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The current focus on all things "green--greener--greenest" has found its way into the realm of continuing higher education through a proliferation of courses and programs. A recent Internet search on the phrase "sustainability certificate" produced over 7,600 results, reflecting a strong perceived or real demand. In this article, the author traces the origin of the environmental movement in the US to "Earth Day" in 1970 and then organizes her discussion under rubrics on (1) sustainability in the US; (2) the corporate response; (3) sustainability in higher education and continuing higher education; (4) green marketing and environmental consumerism (including "greenwashing"); (5) results from original market research survey; and (6) practical next steps for continuing higher educators. She hopes this article helps raise the awareness of continuing education leaders and practitioners to the various nuances of sustainability from the student perspective. A list of references and additional bibliography is included. (Contains 4 charts.)

This essay outlines several ways in which educators might better prepare young people of all backgrounds to understand, enter, and eventually act upon the changing economic landscape. The contributors to this article, which presents perspectives on social class and education in the United States, suggest that one might learn some lessons from the examples of those who have already made the journey. The work collected in this article also suggests intriguing new directions for educating poor and working-class students, while also generating new and complex questions about the scope of that work in these changing economic times.

While no one can predict the future, today's economic and demographic realities suggest the opportunities and challenges that will face America in the years to come. The U.S. economy has already undergone dramatic changes in the latter part of the twentieth century. The extension of product and labor markets has expanded global competition, and the infusion of technology has been widespread across all sectors of the economy. Both of these forces have affected the structure of jobs and the way people work, fueling increases in educational attainment and the demand for skill. The kind of education and skill demanded has also changed. General reasoning, problem-solving, and behavioral skills as well as a positive cognitive style are increasingly needed to supplement the narrow cognitive and occupational skills sought in a more directed work environment. Access to good jobs and earnings in the American system are driven by the complementarities between these soft skills, general education beyond high school, occupational preparation, and the resultant access to learning and technology on the job. The growing importance of education in overall economic growth and individual opportunity creates two primary economic challenges for education reformers: (1) to meet the need for a greater quantity and quality of human capital necessary to foster overall growth in the new knowledge-based economy; and (2) to reduce the growing differences in family incomes by closing the gap between the nation's education-haves and education-have-nots. The authors contend that strengthening the relationship between education and work requirements begins with a stronger focus on the "missing middle" in education policy: the years when academic and applied learning overlap between the completion of basic academic preparation and the completion of occupational or professional training. These are the critical years when young adults begin to mix educational experiences with their growing independence in families and communities, and with their early attachment to the world of work and careers. The missing elements at the critical juncture between education and careers are curricula that effectively mix academics and applied learning as well as institutional relationships that create venues for applied learning and successful transitions from school to school and school to work. (Contains 10 figures and 19 endnotes.)

Almost half of the Latino immigrants working in the United States are women. However, studies concerning the work experiences of Latinas are almost absent in the literature. This article reports the findings from a qualitative study using eight focus groups (n = 53) of Latina immigrant workers. The focus group transcripts were analyzed using the grounded theory approach in which themes emerge from iterative readings of the transcripts by a group of investigators. This study identified themes related to excessive workload, familiar work/unfamiliar hazards, cultural tensions, lack of health care, pregnancy, sexual harassment, and family obligations/expectations. The responses of the Latina workers in this study clearly indicated that they live within a complex web of stressors, both as workers and as women. The increased economic opportunities that come with immigration to the United States are accompanied by many opportunities for exploitation, especially if they are undocumented. It is hoped that the findings of this study will raise awareness regarding these issues and spur further work in this area. (Contains 1 table.)

When Tim Clevenger became executive director of the University of Oregon Alumni Association in 2011, he was dismayed to learn that revenue, including paid memberships, was steadily declining. The association staff and board of directors considered multiple strategies to boost earnings, with stabilizing and growing dues revenue high on the list. Clevenger and his peers at U.S. alumni associations that customarily generate a substantial portion of their own annual revenue are increasingly finding different ways of doing so. Some are experimenting with new sources amid ongoing higher education cuts and a national marketplace in which long-reliable affinity credit card programs are not as lucrative as they once were. Many associations have affinity insurance programs, for instance, that pay royalties when alumni buy policies, but officials say such monies have replaced only part of what credit card arrangements used to yield. So a growing number of officials have put into practice low-risk endeavors that require small amounts of staff time, such as direct-mail fundraising for philanthropic support, engaging affinity partners as sponsors of alumni events, and even selling fine art.

