| title | date | author |
|---|---|---|
The Case for Alternative Education |
October 2018 |
John Vandivier, George Mason University, Department of Economics |
Utilization of alternative credentials may be beneficial in many situations for individuals, firms, and society at large. Alternative credentials can provide a cleaner signal of productivity or skill. Obtaining alternative credentials may entail more effective learning. When society shifts from traditional credentials to alternative credentials we may see a reduction in credential inflation and student debt concerns, as well as less direct national wealth affects from better cross-sector labor resource allocation.
Comparative benefits to utilization of alternative credentials in preference to traditional credentials are heterogenous and occassionally net negative. The goal of this paper is to: 1 - Identify concrete education plans, or multi-specific education pathways, which support the majority of American students. a. Including K-12 and post-secondary b. Estimate comparative gains per plan 2 - Explore public disposition on alternative credentials over time, with forecasting a. Explanatory factors b. Forecasts c. Treatments for employer favorability & adoption d. Treatments for student favorability & adoption
The Preference Problem: Is it plausible to ask liberal arts students to become programmers? Or even medical folks? a. Solution 1: everyone becomes a programmer (highest paying major field of study, upper bound on gains) b. Solution 2: hold major constant; only some majors are currently alternativizable and it's not realistic to convert these people (pessimisstic / lower bound on gains) c. Solution 3: identify better-paying jobs with a similar personality profile (eg English -> history, phil, business, etc; middle-of-the-road story, medium gains)
Recent literature deflates the value of education, but my analysis defines education along a traditional-alternative continuoum and shows that the value of alternative education remains a strong investment choice.
*learning is something we do by necessity; the question is how best to do it not whether or not to do it; specifically, autonomous vs directed learning. there is a careful distinction between voluntarily directed and involuntarily directed learning.
Key question is about the extent to which alternative credentials do or do not subsitute for traditional credentials, and what factors modify that substitution amount.
Secondary question would be on whether some general metric of abnormality is related to learning effectiveness (even non-linearly).
Recent literature serves to deflate the value of education. That analysis indicates, roughly, the smartest people should pursue higher education and less intelligent people should simply go to work. It seems to create a work-education continuum and allows for a grey area where many people would benefit from vocational education.
Such analysis is based on a very narrow, indeed a non-standardly narrow, concept of education. The present analysis agrees that traditional pathways, traditional education, and traditional credentials yield low and often negatives return for many individuals, but I show that individuals of all kinds - high and low achievers - benefit from heterogenous and multi-specific alternative pathways, education, and credentials.
As a multi-specific analysis, my research identifies key discriminators which can be applied to identify an individual as a member of a group, and I create action plans for several groups such that 90%+ of all Americans are covered by at least one action plan. I calculate traditional and alternative return on education for the average member of each group, and I identify factors which might move an individual within a group.
1.1 Traditional education vs public education
When we talk about traditional education are we just referring to public education? Yes and no. We are referring to a few things:
- a social norm
- a concept in the literature
Social norms are identified and described as central tendancies of social action. Various measures of central tendancy exist, and they sometimes identify different results as the central tendancy. In 2012, 39.4% of americans between the age of 25 and 40 had a college degree[1]. This means having a college degree is neither the median nor the mode of american education, but it is still quite common.
Strictly speaking, then, the most normal form of education is the high school diploma. For those graduating from high school in the 2000s, it is normal to go to college, although it is abnormal to actually obtain the 4 year degree within 4 years[2], and in fact it's abnormal to ever actually get a 4 year degree[3], so the central tendancy for US education is to have had some college.
Tangentially, Caplan and others note that the US could save quite a bit of time and money if that percentage of Americans who would never graduate form college also decide never to apply in the first place. I agree, but I would also say that most members of that group could benefit from some other kind of education, rather than zero post-secondary (after high school) education. This is where many alternative credentials fill the gap, and what you end up finding is that many of these alternative credentials are so good that even the folks who graduate from college would also be better off persuing them.
Despite the fact that most people do not have a college degree, getting a college degree is the standard social expectation and thereby a norm. College degrees include degrees from both and private institutions, so the discussion on public education is distinct from the discussion on traditional education. One brightline test for an alternative credential is whether or not that credential is accreddited.
However, most students enrolled in higher education are enrolled in a public university[4] and public universities cost significantly less than private universities. Less than half as much on average[5]. For these reasons, and also because different laws and social networks apply to these groups, it really is fair to discuss public and private institutions differently, and consider private institutions as the alternative to the relatively more common public institutions.
Despite it's technical non-normalness, the education literature treats having a college degree as a traditional or normal thing. As
Strictly speaking, the traditional education is
1.2 The assumption of an online connection
More people have internet than go to college[6]. Even in the lowest-adopted regions of the USA, most people have a home internet connection. Even if they don't have a home internet connection they are likely to have a local school, church, or public library with such a connection, or friends and family with a connection. For these reasons I don't see internet access as a bottleneck. Additionally, any time we talk about a person attending college we should assume this person has internet access because, first, colleges have internet access, and, secondly, the cost of an online degree plus the cost of internet access is less than the cost of a non-online college degree.
Z. Bib [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/percentage-americans-college-degrees-rises-paying-degrees-tops-financial-challenges [2]https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/education/most-college-students-dont-earn-degree-in-4-years-study-finds.html [3] https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326995-census-more-americans-have-college-degrees-than-ever-before [4]https://www.infoplease.com/us/higher-education/number-us-colleges-and-universities-and-degrees-awarded-2005 [5]https://studentloanhero.com/featured/public-vs-private-college-attend-which/ [6]https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/digital-divide-brookings-institute_us_5674586be4b014efe0d55041