Dropping Out

Theoretical and Methodological Concerns

Agency and StructureMicro vs Macro Voluntarism vs Determinism Subjectivism vs Objectivism

Colemanrsquos BoatFoundations of Social TheoryA set of roles that players take on each role defining the interests or goals of the playerRules about the kinds of actions that are allowable for players in each role as well as about the order of playRules specifying the consequences that each playerrsquos action has for other players in the game

It is this structure which corresponds to the two transitions I have described macro to micro and micro to macro The first of these transitions is mirrored in the playerrsquos interests given by the goal established by the rules the constraints on action which are imposed by other rules the initial conditions which provide the context within which action is taken and after the game is in play the new context imposed by othersrsquo actions The second transition is mirrored by the consequences of the playerrsquos action how it combines with interferes with or in any other way interacts with the actions of other hellip thus creating a new context within which the next action takes placehellipThere is no tangible macro level The answer is that the macro level the system behavior is an abstraction nevertheless an important one (11-12)

In structural individualism on the other hand actors are occupants of positions and they enter relations that depend upon these positions The situations they face are interdependent or functional related prior to any interaction the result is a structural effect as distinguished from a mere interaction effect In addition to natural persons then there are social positions and corporate actors made up of social positions The behaviour of social systems is at least in part determined by the structure of those systems (304)Source httpunderstandingsocietyglobaleditionwordpresscom20120205causal-pathways-through-colemans-boat

Type 4 connections mdash macro to macro mdash are ruled out (ldquothe macro level is an abstraction nevertheless an important onerdquo Coleman 12) so causal influence for macro factors can only work through disaggregated effects at the micro level We might refer to Type 3 connections as aggregative and Type 2 as formative Type 3 represents the composition of the macro-level effect through the activities of individuals at the micro-level And Type 2 represents the ldquoshapingrdquo or ldquoformingrdquo of individuals that occurs when a macro-level entity affects them mdash schools norms institutions Type 1 are connections within the individualrsquos psychology and agency

The question is about a transition from micro to macro levels Colemanrsquos scheme of the micro-macro linkage which is often called ldquoColemanrsquos boatrdquo or ldquoColemanrsquos bathtubrdquo because of its shape is drawn as below A fundamental task of sociology is to explain Macro Factor Y It is ldquoexplainedrdquo by Macro Factor X (arrow A) in conventional macro sociology However according to Coleman the explanation is not perfect A full explanation should be done through a macro-to-micro and a micro-to-macro transition That is the following three questions should be answered (1) How Macro Factor X creates constraints on actors (arrow B) (2) How actors choose actions under the constraints (arrow C) (3) How the actions accumulate to the macro level (arrow D) Coleman argues that the third question is most difficult to answer because it involves the emergence of institutions and social structure The above-mentioned tools do not seem to have succeeded in answering the questionSource httpwwwisa-sociologyorgcongress2010rcrc45htm

Margaret ArcherArcher bibliographyhttpcdhepflchpage-55775-enhtml

Review of archerIn line with the main tenets of critical realism she grants causal powers to agency which cannot be deduced from or reduced to the causal powers of society or culture In order to make sure that the actor is not swallowed up by society or engulfed by language she develops a theory of human agency that foregrounds the non social aspects of humanity Granting priority to practice over language and society she develops a sequential account of nested identities in which selfhood emerges from consciousness personal identity from selfhood and social identity from personal identity Countering Rom Harreacutersquos constructivist account of the discursive self Archer argues with Jean Piaget and Maurice Merleau-Ponty that even before the acquisition of language and independently of it the lsquodifferentiationrsquo of the self from the world occurs through the embodied engagement with the world Once a continuous sense of the self is acquired in early childhood the formation of personal identity sets in as a life long quest for authenticity Following Charles Taylor and Harry Frankfurt the realist theorist argues that we become who we are through reflexive deliberation about our lsquoultimate concernsrsquo What we care about most and what genuinely matters to us is what ultimately defines us qua person Archer contends that we all necessarily have three concerns - physical well being performative competence and self-worth - and that it is through the internal conversations we have with ourselves that we actually order them define our vision of the lsquogood lifersquo and thereby acquire an authentic personal identity that is uniquely ours While self-identity is the alpha and personal identity the omega of human life social identity intervenes in the middle as a subset of personal identity that expresses who we are as persons in society It is at this point of the road of self-development that the lsquolinguistic turnrsquo is taken and the story of the morphogenesis of the individual agent into a social actor can be told (as a sub-story of the morphogenesis of structure) At first the human being is a (Bourdieusian) agent who involuntarily occupies a social position that defines his or her life-chances As she becomes aware of the interests she shares with other members of his or her class the agent is transformed into a (Tourainean) corporate agent who transforms society in such a way that the agent who by now became a social actor and a role-taker can not only occupy and personify the social role she takes on but also personalise it in accord with his or her ultimate concernsSource httpwwwjournaldumaussnetspipphparticle362

Realism and the Problem of Mediation between Structure and Agencyhttpwwwraggedclawscomcriticalrealismarchiveiacr_conference_2001marcher_rpmsapdfhttpwwwraggedclawscomcriticalrealismindexphpsitesig=WSCRamppage=WSCR_040_WSCR_Archive

Type 4 connections mdash macro to macro mdash are ruled out (ldquothe macro level is an abstraction nevertheless an important onerdquo Coleman 12) so causal influence for macro factors can only work through disaggregated effects at the micro level We might refer to Type 3 connections as aggregative and Type 2 as formative Type 3 represents the composition of the macro-level effect through the activities of individuals at the micro-level And Type 2 represents the ldquoshapingrdquo or ldquoformingrdquo of individuals that occurs when a macro-level entity affects them mdash schools norms institutions Type 1 are connections within the individualrsquos psychology and agency

The question is about a transition from micro to macro levels Colemanrsquos scheme of the micro-macro linkage which is often called ldquoColemanrsquos boatrdquo or ldquoColemanrsquos bathtubrdquo because of its shape is drawn as below A fundamental task of sociology is to explain Macro Factor Y It is ldquoexplainedrdquo by Macro Factor X (arrow A) in conventional macro sociology However according to Coleman the explanation is not perfect A full explanation should be done through a macro-to-micro and a micro-to-macro transition That is the following three questions should be answered (1) How Macro Factor X creates constraints on actors (arrow B) (2) How actors choose actions under the constraints (arrow C) (3) How the actions accumulate to the macro level (arrow D) Coleman argues that the third question is most difficult to answer because it involves the emergence of institutions and social structure The above-mentioned tools do not seem to have succeeded in answering the questionSource httpwwwisa-sociologyorgcongress2010rcrc45htm

Margaret ArcherArcher bibliographyhttpcdhepflchpage-55775-enhtml

Review of archerIn line with the main tenets of critical realism she grants causal powers to agency which cannot be deduced from or reduced to the causal powers of society or culture In order to make sure that the actor is not swallowed up by society or engulfed by language she develops a theory of human agency that foregrounds the non social aspects of humanity Granting priority to practice over language and society she develops a sequential account of nested identities in which selfhood emerges from consciousness personal identity from selfhood and social identity from personal identity Countering Rom Harreacutersquos constructivist account of the discursive self Archer argues with Jean Piaget and Maurice Merleau-Ponty that even before the acquisition of language and independently of it the lsquodifferentiationrsquo of the self from the world occurs through the embodied engagement with the world Once a continuous sense of the self is acquired in early childhood the formation of personal identity sets in as a life long quest for authenticity Following Charles Taylor and Harry Frankfurt the realist theorist argues that we become who we are through reflexive deliberation about our lsquoultimate concernsrsquo What we care about most and what genuinely matters to us is what ultimately defines us qua person Archer contends that we all necessarily have three concerns - physical well being performative competence and self-worth - and that it is through the internal conversations we have with ourselves that we actually order them define our vision of the lsquogood lifersquo and thereby acquire an authentic personal identity that is uniquely ours While self-identity is the alpha and personal identity the omega of human life social identity intervenes in the middle as a subset of personal identity that expresses who we are as persons in society It is at this point of the road of self-development that the lsquolinguistic turnrsquo is taken and the story of the morphogenesis of the individual agent into a social actor can be told (as a sub-story of the morphogenesis of structure) At first the human being is a (Bourdieusian) agent who involuntarily occupies a social position that defines his or her life-chances As she becomes aware of the interests she shares with other members of his or her class the agent is transformed into a (Tourainean) corporate agent who transforms society in such a way that the agent who by now became a social actor and a role-taker can not only occupy and personify the social role she takes on but also personalise it in accord with his or her ultimate concernsSource httpwwwjournaldumaussnetspipphparticle362

Realism and the Problem of Mediation between Structure and Agencyhttpwwwraggedclawscomcriticalrealismarchiveiacr_conference_2001marcher_rpmsapdfhttpwwwraggedclawscomcriticalrealismindexphpsitesig=WSCRamppage=WSCR_040_WSCR_Archive

Review of archerIn line with the main tenets of critical realism she grants causal powers to agency which cannot be deduced from or reduced to the causal powers of society or culture In order to make sure that the actor is not swallowed up by society or engulfed by language she develops a theory of human agency that foregrounds the non social aspects of humanity Granting priority to practice over language and society she develops a sequential account of nested identities in which selfhood emerges from consciousness personal identity from selfhood and social identity from personal identity Countering Rom Harreacutersquos constructivist account of the discursive self Archer argues with Jean Piaget and Maurice Merleau-Ponty that even before the acquisition of language and independently of it the lsquodifferentiationrsquo of the self from the world occurs through the embodied engagement with the world Once a continuous sense of the self is acquired in early childhood the formation of personal identity sets in as a life long quest for authenticity Following Charles Taylor and Harry Frankfurt the realist theorist argues that we become who we are through reflexive deliberation about our lsquoultimate concernsrsquo What we care about most and what genuinely matters to us is what ultimately defines us qua person Archer contends that we all necessarily have three concerns - physical well being performative competence and self-worth - and that it is through the internal conversations we have with ourselves that we actually order them define our vision of the lsquogood lifersquo and thereby acquire an authentic personal identity that is uniquely ours While self-identity is the alpha and personal identity the omega of human life social identity intervenes in the middle as a subset of personal identity that expresses who we are as persons in society It is at this point of the road of self-development that the lsquolinguistic turnrsquo is taken and the story of the morphogenesis of the individual agent into a social actor can be told (as a sub-story of the morphogenesis of structure) At first the human being is a (Bourdieusian) agent who involuntarily occupies a social position that defines his or her life-chances As she becomes aware of the interests she shares with other members of his or her class the agent is transformed into a (Tourainean) corporate agent who transforms society in such a way that the agent who by now became a social actor and a role-taker can not only occupy and personify the social role she takes on but also personalise it in accord with his or her ultimate concernsSource httpwwwjournaldumaussnetspipphparticle362

Realism and the Problem of Mediation between Structure and Agencyhttpwwwraggedclawscomcriticalrealismarchiveiacr_conference_2001marcher_rpmsapdfhttpwwwraggedclawscomcriticalrealismindexphpsitesig=WSCRamppage=WSCR_040_WSCR_Archive

Morphogenesis vs Structuration

ldquohellipthe problem of structure and agency is not one which imposes itself on academics along but on every human beingrdquohellipldquoThere is an equivalent dilemma about how to transcend the divide between small-scale accountancy

procedures often contextually bound and the existence of macroscopic symbol systems operating trans-situationallyhellipldquotwo aspects of social liferdquo hellip ldquo two many have concluded too quickly that the task ishelliphow to look at both faces of the same medallion at once hellip the lsquopartsrsquo and the lsquopeoplersquo are not co-existent through time hellip thus for example a particular marital structure pre-dates our contemporary constitution as married social subjects ndash which is an entirely point from the perfectly compatible statements that previous actors through their prior social practices themselves constituted a given institution of marriage earlier in historyrdquohellipinterplay between them

hellip

The underlying approach can be summarized quite succinctly Generically it is how contradictory or complementary relations between lsquopartsrsquo of the Cultural System map onto orderly or conflictual relationships between lsquopeoplersquo at the Social-Cultural level which determines whether the outcome is cultural stability or change This means that we need to specify first which Systemic relations impinge upon agency and how they do so and second whisch social relations affect how agents respond to and react back on the Cultural System

helliprdquoWhat is crucially different about the morphogenetic perspective is the core notion that culture and agency operate over different time periods hellip This core notion which is fundamental to the morphogenetic perspective is based on two simple propositions that the Cultural System logically predates the Socio-Cultural action(s) which transform it and that Cultural Elaboration logically post-dates such interaction

httpbooksgooglecombookshl=enamplr=ampid=ljpbPeHdJL0Campoi=fndamppg=PR11ampdq=Margaret+Archer27s+Realist+Social+Theory+The+Morphogenetic+Approachampots=B7v523P4nZampsig=CYV_9DmtpK_2nN2nr8Kd4amzCZYv=onepageampq=Margaret20Archer27s20Realist20Social20Theory3A20The20Morphogenetic20Approachampf=false

Others

Historical Contours

Inequality vs Inequity

Inequality Inequity and Children ndash International ComparisonsWhether in health in education or in material well-being somechildren will always fall behind the average The critical question is ndash how far behind Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible not unavoidable but unacceptable not inequality but inequityhellip

Denmark Finland the Netherlands and Switzerland ndash are leading the way in promoting equality in childrenrsquos well-being Greece Italy and the United States on the other hand are allowing children to fall furthest behindhellip growing up in poverty incurs a substantially higher risk of lower standards of health of reduced cognitive development of underachievement at school of lower skills and aspirations and eventually of lower adult earnings so helping to perpetuate disadvantage from one generation to the nexthellipThe difference between the best performing countries and the rest of the OECD nations can therefore be read as a minimum measure of the extent to which lsquofalling behindrsquo is policy-susceptible ndash the extent to which it is not unavoidable but unjusthellipChild poverty is about more than poverty of income It is also aboutpoverty of opportunity and expectation of cultural and educational resources of housing and neighbourhoods of parental care and time of local services and community resources But from the childrsquos point of view these different dimensions of poverty are rarely separate Family circumstance employment and income health and education systems and the local environment all play interacting roles in determining well-being

Inequality in Access to Educational ResourcesIn the 2006 PISA survey (see page 30) a representative sample of 15-year-old students in OECD countries was asked which of the following were available in their own homes a desk a quiet place to study a computer for school work educational software

an internet connection a calculator a dictionary school textbooks

Inequality in Living SpaceHousing living space is defined as the number of rooms per person in households with children (not counting corridors kitchens and bathrooms) Inequality is measured by the gap between the score at the median (column 2) and the average score of all children below the median (column 3) Column 4 shows the difference between the two The bar chart on the right shows the inequality gap (as a percentage of the median)

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

ldquohellipthe problem of structure and agency is not one which imposes itself on academics along but on every human beingrdquohellipldquoThere is an equivalent dilemma about how to transcend the divide between small-scale accountancy

procedures often contextually bound and the existence of macroscopic symbol systems operating trans-situationallyhellipldquotwo aspects of social liferdquo hellip ldquo two many have concluded too quickly that the task ishelliphow to look at both faces of the same medallion at once hellip the lsquopartsrsquo and the lsquopeoplersquo are not co-existent through time hellip thus for example a particular marital structure pre-dates our contemporary constitution as married social subjects ndash which is an entirely point from the perfectly compatible statements that previous actors through their prior social practices themselves constituted a given institution of marriage earlier in historyrdquohellipinterplay between them

hellip

The underlying approach can be summarized quite succinctly Generically it is how contradictory or complementary relations between lsquopartsrsquo of the Cultural System map onto orderly or conflictual relationships between lsquopeoplersquo at the Social-Cultural level which determines whether the outcome is cultural stability or change This means that we need to specify first which Systemic relations impinge upon agency and how they do so and second whisch social relations affect how agents respond to and react back on the Cultural System

helliprdquoWhat is crucially different about the morphogenetic perspective is the core notion that culture and agency operate over different time periods hellip This core notion which is fundamental to the morphogenetic perspective is based on two simple propositions that the Cultural System logically predates the Socio-Cultural action(s) which transform it and that Cultural Elaboration logically post-dates such interaction

httpbooksgooglecombookshl=enamplr=ampid=ljpbPeHdJL0Campoi=fndamppg=PR11ampdq=Margaret+Archer27s+Realist+Social+Theory+The+Morphogenetic+Approachampots=B7v523P4nZampsig=CYV_9DmtpK_2nN2nr8Kd4amzCZYv=onepageampq=Margaret20Archer27s20Realist20Social20Theory3A20The20Morphogenetic20Approachampf=false

Others

Historical Contours

Inequality vs Inequity

Inequality Inequity and Children ndash International ComparisonsWhether in health in education or in material well-being somechildren will always fall behind the average The critical question is ndash how far behind Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible not unavoidable but unacceptable not inequality but inequityhellip

Denmark Finland the Netherlands and Switzerland ndash are leading the way in promoting equality in childrenrsquos well-being Greece Italy and the United States on the other hand are allowing children to fall furthest behindhellip growing up in poverty incurs a substantially higher risk of lower standards of health of reduced cognitive development of underachievement at school of lower skills and aspirations and eventually of lower adult earnings so helping to perpetuate disadvantage from one generation to the nexthellipThe difference between the best performing countries and the rest of the OECD nations can therefore be read as a minimum measure of the extent to which lsquofalling behindrsquo is policy-susceptible ndash the extent to which it is not unavoidable but unjusthellipChild poverty is about more than poverty of income It is also aboutpoverty of opportunity and expectation of cultural and educational resources of housing and neighbourhoods of parental care and time of local services and community resources But from the childrsquos point of view these different dimensions of poverty are rarely separate Family circumstance employment and income health and education systems and the local environment all play interacting roles in determining well-being

Inequality in Access to Educational ResourcesIn the 2006 PISA survey (see page 30) a representative sample of 15-year-old students in OECD countries was asked which of the following were available in their own homes a desk a quiet place to study a computer for school work educational software

an internet connection a calculator a dictionary school textbooks

Inequality in Living SpaceHousing living space is defined as the number of rooms per person in households with children (not counting corridors kitchens and bathrooms) Inequality is measured by the gap between the score at the median (column 2) and the average score of all children below the median (column 3) Column 4 shows the difference between the two The bar chart on the right shows the inequality gap (as a percentage of the median)

