Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults (2015) / Chapter Skim
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4 Education and Employment
4 Education and Employment
Pages 123-170
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From page 123... ...
• The cost of college has grown substantially, and many students have difficulty making the investment, yet prospects for well paying jobs for high school graduates without some postsec ondary credentials are slim. For this and other reasons, many young adults enter college, but dropout rates are high, and the numbers of years needed to complete degree programs have risen.
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From page 124... ...
• Given the important linkages among education, employment, and health and safety outcomes for young adults, the very weak education and employment outcomes of two groups of young adults raise particular concern: those who are discon nected and those who have disabilities and chronic health conditions. • Overall, there is some evidence on successful workforce pro grams for adults and youth with relatively strong basic skills, and limited evidence on programs designed to improve suc cess rates for disadvantaged students who enroll in college.
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From page 125... ...
Furthermore, the recovery from this recession has been both modest and extremely slow, especially in the job market; in 2011, the rate of employment in the population for young adults was only marginally higher than it was at the recession's trough (Sum et al., 2014)
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From page 126... ...
Many of those who complete high school only face poor labor market prospects. Noncompletion rates also are quite high among those who enroll in 2- or 4-year colleges.
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From page 127... ...
In the next section, we look at differences in educational attainment across racial/gender groups as well as family income, and at the extent to which observed differences in employment outcomes can be accounted for by differences in enrollment or completion rates across groups and at different kinds of schools. Since community colleges are a type of institution particularly relevant for disadvantaged young people as a potential gateway to better-paying jobs, we discuss some of their unique characteristics and a set of potential reforms to financial aid or remediation programs that might render them more effective.
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From page 128... ...
128 INVESTING IN THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF YOUNG ADULTS TABLE 4-1 Percent Changes in Labor Market Measures by Demographic Group, 1980-2010 Ages 16-19 Ages 20-24 1980 2006 2010 1980 2006 2010 Employment-to-Population Ratio Male, White 48.5 38.6 29.8 76.5 71.7 65.7 Female, White 43.8 41.8 34.9 65.1 69.7 66.9 Male, Black 27.7 21.9 16.0 60.4 51.8 44.9 Female, Black 21.8 26.3 20.4 50.1 57.8 53.4 Male, Hispanic 42.4 35.0 25.0 74.8 74.5 67.1 Female, Hispanic 32.7 29.6 23.8 52.6 57.5 56.7 Labor Force Participation Rate Male, White 55.9 47.9 40.6 84.7 79.6 77.8 Female, White 49.5 49.8 44.0 69.9 76.0 75.4 Male, Black 36.8 37.2 30.7 73.8 68.6 65.8 Female, Black 30.2 40.6 35.1 61.5 72.8 71.9 Male, Hispanic 50.5 45.1 37.6 83.8 82.4 80.5 Female, Hispanic 38.7 38.7 34.2 59.0 65.5 68.0 Unemployment Rate Male, White 13.3 19.3 26.6 9.7 9.9 15.5 Female, White 11.5 15.9 20.7 6.9 8.2 11.2 Male, Black 24.7 41.2 48.1 18.2 24.5 31.8 Female, Black 27.9 35.3 41.9 18.6 20.6 25.8 Male, Hispanic 16.1 22.4 33.4 10.8 9.6 16.7 Female, Hispanic 15.3 23.6 30.4 10.9 12.3 16.6 Share Enrolled in School Male, White 71.0 84.5 85.1 25.2 40.0 41.3 Female, White 70.5 87.4 88.1 22.3 46.3 48.5 Male, Black 68.8 78.9 79.8 19.1 29.4 31.9 Female, Black 70.8 82.3 83.9 21.7 37.5 42.6 Male, Hispanic 61.8 72.0 77.1 18.5 22.4 26.9 Female, Hispanic 62.1 78.1 81.8 17.8 32.3 36.2 Share Not in School and Not Working Male, White 8.8 6.1 7.5 12.0 12.2 15.8 Female, White 12.4 5.7 6.1 25.3 14.4 15.0 Male, Black 17.1 14.5 15.1 28.9 33.1 37.1 Female, Black 20.3 11.1 11.1 37.6 25.8 26.0 Male, Hispanic 15.0 10.7 11.4 17.3 16.6 20.8 Female, Hispanic 22.8 12.9 11.3 39.5 29.9 27.9 SOURCE: Adapted with permission from Dennett and Modestino, 2013.
