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We examine the potential to expand and diversify the production of university STEM degrees by shifting the margin of initial enrollment between community colleges and 4-year universities. Our analysis is based on statewide administrative microdata from the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development covering enrollees in all public postsecondary institutions statewide. We find that the potential for shifting the enrollment margin to expand degree production in STEM fields is modest, even at an upper bound, because most community college students are not academically prepared for bachelor's degree programs in STEM fields. We also find that shifting the enrollment margin is unlikely to improve racial/ethnic diversity among university STEM degree recipients. This is because community college students at the enrollment margin are less diverse than their peers who enter universities directly.

Food insecurity, a condition of limited access to nutritious food, is a critical issue for college students' health and well-being. In this report, we present results from our project that examines the long-term effects of college students' food insecurity on future socioeconomic status, wealth, and food insecurity using nationally representative data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Our study population included 1,574 individuals who were enrolled in college between 1999-2003, aged 16-29 years old during college enrollment, and remained in the sample through 2015-17. We examined the associations of interest using a combination of linear, logistic, multinomial logistic, and fixed-effects regression models, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics measured concurrent with college enrollment or during childhood. In the sample, the prevalence of food insecurity during college was 14.9%. College food insecurity was associated with lower odds of college completion and lower likelihood of obtaining a Bachelor's degree or a graduate or professional degree. These associations were more pronounced among first-generation college students. College food insecurity was also associated with lower mean labor wage income and lower wealth accumulation (including home equity) across subsequent survey waves between 2005-2019. Finally, college food insecurity was associated with a higher prevalence of food insecurity in the later adult years (measured in 2015-17). Results suggest that college food insecurity has long-term implications for socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood. Future research should focus on the role of programs and policies that can break the cycle of chronic food insecurity and poverty over the life course.

This article looks at the labour market outcomes of 2015 postsecondary graduates three years after graduation. Specifically, it examines their employment status, job permanency, relatedness of their job or business to their 2015 educational program, the degree to which graduates feel qualified for their job, their employment income and their job satisfaction. This article answers the question: How are graduates of 2015 faring in terms of their integration into the labour market?

We use rich administrative microdata from Missouri to examine the potential to expand and diversify the production of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] degrees at universities by tapping into the population of community college students. We find that the scope for expansion is modest, even at an upper bound, because most community college students have academic qualifications that make them unlikely to succeed in a STEM field at a university. We also find there is almost no scope for community college students to improve the racial/ethnic diversity of four-year STEM degree recipients. We conclude that it will be challenging to expand and diversify STEM degree production at universities with interventions targeted toward community college students.

Financiers have regained preeminence among economic elites, accruing growing shares of income and wealth. Yet network analyses have shown a decline in the bank-based interlocks between corporate boards that were once thought to foster financier power and elite cohesion. We ask if social organizations parallel to the economy provide a circuitry that connects financiers to other elites, despite growing complexity and fragmentation in finance. We develop and test hypotheses that apply the theory to elite university social ties using original data on degree holding among the "Forbes" 400 wealthiest Americans and on the financial affiliations of all trustees on the boards of 60 top ranked U.S. universities.

In Canada, immigrants represented more than half of the population in the prime working ages with at least a bachelor's degree in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of study in 2016. They accounted for three-quarters of engineering and computer science graduates with a master's or doctorate degree. This paper examines the skill utilization and earnings of employed STEM-educated immigrants by field of study and degree level. Compared with the Canadian-born with similar levels of education and in similar fields of study, immigrants with a bachelor's degree had considerably lower skill utilization rates and earnings outcomes than those of doctoral degree holders. This is mostly because immigrant doctoral graduates are more likely to be educated in a Western country. By field of study, immigrant engineering graduates, particularly at the bachelor's level, had relatively weaker skill utilization rates and earnings outcomes; immigrant computer science graduates did somewhat better. The slightly more than half of STEM-educated immigrants who did not find a STEM job had the weakest skill utilization rates and earnings outcomes. Much of the gap between the earnings of immigrant and Canadian-born graduates was associated with differences in country of education. STEM immigrants educated in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom or France had outcomes similar to the Canadian-born.

