With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them: Myths and Realities About Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College

Based on a survey, explores the barriers to graduation college students face, examines common assumptions about college dropouts and realities, and compares the views of those who graduate and those who do not on solutions to help raise graduation rates

Did Enron Pillage California?

Revelations this summer about Enron Energy Services' byzantine electricity-trading practices have fueled charges that merchant power producers and traders artificially engineered the California electricity crisis of 2000-01. A careful examination of the suspect trading practices, however, reveals that there's less to those charges than meets the eye. The trading strategies in question all involved the pursuit of arbitrage opportunities, which arise when price discrepancies exist for a commodity in different locations or time periods. Exploiting arbitrage opportunities generally enhances economic efficiency by ensuring that electricity is reallocated where it is needed most. While some of the arbitrage opportunities were artificially manufactured by the companies themselves (in ways that may or may not have violated the law), most of them arose as a natural consequence of the market structure imposed by the California political system. In any case, it's unclear whether the trading strategies in question actually served to increase prices on balance. Even economists who are convinced that they did contribute to the increase in electricity prices attribute only about 5 percent of the alleged overcharges to the strategies at issue. Most of the price spike of 2000-01 is explained by drought, increased natural gas prices, the escalating cost of nitrogen oxide emissions credits, increases in consumer demand stemming from a hot summer and then a cold winter, and retail price controls that prevented market signals from disciplining producers or consumers. The price collapse in the summer of 2001 stemmed from a reversal of those conditions, not the imposition of federal price controls or the elimination of the trading practices in question

Tackling Unstable and Unpredictable Work Schedules

While paying bills and taking care of family members are high on the list of challenges that workers in lower-wage jobs experience when they are subject to erratic scheduling practices,the harm they face does not stop there. Workers experience adverse health effects, have difficulty finding and keeping childcare arrangements, face transportation obstacles, have trouble going back to school to advance their education, and experience considerable overall stress and strain on family life. Since their schedules fluctuate so much, they can't predict the size of their paychecks. Communities suffer, too, when workers can't afford to buy groceries or other goods from neighborhood businesses. Even the employers that adopt volatile scheduling practices that contribute to these problems may face negative repercussions, as they cope with the significant expenses associated with high rates of turnover and low morale. Moreover, consumers are increasingly wary of spending their money at businesses that treat their workers poorly. The ripple effects of unstable and unpredictable scheduling are felt in the lives of individuals, in communities, and throughout the economy

The Impact of Curriculum-Based Examinations on Learning in Canadian Secondary Schools

Externally set curriculum-based examinations at the end of high school apparently have pervasive backwash effects on middle school students, their parents, teachers and school administrators. Holding the social class background of students constant, students from Canadian provinces with examination systems were substantially (23 percent of a standard deviation) better prepared in mathematics and 18 percent of a standard deviation better prepared in science than students from provinces lacking such exams. The effect of an exam system on mathematics achievement of 13 year olds is larger in a standard deviation metric than the decline in math SAT scores between 1969 and 1980 that has been such a focus of public concern. Other natural experiments yield similar findings. When adjustments are made for ethnicity, gender and social class of SAT test takers, New York State ranks higher on the SAT than any of the other 38 states where the test is taken by large numbers of students. The mathematics and science achievement of Swedish high school seniors declined in the years following the elimination of high/medium stakes curriculum-based exams. The analysis also found that examination systems had pervasive effects on school administrators, teachers and parents. In the provinces with external exams, schools were more likely to: -- employ specialist teachers of mathematics and science -- employ teachers who had studied the subject in college, -- have high quality science laboratories -- schedule extra hours of math and science instruction -- assign more homework in math, in science and in other subjects -- have students do or watch experiments in science class and -- schedule frequent tests in math and science class. At home students watch less TV, spend more time reading for fun, and are more likely to report their parents want them to do well in math and science. In addition, parents are more likely to talk to their child about what they are learning at school

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace-vehicle Design (IPAD) system. Volume 6: Implementation schedule, development costs, operational costs, benefit assessment, impact on company organization, spin-off assessment, phase 1, tasks 3 to 8

A baseline implementation plan, including alternative implementation approaches for critical software elements and variants to the plan, was developed. The basic philosophy was aimed at: (1) a progressive release of capability for three major computing systems, (2) an end product that was a working tool, (3) giving participation to industry, government agencies, and universities, and (4) emphasizing the development of critical elements of the IPAD framework software. The results of these tasks indicate an IPAD first release capability 45 months after go-ahead, a five year total implementation schedule, and a total developmental cost of 2027 man-months and 1074 computer hours. Several areas of operational cost increases were identified mainly due to the impact of additional equipment needed and additional computer overhead. The benefits of an IPAD system were related mainly to potential savings in engineering man-hours, reduction of design-cycle calendar time, and indirect upgrading of product quality and performance

Investing in Entry-Level Talent

Even in today's competitive economic environment, there is much that companies can do to reduce entry-level turnover costs, increase employee engagement and retention, and create a talent pipeline for the future. Many companies pursue basic strategies to address turnover and promote advancement, such as offering competitive benefits and developing internal career paths. But our research found pioneering companies that are going beyond the basics and addressing turnover in remarkable ways. In examining the practices of these leading companies, we identified four strategies, outlined below, that markedly improve entry-level retention and advancement. This report is designed to share those strategies and practical suggestions for implementation with corporate leaders across the United States who are seeking to engage, retain, and advance their entry-level workforce

A Voluntary Default Savings Plan: An Effective Supplement to Social Security

This paper outlines a proposal for a default savings plan that is intended to provide an important supplement to retirement income for the bottom half of the workforce, most of whom have little other than Social Security to support themselves in retirement at present. Under the proposal, workers would make a default contribution of 3.0 percent on annual wages up to $40,000. They could opt out from this contribution if they choose. The contribution would be automatically turned into an annuity at retirement although workers would have the option to make a lump sum withdrawal after paying a modest penalty.The lowest income workers would get a modest contribution paid into the system by the government based on their earnings. This payment would be modeled along the lines of the Earned Income Tax Credit, with the payment increasing with earnings up to$8,000 and then phasing down to zero with earnings above $20,000. There would also be a match of savings that phases down to zero at$40,000