The Value and Determinants of Educational Attainment

1
The Value and Determinants of Educational
Attainment

• By
• Yanina Menjivar
• Jose Luis Luna
• David De La Torre
• Christian Ogwo
• Monica Iriarte
• John Oropeza

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Introduction

• In our study, we are examining a literature
  review of the value and determinants of
  educational attainment. For each study we focused
  on the following
• Reasons/motivations.
• Dependent and Independent variables.
• Empirical Models.
• Implications/Limitations.

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Literature Review

• Comprehensive School Reform
• An Implementation Study of Pre-School
  programs.
• Educational Attainment and Residential Location.
• Growing Pains The School Consolidation Movement
  and Student Outcomes.
• The Motivational Relevance of Educational Plans.
• The Economic Value of Education by
  Race/Ethnicity.
• Access to Higher Education A Conflict between
  landed interests and Democratic Ideals.

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Reasons and Motivations for the Study

• To explain the degree to which pre-school
  programs in elementary school benefit the
  students.
• To examine the relationship between residential
  location and educational attainment.
• To understand the impact of school consolidation
  on students educational outcomes.
• To analyze how educational plans correlate to
  educational attainment and all other factors
  involved.
• To study the increasing inequality of income and
  wage differential between ethnic groups.
• To study to what degree the geographical location
  and services offered by a multi-campus university
  affects access for educationally underserved
  groups.

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Dependent Variables

• All schools and programs.
• Years of schooling.
• School size District size State share of
  funding Pupil-Teacher ratio Teacher wages
  average daily attendance and years of education.
• Plans to attend college educational level of the
  parents occupation of the parents and
  Acquisition Index.
• Years of schooling and percentage wage
  differential.
• Geographical locations of main and branch
  university campuses.
• Geographical locations of socio-economic under
  privileged groups.

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Independent Variables

• Geography race and ethnicity.
• Manipulative techniques used to measure the end
  years of schooling.
• Early environment school characteristics family
  background early community influences.
• Prioritization Peer pressure Early marriage
  Health conditions Emotional condition Economic
  conditions
• Gender Race/Ethnicity, Ability scores (IQ) and
  siblings.
• Geographical locations of underprivileged groups
  in relation to locations of main and branch
  university campuses.
• The differential costs of access to college for
  students according to their income level and
  ethnicity.

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WHAT WE KNOW / STRENGTHS

• Larger school districts result in greater
  educational attainment.
• Location influences educational attainment
• Social-psychological factors influence
  educational plans attainment.
• Higher teacher wages result in reduced dropout
  rates.
• Smaller schools result in more years of schooling
  and higher earnings later in life.
• There is little evidence of differences in the
  return to schooling across racial and ethnic
  groups.

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WHAT WE DONT KNOW / WEAKNESSES

• What is it about small schools or large districts
  that affect student outcomes?
• Which social-psychological factor influences
  educational plans attainment the most?
• Why is there a lack of higher educational
  attainment in rural areas?
• To what extent does school characteristics
  influence future earnings?
• What is the economic benefit from increased
  education for minority groups?

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Empirical Models / Data and Measures

• The most prevalent model in our group study was
  conceptual because it was based on prior studies
  of others. It was also categorical because of
  the limited number of distinct quantitative
  values (e.g., ethnicity, income, geographical
  location, years of schooling).
• The categorical dataset provided was obtained
  from CSUDH Admissions applications (survey).
• The variables from this dataset include the
  following test scores (SAT, ACT, GWE), GPA,
  enrollment status, ethnicity, education of mother
  and father, parents income, disabled students
  services.
• The dataset is both valid and reliable because it
  is derived from the admissions records of an
  accredited public institution (CSUDH).

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Implications/Limitations

• One implication of this finding is that equal
  access to college education requires more
  attention to higher education opportunities in
  metropolitan areas. This could include more
  extension courses, distance learning, and so on.
  One of the limitations is the fact that some
  unobserved aspects of family background and
  incentives to acquire more schooling, vary by
  location and need further studies.
• The Dataset supports that smaller schools result
  in higher returns to educational both in more
  years of schooling and higher earnings later in
  life. One implication from the above results is
  that bigger is not always better. Another
  significant implication is that the modern
  corporation model in which consolidation was
  based had the negative effect of creating an
  overly large politicized bureaucracy.
• One limitation is the lack of data to quantify
  the effect of social-psychological contributions
  to education and status attainment. One
  implication is educational plans do not reflect
  exclusively or even primarily, motivational
  dispositions or achievement orientations.
• One of the primary issues with using the U.S.
  Decennial Censuses, is that there is no room to
  account for the ability bias
• (IQ scores) or measurement error
  problems.

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Conclusions

• Preschool is important for later academic
  success. Administrators in the preschool
  programs must have the background necessary for
  early childhood education.
• Urban cities have a relative advantage to produce
  more human capital because workers acquire more
  skills in cities. The key result in this study is
  that central cities and suburbs of large
  metropolitan areas in the United States have
  significantly higher levels of educational
  attainment.
• The effects of consolidation on students
  educational outcomes was contrary to the views
  held by the founding fathers of this movement.
  While providing an economy of scales
  administration, it did not result in higher
  returns to education- when measured against
  future earnings. It must be credited with a
  dramatic increase in educational attainment
  nationwide.
• Socio-psychological human factors directly
  influence educational plans and attainment.
• The National Longitudinal Survey results show
  that there is little evidence of any difference
  between racial and ethnic groups in regards to
  returning to school. Additional research is
  therefore necessary in order to estimate the need
  for future policies pertaining to the increase in
  education by the minority population (race
  /ethnicity) who are low skilled workers.
• The historical, statistical and societal data in
  this study show that commercial rationale heavily
  influences the geographic location of a
  university campus. Even in public educational
  institutions committed to serving underprivileged
  populations, the influence of privilege engrained
  within a market culture continues to take
  precedence.