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From page 129... ...
Table 4-1 shows the following developments for teens and young adults in the period 1980-2006: • School enrollment rates rose considerably, especially among those aged 20-24. • Employment rates and labor force activity fell for most groups, while unemployment rose.
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From page 130... ...
The results show large differences in both employment rates and wages across different educational groups, with both outcomes rising quite consistently with educational attainment. It is particularly noteworthy that, since average employment and hourly wages in combination determine annual earnings, gaps in annual pay between those who do and do not have college diplomas will be substantially larger than the differences that appear in Table 4-2.
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From page 131... ...
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT 131 Wages by Education, Ages 25-29, 2010 25 20.89 20 Hourly Wages (dollars) 15.60 14.74 15 12.77 10 5 0 HS Graduate or Less Some College CerƟficate or AA Bachelors and Above Employment by Education, Ages 25-29, 2010 100 90 86.52 80.30 77.51 80 Employment (Percentage)
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From page 132... ...
Female 0.55 54 $8.33 White Male 0.56 214 $15.21 Female 0.59 192 $12.55 High School Black Male 0.73 147 $12.43 Female 0.57 159 $9.64 Hispanic Male 0.76 245 $13.60 Female 0.47 262 $11.22 White Male 0.83 905 $16.29 Female 0.68 747 $12.14 Some College Black Male 0.78 161 $13.59 Female 0.89 236 $13.47 Hispanic Male 0.81 142 $12.55 Female 0.66 221 $13.77 White Male 0.92 840 $16.55 Female 0.77 858 $14.42 Certificate Black Male 0.51 58 $11.45 Female 0.73 107 $11.93 Hispanic Male 0.89 56 $12.17 Female 0.63 95 $13.81 White Male 0.86 283 $16.95 Female 0.67 354 $13.42 Associate's Black Male 0.90 22 $11.90 Degree Female 0.76 84 $12.35 Hispanic Male 1.00 52 $17.03 Female 0.74 61 $16.32 White Male 0.88 355 $17.13 Female 0.79 450 $17.77 Bachelor's Black Male 0.96 36 $20.24 Degree Female 0.79 107 $16.11 Hispanic Male 0.65 52 $14.94 Female 0.70 84 $15.96 White Male 0.93 1,131 $21.40 Female 0.87 1,359 $18.63 SOURCE: Holzer and Dunlop, 2013, reprinted with permission.
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From page 133... ...
In my of informal networks in the immigrant experience, it was either a community. Even less-educated women job that was convenient, have seen rising employment rates in paid well, but it wasn't really the past two decades as a result of both what I wanted to be doing employment shifts toward the service or there was a really perfect sector and policy changes.
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From page 134... ...
When the type of postsecondary institution (2- versus 4-year colleges) and attendance and graduation 4 In these articles, postsecondary educational attainment can include certificates or significant on-the-job training as well as associate's degrees.
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From page 135... ...
To what extent do ongoing gaps in educational attainment reflect gaps in college enrollment at the 2- and 4-year levels, as opposed to gaps in completion rates among enrollees? Enrollment rates are higher among women than men, among whites than minorities, and among middle- and upper-income families than disadvantaged ones (Holzer and Dunlop, 2013)
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From page 136... ...