The U.S. automotive industry has always been a cyclical business, but its near-collapse in 2008-09 and the subsequent bankruptcy of two of the three largest domestic automakers was more than a cyclical downturn. As light vehicle sales and production slowly recover, the industry has started to hire again, though with caution. In an industry known for its cyclicality, automakers and suppliers now understand how best to structure their business to attract and retain workers, and, hopefully, how to weather future downturns. Workers who can wear many hats, solve problems, and see the big picture will have a leg up in the revamped and revitalized automotive industry.

American education has problems, almost everyone is willing to concede, but many think those problems are mostly concentrated in America's large urban school districts. In the elite suburbs, where wealthy and politically influential people tend to live, the schools are assumed to be world-class. Unfortunately, what everyone knows is wrong. Even the most elite suburban school districts often produce results that are mediocre when compared with those of America's international peers. The best school districts may look excellent alongside large urban districts, the comparison state accountability systems encourage, but that measure provides false comfort. America's elite suburban students are increasingly competing with students outside the United States for economic opportunities, and a meaningful assessment of student achievement requires a global, not a local, comparison. The authors developed the Global Report Card (GRC) to facilitate such a comparison. The GRC enables users to compare academic achievement in math and reading between 2004 and 2007 for virtually every public school district in the United States with the average achievement in a set of 25 other countries with developed economies that might be considered our economic peers and sometime competitors. The main results are reported as percentiles of a distribution, which indicates how the average student in a district performs relative to students throughout the advanced industrialized world. A percentile of 60 means that the average student in a district is achieving better than 59.9 percent of the students in the global comparison group. In this article, the authors focus on the 2007 math results, although the GRC contains information for both math and reading between 2004 and 2007. They focus on 2007 because it is the most recent data set, and they focus on math because it is the subject that provides the best comparison across countries and is most closely correlated with economic growth. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

The US has one of the most inequitably funded school systems and the largest prison population in the industrialized world. These two factors help to construct what is known as the school to prison pipeline. The past 30 years has included punitive policies within schools and the criminal justice system that have resulted in a disproportionate number of Latino and African-American youth being suspended from school, dropping out, and/or incarcerated. In this article, the lived experiences of incarcerated youth framed by institutional policies within prisons and schools are discussed. In total, fifteen interviews with incarcerated youth who spontaneously discussed drug trafficking were analyzed using criminological theory. A key theme for many youth was how a lack of educational opportunity and success shifted their focus to attaining economic opportunities through drug trafficking. Policy implications are discussed relating to school and corrections funding along with the costs to society.

Centering the voices of immigrant youth, this qualitative study seeks to understand how students navigate living and learning in a new country, as well as the meaning they assign to their experiences. Areas of importance to immigrant youth, including the disruption of family and the sociopolitical context of education, are explored. While the realities immigrant students confront in schools are often problematic, they also exert agency, and examples of the adolescents' fervent commitment to their education are also shared, alongside the challenges they face, to provide a more accurate and robust portrait of these students. Drawing from the students' experiences, the authors discuss the implications of this work for educators and policy makers. The article ends with a call to educators to stand in solidarity with their immigrant students to provide understanding, as well as critical and rigorous learning contexts that prepare them to reach their full potential. (Contains 5 footnotes.)

This study uses the 2000 U.S. Census data to assess the impact of antidiscrimination policies for sexual orientation on earnings for gays and lesbians. Using a multilevel model allows estimation of the effects of state and local policies on earnings and of variation in the effects of sexual orientation across local labor markets. The results suggest that gay men face an earnings penalty that varies significantly (though not sizably) across local areas, and that state antidiscrimination policies may decrease that penalty in private sector employment. There is, however, no evidence that lesbians in any sector average higher earnings or wages in areas with antidiscrimination policies. The strongest evidence of effects for antidiscrimination policies is for weeks of employment and for gay men who are in the private sector, white, and in the upper half of the earnings distribution. (Contains 6 tables, 4 figures and 37 footnotes.)

