Education Economics Commons^™

Social Determinants Of Low Educational Attainment, Isabelle Graham, Kevin Lieng, Aubriana Weisbach

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

This paper examines how socioeconomic and demographic factors influence low educational attainment across U.S. cities. The analysis estimates both a linear regression model and a semi-log model to evaluate how poverty, unemployment, family structure, age composition, overcrowding, racial and ethnic minority share, broadband access, and housing cost burden affect the percentage of adults without a high school diploma. The results show that poverty, overcrowding, and minority share are the strongest predictors of low educational attainment, each exhibiting positive and highly significant effects. Overall, the findings highlight the role of social factors in shaping educational outcomes in high school.

Making The Case For Career Academies In Shaping Pre-Collegiate Students For Stem Career Pathways, Felix Quayson

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

Career academies are increasingly important in preparing pre-collegiate high school students for STEM pathways by connecting academic learning, technical skill development, career identity, and postsecondary readiness. STEM-focused career academies function as structured bridges between secondary education, higher education, and the labor market. Through small learning communities, interdisciplinary curricula, employer partnerships, work-based learning, and early exposure to college and career expectations, career academies help students understand STEM not only as school subjects but as possible futures. Research suggests that career academies can improve student engagement, support school persistence, and strengthen labor market outcomes when implemented with fidelity. The article concludes that …

Improving Schools To Promote Upward Mobility: The Promise And Limits Of School Finance Reforms, Sarah Reber

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presents a lecture titled, "Improving Schools to Promote Upward Mobility: The Promise and Limits of School Finance Reforms" by Brookings senior fellow in economic studies, Sarah Reber.

Systematic differences in access to high-quality schools by race, income, and other characteristics perpetuate inequality across generations. Local property tax financing of schools is often identified as a key cause of unequal educational opportunity. While the consensus of rigorous research supports the common intuition that, on average, “money matters” in improving educational outcomes, questions about how much, and under what conditions, school …

Homelessness Among School-Aged Children In The Mountain West, 2022-2023, Mohit Pande, Sean Curry, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet presents data on homelessness among school-aged children in the Mountain West during the 2022-2023 school year. The data are sourced from the “Child and Youth Homelessness in the United States: Data Profiles” dashboard produced by SchoolHouse Connection and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. State-level data profiles include information about child and youth homelessness at the national, state, county, school district, and congressional district levels. This fact sheet focuses on homelessness among school-aged children within the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

Public School Funding In The Mountain West, 2020-2021, Sean Curry, Mohit Pande, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet examines the state of public school funding across the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are sourced from the Education Law Center’s 2023 Making the Grade report, which provides data for all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The original report provides grades for school funding, enrollment data, and funding data based on the 2020-2021 school year.

The Race For Increasing College Costs, Mark Jayson Farol

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

As higher education continues to shift to be more progressive, providing access to more students of different backgrounds, it currently is facing an obstacle. The escalating cost of tuition is growing to be a significant concern for access to higher education. The government has prioritized increasing federal financial aid to improve accessibility. However, this intervention may paradoxically worsen the rise of the cost of college, as suggested by William Bennett's famous hypothesis. As the higher education landscape evolves, a nuanced examination of tuition rise drivers is essential. This study utilizes cross-sectional data from the National Center for Education Statistics to …

Making College Worth It: Inequalities In Higher Education And How To Solve Them, Katharine Meyer

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Most students who graduate from college go on to earn higher wages, have more employment stability, and enjoy better health. While posted tuitions are high, a “high price, high aid” approach to college pricing means that the average cost of college has actually declined in recent years. Yet, public confidence in higher education is at an all-time low. What explains this tension? Who gains from going to college and who does not? What can colleges do to change perceptions about the value of a college education? This lecture by Brookings Institution scholar Katharine Meyer highlights trends in college enrollment and …

The Great Student Swap, Aaron Klein

Policy Briefs and Reports

For the last twenty years, nearly every flagship university in the U.S. has been decreasing its share of in-state students and enrolling more students from out of state, a phenomenon I call the “Great Student Swap.” Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I examine every “flagship” public university by comparing incoming first year students from 2002 through 2018 (those who would have graduated in the spring 2022 assuming the traditional four-year timeframe for completion). I find that the share of out-of-state students has risen by an average of 55 percent since 2002 and that 48 of …

State School Finance In The Mountain West, 2019, Kristian Thymianos, Ally M. Beckwith, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet examines K-12 school finance indicators drawing from an original report by Albert Shanker Institute and Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. These indicators show whether states are funding school districts to national standards. This fact sheet examines state-level data for the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) from the State School Finance Profiles report for the 2018-2019 school year.

