Over the past decade, more than 10 billion dollars has been invested in Pittsburgh tech companies, with more than 3.5 billion invested in 2021 alone. With the context of such strong sectoral growth in mind, RAND researchers set out to characterize the science- and technology-focused (STF) workforce ecosystem in the Pittsburgh region and suggest policy changes and investment opportunities to help propel the region's STF sectors in the future.

Testimony presented before the Florida House of Representatives Education & Employment Committee on January 26, 2021.

Moving into and staying in the American middle class has become more challenging over time-but there's no single culprit. In this Perspective, the authors discuss a number of subtle but important changes over a relatively long period that have blocked many middle-class pathways. Less-educated workers face a smaller set of middle-income jobs. The good jobs that remain have increased educational requirements. The American labor market has been hollowed out. Those who are employed hold jobs that are less stable, provide fewer benefits, and may not lead to longer-term careers within a company. There is a lack of internal infrastructure to invest in workers, particularly those in roles most susceptible to automation. Consequently, sustained effort toward building new pathways will take many years. The authors conclude by providing a series of potential starting points.

espite the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps’ (AJROTC’s) longevity, the scope of its reach, and the size of its budget, little is known about the associations between AJROTC participation and outcomes of importance to the country and military. To understand these effects, the authors reviewed U.S. Department of Defense, Army, and U.S. Army Cadet Command policies and regulations and created a logic model to identify desired outcomes. They conducted interviews with Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) and school stakeholders to determine important program characteristics, such as student experience, how the value of the program is communicated and perceived, and how program modernization efforts (including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]-focused efforts) align with the curriculum. Using individual-level data on programs in Texas and Hawaii, the authors analyzed participant outcomes both in high school and beyond, with a focus on STEM-related outcomes. The authors found that AJROTC serves more–economically disadvantaged schools and students, which makes simple benchmarks less informative. Once accounting for these differences, the authors found that cadets who participate in all four years of AJROTC are more likely to graduate, have higher rates of attendance, and have lower rates of suspension compared with matched peers. However, after graduating from high school, they are less likely to immediately enroll in college and more likely to plan to join the military. Former JROTC (any service) cadets who enlist in the Army are more likely to complete their first terms and more likely to pursue STEM occupational specialties.

This Perspective summarizes recent trends in young peoples' entrance into and completion of postsecondary educational programs. Education is an important pathway into well-paying jobs and the American middle class. Education levels have been rising for the past 50 years, including large gains for many demographic groups. But declining public support for higher education, increasing costs of college attendance, and low college completion rates threaten young adults' pathway to a two- or four-year college degree. Additional research is needed on how to bolster college success and improve our understanding of alternative college credentials.

Chapter One: The "Middle Skills" Pathway to Good Jobs -- High-Paying Jobs That Do Not Require a College Degree -- Chapter Two: What Is a Good Job? Part 1 -- How Good Jobs Are Identified in Existing Sources -- Chapter Three: What Is a Good Job? Part 2 -- How Good Jobs Are Identified in Our Analyses -- Chapter Four: Finding 1 -- The Goal Occupations ("Good Jobs") for Workers Without a College Degree -- Chapter Five: Finding 2 -- The Skills and Capabilities Common to the Goal Occupations ("Good Jobs") -- Chapter Six: Finding 3 -- Current and Potential Investments That ChalleNGe Can Make in Skills and Capabilities for Cadets -- Appendix A: Assessment of Occupation Families -- Appendix B: Regional Variation -- Appendix C: Subgroups and Elements of O*NET Categories.

Experts from the RAND Corporation prepared this independent report on New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) program for low-income college students. TAG is the nation's most generous state-funded financial aid program on a per-resident-undergraduate basis. Currently, TAG distributes around $475 million in grants per year, and an award covers about 40 percent of the average recipient's tuition and fees. Recent evidence shows positive impacts of the program on graduation. Leaders in New Jersey are further evaluating TAG to explore how the program design has evolved and how it might be improved. The authors used new data sources to build actionable evidence on each of the issues put before a legislatively mandated TAG Study Commission. These issues include TAG recipients' graduation rates, the history of program design choices and funding, alternative eligibility calculations, and alignment with federal methods. The authors drew on conversations with the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and the commission, analysis of student-level data from New Jersey, analysis of institution-level data from the College Scorecard, and context from other states and broader research on college affordability. The authors evaluated policy options discussed by commission members and put forth some added considerations that could be important for the state and for other states with need-based aid programs.

In this Perspective, the authors examine the income share agreement (ISA), a novel mechanism for students to finance postsecondary education by obtaining funding for school in exchange for a share of their future income. Benefits include increased access to postsecondary education, increased support for completion of job-aligned programs, and a reduction of risk for those who do not obtain well-paying jobs after completing or dropping out of their programs. However, ISAs pose unique risks stemming from their lack of regulation and standardization. Programs may be incentivized to misrepresent students' expected earnings; outcomes-based pricing may lead to inequitable contract terms by race, ethnicity, or gender; and less-reputable programs may use ISAs to profit from misinformation. This Perspective will be of interest to students considering ISA financing, program administrators debating how to implement their ISAs, and policymakers seeking to establish a regulatory framework for ISAs.

There are many ways to pay for postsecondary education, and one increasingly common option is an income share agreement (ISA). Under an ISA, the learner promises a share of their pre-tax earnings to a funder for a set period after the learner finishes or stops their program. The learner makes payments only when their earnings are high enough, and their payments increase when their earnings increase. Thus, an ISA can function like an insurance policy on the value of education or training. ISAs can be used to finance both college degrees and workforce training, but not all institutions offer them. Because ISA documents and program materials can be difficult to understand, RAND researchers created this tool to help people who are pursuing postsecondary education figure out whether an ISA is right for them. It provides information about how ISAs work, how to estimate monthly and total ISA payments, how to weigh benefits and risks of ISAs and compare them with other funding methods, and how to translate the complex and sometimes misleading language in ISA documents.

Schools play a critical role in brokering access to college and career information and resources. The authors used the American Teacher Panel and American School Leader Panel to survey nationally representative samples of teachers and principals in U.S. public high schools about their perceptions of the quality and availability of their schools' supports for college and career transitions. The authors found that, although both groups of educators reported widespread supports, inequities both within and between schools are likely to limit some students' opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills they will need to succeed after high school, as well as their awareness of available postsecondary pathways. Although sufficient postsecondary transition support was widely reported for high-achieving students, sufficient support for underrepresented minority students, low-income students, and underachieving students was reported less frequently. More than half of high school principals reported no access to data on their students' postsecondary remedial education or graduation rates. Finally, a geographic analysis concluded that local employment and region also play a large role in determining what supports are available for college and career pathways: High-resource schools do not unilaterally have more supports. Educators, school leaders, and policymakers alike can benefit from understanding the role of school supports and school context in contributing to or narrowing gaps in college and career outcomes.