This paper examines the evolution of programmes of enterprise education and technology transfer at the University of Cambridge in response to the growth of the Cambridge Cluster and public policy programmes designed to enhance the economic impact of higher education institutions. The authors highlight the way education programmes developed by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning uniquely reflect the needs of nascent high-tech entrepreneurs by using local entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angels and start-up support specialists as instructors; by gearing the curriculum to issues facing high-tech ventures; and by offering "extra-curricular" programmes that fit the scheduling needs of the PhD students, post-docs and research staff who constitute the intended audience. This examination provides an interesting case study of how a mature high-tech cluster can shape university entrepreneurship programmes. It also illustrates how new educational and technology transfer programmes have pulled the university and its nascent high-tech entrepreneurs into a closer relationship with the dense network of firms and people who make up the Cambridge Cluster. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 3 notes.)

Dozens of universities--primarily from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia--are eyeing the Gulf region as a largely untapped reservoir of academic potential and economic opportunity. During the last few years, UAE states like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Ras al Khaymah have spent billions to entice top universities. And many colleges are responding--examples include New York University's campus in Abu Dhabi; Michigan State University's school in Dubai; and big names like Cornell, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon that have set up shop in Qatar. Typically, Western universities begin their foray into the Gulf by teaming with local investors. The colleges oversee the academic infrastructure while the investors front all operational costs. The partnerships are complicated. Some investors are mining the UAE's educational zeal for profit. In other cases, schools join forces with the region's numerous royal families, who are mostly interested in furthering their states' economies and global prestige. Establishing a presence in the region can be as perilous as it is potentially fruitful. In this article, the author discusses opportunities and pitfalls for universities expanding in the Persian Gulf.

This study organized a participatory action research team of four street life-oriented Black men to examine attitudes toward opportunity in a community sample of street life-oriented Black men ranging between the ages of 16 and 65. Data were collected in the form of 371 surveys and two group interviews. Most of the data collection took place inside the street communities of Harlem, New York City, and Paterson, New Jersey. Descriptive data suggest that the men hold positive as well as negative attitudes toward learning and their overall educational experience. Quantitative and qualitative results suggest that an intergenerational set of attitudes toward opportunity exists in this community sample of street life-oriented Black men. Specifically, a set of one-way analysis of variance revealed older street generations to hold more negative attitudes toward overall, educational, and economic opportunity. In addition, a content analysis revealed three dominant themes in relation to the code economic survival: (a) commitment to family/community, (b) personal motivation, and (c) a moral posture. (Contains 7 tables.)

This paper examines some of the research for outcomes-based education in Australia. It does not claim to be a comprehensive review--only indicative of the sorts of research behind a movement that has frequently been dismissed as being only ideologically driven. It traces the genesis of the OBE movement in the USA, how it developed in Australia in the 1990s and in particular the way in which it developed in WA. It highlights some of the research that informed the critical theoretical bases of the WA Curriculum Framework, viz, the development of the overall principles and the more specific principles of teaching, learning and assessment. (Contains 1 footnote.)

One of the defining characteristics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is the increasing importance of international migration, an epoch Castles and Miller term the "age of migration." The precise size of the international migrant population is unknown. Much of this movement--such as unauthorized and other irregular flows--is not recorded in official statistics. Nonetheless, by all accounts international movements have soared in recent decades, especially since the 1970s, with the acceleration of cross-border flows of trade, investment, ideas and people--key features of globalization. As in the past, many of today's international migrants move toward areas of economic opportunity. In this paper, the author talks about immigrant incorporation and presents articles that focus on how integration opportunities and constraints shape social membership among newcomer immigrant groups across a number of advanced industrial nations, including European countries, the United Sates and Canada. Social membership here refers to a set of basic social rights conferred on members of a society, including the right to work, the right to participate in political life, or the right to education. The author discusses the historical views on immigrant incorporation and social membership and the narrative that emerges from the papers on social membership opportunities emphasizing the strong arm of national integration policies and institutional characteristics in influencing integration processes and outcomes. (Contains 4 notes.)

This article details the content of a recently released report from the Children's Partnership titled "Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children: Where We Stand and Where We Go From Here". On the basis of 40 indicators, the report's Digital Opportunity Measuring Stick showed how U.S. children and young adults use information and communications technology in ways that relate to their achievement, health, economic opportunity, and civic participation. The report also highlighted the fact that a disparity exists in technology usage along low-income and ethnic minority children. However, low-income children enhance their learning opportunities when given access to technology. Recommendations for education policymakers to provide digital opportunities for the youth are also presented. Lastly, this article also provides several brief reports related to technology.

