Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Proactive Union And Teacher Strategies For Shaping Technology In Education, Thomas A. Kochan

New England Journal of Public Policy

Artificial intelligence and related technologies will have profound effects on the future of work in all industries and occupations, including education. But technology has no predetermined effects. How it will change work, working conditions, and the performance of organizations depends on who participates in the key decisions that (1) define the problems technology is asked to solve, (2) set the design parameters that shape specific applications, (3) link new technologies and work processes, (4) ensure that the workforce is well-prepared to use advanced technologies, (5) determine who controls the data generated by these tools, and (6) address the needs of …

At The Intersection Of The Future Of Work And Education, David Edwards

New England Journal of Public Policy

“At the Intersection of the Future of Work and Education” explores work in education as well as the contribution of education to the future of work in other sectors. It argues that, in both instances, a strong, well-financed, high-quality system of public education is needed.

The operation of school systems during the pandemic deepened long-standing problems of financing, segregation, inequality, and discrimination inside and between countries. Distance learning was a quantum leap in the use of artificial intelligence and other technology depriving learners of social relationships.

Governments are not implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 4 on education. That …

Smart Education Technology: How It Might Transform Teaching (And Learning), Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article highlights the importance of digitalization as a societal trend for education and discusses how artificial intelligence and learning analytics are transforming (or have the potential to transform) educational practices. It showcases the opportunities of smart technologies for education systems and how the work and role of teachers could be affected, before making some forward-looking concluding remarks.

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 1990, the New England Journal of Public Policy published a special issue on Women. The subject was women & economic empowerment. The authors found that while women had made significant gains during the 1970s and 1980s in many spheres relating to the workplace, true equity with respect to their male peers was still elusive, and gender bias, despite remedial legislation, continued to be the acceptable norm.

Seventeen years on, another group of women, under the direction of guest editor Sherry H. Penney, herself a contributor to the 1990 journal, looks anew at some of these issues and expands the …

Foreword, Sherry H. Penney

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author of the foreword speaks about how this issue touches on the subjects of women's rights and how their struggle to break through the glass ceiling has given them more empowerment than ever. The article also speaks about the works within the issue and how each one talks about the struggle, the progress, and success of women in today's working and educational world.

Gender Politics In Massachusetts: Progress For Paid Family Leave, Elizabeth A. Sherman

New England Journal of Public Policy

Advances in the educational and occupational status of women in the United States over the past quarter century have greatly expanded the participation of women in the workforce. However, economic and social changes in women’s lives have put pressure on traditional family roles and on the political system to respond to the problems families face balancing work and family responsibilities. Initiatives for paid family leave in Massachusetts reflect the newfound political strength of women in politics — as leaders of political organizations, as elected officials, and as voters — and the willingness of the state’s political elite to grapple with …

Job Mobility Of Entry-Level Workers: Black And Latina Women In Hospital Corridors, Maria Estella Carrión

New England Journal of Public Policy

Based on data from interviews with fifteen black and fifteen Latina women in entry-level jobs, this article discusses job access strategies, patterns of job mobility, and barriers to upward job mobility for low-income minority women in the hospital industry. Concentrated in the lowest wage levels and job tiers, they are quite diverse in subgroup composition, in age, and in training requirements. The research confirms that deficiencies in schooling and skills remain the major obstacles minority women confront when they apply for hospital jobs and restrict their opportunities once they are within the hospital labor market. Efforts to provide training and …

The Educational Achievement Of U.S. Puerto Ricans, Katharine M. Donato, Roger A. Wojtkiewicz

New England Journal of Public Policy

With longitudinal data, this article extends to the 1990s research on minority educational achievement and emphasizes the experiences of Puerto Ricans. The authors' results suggest that compared with whites, blacks, and Mexicans, Puerto Ricans exhibit the lowest high school graduation rates and that their educational disadvantage is unique. Even if Puerto Ricans assumed the attributes of whites, they would graduate at lower rates than the latter. This finding, which has serious implications, deserves priority in the agendas of scholars and policy specialists alike.

Foreword, Martha Montero-Sieburth, Ralph Rivera

New England Journal of Public Policy

These articles echo the issues of today that will have an impact on the future and help us understand how current thinking about ethnicity, education, and health within Latino populations presents opportunities for the coming century. The Latino presence in the United States will certainly make itself known. As Richard Rodriguez poignantly reminds us, "We will change America, even as we will be changed."

Latinos Need Not Apply: The Effects Of Industrial Change And Workplace Discrimination On Latino Employment, Edwin Meléndez, Françoise Carré, Evangelina Holvino

New England Journal of Public Policy

The objective of the research described here is to assess how recent changes in the organization of industry and discrimination in the workplace affect the employment of Latinos. One of the most important developments in labor markets during the past two decades is the erosion of internal labor markets. Employers are responding to intensified competitive conditions that developed during the 1980s: increased international competition in domestic markets and deregulation in telecommunications, banking, insurance, and other industries. The development of information technologies and the diffusion of secondary and postsecondary education have enabled organizations to cut labor costs. In particular, firms are …

Education And Falling Wages, Lester C. Thurow

New England Journal of Public Policy

Start with a statistic that should be burned into the brain of every American. If one looks at young males eighteen to twenty-five years of age who work full-time for a full year — eight hours a day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year — 18 percent of them could not earn a poverty-line income ($12,183 in 1990 dollars) in 1980. Ten years later, in 1990, that number had risen to 40 percent. Among young female workers eighteen to twenty-four years of age, the percentage unable to earn a poverty-line income despite full-time, full-year work rises from 29 …

Education And Community Development Among Nineteenth-Century Irish And Contemporary Cambodians In Lowell, Massachusetts, Peter N. Kiang

New England Journal of Public Policy

As cities undergo dramatic demographic changes, schools become important sites of conflict between the interests of established and emerging communities. This article presents a case study of Lowell, Massachusetts, where the second largest Irish community in the country resided during the 1850s, and which is now home to the second largest Cambodian community in the United States. Analysis of nineteenth-century Irish community dynamics, particularly in relation to issues of public education in Lowell, reveals the significance of religious institutions and middle-class entrepreneurs in the process of immigrant community development and highlights important relationships to ethnicity, electoral politics, and economic development. …