This week's "demographic tuesday" is on education and specifically "educational attainment."
The standard U.S. Census questions asks for highest grade completed or degree achieved by age 25.
I have adapted the question so as to both make finer distinctions in educational achievement and to try and not exclude anybody, regardless of age.
Some suggestions for discussion include:
- The disparities in educational attainment by Race, Family Income, Parents' SES Class, etc.
- The effect of educational attainment, independent of income or job, political views in general and political party affiliation in particular.
As always, this poll will work best if it get into the Recommended Diary section, and stays there throughout the day for both East and West Coast.
Between 1940 and the late 1970s, the percent of people in the age cohort of 25-29 years old who had completed High School rose steadily from 50% to 90%. Alas, from the late 1970s to the present that curve has stayed flat.
See:
Education in the United States - Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Educational Attainment in the United States - Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Whether this represent the best that is attainable in principle, or is the result of public policy can be argued. Some might say that there will always be 10% of folks who are not going to finish High School.
On the other hand, I tend to blame everything that is bad in social-economic-demographics on the implementation and continuation of policies starting in the Reagan era (e.g., income tax cuts for the wealthy; increased payroll deduction taxes on middle and working class; wage stagnation, rising economic insecuirty; deregulation for business; loss of labor rights, etc. etc...).
For those who want to look at the primary data, beyond the wikipedia entries you can go to the U.S. Census Bureau:
Education in General:
http://www.census.gov/...
Educational Attainment (of people 25 years and older):
http://www.census.gov/...
2000 Census Report (.pdf): http://www.census.gov/...
Percent of People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed High School or College, by Race, Hispanic Origin and Sex: Selected Years 1940 to 2005 (.XLS):
http://www.census.gov/...
Percent of the Population 25 Years and Over with a High School Diploma or Higher by Sex and Age, for the United States: 1940 to 2000 (XLS):
http://www.census.gov/...
Definition of Educational attainment per U.S. Census Bureau:
http://www.census.gov/...
Data on educational attainment are derived from a single question that asks, "What is the highest grade of school...has completed, or the highest degree...has received?"
The single educational attainment question now in use was introduced in the CPS beginning January 1992, and is similar to that used in the 1990 Decennial Census of Population and Housing. Consequently, data on educational attainment from the 1992 CPS are not directly comparable to CPS data from earlier years. The new question replaces the previous two-part question used in the CPS that asked respondents to report the highest grade they had attended, and whether or not they had completed that grade.
The questions on educational attainment apply only to progress in "regular" schools. Such schools include graded public, private, and parochial elementary and high schools (both junior and senior high schools), colleges, universities, and professional schools, whether day schools or night schools. Thus, regular schooling is that which may advance a person toward an elementary school certificate or high school diploma, or a college, university, or professional school degree. Schooling in other than regular schools was counted only if the credits obtained are regarded as transferable to a school in the regular school system.
Update 1: I left out 19-24 and have college degree or masters degree. Please use #7-10 as appropriate. My bad. I had first had limited it to just over 25, to be like in census question. But decided that it was too complicated and controversial to ask under 25s to not participate. So tried to collapse some categories, and include everybody. But in the midst of cut-n-paste-n-edit, I messed up.
Update 2: Associate degree and others that are like a two year Junior college do count and should be counted under choice #7. However, just following the Census definition, trade/apprentice training or other practical training certifications do NOT count if the classes would not be accepted for credit by a regular college.
Update 3: A few have expressed confusion if they have multiple degrees. Remember the questin is highest grade completed or highest degree received. So if you have a bachelors and a masters, then that would be #9.