Argues that, although the U.S. has dropped to sixth in the world in high school graduation rates and ranks last when comparing gains in enrolling youth in college during the last decade, the country still wins on economic measures. Adds that, because of sheer size, the U.S. also has more top students. (Contains 10 references.) (NB)

The New England states, like the rest of the nation, are finally starting to show signs of a recovery from the Great Recession of 2008, albeit at different paces. Three of the states, however, still have unemployment rates that are about four percentage points above where they were before the recession began in 2007. Arising from this recovery, America will find itself on a collision course with the future: not enough Americans are completing college. In its most recent report, "Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018," the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has shown that by 2018, Americans will need 22 million new college degrees to meet employers' demand--but at current graduation rates, they will fall short of that number by at least 3 million postsecondary degrees, associate or better. At a time when every job is precious, this shortfall will mean lost economic and social opportunity for millions of American workers. The "Help Wanted" report demonstrates that employers will increasingly demand proof of competency of workers, not only in terms of formal degrees, but also through industry-based certification programs and credentials that require periodic renewals. It highlights the need in the U.S. economy for more workers with postsecondary education and training in order to leverage economic opportunity. (Contains 7 tables.)

Examines how the status of Dominican women in the United States improves as a consequence of waged employment. Considers the ideological forces which root women in the household and discourage collective struggles in the workplace and suggests that the middle-class aspirations of Dominican families are in contradiction to their children's future employment opportunities. (KH)

Questions whether parents are allowing economic demands to dictate the development of children by demanding a level of maturity from them that they are physically, emotionally, and intellectually incapable of delivering. The changing economic and cultural context of families suggests a shift from child-oriented toward adult-oriented lifestyles for children in their everyday experiences. (Author/BB)

Recent studies indicate that the popular acceptance of linking education instrumentally to high technology leads to contradictory outcomes (for example, Sweet 1984, Rumberger and Levin 1985). Education is better directed toward the more fundamental skills of criticism and reflection on these technological changes in society. (24 references) (CJH)

Analyzes service delivery, resource allocation, sponsorship, and other practices of programs for Indochinese refugee resettlement in France, Canada, and the United States, according to a model of refugee resettlement that considers two major variables: (1) volume of refugee intake (large or moderate) and (2) type of adaptation emphasis (economic or cultural). (Author/MJL)

Slow economic growth since the end of the U.S. recession in June of 2009 has not yet translated into increases in employment large enough to meaningfully reduce the rate of unemployment. Because expansionary macroeconomic policy has been pursued on both the fiscal and monetary fronts, it appears at first glance that the hands of government at this point may be largely tied until growth arrives. The experience of the U.S. has not been unique. The recession has been global. Some countries have clearly performed better than the U.S., while others have suffered more. These differences may arise from policy approaches to dealing with widespread unemployment, structural differences in national economies, and whether specific countries are in a position to stimulate demand with expansionary monetary and fiscal policy. Moreover, the extent of unemployment may be influenced by coordinated national responses across countries. In this Point/Counterpoint, the author has invited four groups to discuss the employment situation in the wake of the Great Recession, focusing on the following questions: (1) What national initiatives have worked and which were less effective in helping stimulate employment? Might more be done?; (2) Should other services or additional support be provided to unemployed workers, their households, and others impacted by the recession?; (3) How do government financial and structural deficits interact with employment policy?; and (4) To what extent did countries coordinate policy responses and learn from best practices? Are there still lessons that might be drawn from different experiences across countries? The four groups of participants in this exchange include (1) Barbara Moench, Sigried Caspar, and Ines Hartwig (European Commission, DG Employment); (2) David Neumark (University of California at Irvine) and Ken Troske (University of Kentucky); (3) Dongchul Cho and Sukha Shin (Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management); and (4) Robert Haveman (University of Wisconsin at Madison), Carolyn Heinrich (University of Texas), and Tim Smeeding (University of Wisconsin at Madison).

