The Dynamics of Opportunity in America

Editors Irwin Kirsch is Tyler Chair in Large-Scale Assessment and Director of the Center for Global Assessment at Educational Testing Service (ETS). He also serves as Project Director of ETSs Opportunity in America initiative. Henry Braun is Boisi Professor of Education and Public Policy in the Lynch School of Education and Director of the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Education Policy at Boston College. He also serves as Project Co-Director of ETSs Opportunity in America initiative. Contributors Bruce Baker is Professor at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University and maintains blogs on school finance and educational policy. Jared Bernstein is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He previously served as Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Danielle Farrie is Research Director of the Education Law Center in Newark, New Jersey. Chrystia Freeland is the Canadian Minister of International Trade and Member of Parliament for University-Rosedale, Toronto, author of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, and journalist. Harry J. Holzer is Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and is an Institute Fellow at the American Institutes for Research. He previously served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. Carl Kaestle is University Professor of Education, History, and Public Policy emeritus at Brown University. Ishwar Khatiwada is a Labor Economist at the Center for Labor Markets and Policy at Drexel University. Robert I. Lerman is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute, Emeritus Professor of Economics at American University, and a Research Fellow at IZA in Bonn, Germany. He is also the Founder of the American Institute for Innovative Apprenticeship. Douglas S. Massey is the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton Universitys Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Leslie McCall is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Jennifer A. ODay is an Institute Fellow of the American Institutes for Research and is the Founder and Chair of the California Collaborative on District Reform. Richard V. Reeves is a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies, Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families, and Editor-in-Chief of the Social Mobility Memos blog at the Brookings Institution. David G. Sciarra is Executive Director of the Education Law Center in Newark, New Jersey. Timothy M. (Tim) Smeeding is the Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was previously Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at Wisconsin-Madison. Marshall S. Smith is a Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a former Dean and Professor at Stanford, and a former Under Secretary and Acting Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education in the Clinton administration. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education. Andrew M. Sum is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Northeastern University in Boston. He was previously the Director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. Jonathan Tannen is a Doctoral Candidate in the Urban and Population clusters of the Woodrow Wilson School and the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.

Dedication.- Preface.- Editors' Note.- Table of Contents.- About the Editors and Contributors.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.- 1. Introduction: Opportunity in America Setting the Stage.- PART I: Understanding Where We Are Today.- PART II: The Labor Market.- PART III: Education and Opportunity.-PART IV: Politics and the Road Ahead.- PART V: Seeking Inclusive Prosperity.- Appendix: Members of the Opportunity in America Advisory Panel.- Index.