136 INVESTING IN THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF YOUNG ADULTS TABLE 4-3 Distribution of College Attendance Patterns Among High School Graduates Attendance Pattern Percent Weighted Sample 4-Year Graduates 46.6 4,668 Stay-ina 4-Year Graduate 30.6 3,066 Stay-in Combinedb 4-Year Graduate 5.8 580 Late-Startc 4-Year Graduate 4.4 443 Late-Start Combined 4-Year Graduate 0.9 89 Stopoutd 4-Year Graduate 4.3 433 Stopout Combined 4-Year Graduate 0.6 57 2-Year Graduates 11.8 1,184 Stay-in 2-Year Graduate 4.6 459 Stay-in Combined 2-Year Graduate 0.9 86 Late-Start 2-Year Graduate 3.9 395 Late-Start Combined 2-Year Graduate 0.2 20 Stopout 2-Year Graduate 1.6 161 Stopout Combined 2-Year Graduate 0.6 63 Still Enrolled at Age 25 (Nongraduates) 3.3 329 Stay-in 4-Year Nongraduate 0.2 21 Stay-in Combined Nongraduate 0.1 12 Late-Start 4-Year Nongraduate 0.9 91 Late-Start 2-Year Nongraduate 0.7 71 Late-Start Combined Nongraduate 0.2 17 Stopout 4-Year Nongraduate 0.7 75 Stopout 2-Year Nongraduate 0.1 13 Stopout Combined Nongraduate 0.3 26 Dropouts 10.8 1,084 Immediate-Starte 4-Year Dropoutf 5.2 522 Late-Start 4-Year Dropout 0.7 74 2-Year Dropout 3.6 357 Late-Start 2-Year Dropout 0.9 87 Combined Dropout 0.4 44 Never Attenders 27.5 2,755 NOTES: Based on national longitudinal data from the Monitoring the Future study, following high school seniors (graduating classes of 1977-2003)
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From page 137... ...
, reprinted with permission. Very large gaps exist in BA completion rates by race and socioeconomic position; more specifically, completion rates for whites exceed those for blacks and Hispanics by about 20-30 percentage points, while those in the bottom quartile of parental socioeconomic position have BA completion rates nearly 40 percentage points lower than those of other students (Holzer
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From page 138... ...
. Indeed, some recent evidence suggests that differences in educational attainment by socioeconomic position are widening over time (Bailey and Dynarski, 2011)
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From page 139... ...
Dropout rates in the United States have clearly declined in the past 10-15 years (Murnane, 2013) , although they remain somewhat high in comparison with those observed in other industrialized countries, especially among minorities or disadvantaged students.5 Low educational attainment also is a particularly serious problem in some geographic locales, such as inner-city neighborhoods with concentrated poverty and many rural areas.
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From page 140... ...
Moreover, these schools are accessible both to young adults directly after high school graduation and to those who decide to return to school after some time away. The success of community colleges in these different roles appears to vary substantially across institutions.
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From page 141... ...
Alternative Routes: High-Quality Career and Technical Education and Work-Based Learning The ability of students -- whether disadvantaged or not -- to gain academic credentials, along with work experience, that improve their employment outcomes would likely be stronger if they had the opportunity to choose high-quality career and technical education (CTE) offered in secondary schools.
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From page 142... ...
Career academies clearly improve the employment outcomes of students, especially at-risk young men, for many years after without their having to sacrifice their academic work (see the section Evaluation Evidence in this chapter)
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From page 143... ...
But broadly, work-based learning models that combine strong academic learning with paid work can help young adults attain both the postsecondary education and work experience needed by so many young people today. HEALTH AND SOCIAL CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES Education and Health in the Short and Long Terms As demonstrated by the evidence reviewed thus far on the long-term economic benefits of educational attainment, the high stakes of young adulthood discussed throughout this report are clearly evident in the educational system.
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From page 144... ...
. Still, given the consistency of the link between educational attainment and health across the life course, these exceptions to the general rule during young adulthood are notable.
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From page 145... ...
Poor health appears clearly to generate low employment outcomes (Currie and Madrian, 1999)
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From page 146... ...
Rates of fatal work injuries are higher for those aged 18-19 than for those aged 20-24 and 25-34, at 2.9, 2.4, and 2.4, respectively, per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers (BLS, 2014)
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From page 147... ...
and poor basic skills. Disconnected youth also are likely to be scarred by their lack of work experience when they do try to enter the job market, in the form of either low employment rates or low wages (Belfield and Levin, 2012)
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From page 148... ...
Most often when I Any approach designed to help this got to the question of the population therefore requires policies criminal conviction, that's that address a range of difficult per what automatically changed sonal circumstances and barriers, in the whole conversation." cluding low levels of education, basic skills, and work experience, along with the stigma and disincentives associated with a criminal record and child sup port debt. Youth with Disabilities and Chronic Health Conditions High school students receiving special education services (those identified as having a disability that interferes with their educational performance)
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From page 149... ...
. Race or ethnicity and household income are not associated with different rates of postsecondary school enrollment or completion among former special education students.
