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1. The Rug Rat Race. NBER Working Paper No. 15284

Author

National Bureau of Economic Research, Ramey, Garey, and Ramey, Valerie A.

Abstract

After three decades of decline, the amount of time spent by parents on childcare in the U.S. began to rise dramatically in the mid-1990s. Moreover, the rise in childcare time was particularly pronounced among college-educated parents. Why would highly educated parents increase the amount of time they allocate to childcare at the same time that their own market returns have skyrocketed? After finding no empirical support for standard explanations, such as selection or income effects, we offer a new explanation. We argue that increased competition for college admissions may be an important source of these trends. The number of college-bound students has surged in recent years, coincident with the rise in time spent on childcare. The resulting "cohort crowding" has led parents to compete more aggressively for college slots by spending increasing amounts of time on college preparation. Our theoretical model shows that, since college-educated parents have a comparative advantage in college preparation, rivalry leads them to increase preparation time by a greater amount than less-educated parents. We provide empirical support for our explanation with a comparison of trends between the U.S. and Canada, and a comparison across racial groups in the U.S.

Published
2009

2. Post-Secondary Attendance by Parental Income in the U.S. and Canada: What Role for Financial Aid Policy? NBER Working Paper No. 17218

Author

National Bureau of Economic Research, Belley, Philippe, Frenette, Marc, and Lochner, Lance

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of tuition and need-based financial aid policies for family income--post-secondary (PS) attendance relationships. We first conduct a parallel empirical analysis of the effects of parental income on PS attendance for recent high school cohorts in both the U.S. and Canada using data from the 1997 Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and Youth in Transition Survey. We estimate substantially smaller PS attendance gaps by parental income in Canada relative to the U.S., even after controlling for family background, adolescent cognitive achievement, and local residence fixed effects. We next document that U.S. public tuition and financial aid policies are actually more generous to low-income youth than are Canadian policies. By contrast, Canada offers more generous aid to middle-class youth than does the U.S. These findings suggest that the much stronger family income--PS attendance relationship in the U.S. is not driven by differences in the need-based nature of financial aid policies. Based on previous estimates of the effects of tuition and aid on PS attendance, we consider how much stronger income--attendance relationships would be in the absence of need-based aid and how much additional aid would need to be offered to lower income families to eliminate existing income--attendance gaps entirely.

Published
2011

3. The GED. NBER Working Paper No. 16064

Author

National Bureau of Economic Research, Heckman, James J., Humphries, John Eric, and Mader, Nicholas S.

Abstract

The General Educational Development (GED) credential is issued on the basis of an eight hour subject-based test. The test claims to establish equivalence between dropouts and traditional high school graduates, opening the door to college and positions in the labor market. In 2008 alone, almost 500,000 dropouts passed the test, amounting to 12% of all high school credentials issued in that year. This chapter reviews the academic literature on the GED, which finds minimal value of the certificate in terms of labor market outcomes and that only a few individuals successfully use it as a path to obtain post-secondary credentials. Although the GED establishes cognitive equivalence on one measure of scholastic aptitude, recipients still face limited opportunity due to deficits in noncognitive skills such as persistence, motivation and reliability. The literature finds that the GED testing program distorts social statistics on high school completion rates, minority graduation gaps, and sources of wage growth. Recent work demonstrates that, through its availability and low cost, the GED also induces some students to drop out of school. The GED program is unique to the United States and Canada, but provides policy insight relevant to any nation's educational context.

Published
2010

4. Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Mathematics, Science, and Reading Literacy in an International Context. First Look at PISA 2012. NCES 2014-024

Author

Westat, Inc., National Center for Education Statistics (ED), Kelly, Dana, Nord, Christine Winquist, Jenkins, Frank, Chan, Jessica Ying, and Kastberg, David

Abstract

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that allows countries to compare outcomes of learning as students near the end of compulsory schooling. PISA core assessments measure the performance of 15-year-old students in mathematics, science, and reading literacy every 3 years. Coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA was first implemented in 2000 in 32 countries. It has since grown to 65 education systems in 2012. PISA's goal is to assess students' preparation for the challenges of life as young adults. PISA assesses the application of knowledge in mathematics, science, and reading literacy to problems within a real-life context (OECD 1999). Mathematics was the major subject area in 2012, as it was in 2003, since each subject is a major subject area once every three cycles. In 2012, mathematics, science, and reading literacy were assessed primarily through a paper-and-pencil assessment, and problem solving was administered via a computer-based assessment. In addition to these core assessments, education systems could participate in optional paper-based financial literacy and computer-based mathematics and reading assessments. The United States participated in these optional assessments. This report presents performance on PISA 2012 in mathematics, science, and reading literacy from a U.S. perspective. Results are presented for the 65 education systems, including the United States, that participated in PISA 2012 and for the three U.S. states--Connecticut, Florida, and Massachusetts--that participated as separate education systems. These three states opted to have separate samples of public-schools and students included in PISA in order to obtain state-level results. In this report, results are presented in terms of average scale scores and the percentage of 15-year-old students reaching selected proficiency levels, comparing the United States with other participating education systems. For proficiency levels, results are reported in terms of the percentage reaching level 5 or above and the percentage below level 2. Higher proficiency levels represent the knowledge, skills, and capabilities needed to perform tasks of greater complexity. At levels 5 and 6, students demonstrate higher level skills and may be referred to as "top performers" in the subject. Conversely, students performing below level 2 are below what the OECD calls "a baseline level of proficiency, at which students begin to demonstrate the literacy competencies that will enable them to participate effectively and productively in life" (OECD 2010, p. 154). This report also presents U.S. trends over time in mathematics, science, and reading literacy, and overall results for the computer-based mathematics and reading assessments. Results for the problem-solving and financial literacy assessments will be released in 2014. Appended are: (1) Methodology and Technical Notes; and (2) International and U.S. Data Collection Results. (Contains 9 tables, 3 figures, 9 footnotes, and 3 exhibits.) [This report was prepared for the National Center for Education Statistics under Contract No. ED-IES-10-C-0047 with Westat.]

Published
2013