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

procedures often contextually bound and the existence of macroscopic symbol systems operating trans-situationallyhellipldquotwo aspects of social liferdquo hellip ldquo two many have concluded too quickly that the task ishelliphow to look at both faces of the same medallion at once hellip the lsquopartsrsquo and the lsquopeoplersquo are not co-existent through time hellip thus for example a particular marital structure pre-dates our contemporary constitution as married social subjects ndash which is an entirely point from the perfectly compatible statements that previous actors through their prior social practices themselves constituted a given institution of marriage earlier in historyrdquohellipinterplay between them

hellip

The underlying approach can be summarized quite succinctly Generically it is how contradictory or complementary relations between lsquopartsrsquo of the Cultural System map onto orderly or conflictual relationships between lsquopeoplersquo at the Social-Cultural level which determines whether the outcome is cultural stability or change This means that we need to specify first which Systemic relations impinge upon agency and how they do so and second whisch social relations affect how agents respond to and react back on the Cultural System

helliprdquoWhat is crucially different about the morphogenetic perspective is the core notion that culture and agency operate over different time periods hellip This core notion which is fundamental to the morphogenetic perspective is based on two simple propositions that the Cultural System logically predates the Socio-Cultural action(s) which transform it and that Cultural Elaboration logically post-dates such interaction

httpbooksgooglecombookshl=enamplr=ampid=ljpbPeHdJL0Campoi=fndamppg=PR11ampdq=Margaret+Archer27s+Realist+Social+Theory+The+Morphogenetic+Approachampots=B7v523P4nZampsig=CYV_9DmtpK_2nN2nr8Kd4amzCZYv=onepageampq=Margaret20Archer27s20Realist20Social20Theory3A20The20Morphogenetic20Approachampf=false

Others

Historical Contours

Inequality vs Inequity

Inequality Inequity and Children ndash International ComparisonsWhether in health in education or in material well-being somechildren will always fall behind the average The critical question is ndash how far behind Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible not unavoidable but unacceptable not inequality but inequityhellip

Denmark Finland the Netherlands and Switzerland ndash are leading the way in promoting equality in childrenrsquos well-being Greece Italy and the United States on the other hand are allowing children to fall furthest behindhellip growing up in poverty incurs a substantially higher risk of lower standards of health of reduced cognitive development of underachievement at school of lower skills and aspirations and eventually of lower adult earnings so helping to perpetuate disadvantage from one generation to the nexthellipThe difference between the best performing countries and the rest of the OECD nations can therefore be read as a minimum measure of the extent to which lsquofalling behindrsquo is policy-susceptible ndash the extent to which it is not unavoidable but unjusthellipChild poverty is about more than poverty of income It is also aboutpoverty of opportunity and expectation of cultural and educational resources of housing and neighbourhoods of parental care and time of local services and community resources But from the childrsquos point of view these different dimensions of poverty are rarely separate Family circumstance employment and income health and education systems and the local environment all play interacting roles in determining well-being

Inequality in Access to Educational ResourcesIn the 2006 PISA survey (see page 30) a representative sample of 15-year-old students in OECD countries was asked which of the following were available in their own homes a desk a quiet place to study a computer for school work educational software

an internet connection a calculator a dictionary school textbooks

Inequality in Living SpaceHousing living space is defined as the number of rooms per person in households with children (not counting corridors kitchens and bathrooms) Inequality is measured by the gap between the score at the median (column 2) and the average score of all children below the median (column 3) Column 4 shows the difference between the two The bar chart on the right shows the inequality gap (as a percentage of the median)

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

httpbooksgooglecombookshl=enamplr=ampid=ljpbPeHdJL0Campoi=fndamppg=PR11ampdq=Margaret+Archer27s+Realist+Social+Theory+The+Morphogenetic+Approachampots=B7v523P4nZampsig=CYV_9DmtpK_2nN2nr8Kd4amzCZYv=onepageampq=Margaret20Archer27s20Realist20Social20Theory3A20The20Morphogenetic20Approachampf=false

Others

Historical Contours

Inequality vs Inequity

Inequality Inequity and Children ndash International ComparisonsWhether in health in education or in material well-being somechildren will always fall behind the average The critical question is ndash how far behind Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible not unavoidable but unacceptable not inequality but inequityhellip

Denmark Finland the Netherlands and Switzerland ndash are leading the way in promoting equality in childrenrsquos well-being Greece Italy and the United States on the other hand are allowing children to fall furthest behindhellip growing up in poverty incurs a substantially higher risk of lower standards of health of reduced cognitive development of underachievement at school of lower skills and aspirations and eventually of lower adult earnings so helping to perpetuate disadvantage from one generation to the nexthellipThe difference between the best performing countries and the rest of the OECD nations can therefore be read as a minimum measure of the extent to which lsquofalling behindrsquo is policy-susceptible ndash the extent to which it is not unavoidable but unjusthellipChild poverty is about more than poverty of income It is also aboutpoverty of opportunity and expectation of cultural and educational resources of housing and neighbourhoods of parental care and time of local services and community resources But from the childrsquos point of view these different dimensions of poverty are rarely separate Family circumstance employment and income health and education systems and the local environment all play interacting roles in determining well-being

Inequality in Access to Educational ResourcesIn the 2006 PISA survey (see page 30) a representative sample of 15-year-old students in OECD countries was asked which of the following were available in their own homes a desk a quiet place to study a computer for school work educational software

an internet connection a calculator a dictionary school textbooks

Inequality in Living SpaceHousing living space is defined as the number of rooms per person in households with children (not counting corridors kitchens and bathrooms) Inequality is measured by the gap between the score at the median (column 2) and the average score of all children below the median (column 3) Column 4 shows the difference between the two The bar chart on the right shows the inequality gap (as a percentage of the median)

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Others

Historical Contours

Inequality vs Inequity

Inequality Inequity and Children ndash International ComparisonsWhether in health in education or in material well-being somechildren will always fall behind the average The critical question is ndash how far behind Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible not unavoidable but unacceptable not inequality but inequityhellip

Denmark Finland the Netherlands and Switzerland ndash are leading the way in promoting equality in childrenrsquos well-being Greece Italy and the United States on the other hand are allowing children to fall furthest behindhellip growing up in poverty incurs a substantially higher risk of lower standards of health of reduced cognitive development of underachievement at school of lower skills and aspirations and eventually of lower adult earnings so helping to perpetuate disadvantage from one generation to the nexthellipThe difference between the best performing countries and the rest of the OECD nations can therefore be read as a minimum measure of the extent to which lsquofalling behindrsquo is policy-susceptible ndash the extent to which it is not unavoidable but unjusthellipChild poverty is about more than poverty of income It is also aboutpoverty of opportunity and expectation of cultural and educational resources of housing and neighbourhoods of parental care and time of local services and community resources But from the childrsquos point of view these different dimensions of poverty are rarely separate Family circumstance employment and income health and education systems and the local environment all play interacting roles in determining well-being

Inequality in Access to Educational ResourcesIn the 2006 PISA survey (see page 30) a representative sample of 15-year-old students in OECD countries was asked which of the following were available in their own homes a desk a quiet place to study a computer for school work educational software

an internet connection a calculator a dictionary school textbooks

Inequality in Living SpaceHousing living space is defined as the number of rooms per person in households with children (not counting corridors kitchens and bathrooms) Inequality is measured by the gap between the score at the median (column 2) and the average score of all children below the median (column 3) Column 4 shows the difference between the two The bar chart on the right shows the inequality gap (as a percentage of the median)

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Inequality in Access to Educational ResourcesIn the 2006 PISA survey (see page 30) a representative sample of 15-year-old students in OECD countries was asked which of the following were available in their own homes a desk a quiet place to study a computer for school work educational software

an internet connection a calculator a dictionary school textbooks

Inequality in Living SpaceHousing living space is defined as the number of rooms per person in households with children (not counting corridors kitchens and bathrooms) Inequality is measured by the gap between the score at the median (column 2) and the average score of all children below the median (column 3) Column 4 shows the difference between the two The bar chart on the right shows the inequality gap (as a percentage of the median)

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

an internet connection a calculator a dictionary school textbooks

Inequality in Living SpaceHousing living space is defined as the number of rooms per person in households with children (not counting corridors kitchens and bathrooms) Inequality is measured by the gap between the score at the median (column 2) and the average score of all children below the median (column 3) Column 4 shows the difference between the two The bar chart on the right shows the inequality gap (as a percentage of the median)

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Inequality in Ed Outcomes

The pattern of bottom-end inequality in educational outcomes therefore reflects more than the lottery of birth and circumstance It may reflect differences in national efforts to reduce socio-economic disadvantage Or it may reflect efforts to weaken the link between socio-economic disadvantage and school achievement (children whose mothers did not complete secondary school for example are at substantially greater risk of having low reading literacy scores but that risk is two or three times greater in some countries than in others)iv It is likely also that different degrees of inequality reflect different degrees of policy concern over time for those at risk of falling behind Second international comparisons of inequality in educational outcomes also inform the issue of whether a trade-off must be made between investing in low-achieving students and maximizing the potential of those in the higher reaches of the ability range Figure 3f(i) suggests an answer to this question by showing that there is no relationship between greater inequality and better performance at the median In fact the most unequal countries tend towards slightly lower scores at the 50th percentile The two countries with the lowest bottom-end inequality in reading literacy Finland and South Korea are also the two countries with the highest median levels of educational achievement A child born in either of these countries therefore has both a lower chance of falling a long way behind his or her peers and a higher chance of scoring above the average reading literacy mark for the OECD as a whole

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Figure 3f(ii) shows that the point holds when we look at performance of the highest-achieving students Again the countries with better results at the 90th percentile of achievement tend to be the countries with the lowest levels of bottom-end inequality

Source The Children Left Behindhttpwwwunicef-ircorgpublicationspdfrc9_engpdf

What can be done is being done

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

End of compulsory education and decline in enrolment ratesAn analysis of the participation rates by level of education and single year of age shows that there is no close relationship between the end of compulsory education and the decline in enrolment rates In most OECD and partner countries the sharpest decline in enrolment rates occurs not at the end of compulsory education but at the end of upper secondary education After the age of 16 however enrolment rates begin to decline in all OECD and partner countries Enrolment rates in secondary education fall from 91 on average at age 16 to 82 at age 17 52 at age 18 and 27 at age 19 In Belgium the Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Japan Korea Norway Poland the Slovak Republic and Sweden and in the partner countries Estonia Israel and Slovenia 90 or more of all 17-year-olds are still enrolled at this level even though compulsory education ends at less than 17 years of age in most of these countries (Table C23)

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Sourcehttpwwwoecdorgdataoecd234641284038pdf

Equity in Education

School CompositionIn all OECD countries where studies have been conductedx the average socio-economic level of students in a particular school has been found to have an effect on educational achievement that is over and above the effects associated with the socio-economic status of the individual student This finding strongly suggests that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit from attending schools in which a wide range of home backgrounds are represented Conversely lsquofalling behindrsquo is significantly more likely when students from homes of low socio-economic status attend schools in which the average socio-economic status is also lowxi

The reasons for this lsquoschool composition effectrsquo are many Schools with low socio-economic profiles may find themselves struggling against lower expectations on behalf of both staff and

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

students the ethos and disciplinary climate may be less conducive to learning pupil-teacher relations may be less positive parental involvement and support may be weaker and the task of attracting and retaining the most able teachers may be more difficult All of these are formidable barriers to learninghellipTwo obvious approaches may counter this effect First the attempt can be made to boost the performance of low socio-economic status schools (for example by increasing the resources available to them and allowing them to offer extra incentives to more able teachers) Second admission policies can be designed to avoid the concentration of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in low socio-economic status schools This might be achieved for example by admitting children in ability bands without regard to socio-economic background Policies designed to monitor and balance the socioeconomic profile of pupil intake may also be important As a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO has pointed outCountries with high levels of segregation along socio-economic lines tend to have lower overall performance and greater disparities in performance between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds hellipIn countries with high levels of socioeconomic segregation policies that aimed to reduce socio-economic segregation through compensatory reforms would likely bring considerable gains in raising and leveling the learning barxiiihellip

Resistance to such policies is common and is often based at least in part on fears that overall educational outcomes might be adversely affected But the international comparisons set out in Figs 3f(i) and 3f(ii) suggest that lower bottom-end inequality need not imply any lowering of standards for highachieving students As the report for UNESCO already cited concludedSuccessful schools tend to be those that bolster the performance of those from less advantaged backgrounds Similarly countries that have the highest levels of performance tend to be those that are successful in not only raising the learning bar but also leveling itxiv

The importance of incomeSocio-economic status is therefore the indispensable framework for policy analysis of bottom-end inequality for children For just as inequalities in heath reflect not only the effect of health services but also lsquothe conditions in which people are born grow live work and agersquo so inequalities in educational outcomes at age 15 for example reveal not only what happens in schools but also the educational resources stimulation and encouragement that surrounds a child from the earliest weeks and months of lifePolicies designed to address specific inequalities in health or education are therefore likely to have limited impact if they confine themselves to the health and education sectors alone The most potent fact about children who fall significantly behind their peers is that by and large they are the children of families at the bottom end of the socio-economic scaleAbsolute vs Relative PovertyMore than 200 years ago the founding father of modern economics argued that poverty was a relative conceptBy necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people even of the lowest order to be without A linen shirt for example is strictly speaking not a necessary of life hellip But in the present times through the greater part of Europe a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt Custom in the same manner has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England The poorest creditable person of either sex would be ashamed to appear in public without them hellip Under necessaries therefore I comprehend not only those things which nature but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of peopleAdam Smith ldquoAn Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsrdquo Book 5 Chapter 2 1776

Reducing Bottom End InequalityReducing bottom-end inequality in incomes will not solve all other problems but it will make their solution easier Climbing the socio-economic ladder is more feasible if the rungs are closer togetherReviewing many studies that show a strong and consistent association between relative income poverty and lsquofalling behindrsquo Susan Mayer makes the point unflinchinglyParental income is positively correlated with virtually every dimension of child well-being that social scientists measure and this is true in every country for which we have data The children of rich parents are healthier better behaved happier and better educated during their childhood and wealthier when they have grown up than are children from poor familiesxxiii

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Mitigating marketsNational action to prevent families from falling into poverty has a long history in the OECD countries All governments of whatever political complexion use a range of tax and transfer policies ndash including child benefit packages unemployment pay earned income tax credits and national and local services ndash to try to put a floor under povertyChanging Economic Conditions ndash Globalization and TechnologyNonetheless the chart reveals an important truth about the causes of child poverty and its possible solutions differences in child poverty rates between developed countries are a product not only of differences in government benefits and social protection policies but of very significant differences in the distribution of earned incomesThis strongly indicates that policies aimed at limiting poverty in all its forms must also confront the changes in the wider world that are tending to bring about widening economic inequality in a large majority of OECD countriesxxvi

Forces of changeIn brief the increase in inequality over recent decades has been driven by three main forces The first is long-term social and demographic change (for example the aging of populations or the rise in the number of single adult households) The second is the changing distribution of income and employment opportunities brought about by technological innovation by the globalization of markets by the migration of manufacturing to countries with rising skills and low labour costs and the increasing premium on high-end abilities and qualifications (so pushing up incomes at the top of the distribution) The third force is the range of government policies and expenditures including child benefit packages that are specifically designed to protect those at risk of disadvantageThese are the shifting tectonic plates beneath that underlie the landscape of child well-being and it is the complex interplay between them that ultimately determines how many children fall behind and by how farIn this context it becomes clear that the slow but steady rise of bottom-end inequality in most OECD countries over the last three decades has not been brought about by governments doing less or spending less Most governments are today spending a larger proportion of GDP on family benefits and social protection than they were two decades the 21 OECD countries for which comparable data are available) Xxvii This suggests that child poverty rates have risen or failed to fall because increasing government efforts have been rowing upstream against powerful currents in the wider economyNot by benefits aloneGovernment policies to restrain bottom-end inequality are therefore unlikely to be successful if they arelimited to social protection expenditures alone ldquoThe only sustainable way to reduce inequalityrdquo says the OECD report Growing Unequal (2008) ldquois to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital In particular we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of povertyrdquoxxix

In particular reducing bottom-end inequality in all its dimensions will depend on getting to grips with one of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times ndash the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty lineIn sum the message is that the OECD countries that are achieving the lowest child poverty rates at around 5 to 6 are the countries that start from a position of low lsquomarketrsquo poverty and then cut this rate by approximately 50 through government intervention to protect those still at risk

Parental Time

lsquoPoverty of parental timersquo may be particularly acute in the United States According to a 2010 study1 low income American parents work longer hours than their equivalents in six other OECD countries studied ndash Austria Belgium Canada Germany Spain and the United Kingdom The study also shows that an American mother or father at the bottom of the income distribution scale will on average not only work longer hours but also have a lower relative standard of living than parents in the equivalent income position in the other six countries This is especially true for households headed by single mothersThe amount of parental time available for child care therefore appears to be more limited in low-income American families And the further one goes down the income scale the more acute the problem becomes ldquoThe gap in parental time availability between United States on the one hand and Canada and our European

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

country studies on the otherrdquo says the study ldquois particularly large in the case of children in the lower parts of the income distributionrdquo2

In this way lack of parental time adds to and interacts with the long list of disadvantages facing children in poor households and contributes to the complex process by which inequality begets inequalityIf all families are included rather than just low-income families then American parents spend more time with their children than parents in most other countries for which data are available The OECD report Doing Better for Children draws on data from 15 developed countries to show that ndash across the board ndash parents in the United States and Norway spend the most time with their children (and parents in France the least)Some data are also available to show how investment of time in parenting is divided between men and women Canada Norway the Netherlands and the United States have the most equal division of parenting time Austria and France the least3Single-mother households are particularly vulnerable to the income-time crunch But here too there are inequalities between countries Single mothers in the United States and Canada for example are more short of time than single-mothers in Sweden or the United Kingdom4Source Burton P and S Phipps (2009) lsquoFamilies Time and Money in Canada Germany Sweden the United Kingdom and the United Statesrsquo Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper 523 Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourg

References

i OECD (2008) Growing Unequal Incomedistribution and poverty in OECDcountries OECD Parisii Wilkinson R and K Pickett (2009) TheSpirit Level Allen Lane Penguin BooksLondon p 33iii OECD (2009) Doing Better for ChildrenOECD Parisiv UNICEF (2002) lsquoA League Table ofEducational Disadvantage in RichNationsrsquo Innocenti Report Card No 4UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreFlorencev Currie C et al (2008) lsquoInequalities inYoung Peoplersquos Health Health Behaviourin School-Aged Children InternationalReport from the 20052006 SurveyrsquoHealth Policy for Children andAdolescents No 5 WHO Europe andChild and Adolescent Health ResearchUnit Edinburg p 59vi Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010)lsquoComparing Inequality in the Well-Beingof Children in Economically AdvancedCountries a methodologyrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper 2010-19 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencevii Currie C D Currie L Menchini DRichardson and C Roberts (2010) op citviii World Health Organization (2010)Global Recommendations on PhysicalActivity for Health WHO Geneva p 7ix Currie C et al (2008) op cit p106-107x Douglas Willms J (2006) LearningDivides Ten policy questions about theperformance and equity of schools andschooling systems UNESCO Institute forStatistics Montreal p 68xi Hutmacher W D Cochrane and NBottani (eds) (2001) In Pursuit of Equity inEducation Using international indicatorsto compare equity policies KluwerAcademic Publishers Dordecht p 135xii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiii Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 68xiv Douglas Willms J (2006) op cit p 67xv World Health Organization (2008)Closing the Gap in One Generation WHOGenevaxvi Marmot M (chair) (2010) lsquoFair SocietiesHealthy Lives Strategic Review of HealthInequalities in England post 2010rsquo The

