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The role of the social sciences and the humanities in a knowledge-based economy was examined in a comparative study of the income and employment outcomes of secondary-, postsecondary-, and graduate-level study programs in technical fields, the social sciences, and the humanities in 1991-1996. Special attention was paid to the following areas: the economic success of graduates in 1996; rates of return on investment in education in selected fields; employment changes in 1991-96; a case study of the British Columbian labor market; techism and economic development; and the productivity approach and economic development. The study established that computers and information have revolutionized business organization and increased the demand for social science and humanities graduates. Technological advances and the resultant falling cost of information has made the hierarchical organization inefficient and increased the need for workers with the following types of skills and abilities that are cultivated in social sciences and humanities programs: (1) to understand the information generated by computer systems, analyze it, relate it to the world, and act on it; (2) to make critical and independent judgments; and (3) to develop the interpersonal and communication skills needed to deal with clients and work together in self-directing teams. (MN)

The national imperative for increased postsecondary level completions has never been clearer. In order to remain competitive in an ever-changing global market, the United States must produce an educated workforce; one that is ready to lead and inspire a 21st century economy. Recognizing this urgency, the President, several foundations, policy organizations, and states recently set several bold college completion goals. Since last year, the State Higher Education Executive Officers have added to the public dialogue with the release of a series of reports, including trends in national degree production and costs related to postsecondary completions and sub-baccalaureate certificate and degree growth. This report is a follow-up to "Degree Production and Cost Trends: A National Analysis", released in August 2010. With a focus on completions by program area over the last five years, the following questions continue to drive the authors' research and analysis: (1) What trends can be observed in completion production?; (2) Are there different state factors driving results?; and (3) What are the policy implications of a state's completion production? This analysis uses data downloaded directly from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), unlike the "Degree Productions and Costs Trends" report, which utilized the "Delta Cost Project's" dataset. To maintain consistency across these reports, institutions included in this analysis were based on data reported in the 2009 IPEDS Institutional Characteristics Survey. They include Title IV, public, postsecondary institutions from all fifty states that reported both full-time equivalent (FTE) and completions by Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code. This analysis looks at degrees and certificates awarded by fields of study based on data collected in the IPEDS Completions Survey. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) created the first CIP taxonomy in 1980 to track fields of study, which was revised in 1985, 1990, 2000, and, 2010. For the purposes of this analysis, the 2-digit CIP series is utilized rather than the 6-digit or 4-digit CIP codes, the latter of which are more specific descriptions of a field of study. Further, the 57 individual 2-digit CIP codes were categorized into nine groups (see Appendix 1b); seven of those groups are examined in this report: (1) Arts and Humanities; (2) Business and Communication; (3) Education; (4) Health; (5) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM); (6) Social and Behavior Sciences and Human Services; and (7) Trades. Additionally, this report groups academic awards as follows: (1) Certificate includes: Award of less than 1 academic year; Award of at least 1 but less than 2 academic years; and Award of at least 2 but less than 4 academic years; (2) 2 or 4 Year Degree includes: Associates degree and Bachelors degree; (3) Advanced Degree includes: Masters degree; Doctors degree; and First-professional degree; and (4) Post Degree or Advanced Certificate includes: Post-masters certificate; Postbaccalaureate certificate; and First-professional certificate. Although this report looks at total completions rather than a ratio of completions by student, parts of the analysis use FTE to put completions data into greater context. IPEDS describes FTE as "a single value providing a meaningful combination of full-time and part-time students." IPEDS provides two different measures of FTE, one based on enrollment and the other based on contact and credit hours, in other words institutional activity. Since the FTE calculated from contact and credit hours represents an institution's annual activity, this report uses this annual student FTE measure for the years analyzed in this study, 2003-2004 to 2008-2009. Appended are: (1) Carnegie Classification Institution Types; and (2) SHEEO Groupings of Program Areas Based on 2-Digit CIP Codes. (Contains 10 figures, 6 tables and 5 footnotes.) [This paper was written with support from Chris Crumrine and Tanya I. Garcia.

There is a long tradition of academic interest in the worlds of work and family. However, there was scant attention paid to the linkages between these two worlds until the mid 1970s. In the United States, the 1977 publication of Kanter's monograph, "Work and family in the United States: A critical review and agenda for research and policy," sparked a surge in scholarship focused on the relationships between work and family issues. Academics in diverse fields and disciplines--from child & family studies to economics--began to research and write about the experiences of working families, employers' response to the work-family priorities of their employees, and public sector policies that affect the decisions both of working families as well as those made by employers. This module introduces students to the multi-disciplinary work-family field of study. The module's contents provide information related to: (1) The diversity of contemporary families; (2) Changing forms of work; (3) Concepts related to the work-family interface; (4) Work-family issues as important contemporary concerns; and (5) The implications of work and family experiences for the quality of life at home and at the workplace. The contents of the module are appropriate either for: (1) The first one or two sessions of a work-family course taught in social science departments; and (2) Specific sessions of a survey course, such as the sociology of family, which focuses on a range of topics, including an introduction to work-family issues. (Contains 4 online resources.) [This paper was prepared with the help of Judi C. Casey, Karen Corday, and Christina Matz. For Modules 2, 3 and 4 of this curriculum guide, see ED536753, ED536766, and ED536752, respectively.]