NEW PAPER
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.
NEW PAPER
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.
NEW PAPER
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.
NEW PAPER
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Hamilton Project tracks the monthly “job gap,” which is the number of jobs that need to be created in order to return to pre-recession employment levels while still absorbing the 125,000 workers entering the labor force each month.
Retraining in technical fields provides higher returns for workers than retraining in non-technical classes.
Students are more likely to respond to education incentives for certain inputs, such as reading books, than more general outputs, such as making good grades.
Over the last 40 years, the salary gap between teachers and nonteachers has grown by over $10,000.
Investments in education have narrowed the black-white skill gap for much of the twentieth century, but has stagnated since the 1980s.
The United States scores below the OCED average in mathematics, despite spending $3,000 more per student than the OCED average.
Over the last 30 years, math and reading test scores for high school seniors have barely moved.
Despite continued debate over the value of a college education, data shows that higher education has a much higher rate of return than any other investment.
In today’s economy, those young adults with a college degree are more likely to be employed and earn higher wages than their peers with a high school diploma only or less.
Despite increases in per-student education spending, high school and college completion rates have stagnated over the past 30 years.
Hamilton Project expert Susan Dynarski testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on designing effective tax incentives for post secondary education.
FEATURED
On September 27, The Hamilton Project at Brookings held a forum to highlight new policy ideas and perspectives on how to improve student performance in K-12 education. The program concluded with a discussion on the path forward in education reform with Teach for America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, moderated by David Leonhardt, D.C. bureau chief of the New York Times.
The Hamilton Project and the Center for American Progress hosted the second of two conferences addressing the long-term challenges of creating quality jobs in the United States and preparing American workers for those jobs of the future. As part of the event, The Hamilton Project and the Center for American Progress released three targeted policy proposals by outside scholars to deal with the long-term challenges associated with the new global economy.
The Hamilton Project partnered with the Center for American Progress to host a forum on the country’s employment situation. The event featured a discussion with New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and NEC director Lawrence H. Summers, moderated by PBS host Charlie Rose.
The Hamilton Project held a panel discussion that featured recent strategy and discussion papers on ways to promote opportunity and growth through our nation's education system. The Project is examining the full spectrum of early childhood, K-12, and higher education.
President Obama gave the keynote speech at a policy briefing surrounding the launch of The Hamilton Project. The event featured two policy roundtables and the release of the first three Hamilton Project discussion papers.
The Hamilton Project tracks the monthly “job gap,” which is the number of jobs that need to be created in order to return to pre-recession employment levels while still absorbing the 125,000 workers entering the labor force each month.
Retraining in technical fields provides higher returns for workers than retraining in non-technical classes.
On September 27, The Hamilton Project at Brookings helda forum to highlight new policy ideas and perspectives on how to improve student performance in K-12 education. The program concluded with a discussion on the path forward in education reform with Teach for America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, moderated by David Leonhardt, D.C. bureau chief of the New York Times.
Hamilton Project Advisory Council member Robert E. Rubin welcomes the crowd at the event "Promoting K-12 Education to Advance Student Achievement," and Advisory Council member Roger C. Altman provides an overview of a new strategy paper. Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone moderates a panel discussion between Harvard University Professor and EdLabs CEO Roland Fryer, former Superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Peter Gorman, New Visions for Public Schools President Robert L. Hughes, and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.
New York Times D.C. Bureau Chief David Leonhardt moderates a conversation between Teach for America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten at the event "Promoting K-12 Education to Advance Student Achievement."
Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone moderates a panel discussion between University of Chicago Professor Derek Neal, former Superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Peter Gorman, New Visions for Public Schools President Robert L. Hughes, and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at the event "Promoting K-12 Education to Advance Student Achievement."
Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone moderates a panel discussion between University of Michigan Professor Brian A. Jacob, Columbia University Professor Jonah E. Rockoff, former Superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Peter Gorman, New Visions for Public Schools President Robert L. Hughes, and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at the event "Promoting K-12 Education to Advance Student Achievement."
New York Times D.C. Bureau Chief David Leonhardt moderates a conversation between Teach for America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten at the event "Promoting K-12 Education to Advance Student Achievement."
Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone moderates a panel discussion between University of Chicago Professor Derek Neal, former Superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Peter Gorman, New Visions for Public Schools President Robert L. Hughes, and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at the event "Promoting K-12 Education to Advance Student Achievement."
Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone moderates a panel discussion between University of Michigan Professor Brian A. Jacob, Columbia University Professor Jonah E. Rockoff, former Superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Peter Gorman, New Visions for Public Schools President Robert L. Hughes, and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at the event "Promoting K-12 Education to Advance Student Achievement."
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