On Thursday, February 21st and Friday, February 22nd 2013, the National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) is holding its Sixth Annual Research Conference entitled Cradle to College, Work, and Retirement: New CALDER Research. This year’s conference brings together policy analysts and prominent scholars in education research to examine how policies in grades K-12 and postsecondary relate to later outcomes including postsecondary and workplace outcomes.

Please click here to view the agenda and read the papers being presented.

CALDER Goes to Rome!

October 3rd - 5th several CALDER researchers participated in an international conference on education and accountabilty sponsored by Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) and Invalsi, an Italian research organization.

To see a list of CALDER presentations and key note speeches, click here.

To find out more about the conference, click here.

Pictured (left to right): David Figlio, Jacob Vigdor, Jane Hannaway, Michael Hansen, Helen Ladd, Zeyu Xu

CALDER Conversations

    Topic 2: Test-Based Measures of Teacher Effectiveness

The use of student test-based measures of teacher effectiveness in personnel decisions, such as tenure, is controversial. It is a major bone of contention in the current Chicago teacher strike. The conversation here focuses on the uses, value, and limitations of these measures, often called value-added measures. CALDER working papers that have contributed to this area of inquiry are listed below the discussion. Click here to read the conversation

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Postsecondary Education and Labor Market Outcomes in the U.S.
By Harry Holzer and Erin Dunlop 
CALDER Working Paper No. 86

In this paper, we seek to provide a fairly comprehensive and up-to-date snapshot of the most important postsecondary education and labor market outcomes in the U.S. using two nationally representative sources of data: The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and The National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS). This national overview can serve as an important benchmark for the growing literature using administrative state level data to explore educational outcomes. We find that postsecondary educational attainment has risen modestly over the past two decades, with greater gains in BA attainment in the 1990s and in certificate and AA attainment since 2000 (though attainment rose in response to the Great Recession at all levels). Both younger and older cohorts of blacks and Hispanics have made relative progress in the attainment of certificates and AAs but still lag behind whites in the entry into and completion of BA programs; completion rates in BA programs also lag substantially for those from low-income families or with weak academic achievement in high school. There are labor market returns for all postsecondary credentials, including certificates and AA degrees, though these vary across field of study. Large gender gaps exist in field of study, with men favoring high paying fields. Lastly, we find that high school achievement measures explain much of the racial gaps in BA attainment and annual earnings and some of the gaps by family background, though they account for little of the continuing gender gap in annual earnings.

Download:  Full Analysis

 

Good Workers for Good Jobs: Improving Education and Workforce Systems in the US
By Harry Holzer
CALDER Working Paper No. 85

Stagnant earnings and growing inequality in the US labor market reflect both a slowdown in the growth of worker skills and the growing matching of good-paying jobs to skilled workers. Improving the ties between colleges, workforce institutions, and employers would help more workers gain the needed skills. Evaluation evidence shows that training programs linked to employers and good-paying jobs are often cost-effective. Helping more states develop such programs and systems would help raise worker earnings and reduce inequality.

Download:  Full Analysis

CALDER Researchers are experts in their field and the nation has taken notice. Recently, some of our researchers have been appointed to or re-appointed to positions of national importance.

Jane Hannaway - Director of CALDER and AIR Vice President - was elected president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) at their national conference, held March 15-17th in Boston, MA.

To read more about Jane and her research, click here. To read more about the AEFP click here.

Susanna Loeb - CALDER Researcher and Professor of Education at Stanford University - has been nominated by President Obama to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences.

To read more about Susanna, click here. To read the White House press release, click here.

Dan Goldhaber - CALDER Researcher and Director of the Center for Education and Research at the University of Washington-Bothell - has had his term as co-editor of Education Finance and Policy extended by two years.

To read more about Dan and his research, click here. 

Eric Hanushek- CALDER Researcher and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University- is currently serving on Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan's Equity and Excellence Commission.

To read more about Eric and his research, click here. To read more about the Equity and Excellence Commission, click here.

CALDER is expanding its research agenda to include postsecondary education and labor market outcomes.

The work is supported by grants from the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. The research is especially concerned with the labor market payoffs of postsecondary and related secondary programs and policies for disadvantaged groups whose prior school performance may not have been strong. Data from four CALDER states – North Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Florida – allow individual level linkages across K-12, postsecondary and the labor market data files...Read more »
 

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