New Research on the Relationships between Philadelphians' Educational Attainment and Their Employment, Earnings and Contributions to Government and Society. Research Summary
Author: Philadelphia Youth Network
Date: 2009-07-16
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Academic Records,Credentials,Dropouts,Educational Attainment,Research Methodology,Industry,School Districts,Labor Market,High School Graduates,Community Surveys,Metropolitan Areas,Employment,Education Work Relationship,Comparative Analysis,Suburbs,Urban Areas,High School Students

Three recently-released research reports commissioned through Project U-Turn and funded by the William Penn Foundation and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry offer analyses that shed new light on the relationships between Philadelphians' educational attainment and their earnings, employment and contributions to government and society. The new reports use different research methodologies but reach similar conclusions that underscore the importance of the City's efforts to promote substantial increases in numbers of high school graduates and residents earning post-secondary credentials. All three reports were prepared by university-based researchers: Ruth Curran Neild and Christopher Boccanfuso of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools (CSOS), authors of &quot;Untapped Potential: Early Labor Market Outcomes of Dropouts and Graduates from Philadelphia's Public Schools,&quot; and Paul Harrington, Neeta Fogg, and Ishtar Khatawada of the Northeastern University Center for Center for Labor Market Studies (CLMS), authors of &quot;The Lifetime Employment and Earnings Consequences of Dropping Out of High School in Philadelphia,&quot; and &quot;The Tax and Transfer Fiscal Impacts of Dropping Out of High School in Philadelphia City and Suburbs.&quot; CSOS researchers worked with the School District of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry to produce a unique data set that merges student academic records from the School District of Philadelphia's Classes of 2000-2005 with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry's quarterly data on employment and earnings. With these data, Neild and Boccanfuso produced two analyses of labor market outcomes for Philadelphia public high school graduates and dropouts: (1) a 2006 snapshot of labor market outcomes for graduates and dropouts from the School District Classes of 2000-2005; and (2) a longitudinal study of labor market outcomes for dropouts and graduates in the Class of 2000, measured in 2006. CLMS researchers developed estimates of the lifetime employment and earnings impacts of dropping out of high school for residents of 18-64 year-old Philadelphians based on data derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), an annual large scale population survey designed to produce accurate estimates of a wide variety of population characteristics at the national, state and selected local levels. Through these analyses, CLMS researchers estimate lifetime employment and earnings for individual Philadelphians, and also calculate the fiscal costs that the decision to drop out of high school imposes on government and the broader community. This report presents the summary of key findings. (Contains 2 tables.)