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Daily Archives: March 17, 2013

Paper – The Hidden Supply of High-Achieving, Low Income Students

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The Missing “One-Offs”: The Hidden Supply of High-Achieving, Low Income Students, by Caroline M. Hoxby, Christopher Avery. NBER Working Paper No. 18586, December 2012, via SSRN. See related article and chart via New York Times.

  • “We show that the vast majority of very high-achieving students who are low-income do not apply to any selective college or university. This is despite the fact that selective institutions would often cost them less, owing to generous financial aid, than the resource-poor two-year and non-selective four-year institutions to which they actually apply. Moreover, high-achieving, low-income students who do apply to selective institutions are admitted and graduate at high rates. We demonstrate that these low-income students’ application behavior differs greatly from that of their high-income counterparts who have similar achievement. The latter group generally follows the advice to apply to a few “par” colleges, a few “reach” colleges, and a couple of “safety” schools. We separate the low-income, high-achieving students into those whose application behavior is similar to that of their high-income counterparts (“achievement-typical” behavior) and those whose apply to no selective institutions (“income-typical” behavior). We show that income-typical students do not come from families or neighborhoods that are more disadvantaged than those of achievement-typical students. However, in contrast to the achievement-typical students, the income-typical students come from districts too small to support selective public high schools, are not in a critical mass of fellow high achievers, and are unlikely to encounter a teacher or schoolmate from an older cohort who attended a selective college. We demonstrate that widely-used policies–college admissions staff recruiting, college campus visits, college access programs–are likely to be ineffective with income-typical students, and we suggest policies that will be effective must depend less on geographic concentration of high achievers.”

    • The BIS Quarterly Review for March 2013 says markets grow confident on continued support

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    March 2013 Quarterly Review: Markets grow confident on continued support – March 18, 2013 “Market participants’ renewed sense of optimism has accompanied further policy accommodation, but macroeconomic performance is lagging behind. In the third quarter of 2012, BIS reporting banks posted their smallest increase in cross-border claims in 13 years. They increased their crossborder claims… Continue Reading

    Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program: Background and Issues for Congress

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    CRS – Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O’Rourke, Specialist in Naval Affairs. March 14, 2013 “The Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) program, which is carried out by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Navy, gives Navy Aegis cruisers and destroyers a capability for conducting BMD… Continue Reading

    Urban Institute Papers on the Changing Wealth of American

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    “The Great Recession hit family finances from many directions. Housing and stock prices fell sharply, and along with them, family wealth. As economic output dropped and unemployment rose sharply, those who lost their jobs or were underemployed saw their wealth erode. The Great Recession had an especially severe impact on the wealth building of Generations… Continue Reading

    Grading Government Transparency Scientists’ Freedom to Speak (and Tweet) at Federal Agencies

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    Union of Concerned Scientists – “A strong democracy depends on transparency, accountability, and trust in the government to make evidence-based decisions that protect public health and the environment. Federal scientists play an important role in fulfilling this mandate by providing critical expertise to decision makers and the American people. But sometimes, political or commercial forces… Continue Reading

    EFF – National Security Letters Are Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules

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    “A federal district court judge in San Francisco has ruled that National Security Letter (NSL) provisions in federal law violate the Constitution. The decision came in a lawsuit challenging a NSL on behalf of an unnamed telecommunications company represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In the ruling publicly released [March 15, 2013], Judge Susan… Continue Reading

    Paper – The Implausibility of Secrecy

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    The Implausibility of Secrecy, by Mark Fenster. University of Florida – Fredric G. Levin College of Law. February 18, 2013 “Government secrecy frequently fails. Despite the executive branch’s obsessive hoarding of certain kinds of documents and its constitutional authority to do so, recent high-profile events — among them the WikiLeaks episode, the Obama administration’s celebrated… Continue Reading

    POGO – Shining a Light on FOIA Practices

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    “In celebration of Sunshine Week, a number of organizations released Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reviews. These reviews, conducted by National Security Archives, the Center for Effective Government, Cause of Action, Associated Press, and OpenTheGovernment.org, indicate how agencies measure up when it comes to providing the public with information. Although the studies indicate that agencies… Continue Reading