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Online courses are a growing part of the community college experience, but many students, particularly minority students or students who are more at-risk, face challenges in passing those courses. This paper presents results from an experimental study of an effort to redesign a set of core introductory online courses to include a set of technology tools and instructional practices designed to improve students' experiences in the online environment. Results from the study showed that treatment students were less likely to withdraw, and minority students, specifically, were more likely to pass the class and to persist to the next year of college.

I examine the relationship between student loans and marital status among individuals considering or pursuing graduate management education. Using data from a panel survey of registrants for the Graduate Management Admission Test, I show that the amount of accumulated student debt is negatively related to the probability of first marriage. The strength of the relationship diminishes with age, more so for women than for men. At the median age for the sample (24 years at test registration), the estimated decrease over a seven-year period is between 3 and 4 percentage points per $10,000 in student debt for men and a percentage point lower in absolute value for women. I use information on reported marriage expectations to show evidence that education expenditures and the amount of debt are correlated with anticipated marital status, but borrowers may not have perfect foresight about the long-term consequences of accumulating student debt.

This paper assesses the R&D performance of nascent and established technology-based small firms that receive a Phase II R&D award from the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Our empirical analysis is based on a two-stage selection probit model, which is used to estimate the probability of commercialization conditional on the Phase II project having not failed. Our model predicts, and our analysis confirms, that nascent firms are more likely to fail in their SBIR-supported R&D endeavors. Further, we find that nascent firms that do not fail have a higher probability of commercializing their developed technology.

Mentoring, and to a greater extent support from high-level administrators, has been shown to decrease worker turnover in general, but little is known about its differential impact on minority workers. Utilizing four waves of the Schools and Staffing Survey, we find that administrative support is most strongly associated with retention for minority teachers working in schools where minorities are underrepresented. This effect is pronounced for teachers new to the profession and those in schools with more students from low-income families or located in rural areas. The results indicate that workplace support is essential in maintaining or growing minority representation in relatively less-diverse organizations.

Numerous studies have examined the enrollment responses of traditional undergraduate students to the introduction of government-provided tuition subsidies, but far less attention has been devoted to the elasticity of demand for graduate education. This paper examines how the tax code and government education policies affect graduate enrollment and persistence rates along with the ways in which students fund their graduate education. Our empirical methodology is based on exogenous variations in the availability of an income tax exemption for employer- provided tuition assistance for graduate courses. We find that graduate attendance among full-time workers age 24-30 is higher when the tax exemption is available, mostly due to higher persistence in public universities and vocational course work. The use of employer aid for individuals enrolled in full-time and public part-time graduate programs also increases. We present some evidence that universities may adjust tuition to capture part of the incidence.

This paper links inherent mobility to observed schooling choices. A job search model with graduate education predicts that more mobile workers are more likely to enroll in full-time MBA programs. Adding to the literature on employer-sponsored general training, the model predicts that employers are likely to provide tuition assistance to workers who find quits costly. I use a panel survey of GMAT registrants to test some of the empirical implications of the model. I show that observable measures of job attachment are correlated with the probability of attending part-time and, conditional on part-time attendance, with the likelihood of receiving tuition reimbursement.

This paper links a worker's propensity to change jobs to her schooling choices. A model of the choice of graduate management program type based on job search theory predicts that more mobile workers are more likely to enroll in a full-time Master of Business Administration program. The study also adds to the literature on employer-sponsored general training; the model predicts that employers are more likely to provide tuition assistance to workers who find quits costly. I use a four-wave panel survey of GMAT registrants to show that these predictions hold true empirically. Observable characteristics that are correlated with stronger job attachment are also positively correlated with the probability of attending a part-time program and, conditional on part-time attendance, with the likelihood of receiving employer-provided tuition reimbursement.

This study establishes empirically a positive relationship between hours worked per week and growth in hourly wages. A four-wave panel survey of men and women who registered to take the Graduate Management Admission Test between June 1990 and March 1991 is used to show that this relationship is especially strong for young professional workers, but it is also present in a more wide-ranging dataset like the 1979 cohort of the NLSY. I nd the relationship to be nonlinear: in the GMAT Registrant Survey, for workers who put in 48 or more hours per week annual wage growth increases by 2 percent per 10 extra hours worked per week. The average eect is zero when hours are less than 47. The positive eect of hours on wage growth can be accounted for both by a learning-by-doing model with heterogeneous preferences for leisure, and by a model of promotions that combines higher per hour productivity in upper levels of the job ladder with worker heterogeneity. Using data on promotions and training, I provide evidence in support of the job-ladder model.