The rapidly growing supply of university-educated workers from both immigration and domestic educational institutions, coupled with relatively slack demand for educated labour, has raised concerns about skill use in the Canadian economy. This study uses census data from 2001 to 2016 to compare trends in over-education among recent immigrants and Canadian-born youth. The study showed that only about one-half of the growth in university-educated workers over this 15-year period was matched with growth in jobs requiring a university education. University-educated recent immigrants became more concentrated in jobs requiring less than a university education. In comparison, Canadian-born youth with a university degree became less likely to work in jobs requiring high school or less education.

Over one in three students who started college in 2012 did not enroll in the fall immediately following their high school graduation. Despite the prevalence of delayed college enrollment, however, little is known about its consequences for labor market outcomes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this paper examines the characteristics and earnings trajectories of students who do not enroll in college immediately after high school ("delayers") and the effects of this choice on academic and labor market outcomes. Propensity score matching results show that delaying college enrollment decreases individuals' likelihood of enrolling in college and increases their tendency to enroll in two-year colleges if they do return to school. They also show that, consistent with the study's descriptive results, the early earnings benefits experienced by delayers fade out after their mid-20s and turn to significant losses over time. Oaxaca decomposition results indicate that differences in student characteristics only explain one third of the pay gap between the two groups; 60 percent of the pay gap is explained by delayers' reduced likelihood of attending and obtaining a degree at a four-year college.

Changes in the credentialing market have produced a complex, multilayered ecosystem with a demand for shorter credentials that are focused around job market competencies. Community colleges are well positioned to lead this emerging market for three reasons. (1) Their dual mission to offer both traditional degrees and workforce development programs provides a competitive advantage in piloting and implementing many of the new types of credentials, especially those that can be embedded into traditional degree programs. (2) They have a long history in awarding certificates, one type of shorter work-aligned credential that is experiencing a new emphasis in today's market. (3) They have an established infrastructure, content knowledge experts, and employer relationships that can support a broad array of shorter credentials with a solid level of quality assurance. To play a central, even leading role, in the new credentialing market, community colleges must build credentials that respond to four growing trends and imperatives: building competency and market-oriented programs, structuring credentials to facilitate lifelong learning, unbundling learning in traditional degrees, and recognizing the need for quality assurance.

Despite massive cuts in state funding over the past thirty years, the University of California has managed to keep enrollment on pace with growth in population. With California's population projected to grow 22.5 percent (from 40 to 49 million by 2040), that will no longer be the case, unless UC is able to find a new funding model. Informed by the historical analysis in the report "Approaching a Tipping Point: A History and Prospectus of Funding for the University of California", this essay revisits the options for funding UC from that report, including: reinvestment by California lawmakers and a proposed general bond measure for capital construction; increasing research funding to help subsidize teaching and public service programs; revising the indirect-cost agreement with the State of California; raising undergraduate tuition and fees for upper income students and establishing tuition pricing model tiered by student family income; explore differential fees by major; and reducing the percentage of UC undergraduate tuition income that is "returned-to-aid" in favor of increased fundraising for financial aid. All relate to two central questions: a) can UC afford to grow in its enrollment and academic programs with the state's population and needs? and b) how to identify new sources of revenue and pursue management efficiencies to reduce operating and capital costs? Without a substantial boost in income from the state or other sources, UC may be approaching a crossroads, where it continues to grow in enrollment without adequate funding, or where it instead chooses to halt or limit growth to focus on maintaining quality and productivity, but with serious consequences for California. Any significant state reinvestment will depend on the new California governor. Governors in the past have been key players in creating and building California's pioneering higher education system. A new governor should have ambitions for higher education that match those of Californians.

