This report contains the testimony of Preston Cooper, a senior fellow focusing on the economics of higher education at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies concerning the federal role in postsecondary education, and the…

In almost any conversation about accountability for private schools, accountability for public schools is assumed. This is a dangerous myth. By assuming that the edifice that states and the federal government have created over the past several decades actually holds schools accountable, school choice advocates immediately find themselves in an…

In this report, we spotlight a traditional path to overcoming inequality and move up the economic ladder in our country: higher education. UnidosUS hopes to draw attention to the experience of Latino students in college and highlight some troubling trends we see. The words of the students and parents are compelling and help to make visible to…

A recent report from Michigan's Mackinac Center asserts that there is little or no relationship between student achievement and marginal increases to what the report characterizes as the already "high" levels of spending in that state. Yet the report never substantiates its assertion that present spending levels are high, on average, or…

Ensuring college access amid rising tuition costs has hovered near the top of the nation's education agenda for years. Facing heightened concern about the student debt burden and disappointing college graduation rates, policymakers are hungry for fresh ideas. Federal Pell Grants, the primary means for subsidizing college tuition for…

The grim statistics are well known, but bear repeating: in Chicago, close to 60% of Black boys do not graduate from high school, and only one in forty receive a bachelor's degree by age 25. In the fall of 2006, Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men-Englewood Campus, the nation's first all-male charter public high school, was opened. In 2010 and…

In its first hundred days, the Obama administration demonstrated a strong commitment to expanding access to higher education. The economic stimulus package, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), increased funding for the Pell Grant program and over the next two years, the maximum award will grow to $5,550 in 2010-2011--the…

The problem of social exclusion in Poland was examined along with possible strategies for combating social exclusion through vocational education and training (VET). The examination began with an analysis of the special needs of individuals who have reduced opportunities within the labor market and/or are members of national and ethnic minorities.…

Noting that access to higher education has expanded dramatically in the past several decades, Sara Goldrick-Rab and Kia Sorensen focus on how unmarried parents fare once they enter college. Contrary to the expectation that access to college consistently promotes family stability and economic security, the authors argue that deficiencies in current…

This author reports that, among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. While four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year, the students who…

This Opportunity 08 position paper advises that the next President of the United States should focus on lifting the achievement levels of our nation's schoolchildren. It recommends that the new President should mount a determined effort, together with states and local school districts, to boost the academic performance of low achievers by: (1)…

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to introduce the theme: "Responding to the educational needs of the young to bring about globalization with a human face," which formed part of the discussions at the 47th session of the International Conference on Education, Geneva, Switzerland, 8-11 September 2004. The second is to provide a…