Papers: Education

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A Broader Look at The U.S. Employment Situation and the Importance of a Good Education

February 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Education, Employment & Wages

The January employment numbers, released today by the U.S. Department of Labor, present mixed evidence about the state of the labor market. While the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent, payrolls were just better than flat, increasing by only 36,000 jobs last month. Much attention is given to the official unemployment rate, which is certainly an important indicator of our employment situation.  But, in fact, the unemployment rate tends to understate the severity of the challenge for American workers in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

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An Education Strategy to Promote Opportunity, Prosperity, and Growth

February 2007 • Jason E. Bordoff, Jason Furman • Education, Technology & Innovation

To better secure the benefits of education, this paper outlines an evidence-based education strategy that emphasizes new investments in some areas (such as early education) and structural reforms in others (such as the teacher tenure system).

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Are We Short-Changing our Future? The Economic Imperative of Attracting Great Teachers

September 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Employment & Wages, Education

America's workforce needs a strong eduction system to compete and research demonstrates the power of a good teacher to boost student achievement. However, hiring and retaining effective teachers has become difficult, partly due to compensation. In a new policy memo, The Hamilton Project explores the relative salary declines of teachers during the last four decades when compared to other professions.

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Building America’s Job Skills with Effective Workforce Programs: A Training Strategy to Raise Wages and Increase Work Opportunities

November 2011 • Michael Greenstone, Adam Looney • Employment & Wages, Education, Global Economy, Economic Security, Poverty

Amid the Great Recession and rapid technological changes, both workers with less education and workers who have been displaced from long-tenured jobs face challenges because they lack the particular skills that employers demand for good-paying jobs. In a new Hamilton Project strategy paper, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney address the importance of developing workers’ skills through training and workforce development programs, and examine newly available evidence on policies that boost job opportunities and wages.

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College Grants on a Postcard: A Proposal for Simple and Predictable Federal Student Aid

February 2007 • Susan M. Dynarski, Judith Scott-Clayton • Education, Effective Government

This paper analyzes the federal student aid system and finds that the level of complexity makes it ineffective at increasing college enrollment. The paper then outlines a simplified system to address this issue.

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Evidence from May’s Employment Numbers on the Benefits of Education

June 2010 • Michael Greenstone • Employment & Wages, Education

May employment numbers, released by the Labor Department today, demonstrate continued momentum behind our nation’s economic recovery. With 431,000 new jobs, building on the 290,000 jobs created in April, this marks the first time we’ve had five consecutive months of positive job growth since the beginning of the Great Recession in December 2007.

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Grading Higher Education: Giving Consumers the Information They Need

December 2010 • Bridget Terry Long • Education, Effective Government

Potential students and their families must navigate a labyrinth of incomplete and uncertain information when deciding where to go to college, what to study, or what career to pursue, resulting in an arrrray of poor choices being made every day. This proposal calls for the federal government to expand the types of information that are available and allow users to compare indicators like cost, financial aid, student debt, employment outcomes, and average salaries following graduation, across peer institutions.

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How Do Recent College Grads Really Stack Up? Employment and Earnings for Graduates of the Great Recession

June 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Education, Employment & Wages

As the job market continues to struggle, there has been much debate about whether a college education has been worth the investment for recent graduates. Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney examine whether recent college graduates are better off, in terms of employment and earnings, than their counterparts who did not invest in a degree.

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Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job

April 2006 • Robert Gordon, Thomas J. Kane, Douglas O. Staiger • Education

This paper outlines a program of federal support to help states measure the effectiveness of individual teachers. Teachers who receive good evaluations would be offered bonuses if they were willing to teach in high-poverty schools.

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Improving Student Outcomes: Restoring America’s Education Potential

September 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone, Paige Shevlin • Education

For decades, education has boosted U.S. productivity and earnings, forged a path out of poverty for many families, helped disadvantaged students narrow the learning gap with their peers, and developed a workforce that continues to be among the most productive and innovative on Earth.  However, in recent years educational attainment and performance have stagnated.  In a new strategy paper, The Hamilton Project provides a dual-track approach to improving educational outcomes for K-12 students by addressing structural barriers and implementing short-term cost-effective reforms to improve student performance.

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Investing in the Best and Brightest: Increased Fellowship Support for American Scientists and Engineers

December 2006 • Richard B. Freeman • Education, Technology & Innovation

Richard Freeman discusses the National Science Foundation fellowship policy. He argues that current U.S. NSF fellowship policy gives less of an incentive for students to enter science and engineering than in earlier periods.

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Investing in the Future: An Economic Strategy for State and Local Governments in a Period of Tight Budgets

February 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Infrastructure, Education, State & Local

Confronting near-term budget challenges, state and local governments are under tremendous pressure to focus on immediate needs at the expense of long-term investments. Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney highlight four policy principles for state and local governments with an emphasis on the importance of infrastructure investments for economic growth and prosperity.