We use comprehensive data on student teaching placements from 14 teacher education programs (TEPs) in Washington State to explore the sorting of teacher candidates to the teachers who supervise their student teaching ("cooperating teachers") and the schools in which student teaching occurs. We find that, all else equal, teachers with more experience, higher degree levels, and higher value added in math are more likely to serve as cooperating teachers, as are schools with lower levels of historical teacher turnover but with more open positions the following year. We also find that teacher candidates are more likely to be placed with cooperating teachers of the same gender and race/ethnicity, and are more likely to work with cooperating teachers and in schools with administrators who graduated from the candidate's TEP.

Competency-based education (CBE) is a rapidly growing movement of postsecondary and K-12 programs that allow learners to move ahead based on what they know and can do, rather than time spent in class. At the postsecondary level, CBE could be a pathway that helps many thousands of learners move from poverty to prosperity. This paper considers how CBE can be used to educate, equip, and empower learners who struggle in postsecondary learning programs because of who they are and where they live. Recommended starting points--places and programs--are provided throughout the paper to highlight where and how CBE providers can prioritize equity. The first section identifies three learner populations for CBE programs to prioritize: (1) learners of color; (2) adult learners who are unemployed or underemployed; and (3) adult learners with some postsecondary education but no credential. The second section details the types of programs CBE providers should offer, and the final section suggests some occupations and industries for which CBE programs should prepare their graduates.

Enrolling more than 6 million students each fall, community colleges carry out a crucial function in higher education by providing access to college, including baccalaureate opportunities, occupational education, remedial education, and other educational services. At the same time, community colleges face great challenges that have elicited calls for major reforms. This paper begins by discussing the social roles and organization of community colleges in the United States, their main social contributions, and the challenges they face. It then describes and evaluates the sweeping policy proposals that have been made to address these challenges.

We study the effects of access to high school math and science courses on postsecondary STEM enrollment and degree attainment using administrative microdata from Missouri. Our data panel includes over 140,000 students from 14 cohorts entering the 4-year public university system. The effects of high school course access are identified by exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in course offerings within high schools over time. We find that differential access to high school courses does not affect postsecondary STEM enrollment or degree attainment. Our null results are estimated precisely enough to rule out moderate impacts.

Stackable credentials--sequential postsecondary awards that allow individuals to progress on a career path--have been suggested as a way to enhance the labor market prospects of middle-skill workers. Yet, thus far, little evidence has been provided on the economic value of these credentials. Here, we report a series of estimates on the association between stackable credentials and earnings. We use national, survey, and college-system-level datasets. A significant body of evidence indicates that the labor market returns to certificates--along with those to college degrees--are positive. But our estimates of stackable credentials show only weakly positive and inconsistent gains from these award combinations. Generally, these estimates are indistinguishable from the returns to only one postsecondary credential. There is no clear evidence of how earnings vary across types of stack--progressive, supplemental, or independent--or student characteristics. However, estimated earnings gains from stackable credentials may be imprecise. Few college students stack awards, the motives for stacking are unknown, and notably, the number of stacked awards depends on whether general vocational awards are included. Future research should examine why students stack awards and how they can choose combinations of awards that maximize their earnings gains from stacking.

Internships are among the most beneficial out-of-classroom experiences designated as High-Impact Practices (HIPs). Yet, due to the diverse and unscripted nature of internship experiences, as well as the many different models for facilitating them, outcomes assessment practices are a long way from capturing the full power of internships as learning experiences. This paper draws upon the framework of the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) to sketch three different curricular pathways that learning from internships might follow. This allows for mapping specific learning outcomes expected in internships, as well as the identification of appropriate forms of evidence for documenting their achievement -- including evidence from intentionally designed assignments. Drawing on the DQP, and the VALUE Rubrics from the Association of American Colleges & Universities, the paper explores Integrative Learning as a framework for evaluating learning associated with different internship learning pathways. It concludes with suggestions for collaboration on- and off- campus that can help facilitate meaningful learning though internship experiences. [Foreword by Pat Hutchings.]

