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Despite the increase in college access among African Americans, African Americans are highly concentrated in low-paying majors. This report analyzes 137 detailed majors among African Americans to find that: African Americans only account for eight per cent of general engineering majors, seven per cent of mathematics majors, and five per cent of computer majors; law and public policy is the top major group for African Americans with a Bachelor's degree; the highest concentrated detailed major among African Americans is in health and medical administration; and the second lowest-paying major among African Americans is in human services and community organization with median earnings at US$39,000.

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This report proposes that workers need more than just their educational credentials to qualify for jobs that pay well, keep those jobs, secure promotions, and boost their earnings on the job. The report examines the competencies workers need in their occupations and how those competencies interact with their educational attainment to determine their earnings. While it is impossible to assign value to competencies in a vacuum, some clear patterns emerge as to which competencies have the biggest payoff, which are most needed in general, and which have the most value in specific occupational groups. This report shows which competencies are in high demand both across the workforce and in specific occupations, and details how the intensity with which workers use in-demand competencies can affect their earnings. The five most in-demand competencies across the labor market are: (1) communication; (2) teamwork; (3) sales and customer service; (4) leadership; and (5) problem solving and complex thinking.

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This report utilizes Oregon administrative data to examine the earnings of workers before, during, and after they complete a certificate program. We define 'certificate holders' as workers who have completed a certificate awarded by an Oregon community college, but who have not earned an associate's degree or a transfer-related academic certificate during the study's time frame. Most of the workers in this study completed their programs during the Great Recession and its aftermath - a time when community colleges across the country experienced surging enrollment as unemployed adult workers joined younger students on campus. Most researchers who have studied certificate attainment have not been able to use wage records that show the number of hours worked.

The Oregon administrative dataset provides rich information about the number of hours worked as well as the amount of earnings. The primary measure used throughout the report is change in real earnings - measured as the difference in an individual's median earnings four years prior to enrollment and four years following completion. The earnings-change metric uses an individual's own earnings history as the basis for comparison, so any increase reflects the benefit to the individual, but not necessarily the value of the certificate relative to not earning one. Differences in median earnings following completion are also compared, especially for programs in different fields of study. Because of data constraints, it was not the goal to construct a comparison group and conduct an impact analysis that rigorously controls for participant characteristics, such as gender, age, and previous work history. Therefore, any earnings gains or differences cannot be attributed solely to program participation or credential attainment.

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While Latinos are running faster in the education race, this report finds that they are falling farther behind Whites and Blacks in many crucial college outcomes. The good news though, is that with the right support, Latinos are poised for a surge in educational and economic success. Key findings include: Latina women have higher completion rates compared to Latino men at every level of postsecondary education; while Latinos with high SAT/ACT test scores have similar rates of college enrollment as Whites, 63 per cent of these Latinos complete a degree or other credential compared to 78 per cent of Whites with similar test scores; only 34 per cent of foreign-born Latinos have some form of postsecondary education compared to 61 per cent of native-born Latinos; Latinos who speak only English earn $41,000 annually on average, which is lower than Whites' earnings ($50,000) but higher than Blacks' earnings ($38,000).

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A college education is widely recognized as a gateway to economic opportunity and intergenerational mobility in the United States. Deeper research has demonstrated that it is not just the college degree that matters; labor market outcomes also are tightly tied to what one studies and what job one gets. This report on the University of Texas System (UT System) bachelor's degree recipients demonstrates that college, as one of the first big investment decisions a young person makes, has lifelong economic consequences.

Six key findings emerge from this research: (1) a UT System education is a worthwhile investment; (2) major matters most; (3) choice of major outweighs institutional selectivity; (4) all UT System graduates earned a wage premium, including students who received Pell Grants; (5) access to particular occupations after college matters when examining earnings disparities by race or ethnicity; and (6) women initially out-earn men in majors dominated by women, but fall behind men over time.

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The view that educational equality is too resource-intensive and expensive to achieve ignores the considerable societal value of equality in postsecondary education. The bottom line: as a society, the United States loses more by not achieving equal educational outcomes than it would spend by investing in educational equality. The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce reached this conclusion when we partnered with the Postsecondary Value Commission to investigate what the world would look like if we could use postsecondary education more effectively as a lever for achieving economic and racial justice. We found that while equalizing educational attainment would be costly and time-intensive, balancing the costs with the potential societal benefits makes it clear that an investment in postsecondary equality is money well spent. To address the critical question of the extent to which greater equality in higher education can alleviate inequality in society, we simulated the impact of increased postsecondary attainment on various racial, economic, and gender gaps.

The following report describes the conclusions of a thought experiment in which we explored what the world might look like if educational attainment were made more equal by race/ethnicity and economic status - that is, if all socioeconomic groups had levels of education as high as those of the middle, upper-middle, and upper classes, and if all racial/ethnic groups had levels of education at least equivalent to those of White adults. To measure the potential benefits of equality in educational outcomes, we estimated (1) the effects of narrowing racial/ethnic, economic, and gender gaps in several areas, postsecondary attainment foremost among them; (2) the benefits if, in addition to narrowing gaps in postsecondary attainment, our society was also able to narrow economic, racial/ethnic, and gender gaps in earnings among equally educated individuals; (3) how differences in college majors and student loan burdens contribute to differences in earnings and wealth accumulation, as well as what effect leveling these differences would have on earnings and wealth gaps; and (4) the potential impact of closing postsecondary equity gaps on achieving other economic outcomes, such as assuring sufficient earnings and wealth to provide upward economic mobility as well as a safety net in case of economic hardship.

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Much is known about the benefits of postsecondary education to both individuals and society. Higher levels of education are associated with higher median earnings and higher tax revenue, as well as higher workforce participation, lower unemployment, and less reliance on public assistance programs, to name only a few examples. People with more postsecondary education show higher levels of civic participation (e.g., voting and involvement in community activities) and are incarcerated at lower rates. Much is also known about persistent gaps in educational and workforce outcomes by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender.

In this report, we present the results of a thought experiment in which we estimated the potential costs and benefits to society of achieving equality in educational attainment and related workforce outcomes by race/ethnicity, class, and gender. We conducted this thought experiment to clarify the role that education can play in reducing inequality. While education has significant value that cannot be measured in monetary terms, we focused in our analysis on monetary outcomes such as earnings, tax revenue, and effects on [gross domestic product] GDP, along with secondary effects on incarceration costs, public health expenditures, and other public programs, using a stepwise analysis to simulate what would happen if various income, racial or ethnic, and gender equity gaps were closed.

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Colorado's postsecondary attainment gap between Whites and Latinos ages 25 to 34 is the highest among the nine states that have at least one million Latinos. Because Latinos are the fastest growing racial and ethnic group in the state, Colorado is unlikely to reach its educational attainments goal without closing this gap. This report examines the stark difference in educational attainment for Whites and Latinos and presents a pipeline analysis of Colorado high school students attending public colleges in the state. Using state administrative data, the authors examine the postsecondary enrollment, completion, and earnings of White and Latino Colorado public high school graduates who earned a high school diploma between 2009 and 2011.

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