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Marmot Review Executive Summary p 10xvii Siegrist J and M Marmot (eds) (2006)Social Inequalities in Health Newevidence and policy implications OxfordUniversity Press Oxfordxviii Currie C et al (2008) op cit p 4 65 91xix Larson C (2007) lsquoPoverty duringPregnancy Its effects on child healthoutcomesrsquo Paediatric Child HealthVol 12 No 8xx Cohen S D Janicki-Deverts E Chenand K Matthews (2010) lsquoChildhoodSocioeconomic Status and Adult HealthrsquoThe Biology of Disadvantage Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences 1186(2010) New York Academy of SciencesNew York p 37xxi Mackenbach J (2006) HealthInequalities Europe in profile UniversityMedical Centre Rotterdamxxii Mathews MS and M F Macdorman(2010) lsquoInfant Mortality Statistics from the2006 Period Linked BirthInfant Data Setrsquo inNational Vital Statistics Reports Vol 58No 17 National Center for HealthStatistics Hyattsville MDxxiii Mayer S (2002) lsquoParental Income andChildrenrsquos Outcomesrsquo Ministry of SocialDevelopment Wellington NZ Cited in JMicklewright (2003) lsquoChild Poverty inEnglish-Speaking Countriesrsquo InnocentiWorking Paper No 94 UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre Florencexxiv Smythe S (2007) lsquoChild and YouthDevelopment and Income Inequality Areview of selected literaturersquo First CallBritish Columbia Child and Youth AdvocacyCoalition (funded by the Government ofCanada Social Development PartnershipsProgram) Vancouverxxv Scott K (principal author) (2008)Growing Up in North America Theeconomic well-being of children inCanada the United States and MexicoChildren in North America project(Canadian Council on Social DevelopmentThe Annie E Casey Foundation Red porlos Derechos de la Infancia en MexicoUnited States ndash Population ReferenceBureau) The Annie E Casey FoundationBaltimore p 15xxvi OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxvii OECD Social Expenditure Databasewwwoecdorgelssocialexpenditure(consulted September 2010)xxviii Scott K (2008) op cit p 15xxix OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxx Commission for Children and YoungPeople and Child Guardian State ofQueensland Australia (2006) Document onMinimum Wage and Child PovertySubmitted to the Australian Fair PayCommission on the Federal MinimumWage July 2006 mimeo (The AustralianFair Pay Commission is now named FairWork Australia)xxxi Shirahase S (2007) lsquoCross NationalComparison of Economic Inequality amongHouseholds with Childrenrsquo LuxembourgIncome Study Working Paper No 461Luxembourg Income Study Luxembourgxxxii Hills J (chair) (2010) An Anatomy ofEconomic Inequality in the UK Report ofthe National Equality Panel Government

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Equalities Office and Centre for Analysis ofSocial Exclusion of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science Londonp 34 35

R EFE R E N C E S3 4 I nnocenti R eport C ard 9xxxiii Shonkoff J P and D A Phillips (eds)(2000) From Neurons to NeighborhoodsThe science of early childhooddevelopment Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early ChildhoodDevelopment National Research Counciland Institute of Medicine WashingtonD C p 396xxxiv OECD (2008) op cit p 16xxxv OECD (2008) op cit p 27xxxvi Evans G and M A Schamberg(2009) lsquoChildhood Poverty Chronic Stressand Adult Working Memoryrsquo Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States Vol 106 No 16xxxvii Hills J (chair) (2010) op citxxxvii Mackenbach J P W J Meerdingand A E Kunst (2007) EconomicImplications of Socio-economicInequalities in Health in the EuropeanUnion European CommissionLuxembourgxxxix Laurie N (2008) The Cost of PovertyAn analysis of the economic cost ofpoverty in Ontario Ontario Association ofFood Banks Ontarioxl Blanden J and S Gibbons (2006)The Persistence of Poverty acrossGenerations A review from two Britishcohorts Joseph Rowntree FoundationThe Policy Press Bristolxli Feinstein L (2003) lsquoInequality in theEarly Cognitive Development of BritishChildren in the 1970 Cohortrsquo EconomicaVol 70 No 1xlii Duncan G K Telle K Ziol-Guest andA Kalil (2009) Long-run Impacts of EarlyChildhood Poverty Comparative evidencefrom Norwegian registry data and the USPSID paper prepared for conference Thelong-run impact of early life eventsNational Poverty Center University ofMichigan March 12-13 2009 Michiganxliii Johnson R and R Schoeni (2007)lsquoThe Influence of Early-Life Events onHuman Capital Health Status and LaborMarket Outcomes over the Life CoursersquoWorking Paper Series Institute forResearch on Labor and EmploymentUC Berkeleyxliv Heckman J J (2006) lsquoSkill Formationand the Economics of Investing inDisadvantaged Childrenrsquo ScienceVol 312 No 5782xlv UNICEF (2008) lsquoThe Child CareTransition A league table of earlychildhood education and care ineconomically advanced countriesrsquoInnocenti Report Card No 8 UNICEFInnocenti Research Centre Florencexlvi Cleveland G and M Krashinsky(2003) lsquoFinancing ECEC Services in OECDCountriesrsquo ECEC Thematic Workshopsand Documents OECD Paris

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

ago (up by about a third on average inThe Great Compression

SourceThe United States of Inequality Slate Magazinehttpwwwslatecomarticlesnews_and_politicsthe_great_divergencefeatures2010the_united_states_of_inequalityintroducing_the_great_divergencehtml

The History of High School

NBER bibliography Goldinhttpwwwnberorgauthors_papersclaudia_goldin

The US wage structure evolved across the last century narrowing from 1910 to 1950 fairly stable

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

in the 1950s and 1960s widening rapidly during the 1980s and ldquopolarizingrdquo since the late 1980sWe document the spectacular rise of US wage inequality after 1980 and place recent changes intoa century-long historical perspective to understand the sources of change The majority of the increasein wage inequality since 1980 can be accounted for by rising educational wage differentials just asa substantial part of the decrease in wage inequality in the earlier era can be accounted for by decreasingeducational wage differentials1048576Although skill-biased technological change has generated rapid growth in the relative demand formore-educated workers for at least the past century increases in the supply of skills from rising educationalattainment of the US work force more than kept pace for most of the twentieth century Since 1980however a sharp decline in skill supply growth driven by a slowdown in the rise of educational attainmentof successive US born cohorts has been a major factor in the surge in educational wage differentialsPolarization set in during the late 1980s with employment shifts into high- and low-wage jobs at theexpense of the middle leading to rapidly rising upper tail wage inequality but modestly falling lowertail wage inequalitySource Long run changes in the US Wage Structurehttpwwwnberorgpapersw13568pdfnew_window=1

US educational and occupational wage differentials were exceptionally high at the dawn of the twentieth century and then decreased in several stages over the next eight decades But starting in the early 1980s the labor market premium to skill rose sharply and by 2005 the college wage premium was back at its 1915 level The twentieth century contains two inequality tales one declining and one rising We use a supply-demand-institutions framework to understand the factors that produced these changes from 1890 to 2005 We find that strong secular growth in the relative demand for more educated workers combined with fluctuations in the growth of relative skill supplies go far to explain the long-run evolution of US educational wage differentials An increase in the rate of growth of the relative supply of skills associated with the high school movement starting around 1910 played a key role in narrowing educational wage differentials from 1915 to 1980 The slowdown in the growth of the relative supply of college workers starting around 1980 was a major reason for the surge in the college wage premium from 1980 to 2005 Institutional factors were important at various junctures especially during the 1940s and the late 1970sSource The Race Between Technology and Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw12984pdfnew_window=1

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

The periodization of the three transformations dates the completion of each schoolinglevel by the majority of youth The completion of each of the transformations can be thought ofas the moment when an education level was available and taken up by the ldquomassesrdquo or putanother way when ldquomass educationrdquo reached that level The first transformation brought thebulk of youth through common or elementary school (eighth grade) and occurred during thenineteenth century The second transformation brought the majority of youth through secondaryor high school and occurred in the first half of the twentieth century The third transformationstill on-going is bringing the majority of young adults through four-year higher educationSource A Brief History of Education in the United States ( Goldin )httpwwwnberorgpapersh0119pdfnew_window=1

We find in all of the data we have unearthed that the wage structure and the returns to education and skill all moved in the direction ofgreater equality considerably before the better known ldquoGreat Compressionrdquo of the 1940s The wagestructure narrowed skill differentials were reduced and the return to education decreased sometimebetween 1890 and 1940 Rather than narrowing suddenly in the 1940s the wage structure underwentseveral periods of narrowing prior to its celebrated compression in the 1940s The entire compression ofthe wage structure across the 20th century therefore was larger in magnitude more drawn out in timeand more complicated in its reasons than has previously been thought Similarly the widening of thewage structure and the increase in the returns to education in the post-1970s period when we haveconsiderably better data have been shown to be abundantly complexSource The Returns to Skill in the United States Across the Twentieth Century

The full twentieth century story of the returns to a year of schooling is that they were rather high at thestart of the century With increased educational access markedly reduced returns were apparent by the1950s when despite enhanced access to college returns increased although not to the levels achievedbefore or more recently As in the findings on the wage structure the return to schooling around the turn of the 20th century was as high or higher than it is today The return to a year of secondary schoolingwas higher than today and that to college was higher or about the same The high levels of returns to skillachieved in 1940 were not anomalous in fact they were lower than were those twenty-five years beforehttpwwwnberorgpapersw7126pdfnew_window=1

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Source Human Capital and Social Capital The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America 1910 to 1940httpwwwnberorgpapersw6439pdfnew_window=1

hellip state expenditures on public colleges and universities created a powerful incentive for youths to graduate from high schoolSource Why the United States Led in Educationhttpwwwnberorgpapersw6144pdfnew_window=1

The openness and forgiveness of the US educational system is another example These features enabled youths to make up for deficits in their backgrounds and to evade severe penalties for the misdeeds of their past But these features are often viewed today as an excuse for schools to lower academic standards and for teachers to avoid having to deal with problem studentshellipIf an open and forgiving system gave disadvantaged and errant youths a second chance then the insistence on standards and accountability of many European systems reinforced a caste systemhellipPerhaps the most important difference around 1900 was that US schooling was not an elite system in which only a small number of bright young men could attain an upper secondary school education and thus continue their studies in a college or university Schools were by and large open to all and were highly forgiving to those who did poorly in the lower gradeshellipAll the virtues mentioned that existed in 1900mdashpublic provision and funding secular control gender neutrality an open and forgiving system and an academic curriculummdashwere distinguishing features of US elementary and secondary education long before the start of the twentieth centuryhellipOpen and forgiving (Virtue 6) The US educational system has been open and forgiving in comparison with other educational systems By ldquoopenrdquo we mean that almost all children could attend school By ldquoforgivingrdquo we mean that one could often advance to higher grades and institutions even if one failed to perform adequately in a lower gradeSource The Virtues of the Past Education in the First Hundred Years of the

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Republichttpwwwnberorgpapersw9958pdf

How the United States organizes its education -- what we teach to whom when and especially how -- approximately matches how the country has organized economic activity for decades

Evidence of these changing skill requirements can be seen in the following changes in relative wages and shifting occupational patterns

In 1979 full-time 25- to 34-year-old male workers with college degrees earned 13 percent more than similar high school graduates By 1987 male college graduates in this age group were earning 38 per cent more than high school graduates For women in the same age group the premium earned by college graduates rose from 23 percent in 1979 to 45 percent in 1987

The employment of full-time 25- to 34-year-old college graduates rose by 10 percent between 1979 and 1987 while their earnings rose by 33 percent

In contrast the employment of high school graduates (in manufacturing) in the same age group rose by only 6 percent while their earnings fell by 11 percent

Since the mid-1970s higher-level occupations (executive administrative managerial sales and marketing) have grown almost two-and-one-half times the rate of lower-skilled occupations More than one-half of all net employment growth between 1975 and 1990 took place within the higher-skilled occupations even though higher-level occupations accounted for only 40 percent of total employment even in 1990

Jobs that are currently filled by workers with higher educational levels are expected to grow faster than those filled by workers with lower levels of educational attainment Thirty percent of all new jobs expected to be created between 1990 and the year 2005 will go to college graduates Today 22 percent of current jobs are filled by college graduates Source The Double Helix of Education and the EconomyhttpwwwtccolumbiaeduieeBOOKSDhelexehtmeducation20and20economy

ldquoSecondary schooling in the United States started as an essentially elite pursuit with a mere 2 percent of the population acquiring the equivalent of a high school education in 1870 the earliest year for which data are available It was not until several decades into the 20th century that Americans witnessed a quantum leap in engagement with high school a transformation propelled by the ever-more-rapid industrialization of the US economy and a continuing shift away from the nationrsquos agrarian past

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

The share of the population with a secondary education increased threefold from 1920 to 1940 when for the first time a slim majority of American youths graduated from high school Finishing high school became more firmly established as a social and educational norm in postwar America as the graduation rate rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s Completion rates peaked in 1969 with 77 percent of that high school class earning diplomas

The next three decades were marked by a retreat from those historical highs the graduation rate eroded incrementally at certain times and fell significantly at others including a sharp drop during the first half of the 1990s Although the nation regained some ground between the late 1990s and 2005 the graduation rate now stands at about the same level as it did in the early 1960s

A snapshot of contemporary results for the high school class of 2007 reveals a striking pattern of disparities that have long characterized high school completion Reminiscent of the inequities in other fundamental outcomes such as test scores we find stark divides in graduation along the lines of race gender and regional geography as well as school and community environment

Source EdWeed US Graduation Rates Continue to Declinehttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010061034swansonh29html

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Source The Traditional High School ndash Historical Debates Over Its Nature and Function by Jeffrey Mirelhttpeducationnextorgthe-traditional-high-schoolhttpeducationnextorgfilesednext20061_14pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Source 120 Years of American Education A Statistical Portrait (NCES) httpncesedgovpubs9393442pdf

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

Source The Value of Education Pt 1 Changing Returns to Education ( Canada )httpmartinprosperityorginsightsinsightchanging-returns-to-education

The returns to education may also differ across the wage distribution Evidence based on quantile regression methods suggests that the returns are higher for those in the top decile of the income distribution compared to those in the bottom decile Moreover this inequality may have increased in recent years One explanation for this phenomenon is a complementarity between ability and education ndash if higher ability persons earn more this might explain the higher returns in the upper deciles of the wage distribution

This finding has important implications for both education and tax and social security policy the low return to investing in low ability individuals and the high return to investing in high ability individuals implies that educational investment should be skewed towards the high ability individuals The resulting inequality may then be dealt with through redistributive tax and social security policy

Given the increase in the supply of educated workers in most OECD countries there is a concern that the skills workers bring to their job will exceed the skills required for the job This will manifest itself in a lower return to schooling for the years of schooling in excess of those required for the employer One of the main problems with this literature is the often poor definition of overeducation in available datasets typically based on subjective measures given by the individual respondent Where a more comprehensive definition is used based on job satisfaction the apparent negative effect of overeducation is eliminated when ability controls are

included but when overeducation appears to be genuine the penalty may be much larger than was first thought

This has important implications for the variance in the quality of graduates produced by the higher education system Firstly a degree is not sufficient to ensure a graduate job ndash other complementary skills are expected by graduate employers Secondly since genuine overeducation can emerge it is clear that the labour market does not adjust fast enough

Source Returns to EducationhttpceelseacukceedpsCEEDP05pdf

Source Returns to Education MicroeconomicshttpfacultysmueduMillimetclasseseco7321papersharmon20et20al202003pdf

Education is remunerated much more than experience on average by between 9 and 95 per extra year in the mid-1960s by between 6 and 65 today hellipIn France the returns to education measured in salaries declined over twenty years (1965-1985) and have been stable for the past fifteen years

Source Returns to Education and Experience Trends in France Over the Last 35 Yearshttpwwwcairninforevue-population-english-2004-1-page-9htm

Comparing those who drop out of high school with those who complete high school the average high school dropout is associated with costs to the economy of approximately $240000 over his or her lifetime in terms of lower tax contributions higher reliance on Medicaid and Medicare higher rates of criminal activity and higher reliance on welfare (Levin and Belfield 2007)4

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

The GEDThe GED is accepted by most colleges and universities that require a high school diploma for admission and most companies that have positions requiring a high school diploma accept the GED as an alternative credential (American Council on Education 2009) While GEDs provide an important opportunity for those who do not earn a regular high school diploma to obtain a high school credential GED recipients tend to fare significantly worse than those holding regular diplomas across a range of measures For example while GED recipients and regular diploma recipients who complete postsecondary programs experience the same economic benefits from the programs GED recipients attend and complete postsecondary programs at much lower rates than

regular diploma holders Also while high school dropouts with relatively low cognitive skills experience improved incomes if they earn a GED dropouts with relatively high cognitive skills do not experience increased earnings after earning a GED (see Boesel Alsalam and Smith 1998 and Tyler 2003 for overviews of GED research)

National estimates of 18- through 24-year-olds with a GED in 2008 There were approximately 1500000 persons ages 18 through 24 in 2008 who had passed the GED exam in 2008 or in prior years (data not shown in tables) This represents 55 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of 18- through 24-year-olds who were not in high school in 2008 Subtracting out those who passed the GED exam the status completion rate in 2008 for regular high school diploma holders and those holding alternative credentials other than a GED was 844 percent (data not shown in tables)24

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

Dropping Out is Counterfactual and CounterhistoricalIn an attempt to explain why students drop out contemporary social science proceeds through a series of counterhistorical narratives Imagining for instance that a middle class teenage girls mother was a successful prostitute ndash thereby removing from the girls life the compounding effects of drugs violence and her pimps captive allure Would this hypothetical student be as likely to drop out as her real life counterpart And from that analysis could we eliminate prostitution as causal rather than merely correlative to dropping out

Of course while finding a large enough sample of middle class teenage girls born to successful prostitutes might be a challenge we could as an alternative proceed with a fairly straight forward set of counterfactual arguments What percentage of actual girls born to prostitutes drop out and how does that compare to the percentage of girls not born to prostitutes No doubt the effect size of such a treatment variable would be substantial but what if we controlled for income or drug use guerilla pimps vs suave pimps race ethnicity and of course academic ability if not intelligence Coud we effectively isolate prostitution from the collateral damage with which it is in real life associated And if so could we begin to identify the causes of dropping out and thereby work to prevent it ndash perhaps through an anti-counterhistorical turn making prostitution illegal

And since it is in most places already illegal perhaps we can compare girls born to prostitutes in Nevada where it is legal if regulated to those born in Iowa where it is both illegal and frowned upon From there of course we would proceed through the same course of counterfactual regressions in an attempt to isolate illegal prostitution and even socially acceptable prostitution from the more commonly

occurring form This of course would have the benefit of eliminating the counterhistorical aspects of the narrative Las Vegas does exist after all even though its status in reality depends on a liberal and counterfactual imagination