Increasing the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) university graduates is considered a key element for long-term productivity and competitiveness in the global economy. Still, little is known about what actually drives and shapes students' choices. This paper focusses on secondary school students at the very top of the ability distribution and explores the effect of more exposure to science on enrolment and persistence in STEM degrees at the university and on the quality of the university attended. The paper overcomes the standard endogeneity problems by exploiting the different timing in the implementation of a reform that induced secondary schools in the UK to offer more science to high ability 14 year-old children. Taking more science in secondary school increases the probability of enrolling in a STEM degree by 1.5 percentage point and the probability of graduating in these degrees by 3 percentage points. The results mask substantial gender heterogeneity: while girls are as willing as boys to take advanced science in secondary school--when offered--the effect on STEM degrees is entirely driven by boys. Girls are induced to choose more challenging subjects, but still the most female-dominated ones. An appendix provides supplementary tables. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Inequalities do not end once students enter higher education. Yet, the majority of papers on the effectiveness of higher education aid examine its impact on college enrolment. In this paper, we provide evidence on the causal impact of means-tested but otherwise unconditional financial aid on the outcomes of students who have already enrolled in college. To do so, we exploit a unique non-salient financial aid program which varies both across and within institutions, and for which eligibility is a highly non-linear function of parental income. Using student-level administrative data collected from 9 English universities, we study the effects of aid receipt on college completion rates, annual course scores, and degree quality. Our findings suggest that each £1,000 of financial aid awarded increases the chances of gaining a good degree by around 3.7 percentage points, driven by increases in annual rates of completion and course scores. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

This paper summarises factors and emerging trends for higher education following from the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the responses of providers and governments. It is framed as a provocation to stimulate discussion about futures for higher education in Australia and beyond following the immediate COVID-19 disruption. While the evolving response to the pandemic makes prediction fraught, to provide concrete indication of the trajectory of many trends this paper draws on research into and past experience of similar economic, political and social 'shocks' to the provision of higher education in advanced economies. It examines how the coronavirus pandemic is magnifying existing pressures for universities and how it is providing new possibilities. The first section summarises ten trends and their associated drivers. Based on a PESTEL analysis, it includes codes for each item to signal the associated key factors contributing to the trend, including (P)olitical, (Ec)onomic, (S)ociocultural, (T)echnological, (L)egal and (En)vironmental. For each trend, we outline several implications for higher education provision in Australia. The second section synthesises these implications into a range of outcomes and questions.

This is the executive summary for "Structuring State Policy for Student Success: Applying Incentives in the Volunteer State." For many years, state funding to public colleges and universities in Tennessee and across the nation was distributed based primarily on enrollment, rather than degree production or efficiency. This led or allowed institutions to seek more funding through efforts such as boosting enrollment and engaging in mission creep, with little incentive for completion. To address this ill effect and promote better outcomes tied to state goals, Tennessee has implemented two primary types of direct economic incentives for institutions: performance funding (1979) and an outcomes-based funding formula for public higher education (2010). Under these initiatives, institutional performance, as measured by the funding model, leads directly to the institution's amount and share of state appropriations for institutional operating expenses. In Tennessee's experience, incentives work. This experience is pertinent to other states because: with only 36 percent of its adult residents holding a postsecondary certificate or higher, Tennessee has a long way to go in terms of educational attainment; it has made substantial strides in a short time; and it shares enough characteristics with enough states to make its experience relevant across a variety of state contexts. [For the full report, see ED587412.]

No state has done more than Tennessee to shift state higher education funding to reflect outcomes rather than inputs. In other states, most of the core funding for higher education, including tuition and state appropriations, flows to colleges based on student enrollment. With a goal to reach the national average in higher education attainment by 2025, Tennessee is at the vanguard of this movement and has aligned its budget with its ambitions. It is the first state to base most state appropriations to colleges and universities on outcomes, with emphasis on progress toward and completion of degrees. Initial results are promising, but still preliminary. Evidence of success will come from information on: (1) degrees awarded; (2) enrollment; (3) grades and credits earned; and (4) progress and other performance benchmarks. Recommendations for other states that emerge from initial findings are included. This brief's appendix table shows how data will become available over the next several years to facilitate review of the impact of formula funding in Tennessee.

