Skip to main content

Research Archive

Welcome to Our Research Archive

Search and filter by content type, issue area, author, and keyword

December 11, 2024

US Students Best Other Nations—in Achievement Gap Growth

US scores on the 2023 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are another sign not only that American students are losing ground in math and science, but that the achievement gap between high-performers and low-performers has grown dramatically. As I wrote a couple days ago, these trends started well before the pandemic and are…

December 11, 2024

Some College Graduates Are Taking Lower-Paying Jobs

The promise of higher education is to equip students with new ideas and skills that will help them land higher-paying jobs. For many students, this dream comes true—but that is not what happens across the board. As college degree attainment has risen over time, many graduates find themselves taking jobs that traditionally belonged to those…

December 9, 2024

TIMSS Shows the Bottom Is Falling Out for US Test Scores

Last week’s release of 2023 scores from the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)—an international assessment measuring fourth and eighth graders in math and science—offers a fresh look at the academic performance of US and international students. The results are grim. Three things stand out. First (and perhaps not surprisingly), the pandemic harmed student…

December 4, 2024

Back to Basics: America’s Founding, Civics, and Self-Government in K-12 Curricula

AEI Senior Fellow Ian Rowe testifies before the US House Education and Workforce Committee on December 4, 2024, alongside Dr. Jed Atkins, Director and Dean, School of Civic Life and Leadership, University of North Carolina; Brian V. Kennedy, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers; and Michael Weiser, Chair of the Board of Directors, Jack…

December 3, 2024

How States Can Shake Up the Stagnant Higher Education Market

Artificial barriers to entry have been a feature of markets for millennia, from medieval guilds to modern occupational licenses. Though often defended on the basis of consumer protection, barriers which keep new providers of a good or service out of the market also serve to protect incumbent businesses, hamstring innovation, and increase prices. Such barriers…

December 2, 2024

Reforming State Authorization of Colleges to Boost Competition and Lower Tuition

Key Points Executive Summary Higher education suffers from barriers to entry. Though the ranks of students at traditional colleges have grown by 29 percent over the past three decades, the number of active institutions has declined. Four in five students today attend an institution that was founded before 1970, and virtually none attend a school…

November 25, 2024

Don’t Write Off Workforce Pell Grants

Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon, a former administrator of the Small Business Administration, is a proponent of expanding Pell Grants to short-term workforce education programs. In a September op-ed, McMahon boosted the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act, which would allow students to use Pell Grants for high-quality workforce education programs as short as eight weeks in duration (the…

November 21, 2024

A Consensus on Common-Sense Education Reform

Is common ground possible in an age of extreme polarization? Perhaps! “Toward a Potential Grand Bargain for the Nation” is a new report by a group of experts from think tanks and academia meant to share consensus “policies in each of these areas: economic growth and mobility; education; environment; health; taxes; and the federal budget.”…

November 20, 2024

End Federal Loans for Graduate School

President-elect Donald Trump and his top advisors have announced plans to create a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a commission tasked with slashing wasteful spending throughout the federal budget. One place they could start is the federal student loan program. The federal government loses tens of billions of dollars per year on lending to graduate students, a…

November 20, 2024

Eliminate Federal Lending to Graduate and Professional Students; Revenue to Fund Block Grants to States

Graduate student lending is out of control. Students are effectively borrowing without limit to pay for graduate and professional schools, many of which offer little or no return on their investment. The status quo is untenable for both students, who bear the risk of taking on unaffordable debts amid uncertainty about the future of forgiveness…