Examines economic and other reasons for Puerto Rican migration to the United States; describes the life styles, employment opportunities, and problems of middle class, professional and skilled Puerto Ricans who count among the new wave of migrants to the mainland; and suggests that more Puerto Ricans will migrate in the near future. (MJL)

The injustices that have been visited upon racial minorities in the United States have a substantial economic legacy, both in terms of wealth disparities and resulting structural differences in economic opportunities. In response, some prominent Black scholars and policymakers have proposed a 'baby bonds' wealth-building policy. In this paper, I complement the economic justifications for this policy by examining the case for the proposal in terms of racial justice. The common justifications in the literature use a 'justice as rectification' framework, but this framework is a poor fit for the baby bonds proposal, unless we first examine the policy as a way to mitigate barriers to economic opportunity caused by persistent wealth gaps. This analysis focuses the case for baby bonds on their real selling point: a universal wealth policy can limit the intergenerational impact of injustice and misfortune of all kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States has long been a leading destination for immigrants looking for a better economic opportunity, refuge, or family reunification. The population of foreign-born residents in the US is immensely diverse in terms of country of origin, ethnicity, gender, age, and education. These characteristics can influence an immigrant's ability to integrate into American society. In this paper, I examine the impact of gender and level of education on the employment prospects of foreign-born residents from 2009 to 2022. First, my research concludes that higher levels of education lead to substantially better employment rates and wages for foreign-born residents. Second, my findings reveal that immigrant women, in comparison to their native-born peers, have made bigger strides in their labor participation, employment rates, and wages over the last decade versus immigrant men, who have remained more closely aligned with their respective native-born peers. I highlight some reasons why these two specific factors, gender and education, affect employment and wages and what policies could be adopted to improve the integration prospects for immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been a crucial trade and development initiative, offering preferential access to qualified Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to the United States market since its enactment in 2000. This paper presents a comprehensive review of scholarly articles and policy reports that analyze the impact of AGOA on the economic performance of SSA countries. Employing various econometric methods and data analysis techniques, researchers have investigated the effects of AGOA on trade flows, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, employment, economic growth, and poverty levels. The findings reveal that AGOA has positively affected the region's trade, particularly in apparel, textiles, and agriculture. However, its influence on promoting export diversification and attracting FDI is nuanced, with substantial heterogeneity among the beneficiary countries and industries within each country. While some SSA countries have experienced substantial export growth and FDI inflows, others have not fully leveraged the benefits of AGOA due to absorptive capacity constraints and governance challenges. AGOA's effectiveness in promoting broad-based employment, GDP growth, and poverty reduction remains an active area of inquiry, necessitating further research to understand the policy's sustained impact and inform future trade policy designs for SSA countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we develop two new social indices: the ADA PARC Absolute Economic Opportunity Index and the ADA PARC Relative Economic Opportunity Index. These indices allow us novel examinations of economic equity between people with and without disabilities within a U.S. state and between people with disabilities in different states using aggregations of multiple component economic indicators. These represent the first efforts to offer U.S. indices of this focus, an important development given the distinct economic needs of people with disabilities and the value in accounting for distinct national policies. The indices rely on U.S. Census and other data on economic opportunity by population. These indices provide comprehensive insight into economic disparities between people with and without disabilities and among people with disabilities in the United States. We find that state/territory values for the two indices are moderately positively correlated, suggesting that relative and absolute economic opportunity for people with disabilities arise from both common and distinct processes. Policy implications for low economic opportunity states are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An estimated 17.6% of blue-collar, manufacturing jobs were lost in the United States between 1970 and 2016. These jobs, often union-represented, provided relatively generous pay and benefits, creating a path to the middle class for individuals without a four-year college degree. Evidence suggests the closure of manufacturing facilities and resulting decline in economic opportunity increased demand for disability insurance (SSDI) among blue-collar workers. In recent years, the opening of Amazon Fulfillment Centers (FCs) has accelerated around the country, driving a wave of blue-collar job creation. We estimated the extent to which the opening of FCs affected SSDI application rates, including rates of approvals and denials, using a synthetic control group approach. We found that FC openings were associated with a 1.4% reduction in the SSDI application rate over the subsequent three years, translating to 5,528 fewer applications per year across commuting zones with an FC opening. Our findings are consistent with FC openings improving economic opportunities in local labor markets, though our confidence intervals were wide and included the null. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arctic has been the subject of increasing attention from several international actors, including Arctic states, most notably the US and Russia, and non-Arctic actors such as the EU and China. Each has specific interests in the region, ranging from security issues to economic and environmental opportunities. The situation in the Arctic is complex and constantly evolving. While international cooperation in the region is desirable, there are strong tensions and competition between the aforementioned actors due to the various interests at stake. Arctic governance and the management of associated challenges, such as climate change and security, are important issues that require continued attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]