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New Assessments for Improved Accountability

September 2011 • Derek Neal • Education

In recent years, efforts to hold teachers and schools accountable for student test scores have increased as part of an attempt to increase student achievement by raising teacher effectiveness and bringing up the performance of low-performing schools. Derek Neal proposes improved assessments and accountability systems through two distinct examinations: one traditional test to track educational achievement over time, and a new examination to evaluate teacher performance.

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Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments

September 2011 • Brian A. Jacob, Jonah E. Rockoff • Education

While education reform is often focused on dramatic changes, Brian A. Jacob and Jonah E. Rockoff suggest that implementing managerial reforms and making sure the “trains run on time” can substantially increase student learning at modest cost. Jacob and Rockoff propose three organizational reforms to improve student performance at moderate cost: 1) Starting school later in the day for middle and high school students; 2) Shifting from separate to elementary and middle schools to K-8; 3) allow teachers to teach the same grade level for multiple years or having teachers specializing in the subject where they appear most effective.

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Policies to Reduce High-Tenured Displaced Workers’ Earnings Losses Through Retraining

November 2011 • Louis S. Jacobson, Daniel G. Sullivan, Robert J. LaLonde • Employment & Wages, Education, Poverty, Global Economy, Economic Security

After being displaced from long-tenured jobs, workers often experience persistent, significant earnings losses. New research suggests that retraining in certain “high-return” fields can substantially reduce these losses. In a new Hamilton Project paper, Louis S. Jacobson, Robert J. LaLonde and Daniel G. Sullivan propose the establishment of a Displaced Worker Training (DWT) Program to distribute grants to displaced workers so they can obtain longer-term training to substantially increase their earnings. The DWT Program would also leverage the nation’s One-Stop Career Centers to assess and counsel grantees.

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Raising Job Quality and Skills for American Workers: Creating More-Effective Education and Workforce Development Systems in the States

November 2011 • Harry J. Holzer • Employment & Wages, Education, Economic Security, Global Economy, Poverty

Less educated workers often experience prolonged periods of unemployment and stagnating wages because they lack the skills necessary to compete in a global economy. In a new Hamilton Project paper, Harry J. Holzer proposes a set of competitive grants to fund education, training, and career counseling initiatives that feature private sector connections based on the experience of existing successful workforce development programs.

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Reshaping Student Loan Programs to Fit the Careers of Young College Graduates

April 2007 • Thomas J. Kane • Education

The payoff to a college education has increased dramatically over the last two decades. At the same time, the cost of a college education has increased steeply. To provide all Americans with the opportunity to share in the prosperity of the knowledge-based economy, those high-school graduates who are prepared to benefit from college must have access to the financial resources needed to pursue their education. 

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Retraining Displaced Workers

October 2010 • Robert J. LaLonde, Daniel G. Sullivan • Employment & Wages, Education

Robert LaLonde of the University of Chicago and Daniel Sullivan of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago suggest that retraining through our nation’s community colleges is a way to reduce the skills gaps of at least some of these displaced workers and increase their reemployment earnings.

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Success By Ten: Intervening Early, Often, and Effectively in the Education of Young Children

February 2007 • Jens Ludwig, Isabel V. Sawhill • Education

The absence of a quality early education for many disadvantaged children represents an extraordinary waste of human potential. This paper outlines a model for helping such children achieve success through an intensive early education program.

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Summer Opportunity Scholarships (SOS): A Proposal to Narrow the Skills Gap

April 2006 • Alan B. Krueger • Education

Even in early grades, a large skill gap exists between students from economically advantaged and disadvantaged families. This paper outlines a program based on evidence from studies of summer programs which will provide scholarships for economically disadvantaged children. 

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The Hamilton Project Policy Response to the State of the Union Address

January 2012 • Education, Economic Security, Employment & Wages, Energy & Environment, Infrastructure, Tax Policy, Technology & Innovation

Last night, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address, putting forth his policy agenda to the 112th Congress on issues. Since its launch in 2006, The Hamilton Project has developed targeted policy proposals that touch on many of these areas, which we offer as a resource to policymakers in response to specific ideas mentioned by the President last evening. 

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The Power and Pitfalls of Education Incentives

September 2011 • Bradley M. Allan, Roland Fryer, Jr. • Education

Recent incentive programs demonstrate that well-designed rewards to students can improve student achievement at relatively low costs. Bradley M. Allan and Roland G. Fryer draw on field experiments to propose a set of guidelines to design a successful education incentive program. Those guidelines include paying students to perform tasks that will lead to better academic performance rather than paying them for grades and test scores alone.

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Viewing Education Loans Through a Myopic Lens

June 2008 • Sima Gandi • Education

Although the federal government dedicated nearly $40 billion to funding student loans in 2006, only 60 percent of potential students from low-income families attend college, compared with 90 percent from high-income families. This paper argues that enrollment rates are lower than they could be because potential students undervalue loan subsidies, which are delivered after graduation instead of up front when a student enrolls and incurs costs.

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Where is the Best Place to Invest $102,000 — In Stocks, Bonds, or a College Degree?

June 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Economic Security, Education, Employment & Wages

Is college a worthwhile investment? Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone and Policy Director Adam Looney compare the value of a college degree to other investment options and find higher education provides, by far, the greatest rate of return. 

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