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From page 150... ...
Those in the latter disability categories also are more likely to work part time than those in the former categories. It is notable that those with hearing impairments are among former special education students with the highest educational attainment, yet the lowest employment rates.
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From page 151... ...
In recent years, most states have begun to design programs that link economic and workforce development to train workers for the states' high-growth and high-wage 8 Earlierversions of this legislation included the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, the Job Training Partnership Act, and the Workforce Investment Act.
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From page 152... ...
The Rehabilitation Act currently is contained within the WIOA, and funds services and programs that include state vocational rehabilitation services, supported employment, independent living, and programs in training and research. Several sections of the current Rehabilitation Act mandate that federal and 9 These competitive grant programs from the U.S.
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From page 153... ...
. Higher Education Most public expenditures on higher education -- which nationally total more than $160 billion per year -- occur at the state level in the form of aid to state colleges and universities as well as community colleges that helps keep tuition well below cost (Barrow et al., 2013)
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From page 154... ...
that often begin in high school or community college and continue thereafter through a series of well-defined steps by which students gain educational credentials and work experience on their way toward specific well-paying careers. These programs are increasingly playing a role in state-level economic and workforce development efforts (Holzer et al., 2013)
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From page 155... ...
. But noncompletion rates are extremely high for lowincome students at 4-year schools and for almost all students at 2-year schools, as noted above.
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From page 156... ...
• Providing individual-specific and straightforward information about selective colleges and financial aid prospects to high-achieving high school students from low-income families can greatly improve the quality of the colleges they attend and thus their completion rates. • Learning communities, mandatory participation in certain counsel ing activities, coaching, and financial aid conditioned at least partly on student performance can all have positive impacts on comple tion rates among disadvantaged young adults.
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From page 157... ...
High-quality career and technical programs, such as the career academies in high school discussed above and later efforts for young adults, can have positive impacts on employment and earnings prospects (Kemple and Willner, 2008)
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From page 158... ...
Overall, there is some evidence on successful workforce programs for adults and youth with relatively strong basic skills, and limited evidence on programs designed to improve success rates for disadvantaged students who enroll in college. Integrating useful labor market information or training into developmental efforts appears promising.
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From page 159... ...
. Interventions with positive impacts on completion rates and on the alignment of education and employment have been developed and rigorously evaluated, as discussed in the previous section.
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From page 160... ...
To improve both the education and employment outcomes of young adults and the efficiency of resources spent on higher education and workforce development will require improving both the information available to students and workers and the incentives for education institutions to improve the outcomes of their students, as discussed in the section on community colleges above. Students and workers need better information
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From page 161... ...
Students need not only access to more data, which are potentially available in administrative records at the state level, but also more and better career counseling from well-trained providers, perhaps in newly improved American Job Centers, that should be much more accessible to college students. Institutions also need to be held more accountable for the outcomes they generate in terms of degree completion and earnings of their graduates.
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From page 162... ...
Key Areas for Research Given existing knowledge gaps, research is needed in two overarching areas to help improve young adults' education and employment outcomes: • How to improve success rates in higher education and the labor market for young people at all levels of skill and success. In con sidering policies to improve success rates in higher education and the labor market, it is important to make improved opportunities available to young people at all levels of skill and success, includ ing those who are currently disconnected from school and work and those currently or formerly incarcerated.
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From page 163... ...
Needed as well is a better understanding of the long-term life trajectories of those who fail to succeed in education and employment and thus have dif ficulty making the transitions that are so crucial for young adults. • How to improve success rates in higher education and the labor market for young adults with disabilities.
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From page 164... ...
2014. Student aid, student behavior, and educational attainment.
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From page 165... ...
2013. Developmental education in North Carolina community colleges.
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From page 166... ...
2014. Improving employment outcomes of disadvantaged students.
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From page 167... ...
2012. Get with the program: Accelerating community college students' entry into and completion of programs of study.
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From page 168... ...
2013. The returns to course credits, certifi cates, and degrees: Evidence from Michigan's community colleges.
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From page 169... ...
2011. The shapeless river: Does a lack of structure inhibit students' prog ress at community colleges?
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From page 170... ...
: New evidence of effectiveness. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University.
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