Education Commons^™

Are Teacher Pensions "Hazardous" For Schools?, Patten Priestley Mahler

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

I use a detailed panel of data and a unique modeling specification to explore how public schoolteachers respond to the incentives embedded in North Carolina’s retirement system. Like most public-sector retirement plans, North Carolina’s teacher pension implicitly encourages teachers to continue working until they are eligible for their pension benefits, and then leave soon afterward. I find that teachers with higher levels of quality, as measured by a teacher’s value-added to her students’ achievement test scores, are more responsive to the “pull” of teacher pensions. Younger teachers, those with higher salaries, and nonwhite teachers are also more likely to stay …

The Effects Of The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship On College Enrollment, Persistence, And Completion, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Marta Lachowska

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We estimate the effects on postsecondary education outcomes of the Kalamazoo Promise, a generous, place-based college scholarship. We identify Promise effects using difference-in-differences, comparing eligible to ineligible graduates before and after the Promise’s initiation. According to our estimates, the Promise significantly increases college enrollment, college credits attempted, and credential attainment. Stronger effects occur for women.

Learning From A Decade Of College Promise Scholarships, Michelle Miller-Adams, Brad J. Hershbein

Presentations

The Upjohn Institute hosted a webinar Oct. 26, 2017 to hear from leaders in the place-based, or "promise" college scholarship movement. Funders of promise programs and local and state officials, including Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, spoke on how such programs have benefited their communities and addressed future challenges.

Early Childhood Education And Local Economic Development, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Propelled: The Effects Of Grants On Graduation, Earnings, And Welfare, Jeffrey T. Denning, Benjamin M. Marx, Lesley J. Turner

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We estimate the effect of grant aid on poor college students’ attainment and earnings using student-level administrative data from four-year public colleges in Texas. To identify these effects, we exploit a discontinuity in grant generosity as a function of family income. Eligibility for the maximum Pell Grant significantly increases degree receipt and earnings beginning four years after entry. Within 10 years, imputed taxes on eligible students’ earnings gains fully recoup total government expenditures generated by initial eligibility. To clarify how these estimates relate to social welfare, we develop a general theoretical model and derive sufficient statistics for the welfare implications …

A Benefit-Cost Analysis Of The Tulsa Universal Pre-K Program, Timothy J. Bartik, Jonathan A. Belford, William T. Gormley, Sara Anderson

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

In this paper, benefits and costs are estimated for a universal pre-K program, provided by Tulsa Public Schools. Benefits are derived from estimated effects of Tulsa pre-K on retention by grade 9. Retention effects are projected to dollar benefits from future earnings increases and crime reductions. Based on these estimates, Tulsa pre-K has benefits exceeding costs by about 2-to-1. This benefit cost ratio is far less than the benefit-cost ratios (ranging from 8-to-1 to 16-to-1) for more targeted and intensive pre-K programs from the 1970s and 80s, such as Perry Preschool and the Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) program. Comparing benefit-cost …

Born Under A Lucky Star: Financial Aid, College Completion, Labor Supply, And Credit Constraints, Jeffrey T. Denning

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Higher education has experienced many changes since the 1970s, including an increase in the price of college, an increase in student employment during college, a decrease in college completion rates, and an increase in time to degree. This paper ties these trends together by causally linking changes in financial aid with time to degree and student employment during college. I find that additional financial aid accelerates graduation for university seniors because they increase credits attempted and reduce earnings while in college. In reaching this finding, I use administrative education and earnings data to examine a discrete change in the amount …

The Stem Dilemma: Skills That Matter To Regions, Fran Stewart

Upjohn Press

Fran Stewart dives into the murky waters where education and economic goals meet to confront several key issues facing policymakers and educators, including the role of public investment in human capital, the types of human capital investment that provide the greatest public return, and whether those investments should vary by region.

She shows that not all high-paying jobs require STEM skills; that not all good-paying, highly skilled STEM jobs require college degrees; and that "soft skills" are important for STEM as well as other high-paying jobs.