"Reskilling for the Pandemic Recession and Recovery" focuses on the U.S. economic downturn since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Hispanic individuals, women, and people without a postsecondary degree. Considering these challenges, the brief details policy proposals for…

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a stark spotlight on need for digital skills among a wide swath of the American workforce. But even before the pandemic, the US labor market reflected a growing demand for workers across industries to have strong digital skills. This report uses data from a rigorously designed international assessment to analyze…

In March, the world changed. COVID-19 hit the nation, impacting the health, economic security, and way of life of many Americans. Education also was severely disrupted. College students across the country went home and transitioned to remote learning. Meanwhile, institutions of higher education went through their own period of adjustment,…

In this second annual summary of the their work, the Investing in Community Initiative provides practical advice for community leaders and policymakers around four critical issues. First, how should local needs be defined? Chapter 1 argues that data about local economies can show whether communities are best served by creating new jobs,…

Community college students often hold knowledge from various professional and academic experiences. A challenge for these students, and for their institutions and employers, is how to formally bridge these competencies to support students' efforts to reach their academic and career goals. This issue brief looks at the practice of awarding credit…

Emerging digital technological advances have been a driving force in the evolution of the modern workplace. This influence extends not only to the creation of new industries and types of work, but also to how work is completed. For example, new technologies have made it possible for us to coordinate and communicate over vast geographic distances.…

A new challenge has become present in the field of generative artificial intelligence (AI). The fundamental nature of education, a vital element for advancing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), now grapples with the transformative impact of AI technologies. As we stand at this intersection of progress and pedagogy, critical…

In 2021, California committed to providing universal prekindergarten (UPK) for all 4-year-olds and expanding access for income-eligible 3-year-olds by 2025-2026. California UPK includes several early learning programs, including transitional kindergarten (TK), the California State Preschool Program (CSPP), Head Start, and locally funded early…

Exclusionary discipline practices differentially harm young children of color. As early childhood education systems seek to close these gaps to ensure all young children have access to high quality early learning experiences, the field requires more evidence-based approaches that can be scaled and replicated. Infant and early childhood mental…

Community colleges are attempting to bridge America's widening blue-collar skills gap through workforce development programs promising living-wage jobs that don't require four years of college. While trade, construction and manufacturing companies are starving for talented workers, these fields also suffer from an image problem, one fueled by…

This paper serves as an exploration and thick description of job performance outcomes based upon the manner in which self-directed learning activities of employees are conducted, mediated by the use of Web 2.0 technologies in organizational settings. It provides a collective view of the role that Web 2.0 technology plays in self-directed workplace…

The international community has set forth global targets that include calls for universal access to high-quality early childhood care and education (ECCE), as indicated in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. One major impediment to achieving this target is the lack of a skilled workforce. In this paper, we argue the case for…

The driving force of California's growing innovation economy is talent. However, there is also a growing mismatch between the type of talent in demand and the type of talent in supply. This paper describes why one of California's best options for closing this talent gap is to expand and modernize the State's apprenticeship system. [Additional…

This study utilized Clark and Estes' gap analysis framework to investigate barriers to building an academically and/or professionally trained Qatari student affairs workforce at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Data collection combined a survey of 32 respondents with nine in-depth interviews drawn from the same sample. The respondents' experience in…

Effective collaboration among schools and agencies is critical to the success of pre-employment transition services (pre-ETS). We examined the views of 596 middle and high school educators regarding pre-ETS and the employment prospects of their students with disabilities. Educators overwhelmingly affirmed that youth with disabilities needed better…