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The No Child Left Behind Act, enacted in 2002, aimed to improve learning and eliminate achievement gaps by raising accountability in schools. The new requirements also generated volumes of valuable long-term data on students and teachers—data that are now grounding and guiding education policy and allowing researchers to answer long-held questions about what leads to student success. Read more.

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Creating a New Teaching Profession (Book)
Dan Goldhaber, Jane Hannaway

Considering that having a quality teacher is the foremost in-school predictor of students’ success, ensuring teacher excellence is vital to the nation’s educational system. In Creating a New Teaching Profession, diverse scholars assess the state of human capital development in the teaching profession today and how to progress.

Posted to Web: November 02, 2009Publication Date: October 20, 2009

Widening the Net: National Estimates of Gender Disparities in Engineering (Article)
Clemencia Cosentino de Cohen, Nicole Deterding

This paper explores the causes behind the severe underrepresentation of women in engineering. Based on national data on undergraduate engineering programs, this study presents cross-sectional estimates of male and female student retention. Contrary to widespread beliefs, the study found that overall and in most disciplines there is no differential attrition by gender. Instead, results suggest that gender disparities in engineering are largely driven by inadequate enrollment (not inadequate retention) of women. The paper concludes that outreach— within institutions of higher education, across institutions (into two-year colleges, middle and high schools), and into K-12 curricular reform—are needed to address what is, at its very core, a recruitment problem.

Posted to Web: October 22, 2009Publication Date: July 01, 2009

Retention Is Not the Problem: Women aren't being drawn to engineering in the first place. (Article)
Clemencia Cosentino de Cohen

"Study Seeks to Improve Retention Among Women Engineering Students," declares a 2008 news release announcing a grant to four universities. Countless other articles cite female retention as a grave problem. This focus on retention drives a host of strategies to increase the number of women engineers. But is low retention behind the problem? Are women underrepresented in engineering because they enroll only to eventually drop out? The answer, as documented in the July 2009 Journal of Engineering Education, is a resounding "No!"

Posted to Web: October 22, 2009Publication Date: October 01, 2009

School of Hard Shocks: Should Everyone Go to College (Audio / Video Files)
The Urban Institute

The road to the American dream has a four-year pit stop on a college quadrangle. This fall, more than 18 million collegians, including 4 million freshmen, will test that axiom amid an agitated economy and rising concerns about college affordability. Meanwhile, several million new would-be workers - college and high school grads and dropouts - are fighting for good jobs.

Posted to Web: September 17, 2009Publication Date: September 17, 2009

Testimony on Income and Poverty in the United States: 2008: Before the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress (Testimony)
Harry Holzer

Between 2007 and 2008, real incomes fell and poverty rose in the United States, Institute Fellow Harry Holzer testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Even if the recession ends this year, rising unemployment will mean that real income keeps falling while poverty increases for a few more years — and almost certainly by much more than occurred between 2007 and 2008. It will likely take several years beyond 2010 before real income and poverty fully recover from the effects of the downturn.

Posted to Web: September 10, 2009Publication Date: September 10, 2009

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