We investigate the extent to which graduate returns vary according to the class of degree achieved by UK university students and examine changes over time in estimated degree class premia. Using a variety of complementary datasets for individuals born in Britain around 1970 and aged between 30 and 40, we estimate an hourly wage premium for a "good" (relative to a "lower") class of degree of 7% to 9%, implying a wide spread around the average graduate premium. We also estimate the premium for a good relative to a lower degree for different cohorts (those born between the mid-1960s and early-1980s) and find evidence that the premium for a good degree has risen over time as the proportions of cohorts participating in higher education have increased. Tables and a list of university types are appended.

This paper examines the bias arising from individuals' migration from administrative outcome data, with a focus on the labor market consequences of postsecondary education. We find that out-of-state migration is particularly problematic for high-earners, flagship graduates, and certain majors. Consequently, the effect of graduating from a flagship university is 10% higher than one would estimate using in-state earnings exclusively, though the extent of bias differs substantially across contexts. The impact of obtaining a 2-year CTE credential is also understated, as are earnings differences across majors. Approaches to testing for and bounding this bias are considered.

Of the copious research on the labor market returns to college, very little has adequately modeled the pathways of non-completers or compared their outcomes with those of award holders. In this paper, we present a novel method for linking non-completers with completers according to their program of study. This method allows us to calculate the labor market returns to programs of study, accounting both for those who obtain an award and those who do not. We use a large dataset of community college transcripts matched with earnings data. We find that different classification systems--by algorithm, intent, or goal--yield very different enrollment patterns across programs. These classifications make a substantial difference to earnings patterns. Our results show that returns vary not only by program completion, but they also vary by program non-completion. Consequently, combining completers and non-completers yields a new pattern of returns. For some awards, this leads to wider earnings differentials. However, we find that the variance in returns by subject of study is reduced when we combine data on completers and non-completers. Finally, we find that progression in a program per se does not lead to higher earnings for students who do not complete (even as it demonstrably does for students who complete their program). If validated, these findings have significant implications for policies on program choice and on student retention policies. A supplementary figure is appended.

The federal government and many individual organizations have invested in programs to support diversity in the STEM pipeline, including STEM summer programs for high school students, but there is little rigorous evidence of their efficacy. We fielded a randomized controlled trial to study a suite of such programs targeted to underrepresented high school students at an elite, technical institution. The STEM summer programs differ in their length (one week, six weeks, or six months) and modality (on-site or online). Students offered seats in the STEM summer programs are more likely to enroll in, persist through, and graduate from college, with gains in institutional quality coming from both the host institution and other elite universities. The programs also increase the likelihood that students graduate with a degree in a STEM field, with the most intensive program increasing four-year graduation with a STEM degree attainment by 33 percent. The shift to STEM degrees increases potential earnings by 2 to 6 percent. Program-induced gains in college quality fully account for the gains in graduation, but gains in STEM degree attainment are larger than predicted based on institutional differences. [Financial support also provided by the Teachers College Provost's Investment Fund, the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, and the Lab for Economic Applications and Policy at Harvard University.]

We provide the first experimental estimates of the long-term impacts of a voucher to attend private school by linking data from a privately sponsored voucher initiative in New York City, which awarded the scholarships by lottery to low-income families, to administrative records on college enrollment and degree attainment. We find no significant effects on college enrollment or four-year degree attainment of the offer of a voucher. However, we find substantial, marginally significant impacts for minority students and large, significant impacts for the children of women born in the United States. Negative point estimates for the children of non-minority and foreign-born mothers are not statistically significant at conventional levels. The information needed to match students to administrative data on postsecondary outcomes was available for 99 percent of the sample. We find evidence of substantial bias due to attrition in the original evaluation, which relied on data collected at follow-up sessions.