Dropping out ultimately is counterfactual because it runs completely counter to the narrative of educational opportunity that dominates modern culture How can you possibly drop out when doing so dramatically raises the odds against you Dont you want to get a job get a ahead have a family be happy live long and multiply How could you What were you thinking of

But dropping out is often a rational response to the circumstances and choices faced by more than 1 out of 3 high school students

Drop outs know that if they graduated went to college and graduated again got a good job before getting married and having kids then they would be better off But they are much more acutely aware of the economic facts of life The fastest growing job categories are the most underpaid If they are unfortunate enough to be African-American and male then from a statistical point of view there is a 1in 3 chance they will spend time in prison Most of them most dropout that is do get some sort of diploma but they know that college is financially and socially not gonna happen Unfortunately what some of them also know is that they can make more money in the here and now by dealing or turning tricks

ldquoDropouts are costly both in terms of themselves and the community The likelihood of their winding up on welfare in prison or in hospital is accompanied by the loss in wages property sales and income taxesrdquoSource Are Dropouts and Discipline Connected httpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

ldquoDropping out of high school has consequences for both the individualand society Students who drop out of school are more likely to be unemployed to earnless than those who graduate to be on public assistance and to end up in prison (Cataldiamp KewalRamani 2009 Christle Jolivette amp Nelson 2007 Gottlob 2007) Due to lost revenue from taxes increased Medicaid costs and increased incarceration costs it is estimated that over a 50 year period North Carolina will spend 85 billion dollars on one yearrsquos class of drop outs (Gottlob 2007)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Coping Ugly

Slow DisengagementAs complex as these individual circumstances may be what is clear is that dropping out of high school is not a sudden act but a slow process of disengagement often both academically and socially and is often influenced by a studentrsquos perception of the high schoolrsquos expectations of him or her and his or her early school experiences 26 Dropping out

Education is remunerated much more than experience on average by between 9 and 95 per extra year in the mid-1960s by between 6 and 65 today hellipIn France the returns to education measured in salaries declined over twenty years (1965-1985) and have been stable for the past fifteen years

Source Returns to Education and Experience Trends in France Over the Last 35 Yearshttpwwwcairninforevue-population-english-2004-1-page-9htm

Comparing those who drop out of high school with those who complete high school the average high school dropout is associated with costs to the economy of approximately $240000 over his or her lifetime in terms of lower tax contributions higher reliance on Medicaid and Medicare higher rates of criminal activity and higher reliance on welfare (Levin and Belfield 2007)4

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

The GEDThe GED is accepted by most colleges and universities that require a high school diploma for admission and most companies that have positions requiring a high school diploma accept the GED as an alternative credential (American Council on Education 2009) While GEDs provide an important opportunity for those who do not earn a regular high school diploma to obtain a high school credential GED recipients tend to fare significantly worse than those holding regular diplomas across a range of measures For example while GED recipients and regular diploma recipients who complete postsecondary programs experience the same economic benefits from the programs GED recipients attend and complete postsecondary programs at much lower rates than

regular diploma holders Also while high school dropouts with relatively low cognitive skills experience improved incomes if they earn a GED dropouts with relatively high cognitive skills do not experience increased earnings after earning a GED (see Boesel Alsalam and Smith 1998 and Tyler 2003 for overviews of GED research)

National estimates of 18- through 24-year-olds with a GED in 2008 There were approximately 1500000 persons ages 18 through 24 in 2008 who had passed the GED exam in 2008 or in prior years (data not shown in tables) This represents 55 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of 18- through 24-year-olds who were not in high school in 2008 Subtracting out those who passed the GED exam the status completion rate in 2008 for regular high school diploma holders and those holding alternative credentials other than a GED was 844 percent (data not shown in tables)24

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

Dropping Out is Counterfactual and CounterhistoricalIn an attempt to explain why students drop out contemporary social science proceeds through a series of counterhistorical narratives Imagining for instance that a middle class teenage girls mother was a successful prostitute ndash thereby removing from the girls life the compounding effects of drugs violence and her pimps captive allure Would this hypothetical student be as likely to drop out as her real life counterpart And from that analysis could we eliminate prostitution as causal rather than merely correlative to dropping out

Of course while finding a large enough sample of middle class teenage girls born to successful prostitutes might be a challenge we could as an alternative proceed with a fairly straight forward set of counterfactual arguments What percentage of actual girls born to prostitutes drop out and how does that compare to the percentage of girls not born to prostitutes No doubt the effect size of such a treatment variable would be substantial but what if we controlled for income or drug use guerilla pimps vs suave pimps race ethnicity and of course academic ability if not intelligence Coud we effectively isolate prostitution from the collateral damage with which it is in real life associated And if so could we begin to identify the causes of dropping out and thereby work to prevent it ndash perhaps through an anti-counterhistorical turn making prostitution illegal

And since it is in most places already illegal perhaps we can compare girls born to prostitutes in Nevada where it is legal if regulated to those born in Iowa where it is both illegal and frowned upon From there of course we would proceed through the same course of counterfactual regressions in an attempt to isolate illegal prostitution and even socially acceptable prostitution from the more commonly

occurring form This of course would have the benefit of eliminating the counterhistorical aspects of the narrative Las Vegas does exist after all even though its status in reality depends on a liberal and counterfactual imagination

Dropping out ultimately is counterfactual because it runs completely counter to the narrative of educational opportunity that dominates modern culture How can you possibly drop out when doing so dramatically raises the odds against you Dont you want to get a job get a ahead have a family be happy live long and multiply How could you What were you thinking of

But dropping out is often a rational response to the circumstances and choices faced by more than 1 out of 3 high school students

Drop outs know that if they graduated went to college and graduated again got a good job before getting married and having kids then they would be better off But they are much more acutely aware of the economic facts of life The fastest growing job categories are the most underpaid If they are unfortunate enough to be African-American and male then from a statistical point of view there is a 1in 3 chance they will spend time in prison Most of them most dropout that is do get some sort of diploma but they know that college is financially and socially not gonna happen Unfortunately what some of them also know is that they can make more money in the here and now by dealing or turning tricks

ldquoDropouts are costly both in terms of themselves and the community The likelihood of their winding up on welfare in prison or in hospital is accompanied by the loss in wages property sales and income taxesrdquoSource Are Dropouts and Discipline Connected httpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

ldquoDropping out of high school has consequences for both the individualand society Students who drop out of school are more likely to be unemployed to earnless than those who graduate to be on public assistance and to end up in prison (Cataldiamp KewalRamani 2009 Christle Jolivette amp Nelson 2007 Gottlob 2007) Due to lost revenue from taxes increased Medicaid costs and increased incarceration costs it is estimated that over a 50 year period North Carolina will spend 85 billion dollars on one yearrsquos class of drop outs (Gottlob 2007)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Coping Ugly

Slow DisengagementAs complex as these individual circumstances may be what is clear is that dropping out of high school is not a sudden act but a slow process of disengagement often both academically and socially and is often influenced by a studentrsquos perception of the high schoolrsquos expectations of him or her and his or her early school experiences 26 Dropping out

Source Returns to Education and Experience Trends in France Over the Last 35 Yearshttpwwwcairninforevue-population-english-2004-1-page-9htm

Comparing those who drop out of high school with those who complete high school the average high school dropout is associated with costs to the economy of approximately $240000 over his or her lifetime in terms of lower tax contributions higher reliance on Medicaid and Medicare higher rates of criminal activity and higher reliance on welfare (Levin and Belfield 2007)4

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

The GEDThe GED is accepted by most colleges and universities that require a high school diploma for admission and most companies that have positions requiring a high school diploma accept the GED as an alternative credential (American Council on Education 2009) While GEDs provide an important opportunity for those who do not earn a regular high school diploma to obtain a high school credential GED recipients tend to fare significantly worse than those holding regular diplomas across a range of measures For example while GED recipients and regular diploma recipients who complete postsecondary programs experience the same economic benefits from the programs GED recipients attend and complete postsecondary programs at much lower rates than

regular diploma holders Also while high school dropouts with relatively low cognitive skills experience improved incomes if they earn a GED dropouts with relatively high cognitive skills do not experience increased earnings after earning a GED (see Boesel Alsalam and Smith 1998 and Tyler 2003 for overviews of GED research)

National estimates of 18- through 24-year-olds with a GED in 2008 There were approximately 1500000 persons ages 18 through 24 in 2008 who had passed the GED exam in 2008 or in prior years (data not shown in tables) This represents 55 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of 18- through 24-year-olds who were not in high school in 2008 Subtracting out those who passed the GED exam the status completion rate in 2008 for regular high school diploma holders and those holding alternative credentials other than a GED was 844 percent (data not shown in tables)24

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

Dropping Out is Counterfactual and CounterhistoricalIn an attempt to explain why students drop out contemporary social science proceeds through a series of counterhistorical narratives Imagining for instance that a middle class teenage girls mother was a successful prostitute ndash thereby removing from the girls life the compounding effects of drugs violence and her pimps captive allure Would this hypothetical student be as likely to drop out as her real life counterpart And from that analysis could we eliminate prostitution as causal rather than merely correlative to dropping out

Of course while finding a large enough sample of middle class teenage girls born to successful prostitutes might be a challenge we could as an alternative proceed with a fairly straight forward set of counterfactual arguments What percentage of actual girls born to prostitutes drop out and how does that compare to the percentage of girls not born to prostitutes No doubt the effect size of such a treatment variable would be substantial but what if we controlled for income or drug use guerilla pimps vs suave pimps race ethnicity and of course academic ability if not intelligence Coud we effectively isolate prostitution from the collateral damage with which it is in real life associated And if so could we begin to identify the causes of dropping out and thereby work to prevent it ndash perhaps through an anti-counterhistorical turn making prostitution illegal

And since it is in most places already illegal perhaps we can compare girls born to prostitutes in Nevada where it is legal if regulated to those born in Iowa where it is both illegal and frowned upon From there of course we would proceed through the same course of counterfactual regressions in an attempt to isolate illegal prostitution and even socially acceptable prostitution from the more commonly

occurring form This of course would have the benefit of eliminating the counterhistorical aspects of the narrative Las Vegas does exist after all even though its status in reality depends on a liberal and counterfactual imagination

Dropping out ultimately is counterfactual because it runs completely counter to the narrative of educational opportunity that dominates modern culture How can you possibly drop out when doing so dramatically raises the odds against you Dont you want to get a job get a ahead have a family be happy live long and multiply How could you What were you thinking of

But dropping out is often a rational response to the circumstances and choices faced by more than 1 out of 3 high school students

Drop outs know that if they graduated went to college and graduated again got a good job before getting married and having kids then they would be better off But they are much more acutely aware of the economic facts of life The fastest growing job categories are the most underpaid If they are unfortunate enough to be African-American and male then from a statistical point of view there is a 1in 3 chance they will spend time in prison Most of them most dropout that is do get some sort of diploma but they know that college is financially and socially not gonna happen Unfortunately what some of them also know is that they can make more money in the here and now by dealing or turning tricks

ldquoDropouts are costly both in terms of themselves and the community The likelihood of their winding up on welfare in prison or in hospital is accompanied by the loss in wages property sales and income taxesrdquoSource Are Dropouts and Discipline Connected httpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

ldquoDropping out of high school has consequences for both the individualand society Students who drop out of school are more likely to be unemployed to earnless than those who graduate to be on public assistance and to end up in prison (Cataldiamp KewalRamani 2009 Christle Jolivette amp Nelson 2007 Gottlob 2007) Due to lost revenue from taxes increased Medicaid costs and increased incarceration costs it is estimated that over a 50 year period North Carolina will spend 85 billion dollars on one yearrsquos class of drop outs (Gottlob 2007)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Coping Ugly

Slow DisengagementAs complex as these individual circumstances may be what is clear is that dropping out of high school is not a sudden act but a slow process of disengagement often both academically and socially and is often influenced by a studentrsquos perception of the high schoolrsquos expectations of him or her and his or her early school experiences 26 Dropping out

Comparing those who drop out of high school with those who complete high school the average high school dropout is associated with costs to the economy of approximately $240000 over his or her lifetime in terms of lower tax contributions higher reliance on Medicaid and Medicare higher rates of criminal activity and higher reliance on welfare (Levin and Belfield 2007)4

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

The GEDThe GED is accepted by most colleges and universities that require a high school diploma for admission and most companies that have positions requiring a high school diploma accept the GED as an alternative credential (American Council on Education 2009) While GEDs provide an important opportunity for those who do not earn a regular high school diploma to obtain a high school credential GED recipients tend to fare significantly worse than those holding regular diplomas across a range of measures For example while GED recipients and regular diploma recipients who complete postsecondary programs experience the same economic benefits from the programs GED recipients attend and complete postsecondary programs at much lower rates than

regular diploma holders Also while high school dropouts with relatively low cognitive skills experience improved incomes if they earn a GED dropouts with relatively high cognitive skills do not experience increased earnings after earning a GED (see Boesel Alsalam and Smith 1998 and Tyler 2003 for overviews of GED research)

National estimates of 18- through 24-year-olds with a GED in 2008 There were approximately 1500000 persons ages 18 through 24 in 2008 who had passed the GED exam in 2008 or in prior years (data not shown in tables) This represents 55 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of 18- through 24-year-olds who were not in high school in 2008 Subtracting out those who passed the GED exam the status completion rate in 2008 for regular high school diploma holders and those holding alternative credentials other than a GED was 844 percent (data not shown in tables)24

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

Dropping Out is Counterfactual and CounterhistoricalIn an attempt to explain why students drop out contemporary social science proceeds through a series of counterhistorical narratives Imagining for instance that a middle class teenage girls mother was a successful prostitute ndash thereby removing from the girls life the compounding effects of drugs violence and her pimps captive allure Would this hypothetical student be as likely to drop out as her real life counterpart And from that analysis could we eliminate prostitution as causal rather than merely correlative to dropping out

Of course while finding a large enough sample of middle class teenage girls born to successful prostitutes might be a challenge we could as an alternative proceed with a fairly straight forward set of counterfactual arguments What percentage of actual girls born to prostitutes drop out and how does that compare to the percentage of girls not born to prostitutes No doubt the effect size of such a treatment variable would be substantial but what if we controlled for income or drug use guerilla pimps vs suave pimps race ethnicity and of course academic ability if not intelligence Coud we effectively isolate prostitution from the collateral damage with which it is in real life associated And if so could we begin to identify the causes of dropping out and thereby work to prevent it ndash perhaps through an anti-counterhistorical turn making prostitution illegal

And since it is in most places already illegal perhaps we can compare girls born to prostitutes in Nevada where it is legal if regulated to those born in Iowa where it is both illegal and frowned upon From there of course we would proceed through the same course of counterfactual regressions in an attempt to isolate illegal prostitution and even socially acceptable prostitution from the more commonly

occurring form This of course would have the benefit of eliminating the counterhistorical aspects of the narrative Las Vegas does exist after all even though its status in reality depends on a liberal and counterfactual imagination

Dropping out ultimately is counterfactual because it runs completely counter to the narrative of educational opportunity that dominates modern culture How can you possibly drop out when doing so dramatically raises the odds against you Dont you want to get a job get a ahead have a family be happy live long and multiply How could you What were you thinking of

But dropping out is often a rational response to the circumstances and choices faced by more than 1 out of 3 high school students

Drop outs know that if they graduated went to college and graduated again got a good job before getting married and having kids then they would be better off But they are much more acutely aware of the economic facts of life The fastest growing job categories are the most underpaid If they are unfortunate enough to be African-American and male then from a statistical point of view there is a 1in 3 chance they will spend time in prison Most of them most dropout that is do get some sort of diploma but they know that college is financially and socially not gonna happen Unfortunately what some of them also know is that they can make more money in the here and now by dealing or turning tricks

ldquoDropouts are costly both in terms of themselves and the community The likelihood of their winding up on welfare in prison or in hospital is accompanied by the loss in wages property sales and income taxesrdquoSource Are Dropouts and Discipline Connected httpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

ldquoDropping out of high school has consequences for both the individualand society Students who drop out of school are more likely to be unemployed to earnless than those who graduate to be on public assistance and to end up in prison (Cataldiamp KewalRamani 2009 Christle Jolivette amp Nelson 2007 Gottlob 2007) Due to lost revenue from taxes increased Medicaid costs and increased incarceration costs it is estimated that over a 50 year period North Carolina will spend 85 billion dollars on one yearrsquos class of drop outs (Gottlob 2007)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Coping Ugly

Slow DisengagementAs complex as these individual circumstances may be what is clear is that dropping out of high school is not a sudden act but a slow process of disengagement often both academically and socially and is often influenced by a studentrsquos perception of the high schoolrsquos expectations of him or her and his or her early school experiences 26 Dropping out

regular diploma holders Also while high school dropouts with relatively low cognitive skills experience improved incomes if they earn a GED dropouts with relatively high cognitive skills do not experience increased earnings after earning a GED (see Boesel Alsalam and Smith 1998 and Tyler 2003 for overviews of GED research)

National estimates of 18- through 24-year-olds with a GED in 2008 There were approximately 1500000 persons ages 18 through 24 in 2008 who had passed the GED exam in 2008 or in prior years (data not shown in tables) This represents 55 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of 18- through 24-year-olds who were not in high school in 2008 Subtracting out those who passed the GED exam the status completion rate in 2008 for regular high school diploma holders and those holding alternative credentials other than a GED was 844 percent (data not shown in tables)24

Source Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States 1972 ndash 2008httpncesedgovpubs20112011012pdf

Dropping Out is Counterfactual and CounterhistoricalIn an attempt to explain why students drop out contemporary social science proceeds through a series of counterhistorical narratives Imagining for instance that a middle class teenage girls mother was a successful prostitute ndash thereby removing from the girls life the compounding effects of drugs violence and her pimps captive allure Would this hypothetical student be as likely to drop out as her real life counterpart And from that analysis could we eliminate prostitution as causal rather than merely correlative to dropping out

Of course while finding a large enough sample of middle class teenage girls born to successful prostitutes might be a challenge we could as an alternative proceed with a fairly straight forward set of counterfactual arguments What percentage of actual girls born to prostitutes drop out and how does that compare to the percentage of girls not born to prostitutes No doubt the effect size of such a treatment variable would be substantial but what if we controlled for income or drug use guerilla pimps vs suave pimps race ethnicity and of course academic ability if not intelligence Coud we effectively isolate prostitution from the collateral damage with which it is in real life associated And if so could we begin to identify the causes of dropping out and thereby work to prevent it ndash perhaps through an anti-counterhistorical turn making prostitution illegal

And since it is in most places already illegal perhaps we can compare girls born to prostitutes in Nevada where it is legal if regulated to those born in Iowa where it is both illegal and frowned upon From there of course we would proceed through the same course of counterfactual regressions in an attempt to isolate illegal prostitution and even socially acceptable prostitution from the more commonly

occurring form This of course would have the benefit of eliminating the counterhistorical aspects of the narrative Las Vegas does exist after all even though its status in reality depends on a liberal and counterfactual imagination

