "Community Counts" annual report, the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier decided to focus existing funding related to children and families on the areas of education, health, and poverty, as well as develop new funds in these areas. These focal…

It is argued that in the knowledge economy and in the context of the current restrictions on public finance, matching the output of higher education with the needs of the labour market is not simply one of many key issues for policy makers addressing the sustainability of higher education: it is "the" issue. As the sources of funding for…

The paper argues that access to public infrastructure plays a crucial role on the presence of private schools in a community, as it could not only minimise the cost of production, but also ensure a high return to private investment. Results using community, school and child/household-level PROBE survey data from five north Indian states provide…

A needs assessment was conducted for the adaptation of an existing online Cooperative Extension investment course for use by farm households. The theoretical model was Social Marketing Theory. Data about financial attitudes, practices, and learning preferences of farm households were collected through a telephone survey of 300 farm households and…

National Board Certification (NBC) for teachers has become an important innovation in long-standing efforts to improve teacher quality. As states, districts, and teachers increasingly invest resources in this process, information is needed on its cost, impact, and value. This analysis estimates the full opportunity cost of four NBC support…

This article reports that after years of double-digit gains, college endowments are feeling the pinch from distressed financial markets. Some colleges are reporting negative rates of return for the fiscal year that just ended, and even those that performed better are wondering what the current financial crisis will mean. If the market's slide…

This article reports that the crisis besetting U.S. and world financial markets is hitting school districts hard, as they struggle to float the bonds needed for capital projects, borrow money to ensure cash flow, and get access to investment funds locked up in troubled institutions. Some schools districts depend heavily on borrowed money to pay…

Progress in educational development in the world since 1900 has been slow and uneven between countries. Providing basic education for all children in developing countries has been and remains an unmet challenge of governments and international organizations alike. This is in sharp contrast to recent findings in the economics literature on the…

The Center for Children's Initiatives (CCI) champions the right of all children to start life with the best possible foundation of care, health and learning. CCI draws on its experience, expertise, and interactions with families, early childhood professionals and policymakers to shape its vision to expand and improve early learning opportunities,…

Administrative skill is essential to organizational effectiveness. Yet, few studies examine how human capital investments over a career affect selection into administration. We use panel data for economists to estimate the probability of choosing administration over a pure academic track. The results show that, while research-specific human…