I investigate the determinants of high school completion and college attendance, the likelihood of taking science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) courses in the first year of college and the probability of earning a degree in a STEM field. The focus is on women and minorities, who tend to be underrepresented in STEM fields. Tracking four cohorts of students throughout Florida, I find that large differences in math achievement across racial lines exist as early as elementary school and persist through high school. These achievement differences lead to higher drop-out rates in high school and a reduced probability of attending college for black students. However, conditional on immediately attending a four-year college after high school, black and Hispanic students are more likely than whites to take STEM courses during their first year in college. Increased exposure to Hispanic math and science teachers in middle and high school tends to increase the likelihood that Hispanic students take STEM courses during their first year in college, though pairing black students and black math/science teachers does not have the same positive effect. For all students, having high school math and science teachers with a degree in biology, chemistry or math (as opposed to education) is associated with a higher likelihood of taking STEM courses as college freshmen. When pre-college differences in income and math achievement are taken into account, black and Hispanic students are at least as likely as white students to successfully complete a STEM major. Racial/ethnic pairing of students and college instructors in first-year STEM courses does not increase the likelihood of majoring in a STEM field. In contrast to underrepresented minorities, women perform nearly as well as men on math achievement tests through high school and are more likely to finish high school and attend college than males. Among college students, however, women are less likely than men to take courses in the physical sciences in their first year and are less likely to earn a degree in physics or engineering, even after adjusting for pre-college test scores. Gender matching of students and math/science teachers in middle and high school tends to increase the likelihood that female college freshman will take at least one STEM course, However, conditional on first-year coursework, neither gender matching at the secondary or college levels appears to have any effect on the likelihood of completing a major in a STEM field. Tables are appended.

The Federal Pell Grant Program is the nation's largest need-based grant program. While students' initial eligibility for the Pell is based on financial need, renewal of the award is contingent on their making satisfactory academic progress (SAP)--meeting minimum academic standards similar to those proposed in models of performance-based scholarships. It is not clear how many students are affected by failure to meet SAP standards, or how the policies shape student outcomes. In this study, we draw from literature on performance-based funding and academic probation to consider the potential implications of SAP standards. We describe federal guidelines and illustrate how SAP is evaluated in a statewide community college system. Using administrative data with term-by-term measures of Pell receipt, student grades, attempted and earned credits, persistence, degree attainment, and transfer, we employ regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences approaches to examine the magnitude of SAP failure and its effects. Our results suggest that a substantial portion of Pell recipients at community colleges are at risk for Pell ineligibility due to their failure to meet SAP grade point average (GPA) or credit completion requirements. Approximately a quarter fail to meet the GPA standard alone. When the credit completion requirement is taken into consideration, the first-year SAP failure rate approaches 40 percent. Our preferred difference-in-differences estimates show mixed effects of SAP standards: Failing to meet the GPA requirement has a negative impact on persistence into the second year, but it may improve associate degree attainment and transfer among students who are not discouraged from reenrolling. The following are appended: (1) Regression Discontinuity Results; and (2) Difference-in-Differences Results.

We study employers' perceptions of postsecondary degrees using a field experiment. We randomly assign the sector and selectivity of institution to fictitious resumes and send them to real vacancy postings on a large online job board. According to our results, a bachelor's degree in business from a for-profit "online" institution is 22 percent less likely to receive a callback than a similar degree from a non-selective public institution. Degrees from selective public institutions are relatively more likely to receive callbacks from employers posting higher-salaried jobs, suggesting that employers value college quality and the likelihood of a successful match when contacting applicants. "Measuring Job Quality by Collecting Job Title-Specific Salaries" is appended.