Dropping out ultimately is counterfactual because it runs completely counter to the narrative of educational opportunity that dominates modern culture How can you possibly drop out when doing so dramatically raises the odds against you Dont you want to get a job get a ahead have a family be happy live long and multiply How could you What were you thinking of

But dropping out is often a rational response to the circumstances and choices faced by more than 1 out of 3 high school students

Drop outs know that if they graduated went to college and graduated again got a good job before getting married and having kids then they would be better off But they are much more acutely aware of the economic facts of life The fastest growing job categories are the most underpaid If they are unfortunate enough to be African-American and male then from a statistical point of view there is a 1in 3 chance they will spend time in prison Most of them most dropout that is do get some sort of diploma but they know that college is financially and socially not gonna happen Unfortunately what some of them also know is that they can make more money in the here and now by dealing or turning tricks

ldquoDropouts are costly both in terms of themselves and the community The likelihood of their winding up on welfare in prison or in hospital is accompanied by the loss in wages property sales and income taxesrdquoSource Are Dropouts and Discipline Connected httpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

ldquoDropping out of high school has consequences for both the individualand society Students who drop out of school are more likely to be unemployed to earnless than those who graduate to be on public assistance and to end up in prison (Cataldiamp KewalRamani 2009 Christle Jolivette amp Nelson 2007 Gottlob 2007) Due to lost revenue from taxes increased Medicaid costs and increased incarceration costs it is estimated that over a 50 year period North Carolina will spend 85 billion dollars on one yearrsquos class of drop outs (Gottlob 2007)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Coping Ugly

Slow DisengagementAs complex as these individual circumstances may be what is clear is that dropping out of high school is not a sudden act but a slow process of disengagement often both academically and socially and is often influenced by a studentrsquos perception of the high schoolrsquos expectations of him or her and his or her early school experiences 26 Dropping out

occurring form This of course would have the benefit of eliminating the counterhistorical aspects of the narrative Las Vegas does exist after all even though its status in reality depends on a liberal and counterfactual imagination

Dropping out ultimately is counterfactual because it runs completely counter to the narrative of educational opportunity that dominates modern culture How can you possibly drop out when doing so dramatically raises the odds against you Dont you want to get a job get a ahead have a family be happy live long and multiply How could you What were you thinking of

But dropping out is often a rational response to the circumstances and choices faced by more than 1 out of 3 high school students

Drop outs know that if they graduated went to college and graduated again got a good job before getting married and having kids then they would be better off But they are much more acutely aware of the economic facts of life The fastest growing job categories are the most underpaid If they are unfortunate enough to be African-American and male then from a statistical point of view there is a 1in 3 chance they will spend time in prison Most of them most dropout that is do get some sort of diploma but they know that college is financially and socially not gonna happen Unfortunately what some of them also know is that they can make more money in the here and now by dealing or turning tricks

ldquoDropouts are costly both in terms of themselves and the community The likelihood of their winding up on welfare in prison or in hospital is accompanied by the loss in wages property sales and income taxesrdquoSource Are Dropouts and Discipline Connected httpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

ldquoDropping out of high school has consequences for both the individualand society Students who drop out of school are more likely to be unemployed to earnless than those who graduate to be on public assistance and to end up in prison (Cataldiamp KewalRamani 2009 Christle Jolivette amp Nelson 2007 Gottlob 2007) Due to lost revenue from taxes increased Medicaid costs and increased incarceration costs it is estimated that over a 50 year period North Carolina will spend 85 billion dollars on one yearrsquos class of drop outs (Gottlob 2007)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Coping Ugly

Slow DisengagementAs complex as these individual circumstances may be what is clear is that dropping out of high school is not a sudden act but a slow process of disengagement often both academically and socially and is often influenced by a studentrsquos perception of the high schoolrsquos expectations of him or her and his or her early school experiences 26 Dropping out

is not a decision that is made on a single morning The survey probed studentsrsquo experiences before dropping out of high school and found that there are clear warning signs for at least one to three years before they drop out that these students are losing interest in school National studies show that such warning signs appear and can be predictive of dropping out as early as elementary school27

Students described a pattern of refusing to wake up missing school skipping class and taking three hour lunches ndash and each absence made them less willing to go back These students had long periods of absences and were sometimes referred to the truant officer only to be brought back to the same environment that led them to become disengaged In our survey 59 to 65 percent of respondents missed class often the year they dropped out and 33 to 45 percent missed class often the year before they dropped out Consistent with national data absenteeism is the most common indicator of overall student engagement and a significant predictor of dropping out28

Respondents report that they started to lose interest in school well before dropping out with 71 percent saying they lost interest in school in the 9th and 10th grades Fifty-eight percent of our survey respondents indicated that they dropped out in the 11th and 12th grades Nationally much of the dropping out of school has shifted from the last two years of high school (typical three decades ago) to between 9th and 10th grades today29 Still a plurality of students drop out with less than two years to go in their high school education30

In our focus groups participants talked again and again about waking up late for school skipping classes hanging out in the hallways with no consequences and the lack of order and rules for them For a young man in Baltimore school became an afterthought and the school let it be so ldquoLike in the middle of the year I just started going out with my friends and I never went to school Itrsquos like I forgot about itrdquoSource The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Desperately Seeking SchoolingCounter to the image of dropouts as lacking the necessary motivation to attend school the record of my students is much more like a desperate search for schooling ndash that works In what can only be described as progression of serial relationships my students attend one school and then try on another and then another By the time they graduate ( if they graduate which most of them will not ) they will attend on average more than five credit granting programs ( including evening and summer school )

In hindsight young people who dropped out of school almost universally expressed great remorse for having left school and expressed strong interest in re-entering school with students their age

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

The Spectrum of Inequality

The School Discipline System ndash Career Education

School to Prison Pipelineldquostartling growth has occurred in what is often described as the ldquoSchool-to-Prison Pipelinerdquo1 ndash the use of educational policies and practices that have the effect of

pushing students especially students of color and students with disabilities out of schools and toward the juvenile and criminal justice systems ldquoThe harsh punishments especially expulsion under zero tolerance and referrals to law enforcement show that students of color and students with disabilities are increasingly being pushed out of schools oftentimes into the criminal justice systemrdquo

Race and School DisciplineGreater Suspension Rates Are Not Clearly Linked to More Frequent or More Serious Misbehavior Research on student behavior race and discipline has found no evidence that African American over-representation in school suspension is due to higher rates of misbehavior33 A 2010 study by Johns Hopkins researcher Dr Katherine Bradshaw based on 21 schools found that even when controlling for teacher ratings of student misbehavior Black students were more likely to be sent to the office for disciplinary reasons34 Other studies suggest that racial disparities in discipline are larger in the offense categories that are subjective or vague and vice versa Specifically Dr Russ Skiba and his colleagues reviewed racial and gender disparities in school punishments in an urban setting and found that White students were referred to the office significantly more frequently for offenses that are relatively easy to document objectively (eg smoking vandalism leaving without permission and using obscene language)35 African American students however were referred more often for behaviors that seem to require more subjective judgment on the part of the person making the referral (eg disrespect excessive noise threatening behavior and loitering)36 In short the researchers concluded that there is no evidence that racial disparities in school discipline can be explained by more serious patterns of rule-breaking among African American students37 It appears that White students are engaging more often in those behavioral transgressions that can be documented and counted without much subjectivity or discretion coming into play However for those offenses that require a judgment call by teachers administrators and others Black students are disproportionately called out This suggests two possibilities perhaps Black students focus their misbehavior on those types of activities that call for a subjective judgment of such misbehavior or perhaps Black students are being unfairly singled out when it comes to prosecuting such misbehavior

Source Discipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justicehttpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justiceNEPC-SchoolDiscipline-Losen-1-PB_FINALpdf

Zero ToleranceWhat is Zero ToleranceZero Tolerance first received national attention as the title of a program developed in 1986 by US Attorney Peter Nunez in San Diego impounding seagoing vessels carrying any amount of drugs US Attorney General Edwin Meese highlighted the program as a national model in 1988 and ordered customs officials to seize the vehicles and property of anyone crossing the border with even trace amounts of drugs and charge those individuals in federal court Beginning in 1989 school districts in California New York and Kentucky picked up on the term zero tolerance and mandated expulsion for drugs fighting and gang-related activity By 1993 zero tolerance policies had been adopted across the country often broadened to include not only drugs and weapons but also smoking and school disruption This tide swept zero tolerance into national policy when the Clinton Administration signed the Gun- Free Schools Act of 1994 into law The law mandates a one-year calendar expulsion for possession of a firearm referral of law-violating students to the criminal or juvenile justice systems and the provision that state law must authorize the chief administrative officer of each local school district to modify such expulsions on a case-by-case basis State legislatures and local school districts have broadened the mandate of zero tolerance beyond the federal mandates of weapons to drugs and alcohol fighting threats or swearing2 Many school boards continue to toughen their disciplinary policies some have begun to experiment with permanent expulsion from the system for certain offenses Others have begun to apply school suspensions expulsions or transfers to behaviors that occur outside of school(From Skiba amp Knesting 2001) - 6 Skiba RJ amp Knesting K (2001) Zero tolerance zero evidence An analysis of school disciplinary practice In RJ Skiba amp GG Noam (Eds) New directions for youth development (no 92 Zero tolerance Can suspension and expulsion keep schools safe) (pp 17-43) San Francisco Jossey-Bass7 Wu ShttpceepindianaeduprojectsPDFPB_V2N1_Zero_Tolerancepdf

Juvenile Justice and School Discipline Trends

pushing students especially students of color and students with disabilities out of schools and toward the juvenile and criminal justice systems ldquoThe harsh punishments especially expulsion under zero tolerance and referrals to law enforcement show that students of color and students with disabilities are increasingly being pushed out of schools oftentimes into the criminal justice systemrdquo

Race and School DisciplineGreater Suspension Rates Are Not Clearly Linked to More Frequent or More Serious Misbehavior Research on student behavior race and discipline has found no evidence that African American over-representation in school suspension is due to higher rates of misbehavior33 A 2010 study by Johns Hopkins researcher Dr Katherine Bradshaw based on 21 schools found that even when controlling for teacher ratings of student misbehavior Black students were more likely to be sent to the office for disciplinary reasons34 Other studies suggest that racial disparities in discipline are larger in the offense categories that are subjective or vague and vice versa Specifically Dr Russ Skiba and his colleagues reviewed racial and gender disparities in school punishments in an urban setting and found that White students were referred to the office significantly more frequently for offenses that are relatively easy to document objectively (eg smoking vandalism leaving without permission and using obscene language)35 African American students however were referred more often for behaviors that seem to require more subjective judgment on the part of the person making the referral (eg disrespect excessive noise threatening behavior and loitering)36 In short the researchers concluded that there is no evidence that racial disparities in school discipline can be explained by more serious patterns of rule-breaking among African American students37 It appears that White students are engaging more often in those behavioral transgressions that can be documented and counted without much subjectivity or discretion coming into play However for those offenses that require a judgment call by teachers administrators and others Black students are disproportionately called out This suggests two possibilities perhaps Black students focus their misbehavior on those types of activities that call for a subjective judgment of such misbehavior or perhaps Black students are being unfairly singled out when it comes to prosecuting such misbehavior

Source Discipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justicehttpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justiceNEPC-SchoolDiscipline-Losen-1-PB_FINALpdf

Zero ToleranceWhat is Zero ToleranceZero Tolerance first received national attention as the title of a program developed in 1986 by US Attorney Peter Nunez in San Diego impounding seagoing vessels carrying any amount of drugs US Attorney General Edwin Meese highlighted the program as a national model in 1988 and ordered customs officials to seize the vehicles and property of anyone crossing the border with even trace amounts of drugs and charge those individuals in federal court Beginning in 1989 school districts in California New York and Kentucky picked up on the term zero tolerance and mandated expulsion for drugs fighting and gang-related activity By 1993 zero tolerance policies had been adopted across the country often broadened to include not only drugs and weapons but also smoking and school disruption This tide swept zero tolerance into national policy when the Clinton Administration signed the Gun- Free Schools Act of 1994 into law The law mandates a one-year calendar expulsion for possession of a firearm referral of law-violating students to the criminal or juvenile justice systems and the provision that state law must authorize the chief administrative officer of each local school district to modify such expulsions on a case-by-case basis State legislatures and local school districts have broadened the mandate of zero tolerance beyond the federal mandates of weapons to drugs and alcohol fighting threats or swearing2 Many school boards continue to toughen their disciplinary policies some have begun to experiment with permanent expulsion from the system for certain offenses Others have begun to apply school suspensions expulsions or transfers to behaviors that occur outside of school(From Skiba amp Knesting 2001) - 6 Skiba RJ amp Knesting K (2001) Zero tolerance zero evidence An analysis of school disciplinary practice In RJ Skiba amp GG Noam (Eds) New directions for youth development (no 92 Zero tolerance Can suspension and expulsion keep schools safe) (pp 17-43) San Francisco Jossey-Bass7 Wu ShttpceepindianaeduprojectsPDFPB_V2N1_Zero_Tolerancepdf

Juvenile Justice and School Discipline Trends

Source Discipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justicehttpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justiceNEPC-SchoolDiscipline-Losen-1-PB_FINALpdf

Zero ToleranceWhat is Zero ToleranceZero Tolerance first received national attention as the title of a program developed in 1986 by US Attorney Peter Nunez in San Diego impounding seagoing vessels carrying any amount of drugs US Attorney General Edwin Meese highlighted the program as a national model in 1988 and ordered customs officials to seize the vehicles and property of anyone crossing the border with even trace amounts of drugs and charge those individuals in federal court Beginning in 1989 school districts in California New York and Kentucky picked up on the term zero tolerance and mandated expulsion for drugs fighting and gang-related activity By 1993 zero tolerance policies had been adopted across the country often broadened to include not only drugs and weapons but also smoking and school disruption This tide swept zero tolerance into national policy when the Clinton Administration signed the Gun- Free Schools Act of 1994 into law The law mandates a one-year calendar expulsion for possession of a firearm referral of law-violating students to the criminal or juvenile justice systems and the provision that state law must authorize the chief administrative officer of each local school district to modify such expulsions on a case-by-case basis State legislatures and local school districts have broadened the mandate of zero tolerance beyond the federal mandates of weapons to drugs and alcohol fighting threats or swearing2 Many school boards continue to toughen their disciplinary policies some have begun to experiment with permanent expulsion from the system for certain offenses Others have begun to apply school suspensions expulsions or transfers to behaviors that occur outside of school(From Skiba amp Knesting 2001) - 6 Skiba RJ amp Knesting K (2001) Zero tolerance zero evidence An analysis of school disciplinary practice In RJ Skiba amp GG Noam (Eds) New directions for youth development (no 92 Zero tolerance Can suspension and expulsion keep schools safe) (pp 17-43) San Francisco Jossey-Bass7 Wu ShttpceepindianaeduprojectsPDFPB_V2N1_Zero_Tolerancepdf

Juvenile Justice and School Discipline Trends

The debate about how schools should respond to student misconduct is not new but school discipline and juvenile justice policies have changed over timeCommensurate with the trend to be ldquotough on crimerdquo in the late 1980s and early 1990s to increase public safety in the community (including a focus on perceived ldquohardenedrdquo juveniles) was a change that took hold to make schools safer as wellDuring that period state legislatures overhauled their juvenile justice laws to ease accessibility to juvenile justice records increase opportunities for prosecutors to try juveniles as adults for serious crimes enable local governments to enact curfews and expand definitions of what constituted ldquogang involvementrdquo and other youth related crimes5

In the years that followed anxiety about and perceptions of out-of-control youth were fueled in part by frequent news stories of teachers and students being shot or killed in high school classrooms hallways and cafeterias The shootings took place in towns previously unknown to most Americans Moses Lake Washington Bethel Alaska Pearl Mississippi Paducah Kentucky Jonesboro Arkansas Edinboro Pennsylvania Fayetteville Tennessee Springfield Oregon and Littleton Colorado6

In response Congress took direct action to address crime in local schools For example President Clinton in 1994 signed into law the Gun-Free Schools Act Under this legislation local schools could seek funding if they could demonstrate that when a student brought a weapon to campus he or she would be expelled for at least one year and referred to appropriate authorities in the justice system7 Officials in many jurisdictions went beyond these minimum standards mandating for example the suspension andor expulsion from school of any student who brought any weapon onto campus8

Policymakers and practitioners alike taking a page from the shift toward more stringent adult crime policy urged stricter enforcement of disruptive or dangerous actions in schools9 Calls for swift and sure punishment for students who misbehaved resulted in the adoption of ldquozero tolerancerdquo disciplinary policy in districts across the nation10 By 1997 at least 79 percent of schools nationwide had adopted zero tolerance policies toward alcohol drugs and violence11 In many places these policies were expanded to include a wide range of misbehavior12 The specifics of strict discipline policies often loosely packaged under the rubric of ldquozero tolerancerdquo vary from state to state and even school to school13 Policies also differ in terms of how expelled or suspended students are directed following a removal For example 26 states including Texas require alternative educational assignments for expelled or suspended students in others a suspension or expulsion results simply in the student serving out the punishment at home14 In sum although school responses to student misconduct typically are distinct to the individual jurisdiction and even the individual school campus the past two decades have witnessed a widespread reliance on suspension and expulsion as swift sanctions to disruptive classroom behaviorWhile this emphasis on exclusionary school discipline policies has occurred the rate of crimes against students has also declined by 67 percent15 Despite these coinciding trends research to date does not support the conclusion that ldquozero tolerancerdquo and other efforts emphasizing suspension and expulsion are responsible for the reduction in crimes committed in schools16

