opportunityproject.ets.orgCenter for Research on Human Capital and Education

angle-up angle-right angle-down angle-left close user menu open menu closed search globe bars phone store skip to contents skip to navigation skip to search skip to footer Research Contact Us Search Search: Search Cancel ETS Navigation ETS Home > Research > ETS Reports > -- The ETS The ETS produces high-quality, evidence-based research that explores critical issues impacting opportunity in America today. Our researchers leverage ETS's work on national and international large-scale assessments to explore the acquisition, outcomes and inequalities of human and social capital across a range of topics including pre-K–12 education, teacher quality, higher education, workforce readiness and noncognitive skills. Latest Publications How to Unlock the Power of Prison Education (2020) The role of education in reentry planning and recidivism is explored in this report produced by ETS and authored by Stephen J. Steurer. The report presents a compelling case for why immediate steps must be taken to improve the education and skills of the incarcerated population. Download | File size: 3.35 MB Curbing America’s Reading Crisis: A Call to Action for Our Children (2019) This report explores some of the reasons for low reading and comprehension proficiency, focusing on a lack of foundational reading skills in older students. Using just-released data, it shows that little more than one-third of fourth-graders are proficient in reading, with minority and urban students disproportionately affected. The authors offer actionable recommendations for improving the skills of struggling readers. View report highlights Download | File size: 3.22 MB If You Can't Be With the Data You Love: And the Risks of Loving the Data You're With (2019) This study from researchers at Drexel University and ETS finds that the skills of working adults are not as closely connected to levels of educational attainment as widely thought. Using data on the literacy proficiencies of U.S. adults, the study shows that diploma and degree attainment is a less than satisfactory proxy for skills, as nearly 34 million employed Americans would be misclassified by relying on credentials to assess their skills. View report highlights Download | File size: 2 MB -- Equity in Education Series This Series provides a multifaceted exploration of prospects for developing indicators of teaching quality. These measures would move beyond inputs and outcomes to capture important features of what happens in the classroom that could lead to more equitable access to high-quality teaching for traditionally underserved students. This series explores a range of issues, focusing particularly on the promise of specific measurement strategies for producing indicators that can lead to a more just distribution of teaching quality. Indicators of Teaching Quality: Appraising the Case of Early Childhood Education (2020) Download | File size: 891 KB Quest for Quality: An Indicator System for Teaching (2019) Download | File size: 712 KB -- Impact of Human Capital in the American Labor Market Series This Series explores the importance of a key element of human capital — cognitive skills — that has only recently been available for adults for examination, along with educational credentials, in the United States. Using newly available measures of the literacy and numeracy skills of American workers from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, this series examines the central role that these skills play, alongside years of work experience and educational attainment, in influencing a range of labor-market outcomes. In an age where status, prestige, and credentials have taken center stage, this series seeks to return the education debate to its core — the fundamental need for skills to succeed in life. Skills and Earnings in the Part-Time Labor Market (2020) View report highlights Download Skills and Earnings in the Part-Time Labor Market | File size: 2.69 MB Skills and the Earnings of College Graduates (2019) View report highlights Download Skills and the Earnings of College Graduates Report | File size: 4 MB Skills and Earnings in the Full-Time Labor Market (2018) View report highlights View the eReport Download | File size: 4 MB Other Reports Retooling Literacy Education for the Twenty-First Century: Key Findings of the Reading for Understanding Initiative and Their Implications (2018) This report from ETS, working with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), frames the need for a focused, national effort to achieve universal, advanced reading literacy, arguing it is an issue of equity as well as individual and national prosperity. It then presents a discussion of practical recommendations for lead practitioners, summarizing key insights from the Reading for Understanding Research Initiative, remaining research challenges, and policy and practice recommendations for enhancing reading achievement from preK–12. View the eReport Download | File size: 1.8 MB Read the CCSSO Policy Brief Too Big to Fail: Millennials on the Margins (2018) This important new paper expands traditional understandings of "disconnected youth" — young adults who are not attached to educational institutions or the labor market — by including cognitive skills in the conception of what it means to be "disconnected." The authors demonstrate that in addition to those millennials who are out of work or not in education, large segments of the employed and those in education with low skills are marginalized. Also explored are critical aspects of inequality and the implications for the United States when large segments of those transitioning to adulthood lack the opportunity to thrive. View report highlights View the eReport Download Executive Summary Download full report | File size: 1.3 MB America’s Skills Challenge: Millennials and the Future (2015) The authors of this report argue that there is an apparent paradox for U.S. millennials: While they may be on track to be our most educated generation ever, they consistently score below many of their international peers in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments. Equally troubling is that these findings represent a decrease in literacy and numeracy skills when compared to results from previous years of U.S. adult surveys. This report sheds light on the growing inequality of opportunity in the United States and the impact on skills acquisition and outcomes for both current and future generations. View the eReport Download | File size: 1.22 MB A Story of Opportunity in America Opportunity has always been intangible, but for increasing numbers of Americans, it's becoming invisible. In 2014, ETS launched a two-year exploration to shed light on the rising inequality of opportunity that is leaving many Americans behind. The result of this effort includes a report that takes a broad view of the challenges we face, a book containing research from leaders from a range of fields related to opportunity and a short film highlighting stories about opportunity from across our nation. Together, these inform the work of the ETS . Transcript Choosing Our Future: A Story of Opportunity in America (2016) This comprehensive report examines the magnitude of the crisis of opportunity in America and its long-term implications. Interactions among powerful global economic forces, government policies and business practices have generated a self-sustaining set of dynamics that have led to increasing economic, social and political polarization, with the accumulation of advantage or disadvantage experienced by one generation passed along to the next. Choosing Our Future argues that ignoring these forces will lead to growing disparities among our citizens and place an unsustainable strain on the nation's social fabric and the character of our democracy. View the eReport Download | File size: 6.61 MB Contributors The Dynamics of Opportunity in America (2016) Written by leaders fr...