Early research on the returns to higher education treated the postsecondary system as a monolith. In reality, postsecondary education in the United States and around the world is highly differentiated, with a variety of options that differ by credential (associates degree, bachelor's degree, diploma, certificate, graduate degree), the control of the institution (public, private not-for-profit, private for-profit), the quality/resources of the institution, field of study, and exposure to remedial education. In this Chapter, we review the literature on the returns to these different types of higher education investments, which has received increasing attention in recent decades. We first provide an overview of the structure of higher education in the U.S. and around the world, followed by a model that helps clarify and articulate the assumptions employed by different estimators used in the literature. We then discuss the research on the return to institution type, focusing on the return to two-year, four-year, and for-profit institutions as well as the return to college quality within and across these institution types. We also present the research on the return to different educational programs, including vocational credentials, remedial education, field of study, and graduate school. The wide variation in the returns to different postsecondary investments that we document leads to the question of how students from different backgrounds sort into these different institutions and programs. We discuss the emerging research showing that lower-SES students, especially in the U.S., are more likely to sort into colleges and programs with lower returns as well as results from recent U.S.-based interventions and policies designed to support success among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Chapter concludes with some broad directions for future research.

This paper examines inequalities in the match between student and degree quality using linked administrative data from schools, universities and tax authorities. We analyse two measures of match at the university-subject level: undergraduate enrollment qualifications, and graduate earnings. We find for both that disadvantaged students match to lower quality degrees across the entire distribution of achievement, in a setting with uniform fees and a generous financial aid system. While there are negligible gender gaps in academic match, high-attaining women systematically undermatch in terms of expected earnings, driven by subject choice. These inequalities in match are largest among the most undermatched.

We use comprehensive data on student teaching placements from 14 teacher education programs (TEPs) in Washington State to explore the sorting of teacher candidates to the teachers who supervise their student teaching ("cooperating teachers") and the schools in which student teaching occurs. We find that, all else equal, teachers with more experience, higher degree levels, and higher value added in math are more likely to serve as cooperating teachers, as are schools with lower levels of historical teacher turnover but with more open positions the following year. We also find that teacher candidates are more likely to be placed with cooperating teachers of the same gender and race/ethnicity, and are more likely to work with cooperating teachers and in schools with administrators who graduated from the candidate's TEP.

We draw on administrative data from the country of Colombia to assess differences in student learning in online and traditional on-campus college programs. The Colombian context is uniquely suited to study this topic, as students take a compulsory exit examination at the end of their studies. We can therefore directly compare performance on the exit exam for students in online and on-campus programs both across and within institutions, degrees, and majors. Using inverse probability weighting methods based on a rich set of background characteristics coupled with institution-degree-major fixed effects, our results suggest that bachelor's degree students in online programs perform worse on nearly all test score measures (including math, reading, writing, and English) relative to their counterparts in on-campus programs. Results for shorter technical certificates are more mixed. While online students perform significantly worse than on-campus students on exit exams in private institutions, they perform better in SENA--the main public vocational institution in the country.

We study the impact of financial incentives on higher education decisions and the choice of major. We rely on a reform whereby Israeli kibbutzim shifted from their traditional policy of equal sharing to productivity-based wages. We use for identification the staggered implementation of this reform in different kibbutzim. In this setting of very low initial returns to education, we find that the dramatic increase in the rate of return and its sharp variation across fields of study led to a large increase in the probability of receiving a Bachelor degree, especially in STEM fields of study that are expected to yield higher financial returns. For men this increase was largely in computer science and engineering, and for women in biology, chemistry and computer science. Our findings suggest that investment in higher education and the choice of major are responsive to increases in the return to education for both men and women. [Financial support from the European Research Council.]

This paper studies the effects of university STEM education on innovation and labor market outcomes by exploiting a change in enrollment requirements in Italian STEM majors. University-level scientific education had two direct effects on the development of patents by students who had acquired a STEM degree. First, the policy changed the direction of their innovation. Second, it allowed these individuals to reach top positions within firms and be more involved in the innovation process. STEM degrees, however, also changed occupational sorting. Some higher-achieving individuals used STEM degrees to enter jobs that required university-level education, but did not focus on patenting. [Financial support was provided by the Stanford Europe Center and the Stanford Center for International Development.]