What is evident is that strict enforcement of schoolsrsquo rules has resulted in significant overall increases in the national number of suspensions from about 17 million (37 percent of all students) in 1974 to more than 33 million (68 percent of all students) in 200617 Although perspectives differ on whether students today misbehave more than they did two decades ago18 on this point everyone agrees Suspensions and to a lesser degree expulsions are common in todayrsquos school systems Nationwide the large number of suspensions and expulsions has prompted state and local policymakers people working on the front lines of schools and juvenile justice systems parents students and community leaders to ask for data explaining the impact this practice is having on students Increasingly observers are also asking about the consequences of suspending or expelling large numbers of students such as whether these policies contribute to high drop-out rates or to studentsrsquo involvement in the juvenile justice system mdash particularly students of color or those who have special needs 19Source Breaking School Rules12 In this respect the policy looked to ldquobroken windowsrdquo criminal justice theory which recommended vigorously pursuing and prosecuting lower-level violations as a method of deterring offenders from going on to commit more serious crimes See James Q Wilson amp George L Kelling ldquoBroken Windowsrdquo Atlantic Monthly March 1982 see also National Institute of Justice The Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in US Schools p 21 1999 (stating thatldquo[i]f a school is perceived as unsafe (ie it appears that no adult authority prevails on a campus) then lsquoundesirablesrsquo will come in and the school will actually become unsafe This is an embodiment of the broken windows theoryhellipSeemingly small incidents or issues such as litter on a school campus can provide the groundwork forhellipa problem schoolrdquo)13 Civil Rights Project amp Advancement Project ldquoOpportunities Suspended The Devastating Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline Policiesrdquo (paper presented at the National Summit on Zero Tolerance Washington DC June 15 ndash 16 2000)14 Id15 In 1992 the rate of student-reported nonfatal crimes against students between the ages of 12 and 18 years old was 144 per 1000 students By 2008 the rate had fallen to 47 per 1000 students Simone Robers Jijun Zhang Jennifer Truman and Thomas D Snyder Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2010 NCES 2011 ndash 2012NCJ 230812 (Washington DC National Center for Education Statistics US Department of Education and Bureau of Justice Statistics Office of Justice Programs US Department of Justice 2010)16 Some studies have shown that ldquotarget-hardeningrdquo strategies such as the presence of guards and metal detectors and strict disciplinary policies are ineffective at reducing school crime and disorder and may even do more harm than good Russell Skiba Cecil R Reynolds Sandra Graham Peter Sheras Jane Close Conoley and Enedina Garcia-Vazquez ldquoAre Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools An Evidentiary Review and Recommendationsrdquo American Psychologist 63 (2008) 852 ndash 862 Christopher J Schreck J Mitchell Miller and Chris L Gibson ldquoTrouble in the School Yard a Study of the Risk Factors of Victimization at Schoolrdquo Crime amp Delinquency 29 (2003) 460 ndash 48417 Hanno Petras Katherine Masyn Jacquelyn A Buckley Nicholas S Ialongo and Sheppard Kellam ldquoWho is Most at Risk for School Removal A Multilevel Discrete-Time Survival Analysis of Individual-and-Context-Level Influencesrdquo Journal of Educational Psychology 103 (2011) 223 ndash 237 Kim Brooks Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg School House Hype Two Years Later NCJ 182894 (Washington DC Justice Policy Institute Childrenrsquos Law Center 2000) ldquo2006 National and State Projectionsrdquo US Department of Education accessed May 31 2011 httpocrdataedgovProjections_2006aspx Readers will note that these numbers appear relatively small in comparison with the Texas data because the Department of Education included in the national numbers only out-of-school suspensions while the Texas data also included the large number of in-school suspensions18 During this same time period filings in juvenile court have declined which taken by itself could indicate that the commission of delinquent acts by juveniles has declined Michael P Krezmien Peter E Leone Mark S Zablocki and Craig S Wells ldquoJuvenile Court Referrals and the Public Schools Nature and Extent of the Practice in Five Statesrdquo Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 26 (2010) 273 ndash 293 ldquoDiscipline Data Products Annual State Summaryrdquo Texas Education Agency last updated November 5 2010 httpritterteastatetxusadhocrptDisciplinary_Data_ProductsDownload_State_Summarieshtml19 Legislative leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly have expressed concern about high rates of suspension and expulsion in that state and are considering legislation to address this situation [ldquoNC lawmakers revisit school zero-tolerance rulesrdquo HamptonRoadscom May 11 2011 accessed May 31 2011 httphamptonroadscom201105nc-lawmakers-revisit-school-zerotolerance-rules] See also Colorado Senate Bill 133 httpcoloradosenateorghomepressgovernor-hickenlooper-in-arvada-today-signing-bill-by-senator-hudak-to-reform-discipline-in-public-schools For more on the disparate impact on students of color and those with special needs see Tona M Boyd Confronting Racial Disparity Legislative Responses to the School-to-Prison Pipeline Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 44 (2009) 571 ndash 580 M Karega Rausch and Russell Skiba Discipline Disability and Race Disproportionality in Indiana Schools Education Policy Brief (Bloomington IN

Center for Evaluation and Education Policy 2006) Michael P Krezmien Peter E Leone and Georgianna M Achilles ldquoSuspension Race and Disability Analysis of Statewide Practices and Reportingrdquo Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 14 (2006) 217 ndash 26 Sid Cooley Suspensionexpulsion of regular and special education students in Kansas A report to the Kansas State Board of Education (Topeka Kansas State Board of Education 1995) and Dalun Zhang Antonis Katsiyannis and Maria Herbst ldquoDisciplinary Exclusions in Special Education A 4-Year Analysisrdquo Behavioral Disorders 29 (2004) 337 ndash 47Source Patricia Torbet and Linda Szymanski State Legislative Responses to Violent Juvenile Crime 1996 ndash 97 Update (Washington DC Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 1998)

Discipline and Dropouts

Findings of this brief strongly suggest a need for reform A review of the evidence suggests that subgroups experiencing disproportionate suspension miss important instructional time and are at greater risk of disengagement and diminished educational opportunities Moreover despite the fact that suspension is a predictor of studentsrsquo risk for dropping out school personnel are not required to report or evaluate the impact of disciplinary decisions Overall the evidence shows the following there is no research base to support frequent suspension or expulsion in response to non-violent and mundane forms of adolescent misbehavior large disparities by race gender and disability status are evident in the use of these punishments frequent suspension and expulsion are associated with negative outcomes and better alternatives are availableSource Discipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justicehttpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justiceNEPC-SchoolDiscipline-Losen-1-PB_FINALpdf

Schools have put themselves in this position to a large extent by adopting zero-tolerance policies to avoid the violence and disruption of the 1990s Rigid rules have replaced professional judgment applied on a case-by-case basis

Every time schools suspend students they unwittingly increase the possibility that those students will eventually drop out On the other hand if schools dont suspend students for violating policies they are sending a clear message that unacceptable behavior has no consequences Its a classic case of damned if you do damned if you dont

Schools have put themselves in this position to a large extent by adopting zero-tolerance policies to avoid the violence and disruption of the 1990s Rigid rules have replaced professional judgment applied on a case-by-case basis

Source Are Dropouts and Discipline Connectedhttpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

The Council of State Governments studied school records of nearly one million Texas students and found nearly 6 in 10 were suspended or expelled between 7th and 12th grade Of those suspended 10 percent dropped out One in seven had contact with the juvenile justice system

Source Zero Tolerance Discipline Leading to Higher Dropout Rate httpdfwcbslocalcom20110720study-zero-tollerance-discipline-leading-to-higher-dropout-rate

What is evident is that strict enforcement of schoolsrsquo rules has resulted in significant overall increases in the national number of suspensions from about 17 million (37 percent of all students) in 1974 to more than 33 million (68 percent of all students) in 200617 Although perspectives differ on whether students today misbehave more than they did two decades ago18 on this point everyone agrees Suspensions and to a lesser degree expulsions are common in todayrsquos school systems Nationwide the large number of suspensions and expulsions has prompted state and local policymakers people working on the front lines of schools and juvenile justice systems parents students and community leaders to ask for data explaining the impact this practice is having on students Increasingly observers are also asking about the consequences of suspending or expelling large numbers of students such as whether these policies contribute to high drop-out rates or to studentsrsquo involvement in the juvenile justice system mdash particularly students of color or those who have special needs 19Source Breaking School Rules12 In this respect the policy looked to ldquobroken windowsrdquo criminal justice theory which recommended vigorously pursuing and prosecuting lower-level violations as a method of deterring offenders from going on to commit more serious crimes See James Q Wilson amp George L Kelling ldquoBroken Windowsrdquo Atlantic Monthly March 1982 see also National Institute of Justice The Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in US Schools p 21 1999 (stating thatldquo[i]f a school is perceived as unsafe (ie it appears that no adult authority prevails on a campus) then lsquoundesirablesrsquo will come in and the school will actually become unsafe This is an embodiment of the broken windows theoryhellipSeemingly small incidents or issues such as litter on a school campus can provide the groundwork forhellipa problem schoolrdquo)13 Civil Rights Project amp Advancement Project ldquoOpportunities Suspended The Devastating Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline Policiesrdquo (paper presented at the National Summit on Zero Tolerance Washington DC June 15 ndash 16 2000)14 Id15 In 1992 the rate of student-reported nonfatal crimes against students between the ages of 12 and 18 years old was 144 per 1000 students By 2008 the rate had fallen to 47 per 1000 students Simone Robers Jijun Zhang Jennifer Truman and Thomas D Snyder Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2010 NCES 2011 ndash 2012NCJ 230812 (Washington DC National Center for Education Statistics US Department of Education and Bureau of Justice Statistics Office of Justice Programs US Department of Justice 2010)16 Some studies have shown that ldquotarget-hardeningrdquo strategies such as the presence of guards and metal detectors and strict disciplinary policies are ineffective at reducing school crime and disorder and may even do more harm than good Russell Skiba Cecil R Reynolds Sandra Graham Peter Sheras Jane Close Conoley and Enedina Garcia-Vazquez ldquoAre Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools An Evidentiary Review and Recommendationsrdquo American Psychologist 63 (2008) 852 ndash 862 Christopher J Schreck J Mitchell Miller and Chris L Gibson ldquoTrouble in the School Yard a Study of the Risk Factors of Victimization at Schoolrdquo Crime amp Delinquency 29 (2003) 460 ndash 48417 Hanno Petras Katherine Masyn Jacquelyn A Buckley Nicholas S Ialongo and Sheppard Kellam ldquoWho is Most at Risk for School Removal A Multilevel Discrete-Time Survival Analysis of Individual-and-Context-Level Influencesrdquo Journal of Educational Psychology 103 (2011) 223 ndash 237 Kim Brooks Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg School House Hype Two Years Later NCJ 182894 (Washington DC Justice Policy Institute Childrenrsquos Law Center 2000) ldquo2006 National and State Projectionsrdquo US Department of Education accessed May 31 2011 httpocrdataedgovProjections_2006aspx Readers will note that these numbers appear relatively small in comparison with the Texas data because the Department of Education included in the national numbers only out-of-school suspensions while the Texas data also included the large number of in-school suspensions18 During this same time period filings in juvenile court have declined which taken by itself could indicate that the commission of delinquent acts by juveniles has declined Michael P Krezmien Peter E Leone Mark S Zablocki and Craig S Wells ldquoJuvenile Court Referrals and the Public Schools Nature and Extent of the Practice in Five Statesrdquo Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 26 (2010) 273 ndash 293 ldquoDiscipline Data Products Annual State Summaryrdquo Texas Education Agency last updated November 5 2010 httpritterteastatetxusadhocrptDisciplinary_Data_ProductsDownload_State_Summarieshtml19 Legislative leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly have expressed concern about high rates of suspension and expulsion in that state and are considering legislation to address this situation [ldquoNC lawmakers revisit school zero-tolerance rulesrdquo HamptonRoadscom May 11 2011 accessed May 31 2011 httphamptonroadscom201105nc-lawmakers-revisit-school-zerotolerance-rules] See also Colorado Senate Bill 133 httpcoloradosenateorghomepressgovernor-hickenlooper-in-arvada-today-signing-bill-by-senator-hudak-to-reform-discipline-in-public-schools For more on the disparate impact on students of color and those with special needs see Tona M Boyd Confronting Racial Disparity Legislative Responses to the School-to-Prison Pipeline Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 44 (2009) 571 ndash 580 M Karega Rausch and Russell Skiba Discipline Disability and Race Disproportionality in Indiana Schools Education Policy Brief (Bloomington IN

Center for Evaluation and Education Policy 2006) Michael P Krezmien Peter E Leone and Georgianna M Achilles ldquoSuspension Race and Disability Analysis of Statewide Practices and Reportingrdquo Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 14 (2006) 217 ndash 26 Sid Cooley Suspensionexpulsion of regular and special education students in Kansas A report to the Kansas State Board of Education (Topeka Kansas State Board of Education 1995) and Dalun Zhang Antonis Katsiyannis and Maria Herbst ldquoDisciplinary Exclusions in Special Education A 4-Year Analysisrdquo Behavioral Disorders 29 (2004) 337 ndash 47Source Patricia Torbet and Linda Szymanski State Legislative Responses to Violent Juvenile Crime 1996 ndash 97 Update (Washington DC Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 1998)

Discipline and Dropouts

Findings of this brief strongly suggest a need for reform A review of the evidence suggests that subgroups experiencing disproportionate suspension miss important instructional time and are at greater risk of disengagement and diminished educational opportunities Moreover despite the fact that suspension is a predictor of studentsrsquo risk for dropping out school personnel are not required to report or evaluate the impact of disciplinary decisions Overall the evidence shows the following there is no research base to support frequent suspension or expulsion in response to non-violent and mundane forms of adolescent misbehavior large disparities by race gender and disability status are evident in the use of these punishments frequent suspension and expulsion are associated with negative outcomes and better alternatives are availableSource Discipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justicehttpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justiceNEPC-SchoolDiscipline-Losen-1-PB_FINALpdf

Schools have put themselves in this position to a large extent by adopting zero-tolerance policies to avoid the violence and disruption of the 1990s Rigid rules have replaced professional judgment applied on a case-by-case basis

Every time schools suspend students they unwittingly increase the possibility that those students will eventually drop out On the other hand if schools dont suspend students for violating policies they are sending a clear message that unacceptable behavior has no consequences Its a classic case of damned if you do damned if you dont

Schools have put themselves in this position to a large extent by adopting zero-tolerance policies to avoid the violence and disruption of the 1990s Rigid rules have replaced professional judgment applied on a case-by-case basis

Source Are Dropouts and Discipline Connectedhttpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

The Council of State Governments studied school records of nearly one million Texas students and found nearly 6 in 10 were suspended or expelled between 7th and 12th grade Of those suspended 10 percent dropped out One in seven had contact with the juvenile justice system

Source Zero Tolerance Discipline Leading to Higher Dropout Rate httpdfwcbslocalcom20110720study-zero-tollerance-discipline-leading-to-higher-dropout-rate

Center for Evaluation and Education Policy 2006) Michael P Krezmien Peter E Leone and Georgianna M Achilles ldquoSuspension Race and Disability Analysis of Statewide Practices and Reportingrdquo Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 14 (2006) 217 ndash 26 Sid Cooley Suspensionexpulsion of regular and special education students in Kansas A report to the Kansas State Board of Education (Topeka Kansas State Board of Education 1995) and Dalun Zhang Antonis Katsiyannis and Maria Herbst ldquoDisciplinary Exclusions in Special Education A 4-Year Analysisrdquo Behavioral Disorders 29 (2004) 337 ndash 47Source Patricia Torbet and Linda Szymanski State Legislative Responses to Violent Juvenile Crime 1996 ndash 97 Update (Washington DC Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 1998)

Discipline and Dropouts

Findings of this brief strongly suggest a need for reform A review of the evidence suggests that subgroups experiencing disproportionate suspension miss important instructional time and are at greater risk of disengagement and diminished educational opportunities Moreover despite the fact that suspension is a predictor of studentsrsquo risk for dropping out school personnel are not required to report or evaluate the impact of disciplinary decisions Overall the evidence shows the following there is no research base to support frequent suspension or expulsion in response to non-violent and mundane forms of adolescent misbehavior large disparities by race gender and disability status are evident in the use of these punishments frequent suspension and expulsion are associated with negative outcomes and better alternatives are availableSource Discipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justicehttpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justiceNEPC-SchoolDiscipline-Losen-1-PB_FINALpdf

Schools have put themselves in this position to a large extent by adopting zero-tolerance policies to avoid the violence and disruption of the 1990s Rigid rules have replaced professional judgment applied on a case-by-case basis

Every time schools suspend students they unwittingly increase the possibility that those students will eventually drop out On the other hand if schools dont suspend students for violating policies they are sending a clear message that unacceptable behavior has no consequences Its a classic case of damned if you do damned if you dont

Schools have put themselves in this position to a large extent by adopting zero-tolerance policies to avoid the violence and disruption of the 1990s Rigid rules have replaced professional judgment applied on a case-by-case basis

Source Are Dropouts and Discipline Connectedhttpblogsedweekorgedweekwalt_gardners_reality_check201006are_discipline_and_dropouts_connectedhtml

The Council of State Governments studied school records of nearly one million Texas students and found nearly 6 in 10 were suspended or expelled between 7th and 12th grade Of those suspended 10 percent dropped out One in seven had contact with the juvenile justice system

Source Zero Tolerance Discipline Leading to Higher Dropout Rate httpdfwcbslocalcom20110720study-zero-tollerance-discipline-leading-to-higher-dropout-rate

Repeated suspensions and expulsions predicted poor academic outcomes Only 40 percent of students disciplined 11 times or more graduated from high school during the study period and 31 percent of students disciplined one or more times repeated their grade at least once Source Breaking Schoolsrsquo Rules A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Studentsrsquo Success and Juvenile Justice Involvementhttpjusticecentercsgorgresourcesjuveniles

Breaking Schoolrsquos RulesKey findings in the report include the following1 Nearly six in ten public school students studied were suspended or expelled at least once between their seventh- and twelfth-grade school yearsbull About 54 percent of students experienced in-school suspension which could be as brief as one period or as long as several consecutive days Thirtyone percent of students experienced out-of-school suspensionwhich averaged two days per incidentbull Of the nearly 1 million students studied about 15 percent were assigned at least once to disciplinary alternative education programs (27 days on average) between seventh and twelfth grade about 8 percent were placed at least once in juvenile justice alternative education programs (73 days on average)bull Only 3 percent of the disciplinary actions were for conduct for which state law mandates suspensions and expulsions the remainder of disciplinary actions was made at the discretion of school officials primarily in response to violations of local schoolsrsquo conduct codesbull Students who were involved in the school disciplinary system averaged eight suspensions andor expulsions during their middle or high school years among this group the median number of suspensions and expulsions was four Fifteen percent of students studied were disciplined 11 or more separate timesMultivariate analyses which enabled researchers to control for 83 different variables in isolating the effect of race alone on disciplinary actions found that African-American students had a 31 percent higher likelihood of a school discretionary action compared to otherwise identical white and Hispanic studentsStudents who were suspended andor expelled particularly those who were repeatedly disciplined were more likely to be held back a grade or to drop out than were students not involved in the disciplinary systembull Of all students who were suspended or expelled 31 percent repeated their grade at least once In contrast only 5 percent of students with no disciplinary involvement were held backbull About 10 percent of students suspended or expelled between seventh and twelfth grade dropped out About 59 percent of those students disciplined 11 times or more did not graduate from high school during the study period1

bull A student who was suspended or expelled for a discretionary violation was twice as likely to repeat his or her grade compared to a student with the samecharacteristics attending a similar school who had not been suspended or expelled1

When a student was suspended or expelled his or her likelihood of being involved in the juvenile justice system the subsequent year increased significantly

bull More than one in seven students was in contact with the juvenile justice system (ie contact with a countyrsquos juvenile probation department) at least once between seventh and twelfth grade2

bull Nearly half of those students who were disciplined 11 or more times were in contact with the juvenile justice system In contrast 2 percent of the students who had no school disciplinary actions were in contact with the juvenile justice systembull When controlling for campus and individual student characteristics the data revealed that a student who was suspended or expelled for a discretionary violation was nearly three times as likely to be in contact with the juvenile justice system the following yearThirty-one percent of those students with one or more suspensions or expulsions repeated their grade level at least once In contrast about 5 percent of students (52) with no disciplinary actions were held back (See Figure 12)

bull Nearly 10 percent of those students with at least one disciplinary contact dropped out of school compared to just 2 percent of students with no disciplinary action (See Figure 12)bull Whereas just 53 percent of students who had no discretionary actions repeated a grade 556 percent of students who had experienced 11 or more discretionary suspensions andor expulsions were held back at least once during the study period (See Figure 13)bull Fifteen percent of students with 11 or more suspensions or expulsions dropped out of school prior to graduation compared to a 2 percent drop-out rate among students with no disciplinary actions