Strengthening The Southern Nevada Workforce Pipeline, Katie M. Gilbertson

Student Research

Workforce development has been a keystone in the discussion of economic diversification of Las Vegas for decades. The leisure and hospitality industry is the lifeline for the Southern Nevada economy due to the reliance on tourism as the city’s main economic driver. The leisure and hospitality industry requires physical labor and more face-to-face customer interaction than other employment sectors. Thus, these jobs often do not require high educational attainment, but rather sharp soft skills like effective listening, nonverbal communication, and negotiation strategies. While these are valuable traits, the lack of educational attainment within the leisure and hospitality workforce suppresses employees’ …

Teachers’ Unions, Collective Bargaining, And The Response To Covid-19, Annie A. Hemphill, Bradley D. Marianno

Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education Faculty Research

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, school districts worked quickly to roll out distance learning plans in the spring. Sometimes these plans impinged upon or were directly in conflict with provisions found in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) negotiated between teachers' unions and district administration. In this brief, we unpack how urban school systems changed CBAs to make way for learning under COVID-19 conditions. We review COVID-19–related contract changes in 101 urban school districts around the country. We find that twenty-five urban school districts returned to the bargaining table with teachers’ unions to negotiate short-term fixes to CBAs that allowed for …

Win Or Lose: Residential Sorting After A School Choice Lottery, Andrew Bibler, Stephen B. Billings

Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate Faculty Research

We examine residential relocation and opting out of the public school system in response to school choice lottery outcomes. We show that rising kindergartners and sixth graders who lose a school choice lottery are 6 percentage points more likely to exit the district or change neighborhood schools (20% to 30% increase) and make up 0.14 to 0.35 standard deviations in average school test scores between lottery assignment and attendance the following year. Using hedonic-based estimates of land prices, we estimate that lottery losers pay a 9% to 11% housing price premium for access to a school with a 1 standard …

Status Of Women In Nevada: K-12 Education Snapshot, Aika Dietz, Ana Rosas, Brenda Cruz Gomez, Caryll Batt Dziedziak, Jean Munson

Research Briefs

There has been a sudden increase in Nevada K-12 student population since 2003 ballooning student-teaching ratio and straining the educational system.

Status Of Women In Nevada: Higher Education Snapshot, Aika Dietz, Ana Rosas, Caryll Batt Dziedziak, Jean Munson

Research Briefs

Students may leave school due to a different educational environment, work and school adjustments without support from family and friends, a lack of financial planning and academic struggles.

Reconciling The Rhetoric And Reality Of Student Loan Debt, Elizabeth Akers

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Student loan debt has increased over the past three decades. This lecture will identify the factors that led to that increase in student loan debt what economic and social factors drove that increase. The talk will also consider the economic effects of increased or decreased earnings generated by individuals with student loan debt. This analysis will present data to assess the validity of several widely-held beliefs about the impact of student loan debt in the United States (e.g., increased student loan debt is depressing the housing market) and apply data-backed evidence to determine ways in which current and proposed policies …

Education And Educational Attainment In Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Failure to complete high school has a direct impact on a person’s earning potential and quality of life. Higher levels of education are associated with better health. Because of this association, it is important for children and adults to have access to quality education. The percentage of adults who have successfully pursued higher education in Southern Nevada is lower than the peer Mountain West metropolitan areas and the national average. Nevada high school graduation rates are the lowest in the nation. High school graduation rates and dropout rates vary by race/ethnicity in the Clark County School District. High school graduation …

Professional Judgement Study Report Summary, Augenblick, Palaich, And Associates

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

This report summarizes the Professional Judgment (PJ) Study conducted by Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates (APA) for the Lincy Institute at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The Institute commissioned the PJ study as part of a review of Nevada’s school funding system. The review called for studies like this one to update the 2006 Nevada education funding adequacy study. This current study is an adequacy study examining the base cost and adjustments needed for students in Nevada to meet state standards. In the early 1990s, states began to implement Standards-­‐Based Reform in education. By implementing Standards-­‐Based Reform, states set standards …

Professional Judgment Study Report, Augenblick, Palaich, And Associates (Apa)

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

This report summarizes the Professional Judgment (PJ) Study conducted by Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates (APA) for the Lincy Institute at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The Institute commissioned the PJ study as part of a review of Nevada’s school funding system. The review called for studies like this one to update the 2006 Nevada education funding adequacy study. This current study is an adequacy study examining the base cost and adjustments needed for students in Nevada to meet state standards. In the early 1990s, states began to implement Standards-­‐Based Reform in education. By implementing Standards-­‐Based Reform, states set standards …