Why A High School Diploma Alone No Longer Guarantees Career Success Blog Post

How Linked Learning Connects High School to College and Career Blog Post

HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS: Ninety-Nine Percent of Jobs Created Since the Great Recession Have Gone to Workers with at Least Some College, Says New Georgetown University Report Article

For the first time in U.S. history, college graduates outnumber high school–educated workers in the labor force, highlighting a national shift in employment opportunities that now favors workers with postsecondary education. That finding comes from America’s Divided Recovery: College Haves and Have-Nots, a new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW).

CRIME DOESN’T PAY—INVESTING IN EDUCATION DOES: As State and Local Spending on Corrections Escalates Rapidly, Reports Call for Investments in Education Article

Over the last thirty-five years, state and local government spending on prisons and jails has increased more than three times faster than spending in education for pre-kindergarten through grade twelve, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Education (ED). At the postsecondary education level, spending on corrections grew nearly twenty times faster over a shorter time frame (School Years (SYs) 1989–90 to 2012–13).

THE SUSPENSION EFFECT: Exclusionary Discipline Practices Increase High School Dropout Rates and Cost the Nation Billions in Lost Tax Revenue, According to the Center for Civil Rights Remedies Article

A report from the Alliance for Excellent Education (the Alliance) shows that a single ninth-grade suspension doubles the risk that a student will drop out of high school. Without a diploma, that student will face a higher likelihood of unemployment and lower wages, earning more than $330,000 less in a lifetime than a high school graduate, according to a study from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. But students are not the only ones bearing the costs of suspensions. A new study from the Center for Civil Rights Remedies (CCRR) at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA finds that student suspensions cost the nation more than $35 billion in lost tax revenue and increased social expenditures combined.

PAYING DIVIDENDS: Wages and Job Success for “High Credentialed” High School Graduates Compare Favorably with Outcomes for Bachelor’s Degree Holders, According to New Report Article

High school graduates who enter the workforce directly instead of attending college can achieve similar and, in some cases, greater economic and social success than college goers, provided those graduates received a rigorous education during their high school years. In fact, such highly prepared high school graduates fare better than students who attend a two- or four-year college but do not earn a degree, according to a new report from the Center for Public Education (CPE), a policy research initiative of the National School Boards Association.

IT PAYS TO IMPROVE SCHOOL QUALITY: New Economic Analysis Pegs Economic Growth to Level of Student Achievement Article

Were every state to lift its student performance so that all of its students reached at least the basic level of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the economic impact on the United States would be at least $32 trillion, according to a new economic analysis appearing in the Summer 2016 issue of Education Next. Should every state reach the level of Minnesota, the top-performing state in the analysis, the economic impact would be $76 billion, or more than four times the current gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States.

COLLEGE MAJORS AND EARNINGS: New Report Finds African Americans Underrepresented in High-Earning College Majors Article

African Americans are concentrated in majors with the lowest income potential, according to a study from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Moreover, African Americans are underrepresented in college majors associated with the fastest-growing and highest-paying careers—science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields; health; and business, according to the report.

UNDEREMPLOYED BUT NOT UNDERPAID: Recent College Graduates Secure Good-Paying Jobs, Even Those That Do Not Require a Bachelor’s Degree, According to New Report Article

The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has declined since the end of the Great Recession, but a significant portion of recent college graduates remain “underemployed,” meaning they are working in jobs that typically do not require a bachelor’s degree, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

THE GRADUATION EFFECT: Increasing National High School Graduation Rate Key to Job Creation and Economic Growth, New Alliance Analysis Finds Article

New data from the Alliance for Excellent Education demonstrates how graduating more students from high school creates new jobs, increases consumer spending, boosts tax revenues, and increases the gross domestic product. This “Graduation Effect” data is available for the United States as a whole, all fifty states and the District of Columbia, and more than 200 metro areas nationwide at impact.all4ed.org.