Source Breaking Schoolsrsquo Ruleshttpjusticecentercsgorgresourcesjuveniles

Rising Suspension Rates ndash Differential Impacts

School suspensions have risen steadily since the early 1970s and racial disparities have grown considerably as well

Source Losen DL amp Skiba RJ (2010 September) Suspended Education Urban Middle Schools in Crisis Los Angeles The Civil Rights Project at UCLA Retrieved December 5 2010 from httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-

disciplinesuspended-education-urban-middle-schools-in-crisisSuspended-Education_FINAL-2pdf

Risk Factors Delinquency Drug Use Gang Related

IntroductionDropouts themselves report a variety of reasons for leaving school including schoolrelatedreasons family-related reasons and work-related reasons (Bridgeland DiIulio Jr ampMorison 2006 Rotermund 2007) The most cited reasons reported by 2002 tenth-graders whodropped out were ldquomissed too many school daysrdquo (44 percent) ldquothought it would be easier to geta GEDrdquo (41 percent) ldquogetting poor gradesfailing schoolrdquo (38 percent) ldquodid not like schoolrdquo (37percent) and ldquocould not keep up with schoolworkrdquo (32 percent) (Rotermund 2007) But thesereasons do not reveal the underlying causes of why students quit school particularly thosefactors in elementary or middle school that may have contributed to studentsrsquo attitudesbehaviors and performance immediately preceding their decision to leave school Moreover ifmany factors contribute to this phenomenon over a long period of time it is virtually impossibleto demonstrate a causal connection between any single factor and the decision to quit schoolResearch suggests that of all the factors contributing to the decision to drop out of high school personal characteristics of the individual student have the strongest effect (Lan amp Lanthier 2003) Commonly cited reasons for dropping out include poor academic achievement and grade

retention (Allensworth 2005) student engagement and motivation (Princiotta amp Reyna 2009) and behavioral problems (Christle et al 2007 Owen Rosch Muschkin Alexander amp Wyant 2008) Students who are experiencing difficulty in school becoming disengaged exhibiting behavioral problems and performing poorly are at an increased risk for dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Frequently students face more than one risk factor and as the factors amass the potential risk for dropping out increases Therefore the decision to drop out of high school does not happen abruptly but instead is the end result of a long term process of disengagementfrom school (Christle et al 2007 Princiotta amp Reyna 2009 Roderick 1993)Source Why Students Drop Out of SchoolA Review of 25 Years of Research California Dropout Research Project Report 15October 2008 By Russell W Rumberger and Sun Ah Lim University of California Santa Barbarahttpwwwcdrpucsbedudownloadphpfile=researchreport15pdfSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Academics - On TrackIn a longitudinal study for the Consortium on Chicago School Research data was collected on the effects of academic achievement (failure in core courses and number of credits completed during freshman year) on future dropout The ldquoon track indicatorrdquo (combination of both predictors) was shown to be a strong factor in high school graduation According to the study ldquoon track studentsrdquo were 35 times more likely to graduate from high school on time than were ldquooff track studentsrdquo A strong correlation between course failureSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Grade RetentionRoderick (1993) found that even after statistically controlling for both background as well as school performance those students who had repeated grades were substantially more likely to drop out than were those students who had never been retained Students who experience retention are likely to be overage for grade Being overage for grade both stigmatizes students and may allow them the eligibility to leave school (at the age of 16 years) while they are still in middle school or during the already difficult transition to high school (Roderick 1993) Even when controlling for both grades and attendance being overage for grade level has been shown to significantly increase the probability of dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Research suggests that retention rates are much higher for members of minority groups than for the White majority (Hauser et al 2000) In an analysis of social promotion and grade retention it was found that by age 9 the odds of ldquograde retardationrdquo among African AmericanSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlink

did=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Being MaleUnlike ethnic differences in graduation rates there is controversy as to whether or not gender differences exist Some studies cite gender differences suggesting that males are more likely than females to both drop out of high school before receiving adiploma as well as report completing eight or fewer years of schooling (Sum amp Harrington 2003) However other researchers suggest that this pattern as observed over the past 30 years is diminishing (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) When examining changes over time it is important to recognize differences in the definitions of dropout terms The status dropout rate is a measure of the percentage of all individuals who are not currently enrolled in high school or who do not hold an equivalent degree Event dropout rates describe the proportion of students who drop out in a single year (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) Event dropout rates in 2007 reported by the National Center for Education Statistics showed no measureable difference between males and females (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) However when analyzing status dropout rates as well as completion rates which take into account all drop outs in a particular age range the Center for Education Statistics reported a measureable difference between males andfemales with males being more likely to drop out of school (Cataldi amp KewalRamani2009)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Attendance]

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Drug and Alcohol UseSchool dropouts were less likely to have used alcohol during the past month than non-dropouts (Figure 2) Findings were similar for males and females This pattern was also observed among whites (54 vs 67 percent) and Hispanics (42 vs 53 percent) However among blacks the rate of past month alcohol use was similar among school dropouts (50 percent) and non-dropouts (47 percent)

Rates of binge alcohol use were similar among school dropouts (41 percent) and non-dropouts (39 percent) Among males the binge drinking rate for school dropouts was the same as the rate for non-dropouts However among females the rate of binge alcohol use was lower for school dropouts (24 percent) than non-dropouts (33 percent) Among blacks school dropouts (39 percent) were more likely than non-dropouts (24 percent) to be binge alcohol users however among whites (45 vs 47 percent) and Hispanics (33 vs 36 percent) the rates of binge alcohol use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts There was no difference in binge drinking among dropouts (35 percent) and non-dropouts (37 percent) aged 18 to 20 However among those aged 21 to 24 dropouts were less likely to be binge alcohol users (41 percent) than non-dropouts (46 percent)

Overall the rate of heavy alcohol use was lower among school dropouts compared with non-dropouts Findings were similar for males and females Among whites school dropouts (16 percent) were less likely than non-dropouts (20 percent) to be heavy alcohol users but there was no difference between

school dropouts and non-dropouts among blacks Among Hispanics the rate of heavy alcohol use was 7 percent among school dropouts and 10 percent among non-dropouts but this difference was not statistically significant Although rates of heavy alcohol use were similar for school dropouts (12 percent) and non-dropouts (14 percent) aged 18 to 20 school dropouts aged 21 to 24 (12 percent) were less likely to be heavy alcohol users than same aged non-dropouts (18 percent)

Among persons aged 18 to 24 the prevalence of past month illicit drug use was similar among school dropouts (22 percent) and non-dropouts (21 percent) For whites and blacks school dropouts were more likely to have used illicit drugs than non-dropouts but there was no difference between school dropouts and non-dropouts among Hispanics (Figure 3) Among persons aged 18 to 20 the rate of illicit drug use was higher among school dropouts (27 percent) than it was among non-dropouts (22 percent) but the rates were similar among those aged 21 to 24 (19 percent for school dropouts and 20 percent for non-dropouts) Among both males and females the rates of illicit drug use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

Source Breaking Schoolsrsquo Ruleshttpjusticecentercsgorgresourcesjuveniles

Rising Suspension Rates ndash Differential Impacts

School suspensions have risen steadily since the early 1970s and racial disparities have grown considerably as well

Source Losen DL amp Skiba RJ (2010 September) Suspended Education Urban Middle Schools in Crisis Los Angeles The Civil Rights Project at UCLA Retrieved December 5 2010 from httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-

disciplinesuspended-education-urban-middle-schools-in-crisisSuspended-Education_FINAL-2pdf

Risk Factors Delinquency Drug Use Gang Related

IntroductionDropouts themselves report a variety of reasons for leaving school including schoolrelatedreasons family-related reasons and work-related reasons (Bridgeland DiIulio Jr ampMorison 2006 Rotermund 2007) The most cited reasons reported by 2002 tenth-graders whodropped out were ldquomissed too many school daysrdquo (44 percent) ldquothought it would be easier to geta GEDrdquo (41 percent) ldquogetting poor gradesfailing schoolrdquo (38 percent) ldquodid not like schoolrdquo (37percent) and ldquocould not keep up with schoolworkrdquo (32 percent) (Rotermund 2007) But thesereasons do not reveal the underlying causes of why students quit school particularly thosefactors in elementary or middle school that may have contributed to studentsrsquo attitudesbehaviors and performance immediately preceding their decision to leave school Moreover ifmany factors contribute to this phenomenon over a long period of time it is virtually impossibleto demonstrate a causal connection between any single factor and the decision to quit schoolResearch suggests that of all the factors contributing to the decision to drop out of high school personal characteristics of the individual student have the strongest effect (Lan amp Lanthier 2003) Commonly cited reasons for dropping out include poor academic achievement and grade

retention (Allensworth 2005) student engagement and motivation (Princiotta amp Reyna 2009) and behavioral problems (Christle et al 2007 Owen Rosch Muschkin Alexander amp Wyant 2008) Students who are experiencing difficulty in school becoming disengaged exhibiting behavioral problems and performing poorly are at an increased risk for dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Frequently students face more than one risk factor and as the factors amass the potential risk for dropping out increases Therefore the decision to drop out of high school does not happen abruptly but instead is the end result of a long term process of disengagementfrom school (Christle et al 2007 Princiotta amp Reyna 2009 Roderick 1993)Source Why Students Drop Out of SchoolA Review of 25 Years of Research California Dropout Research Project Report 15October 2008 By Russell W Rumberger and Sun Ah Lim University of California Santa Barbarahttpwwwcdrpucsbedudownloadphpfile=researchreport15pdfSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Academics - On TrackIn a longitudinal study for the Consortium on Chicago School Research data was collected on the effects of academic achievement (failure in core courses and number of credits completed during freshman year) on future dropout The ldquoon track indicatorrdquo (combination of both predictors) was shown to be a strong factor in high school graduation According to the study ldquoon track studentsrdquo were 35 times more likely to graduate from high school on time than were ldquooff track studentsrdquo A strong correlation between course failureSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Grade RetentionRoderick (1993) found that even after statistically controlling for both background as well as school performance those students who had repeated grades were substantially more likely to drop out than were those students who had never been retained Students who experience retention are likely to be overage for grade Being overage for grade both stigmatizes students and may allow them the eligibility to leave school (at the age of 16 years) while they are still in middle school or during the already difficult transition to high school (Roderick 1993) Even when controlling for both grades and attendance being overage for grade level has been shown to significantly increase the probability of dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Research suggests that retention rates are much higher for members of minority groups than for the White majority (Hauser et al 2000) In an analysis of social promotion and grade retention it was found that by age 9 the odds of ldquograde retardationrdquo among African AmericanSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlink

did=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Being MaleUnlike ethnic differences in graduation rates there is controversy as to whether or not gender differences exist Some studies cite gender differences suggesting that males are more likely than females to both drop out of high school before receiving adiploma as well as report completing eight or fewer years of schooling (Sum amp Harrington 2003) However other researchers suggest that this pattern as observed over the past 30 years is diminishing (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) When examining changes over time it is important to recognize differences in the definitions of dropout terms The status dropout rate is a measure of the percentage of all individuals who are not currently enrolled in high school or who do not hold an equivalent degree Event dropout rates describe the proportion of students who drop out in a single year (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) Event dropout rates in 2007 reported by the National Center for Education Statistics showed no measureable difference between males and females (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) However when analyzing status dropout rates as well as completion rates which take into account all drop outs in a particular age range the Center for Education Statistics reported a measureable difference between males andfemales with males being more likely to drop out of school (Cataldi amp KewalRamani2009)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Attendance]

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Drug and Alcohol UseSchool dropouts were less likely to have used alcohol during the past month than non-dropouts (Figure 2) Findings were similar for males and females This pattern was also observed among whites (54 vs 67 percent) and Hispanics (42 vs 53 percent) However among blacks the rate of past month alcohol use was similar among school dropouts (50 percent) and non-dropouts (47 percent)

Rates of binge alcohol use were similar among school dropouts (41 percent) and non-dropouts (39 percent) Among males the binge drinking rate for school dropouts was the same as the rate for non-dropouts However among females the rate of binge alcohol use was lower for school dropouts (24 percent) than non-dropouts (33 percent) Among blacks school dropouts (39 percent) were more likely than non-dropouts (24 percent) to be binge alcohol users however among whites (45 vs 47 percent) and Hispanics (33 vs 36 percent) the rates of binge alcohol use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts There was no difference in binge drinking among dropouts (35 percent) and non-dropouts (37 percent) aged 18 to 20 However among those aged 21 to 24 dropouts were less likely to be binge alcohol users (41 percent) than non-dropouts (46 percent)

Overall the rate of heavy alcohol use was lower among school dropouts compared with non-dropouts Findings were similar for males and females Among whites school dropouts (16 percent) were less likely than non-dropouts (20 percent) to be heavy alcohol users but there was no difference between

school dropouts and non-dropouts among blacks Among Hispanics the rate of heavy alcohol use was 7 percent among school dropouts and 10 percent among non-dropouts but this difference was not statistically significant Although rates of heavy alcohol use were similar for school dropouts (12 percent) and non-dropouts (14 percent) aged 18 to 20 school dropouts aged 21 to 24 (12 percent) were less likely to be heavy alcohol users than same aged non-dropouts (18 percent)

Among persons aged 18 to 24 the prevalence of past month illicit drug use was similar among school dropouts (22 percent) and non-dropouts (21 percent) For whites and blacks school dropouts were more likely to have used illicit drugs than non-dropouts but there was no difference between school dropouts and non-dropouts among Hispanics (Figure 3) Among persons aged 18 to 20 the rate of illicit drug use was higher among school dropouts (27 percent) than it was among non-dropouts (22 percent) but the rates were similar among those aged 21 to 24 (19 percent for school dropouts and 20 percent for non-dropouts) Among both males and females the rates of illicit drug use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

Source Losen DL amp Skiba RJ (2010 September) Suspended Education Urban Middle Schools in Crisis Los Angeles The Civil Rights Project at UCLA Retrieved December 5 2010 from httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-

disciplinesuspended-education-urban-middle-schools-in-crisisSuspended-Education_FINAL-2pdf

Risk Factors Delinquency Drug Use Gang Related

IntroductionDropouts themselves report a variety of reasons for leaving school including schoolrelatedreasons family-related reasons and work-related reasons (Bridgeland DiIulio Jr ampMorison 2006 Rotermund 2007) The most cited reasons reported by 2002 tenth-graders whodropped out were ldquomissed too many school daysrdquo (44 percent) ldquothought it would be easier to geta GEDrdquo (41 percent) ldquogetting poor gradesfailing schoolrdquo (38 percent) ldquodid not like schoolrdquo (37percent) and ldquocould not keep up with schoolworkrdquo (32 percent) (Rotermund 2007) But thesereasons do not reveal the underlying causes of why students quit school particularly thosefactors in elementary or middle school that may have contributed to studentsrsquo attitudesbehaviors and performance immediately preceding their decision to leave school Moreover ifmany factors contribute to this phenomenon over a long period of time it is virtually impossibleto demonstrate a causal connection between any single factor and the decision to quit schoolResearch suggests that of all the factors contributing to the decision to drop out of high school personal characteristics of the individual student have the strongest effect (Lan amp Lanthier 2003) Commonly cited reasons for dropping out include poor academic achievement and grade

retention (Allensworth 2005) student engagement and motivation (Princiotta amp Reyna 2009) and behavioral problems (Christle et al 2007 Owen Rosch Muschkin Alexander amp Wyant 2008) Students who are experiencing difficulty in school becoming disengaged exhibiting behavioral problems and performing poorly are at an increased risk for dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Frequently students face more than one risk factor and as the factors amass the potential risk for dropping out increases Therefore the decision to drop out of high school does not happen abruptly but instead is the end result of a long term process of disengagementfrom school (Christle et al 2007 Princiotta amp Reyna 2009 Roderick 1993)Source Why Students Drop Out of SchoolA Review of 25 Years of Research California Dropout Research Project Report 15October 2008 By Russell W Rumberger and Sun Ah Lim University of California Santa Barbarahttpwwwcdrpucsbedudownloadphpfile=researchreport15pdfSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Academics - On TrackIn a longitudinal study for the Consortium on Chicago School Research data was collected on the effects of academic achievement (failure in core courses and number of credits completed during freshman year) on future dropout The ldquoon track indicatorrdquo (combination of both predictors) was shown to be a strong factor in high school graduation According to the study ldquoon track studentsrdquo were 35 times more likely to graduate from high school on time than were ldquooff track studentsrdquo A strong correlation between course failureSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Grade RetentionRoderick (1993) found that even after statistically controlling for both background as well as school performance those students who had repeated grades were substantially more likely to drop out than were those students who had never been retained Students who experience retention are likely to be overage for grade Being overage for grade both stigmatizes students and may allow them the eligibility to leave school (at the age of 16 years) while they are still in middle school or during the already difficult transition to high school (Roderick 1993) Even when controlling for both grades and attendance being overage for grade level has been shown to significantly increase the probability of dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Research suggests that retention rates are much higher for members of minority groups than for the White majority (Hauser et al 2000) In an analysis of social promotion and grade retention it was found that by age 9 the odds of ldquograde retardationrdquo among African AmericanSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlink

did=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Being MaleUnlike ethnic differences in graduation rates there is controversy as to whether or not gender differences exist Some studies cite gender differences suggesting that males are more likely than females to both drop out of high school before receiving adiploma as well as report completing eight or fewer years of schooling (Sum amp Harrington 2003) However other researchers suggest that this pattern as observed over the past 30 years is diminishing (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) When examining changes over time it is important to recognize differences in the definitions of dropout terms The status dropout rate is a measure of the percentage of all individuals who are not currently enrolled in high school or who do not hold an equivalent degree Event dropout rates describe the proportion of students who drop out in a single year (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) Event dropout rates in 2007 reported by the National Center for Education Statistics showed no measureable difference between males and females (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) However when analyzing status dropout rates as well as completion rates which take into account all drop outs in a particular age range the Center for Education Statistics reported a measureable difference between males andfemales with males being more likely to drop out of school (Cataldi amp KewalRamani2009)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Attendance]

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Drug and Alcohol UseSchool dropouts were less likely to have used alcohol during the past month than non-dropouts (Figure 2) Findings were similar for males and females This pattern was also observed among whites (54 vs 67 percent) and Hispanics (42 vs 53 percent) However among blacks the rate of past month alcohol use was similar among school dropouts (50 percent) and non-dropouts (47 percent)

