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Abstract: This paper examines whether the framework developed in the educational mismatch field of research can be generalized to language skills. It uses data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database and both “Worker Self-Assessment” and “Realized Matches” procedures to quantify expected levels of English skills in each of over 500 occupations in the US Census. Earnings data from the 2000 US Census for adult male immigrant workers are then examined in relation to these occupational English requirements using the over-education, required education, under-education (ORU) approach. The analyses show that earnings are related to a “correct” matching of an immigrant's language skills with what is expected in his occupation. Mismatches have a small effect on earnings – positive for proficiency in excess of the norms in the occupation and negative for deficits in proficiency. The findings are robust with respect to a range of measurement and specification issues typically examined in ORU studies. It is concluded that the ORU model offers a framework for analysis which can be readily generalized to other forms of investment in human capital. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Skills are key to improving economic performance at individual and macro levels. [•] Education and training is the key to improving skills. [•] Projections can help ensure education and training delivers the right skills. [•] Systematic anticipation of the future can help inform career choices and decisions. [•] But education is not just about preparing people for work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text is organized in accordance with 7 questions which statements come from a mix of knowledge, beliefs and general "common sense" doubts about the relation between education and work. The answers provided come from an exhaustive analysis of the research done in Mexico since the 80's, taking also in consideration research conducted in other countries that help to clarify the answers that are currently offered. 1. More schooling, better jobs? Better income? Bigger economic development? 2. Is it true that the schooling system doesn't measure up, both in quantity and quality, to the needs of the labour market? 3. Who plans the country's process of work training? 4. How are Mexico's schooling growth and diversification related to the labour market's heterogeneous growth and transformations? 5. How equitable and how good is the process of work training? 6. How do different population groups live the process of work training? 7. Where's the better place to learn how to work? Is it school? The workplace? Some points are stressed: the emphasis given in the educational policy to the causal role of education in the country's economic development and improvement in the population's life conditions; the dominant idea of education circumscribed to the school system and to quantitative indicators; the fact that educational research has shown this relation in a linear way and it opens up a complex space for relations and multiple significance between two autonomous fields, education and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of national institutional factors – more specifically, the level of skill transparency of the education system and labour market coordination – in accounting for cross-national differences in the relationship between education and occupational status. Consistent with previous research, our findings suggest that skill transparency is the primary moderator. Countries with a highly transparent educational system (i.e., extensive tracking, strong vocational orientation, limited tertiary enrolment) tend to be characterized by a strong relationship between education and occupational status. These findings hold even after controlling for the level of labour market coordination. Nevertheless, we also find that labour market coordination plays an independent role by dampening the effect of education on occupational status. Taken together, these results suggest two quite different policy implications: (1) strengthening the skill transparency of the education system by increasing secondary and tertiary-level differentiation may strengthen the relationship between education and occupation, regardless of the level of coordination, and (2) increasing labour market coordination could lead to improved social inclusion and a reduction in inequalities related to educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El Estudio Internacional de Tendencias en Matemáticas y Ciencias de 2003 revela que el trabajo del estudiante merma más su rendimiento escolar en unos países que en otros. Es probable que las diferencias se deban a las circunstancias nacionales en cuanto a necesidades y posibilidades de trabajo. Los autores, basándose en una encuesta estadounidense de 2004, confirman que el trabajo influye en el rendimiento en matemáticas: trabajar hasta diez horas por semana tiene consecuencias positivas ligeras, mientras que hacerlo de veinte horas en adelante tiene un efecto negativo considerable. Después someten aprueba la posible endogeneidad de la decisión de trabajar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational expectations of 10th-graders have dramatically increased from 1980 to 2002. Their rise is attributable in part to the changing educational composition of students’ parents and related to the educational profiles of their expected occupations. Students whose parents have gone to college are more likely to attend college themselves, and students expect occupations that are more prestigious in 2002 than in 1980. The educational requirements of particular occupation categories have risen only slightly. These analyses also reveal that educational expectations in recent cohorts are more loosely linked to social background and occupational plans than they were in 1980. The declining importance of parents’ background and the decoupling of educational and occupational plans, in addition to a strong and significant effect of cohort on educational expectations, suggest that the expectation of four-year college attainment is indeed becoming the norm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The managerial form of university governance has changed the conditions of academic work in many countries. While some academics consider this a welcome development, others experience it as a threat to their autonomy and to the meaningfulness of their work. This essay suggests a stance in response to the current conditions that should serve especially the latter group of academics. The claim is that by approaching academic work as a potential praxis in emergence, it is possible to appreciate local, autonomous activity in renewing academic work. Even if such efforts remain difficult, dispersed in space, discontinuous in time, and incomplete, they may provide a sense of direction and keep up hope. The conception of praxis is a way of articulating the mission of such efforts; simultaneously, it is also a way of defining an epistemic object for research on academic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past quarter of a century, the sociology of education has been transformed from a marginal subfield into one of the most vibrant and respected areas of sociological research. There is no denying that the work of the last several years has contributed substantially to our understanding of the dynamics of class reproduction and the process if cultural transmission. Yet while the social scientific study of education has advanced impressively in the recent years, there remain a number of areas in which little progress has been made, i.e. the sources of class and ethnic differences in educational attainment. However, it is preferred that future educational research must consider the hypothesis that the behavior in school of students from subordinate classes and ethnic groups has something to do with the fate that generally awaits them in the labor market and the expectations generated by the fate. The labor market is a second area where educational research has perhaps raised more questions that it has yet resolved. The status-attainment model which has thus far dominated research on the link between education and the labor marker has been much more successful predicting educational attainment and income rather than predicting occupational attainment.

We recently renamed our "education" track's papers from Education Pearl to Education Matters. This would be a good time to explain our vision for the track as a whole, as well as this specific renaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presenta información sobre los temas examinados en los números de la revista que fueron publicados en 2004 y 2005. Temas en 2004 fueron "Gestión de la educación superior" y "Evaluación de la educación". Temas en 2005 fueron "Educación y valores", "Educación y trabajo" y "Tecnologías de información y comunicación en las escuelas".

Se presenta información sobre los temas examinados en los números de la revista que fueron publicados en 2004 y 2005. Temas en 2004 fueron "Gestión de la educación básica", "Gestión de la educación superior" y "Evaluación de la educación". Temas en 2005 fueron "Educación y valores" y "Educación y trabajo".