High school vocational education has a controversial history in the United States, largely due to a perceived tradeoff between teaching readily deployable occupational skills versus shunting mostly disadvantaged students away from the educational and career flexibility afforded by general academic courses. We study the effects of a nationwide high school reform in Norway that aimed to move beyond this tradeoff. Reform 94, implemented in one step in the fall of 1994, integrated more general education into the vocational track, offered vocational students a pathway to college through a supplementary semester of academic courses, and sought to improve the quality of the vocational track through greater access to apprenticeships. We identify the impacts of the reform through a difference-in-discontinuity research design, comparing students born just before and after the reform's birthdate eligibility cutoff to students born around the same cutoff in placebo years. Linking multiple administrative registries covering the entire Norwegian population, we find that the reform substantially increased initial enrollment in the vocational track, but with different subsequent outcomes for different groups. More men complete the vocational track at the expense of academic diplomas, but this has no detectable impact on college-going and leads to reduced criminal activity and higher earnings in adulthood, especially among disadvantaged men. For disadvantaged women, the initial surge in vocational enrollment leads to fewer high school dropouts and more vocational degrees with the college-prep supplement, and hence an increase in the share of college-eligible women; however, this translates into only small and insignificant increases in college completion and adult earnings. We show that men overwhelmingly pursue vocational education in higher-paying skilled trade fields, while women almost exclusively pursue vocational education in lower-paying service-based fields, which helps in interpreting some of these results. Overall, the reform succeeded at improving social mobility, particularly among men, but it somewhat exacerbated the gender gap in adult earnings.

In May 2019, the United Kingdom (UK) higher education sector restated its strong commitment to protecting the value of UK degrees over time. This was based on the following principles: (1) Protecting the value of qualifications is in the interest of students -- past, present and future -- who deserve qualifications that they can take pride in; (2) All higher education institutions are responsible for protecting the value and the sustainability of the classification system; (3) Qualifications should be based on clear criteria that recognise, demonstrate and celebrate academic stretch and success; (4) Higher education institutions are responsible for awarding degrees that benefit from common arrangements to protect their value; and (5) The diversity of the UK higher education sector is a strength, which is founded on shared, consistent and comparable academic practices. A statement of intent was created to support the sector in this work and hold it to account, with four key commitments: (1) ensure assessments continue to stretch and challenge students; (2) review and explain how final degree classifications are calculated; (3) support and strengthen the external examiners system; and (4) review and publish data and analysis on students' degree outcomes. This report outlines progress to date across the sector relevant to the statement of intent. This has already seen a levelling off in the proportion of upper degrees being awarded with no increase witnessed in 2018-19. However, the report also sets out areas that could be explored to reinforce this work and ensure transparency, fairness and reliability in degree classification. It shows that the sector remains strongly committed to the statement's principles. [The report was also produced by the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment.]

This report describes the origin and development of CESAME (The Center for Science and Mathematics Education) at Stony Brook University. The analysis identifies key ingredients in areas of personnel, funding, organizational structures, educational priorities, collaboration, and institutionalization. After a discussion of relevant issues in American education, the report explores the Center's priorities, including: (1) Outreach offering educational and research experiences for school teachers and students; (2) Science and mathematics teaching, leadership, and professional development: (3) Programs providing Ph.D. and MAT degrees in science education; (4) Research opportunities, scholarships, fellowships and funding at all educational levels; (5) Support for faculty in the development of new curricula and courses; (6) Partnerships and networking within and beyond the university; and (7) Research in science and mathematics education. Activities are evaluated and presented in ways that can be used as guidelines for replication. The report concludes with a discussion of critical success factors and the future of the organization.