Rates of binge alcohol use were similar among school dropouts (41 percent) and non-dropouts (39 percent) Among males the binge drinking rate for school dropouts was the same as the rate for non-dropouts However among females the rate of binge alcohol use was lower for school dropouts (24 percent) than non-dropouts (33 percent) Among blacks school dropouts (39 percent) were more likely than non-dropouts (24 percent) to be binge alcohol users however among whites (45 vs 47 percent) and Hispanics (33 vs 36 percent) the rates of binge alcohol use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts There was no difference in binge drinking among dropouts (35 percent) and non-dropouts (37 percent) aged 18 to 20 However among those aged 21 to 24 dropouts were less likely to be binge alcohol users (41 percent) than non-dropouts (46 percent)

Overall the rate of heavy alcohol use was lower among school dropouts compared with non-dropouts Findings were similar for males and females Among whites school dropouts (16 percent) were less likely than non-dropouts (20 percent) to be heavy alcohol users but there was no difference between

school dropouts and non-dropouts among blacks Among Hispanics the rate of heavy alcohol use was 7 percent among school dropouts and 10 percent among non-dropouts but this difference was not statistically significant Although rates of heavy alcohol use were similar for school dropouts (12 percent) and non-dropouts (14 percent) aged 18 to 20 school dropouts aged 21 to 24 (12 percent) were less likely to be heavy alcohol users than same aged non-dropouts (18 percent)

Among persons aged 18 to 24 the prevalence of past month illicit drug use was similar among school dropouts (22 percent) and non-dropouts (21 percent) For whites and blacks school dropouts were more likely to have used illicit drugs than non-dropouts but there was no difference between school dropouts and non-dropouts among Hispanics (Figure 3) Among persons aged 18 to 20 the rate of illicit drug use was higher among school dropouts (27 percent) than it was among non-dropouts (22 percent) but the rates were similar among those aged 21 to 24 (19 percent for school dropouts and 20 percent for non-dropouts) Among both males and females the rates of illicit drug use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

retention (Allensworth 2005) student engagement and motivation (Princiotta amp Reyna 2009) and behavioral problems (Christle et al 2007 Owen Rosch Muschkin Alexander amp Wyant 2008) Students who are experiencing difficulty in school becoming disengaged exhibiting behavioral problems and performing poorly are at an increased risk for dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Frequently students face more than one risk factor and as the factors amass the potential risk for dropping out increases Therefore the decision to drop out of high school does not happen abruptly but instead is the end result of a long term process of disengagementfrom school (Christle et al 2007 Princiotta amp Reyna 2009 Roderick 1993)Source Why Students Drop Out of SchoolA Review of 25 Years of Research California Dropout Research Project Report 15October 2008 By Russell W Rumberger and Sun Ah Lim University of California Santa Barbarahttpwwwcdrpucsbedudownloadphpfile=researchreport15pdfSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Academics - On TrackIn a longitudinal study for the Consortium on Chicago School Research data was collected on the effects of academic achievement (failure in core courses and number of credits completed during freshman year) on future dropout The ldquoon track indicatorrdquo (combination of both predictors) was shown to be a strong factor in high school graduation According to the study ldquoon track studentsrdquo were 35 times more likely to graduate from high school on time than were ldquooff track studentsrdquo A strong correlation between course failureSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlinkdid=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Grade RetentionRoderick (1993) found that even after statistically controlling for both background as well as school performance those students who had repeated grades were substantially more likely to drop out than were those students who had never been retained Students who experience retention are likely to be overage for grade Being overage for grade both stigmatizes students and may allow them the eligibility to leave school (at the age of 16 years) while they are still in middle school or during the already difficult transition to high school (Roderick 1993) Even when controlling for both grades and attendance being overage for grade level has been shown to significantly increase the probability of dropping out of school (Roderick 1993) Research suggests that retention rates are much higher for members of minority groups than for the White majority (Hauser et al 2000) In an analysis of social promotion and grade retention it was found that by age 9 the odds of ldquograde retardationrdquo among African AmericanSource ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011httpproquestumicompqdlink

did=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Being MaleUnlike ethnic differences in graduation rates there is controversy as to whether or not gender differences exist Some studies cite gender differences suggesting that males are more likely than females to both drop out of high school before receiving adiploma as well as report completing eight or fewer years of schooling (Sum amp Harrington 2003) However other researchers suggest that this pattern as observed over the past 30 years is diminishing (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) When examining changes over time it is important to recognize differences in the definitions of dropout terms The status dropout rate is a measure of the percentage of all individuals who are not currently enrolled in high school or who do not hold an equivalent degree Event dropout rates describe the proportion of students who drop out in a single year (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) Event dropout rates in 2007 reported by the National Center for Education Statistics showed no measureable difference between males and females (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) However when analyzing status dropout rates as well as completion rates which take into account all drop outs in a particular age range the Center for Education Statistics reported a measureable difference between males andfemales with males being more likely to drop out of school (Cataldi amp KewalRamani2009)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Attendance]

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Drug and Alcohol UseSchool dropouts were less likely to have used alcohol during the past month than non-dropouts (Figure 2) Findings were similar for males and females This pattern was also observed among whites (54 vs 67 percent) and Hispanics (42 vs 53 percent) However among blacks the rate of past month alcohol use was similar among school dropouts (50 percent) and non-dropouts (47 percent)

Rates of binge alcohol use were similar among school dropouts (41 percent) and non-dropouts (39 percent) Among males the binge drinking rate for school dropouts was the same as the rate for non-dropouts However among females the rate of binge alcohol use was lower for school dropouts (24 percent) than non-dropouts (33 percent) Among blacks school dropouts (39 percent) were more likely than non-dropouts (24 percent) to be binge alcohol users however among whites (45 vs 47 percent) and Hispanics (33 vs 36 percent) the rates of binge alcohol use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts There was no difference in binge drinking among dropouts (35 percent) and non-dropouts (37 percent) aged 18 to 20 However among those aged 21 to 24 dropouts were less likely to be binge alcohol users (41 percent) than non-dropouts (46 percent)

Overall the rate of heavy alcohol use was lower among school dropouts compared with non-dropouts Findings were similar for males and females Among whites school dropouts (16 percent) were less likely than non-dropouts (20 percent) to be heavy alcohol users but there was no difference between

school dropouts and non-dropouts among blacks Among Hispanics the rate of heavy alcohol use was 7 percent among school dropouts and 10 percent among non-dropouts but this difference was not statistically significant Although rates of heavy alcohol use were similar for school dropouts (12 percent) and non-dropouts (14 percent) aged 18 to 20 school dropouts aged 21 to 24 (12 percent) were less likely to be heavy alcohol users than same aged non-dropouts (18 percent)

Among persons aged 18 to 24 the prevalence of past month illicit drug use was similar among school dropouts (22 percent) and non-dropouts (21 percent) For whites and blacks school dropouts were more likely to have used illicit drugs than non-dropouts but there was no difference between school dropouts and non-dropouts among Hispanics (Figure 3) Among persons aged 18 to 20 the rate of illicit drug use was higher among school dropouts (27 percent) than it was among non-dropouts (22 percent) but the rates were similar among those aged 21 to 24 (19 percent for school dropouts and 20 percent for non-dropouts) Among both males and females the rates of illicit drug use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

did=2421804361ampFmt=14ampVType=PQDampVInst=PRODampRQT=309ampVName=PQDampTS=1331652922ampclientId=79356

Being MaleUnlike ethnic differences in graduation rates there is controversy as to whether or not gender differences exist Some studies cite gender differences suggesting that males are more likely than females to both drop out of high school before receiving adiploma as well as report completing eight or fewer years of schooling (Sum amp Harrington 2003) However other researchers suggest that this pattern as observed over the past 30 years is diminishing (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) When examining changes over time it is important to recognize differences in the definitions of dropout terms The status dropout rate is a measure of the percentage of all individuals who are not currently enrolled in high school or who do not hold an equivalent degree Event dropout rates describe the proportion of students who drop out in a single year (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) Event dropout rates in 2007 reported by the National Center for Education Statistics showed no measureable difference between males and females (Cataldi amp KewalRamani 2009) However when analyzing status dropout rates as well as completion rates which take into account all drop outs in a particular age range the Center for Education Statistics reported a measureable difference between males andfemales with males being more likely to drop out of school (Cataldi amp KewalRamani2009)Source ETHINICITY GENDER AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY Marquessa LaBrett Chappell May 2011

Attendance]

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Drug and Alcohol UseSchool dropouts were less likely to have used alcohol during the past month than non-dropouts (Figure 2) Findings were similar for males and females This pattern was also observed among whites (54 vs 67 percent) and Hispanics (42 vs 53 percent) However among blacks the rate of past month alcohol use was similar among school dropouts (50 percent) and non-dropouts (47 percent)

Rates of binge alcohol use were similar among school dropouts (41 percent) and non-dropouts (39 percent) Among males the binge drinking rate for school dropouts was the same as the rate for non-dropouts However among females the rate of binge alcohol use was lower for school dropouts (24 percent) than non-dropouts (33 percent) Among blacks school dropouts (39 percent) were more likely than non-dropouts (24 percent) to be binge alcohol users however among whites (45 vs 47 percent) and Hispanics (33 vs 36 percent) the rates of binge alcohol use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts There was no difference in binge drinking among dropouts (35 percent) and non-dropouts (37 percent) aged 18 to 20 However among those aged 21 to 24 dropouts were less likely to be binge alcohol users (41 percent) than non-dropouts (46 percent)

Overall the rate of heavy alcohol use was lower among school dropouts compared with non-dropouts Findings were similar for males and females Among whites school dropouts (16 percent) were less likely than non-dropouts (20 percent) to be heavy alcohol users but there was no difference between

school dropouts and non-dropouts among blacks Among Hispanics the rate of heavy alcohol use was 7 percent among school dropouts and 10 percent among non-dropouts but this difference was not statistically significant Although rates of heavy alcohol use were similar for school dropouts (12 percent) and non-dropouts (14 percent) aged 18 to 20 school dropouts aged 21 to 24 (12 percent) were less likely to be heavy alcohol users than same aged non-dropouts (18 percent)

Among persons aged 18 to 24 the prevalence of past month illicit drug use was similar among school dropouts (22 percent) and non-dropouts (21 percent) For whites and blacks school dropouts were more likely to have used illicit drugs than non-dropouts but there was no difference between school dropouts and non-dropouts among Hispanics (Figure 3) Among persons aged 18 to 20 the rate of illicit drug use was higher among school dropouts (27 percent) than it was among non-dropouts (22 percent) but the rates were similar among those aged 21 to 24 (19 percent for school dropouts and 20 percent for non-dropouts) Among both males and females the rates of illicit drug use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Drug and Alcohol UseSchool dropouts were less likely to have used alcohol during the past month than non-dropouts (Figure 2) Findings were similar for males and females This pattern was also observed among whites (54 vs 67 percent) and Hispanics (42 vs 53 percent) However among blacks the rate of past month alcohol use was similar among school dropouts (50 percent) and non-dropouts (47 percent)

Rates of binge alcohol use were similar among school dropouts (41 percent) and non-dropouts (39 percent) Among males the binge drinking rate for school dropouts was the same as the rate for non-dropouts However among females the rate of binge alcohol use was lower for school dropouts (24 percent) than non-dropouts (33 percent) Among blacks school dropouts (39 percent) were more likely than non-dropouts (24 percent) to be binge alcohol users however among whites (45 vs 47 percent) and Hispanics (33 vs 36 percent) the rates of binge alcohol use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts There was no difference in binge drinking among dropouts (35 percent) and non-dropouts (37 percent) aged 18 to 20 However among those aged 21 to 24 dropouts were less likely to be binge alcohol users (41 percent) than non-dropouts (46 percent)

Overall the rate of heavy alcohol use was lower among school dropouts compared with non-dropouts Findings were similar for males and females Among whites school dropouts (16 percent) were less likely than non-dropouts (20 percent) to be heavy alcohol users but there was no difference between

school dropouts and non-dropouts among blacks Among Hispanics the rate of heavy alcohol use was 7 percent among school dropouts and 10 percent among non-dropouts but this difference was not statistically significant Although rates of heavy alcohol use were similar for school dropouts (12 percent) and non-dropouts (14 percent) aged 18 to 20 school dropouts aged 21 to 24 (12 percent) were less likely to be heavy alcohol users than same aged non-dropouts (18 percent)

Among persons aged 18 to 24 the prevalence of past month illicit drug use was similar among school dropouts (22 percent) and non-dropouts (21 percent) For whites and blacks school dropouts were more likely to have used illicit drugs than non-dropouts but there was no difference between school dropouts and non-dropouts among Hispanics (Figure 3) Among persons aged 18 to 20 the rate of illicit drug use was higher among school dropouts (27 percent) than it was among non-dropouts (22 percent) but the rates were similar among those aged 21 to 24 (19 percent for school dropouts and 20 percent for non-dropouts) Among both males and females the rates of illicit drug use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

school dropouts and non-dropouts among blacks Among Hispanics the rate of heavy alcohol use was 7 percent among school dropouts and 10 percent among non-dropouts but this difference was not statistically significant Although rates of heavy alcohol use were similar for school dropouts (12 percent) and non-dropouts (14 percent) aged 18 to 20 school dropouts aged 21 to 24 (12 percent) were less likely to be heavy alcohol users than same aged non-dropouts (18 percent)

Among persons aged 18 to 24 the prevalence of past month illicit drug use was similar among school dropouts (22 percent) and non-dropouts (21 percent) For whites and blacks school dropouts were more likely to have used illicit drugs than non-dropouts but there was no difference between school dropouts and non-dropouts among Hispanics (Figure 3) Among persons aged 18 to 20 the rate of illicit drug use was higher among school dropouts (27 percent) than it was among non-dropouts (22 percent) but the rates were similar among those aged 21 to 24 (19 percent for school dropouts and 20 percent for non-dropouts) Among both males and females the rates of illicit drug use were similar for school dropouts and non-dropouts

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

Source Substance Abuse among School Dropoutshttpwwwsamhsagovdata2k3dropoutsdropoutshtm

English as a second language

Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out A factor contributing to a higher dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency Unlike most white and African American dropouts many Hispanic dropouts are not proficient English speakers According to the Pew Hispanic Center among 16 to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]

An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well were dropouts Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were dropouts

But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language spoken only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

Source School Choice and Hispanic Dropoutshttpwwwncpaorgpubba602

Prospect Theory ndash Lifersquos Chances and Risk TakingDaniel Kahneman [Nobel 2002] and Amos Tversky found that most people are risk averse when considering potential gains but risk loving (loss averse) when faced with a prospect of losses

People may avoid losses because losses of hierarchical class status and power are especially hard to take psychologically People tend to experience greater regret after making errors of commission than after experiencing errors of omission This helps explain why the value function consistent with prospect theory as shown in the top graph generates the tendency for loss aversion shown in the bottom graph

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

Source Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

What would help

Dropouts Perspectives on What Would HelpStudents who are at risk of dropping out can and must be reached and in order to effectively reach at risk students we first need to listen to the views experiences concerns life circumstances and ideas for reform of these young people so we can help others in the future The following recommendations are based on what dropouts themselves told us in focus groups and the survey

Source The Silent Epidemic ndash Perspectives of High School Dropouts March 2006httpwwwignitelearningcompdfTheSilentEpidemic3-06FINALpdf

Source

Interacting Distances - M and N

M

I first met M when I was his Social Studies teacher M and I began with a conversation about the then current deep recession and M immediately connected our conversation to what he learned in a previous class Economics with Mr B ldquoYeah Mr C its like the Depression We learned about that in Mr Bs classrdquo M is paying attention ndash all the time

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

Later in class we were engaged in a discussion about something ndash kids at school gangs something that led logically to M unconsciously echoing West Side story to say ldquoMr C were just misunderstoodrdquo

Gee Officer Krupke hellip

Even later that day I took M into my office and googled Officer Kupke and there it was ndash lyrics and of course Youtube

M spent the remainder of the period listening to that and other West Side story songs and lyrics upon the conclusion of which M remarked ldquoMr C ndash that was one of the few times I really learned something I wanted to know in schoolrdquo

N

My first encounter with N like that with M occurred in class N was a new student arriving more that half way through the quarter She liked to talk On her second or third appearance in class she asked me a questionrdquo

Mr C do you come from one of those regular white families

Gee I dont know N whadya mean

You know ( I dont think she actually said like on TV ) but she did elaborate you know hellip

When you come home does your wife ask you how your day was And when you tell her it was fine does she fix dinner Do yall sit down to the table and say please pass the potatoes and thank you yes may I have a little more

In my house its just ya know grab a chicken wing and sit down on the couch and watch some tv

M and N both have access to a set of narratives ndash the same narratives shaped by mass culture ndash that we all access Neither of them ever sees themselves on tv but they do see a caricature of my life in the sorts of white ( and black ) middle class families passing the potatoes saying please and thank you

My guess is that neigher M nor N has ever really had a chance to interact with one of us Theyve been to school but none too successfully and there is a good chance that their interactions with teachers have been limited to a different set of scripts

I also dont fall into what looks like a teacher these days I am 62 I wear a tie every day and am both confident and apparently successful Just like in TV

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf

The next time I interacted memorably with N occurred a week or so later She was sitting in the cafeteria and asked if she could talk to me

SourcesDiscipline Policies Successful Schools and Racial Justice httpcivilrightsprojectuclaeduresearchk-12-educationschool-disciplinediscipline-policies-successful-schools-and-racial-justice

Prospect Theoryhttpwwwprincetonedu~kahnemandocsPublicationsprospect_theorypdf

Prospect Theory httpwwwuncedudeptseconbyrns_webEconomicaeFiguresProspecthtm

Act Out Get Outhttprenniecenterissuelaborgresearchlistingexecutive_summary_act_out_get_out_considering_the_impact_of_school_discipline_practices_in_massachusets

Texas Education Agency (2010) ldquoCounts of Students and Discipline Action Groupingsrdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpritterteastatetxuscgisasbroker_service=marykayamp_program=adhocdownload_static_DAG_summarysasampdistrict=ampagg_level=STATEampreferrer=Download_State_DAG_Summarieshtmlamptest_flag=amp_debug=0ampschool_yr=10ampreport=01ampreport_type=htmlampDownload_State_Summary=Submit California Departmentof Education (2011) ldquoCalifornia StatemdashExpulsion Suspension and Truancy Information for 2009 ndash 10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpdqcdecagovdataquestExpulsionExpReportsStateExpaspxcYear=2009-10ampcChoice=ExpData1ampPageno=1 Florida Department of Education (2010) ldquoTrends inDiscipline and the Decline in the Use of Corporal Punishment 2008-09rdquo Data Report 2010-16d Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpwwwfldoeorgeiaseiaspubsworddiscipline0809doc The University of The State of New York (2011) ldquoThe New York State Report Card Accountability and Overview Report2009-10rdquo Retrieved June 13 2011 from httpswwwnystartgovpublicweb-external2010statewideAORpdf