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Title: Signalling Academic Achievement to the Labor Market: Testimony to the House Education Labor Committee Hearing on H.R. 1
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Bishop, John H. |
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Signalling Academic Achievement to the Labor Market: Testimony to the House Education Labor Committee Hearing on H.R. 1 Working Paper, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, March 1991 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell University Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Cross-national Analysis; Education Indicators; Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; High School Completion/Graduates; High School Curriculum; Legislation; Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY); Minorities The question that is raised by statistics such as these is "Why do American voters choose to pay teachers so little?" Why do voters not demand higher standards of academic achievement at local schools? Why do school boards allocate scarce education dollars to interscholastic athletics and the band rather than better mathematics teachers and science laboratories? Why do students avoid difficult courses? Why do American parents hold their children and schools to lower academic standards than parents in other countries? The fundamental cause of all of the above problems is the lack of economic rewards for hard study and learning. Only 20-23% of 10th graders believe that biology, chemistry, physics or geometry is needed to qualify for their first choice occupation (LSAY, 1988). Their perception of the labor market is correct. The American labor market fails to reward effort and achievement in high school. Analysis of the Youth Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey indicates that during the first 10 years after leaving high school, greater competence in science, language arts and mathematical reasoning lowers wages and increases the unemployment of young men. For young women, verbal and scientific competencies have no effect on wage rates and a one grade level increase in mathematical reasoning competence raises wage rates by only one-half of one percent. |
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Bibliography Citation
Bishop, John H. "Signalling Academic Achievement to the Labor Market: Testimony to the House Education Labor Committee Hearing on H.R. 1." Working Paper, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, March 1991. |