Substantive Question about Education

[GopherGrad]

Hi,

I'm on this board because I'm interested in applying to PhD programs in political science, but at the moment I'm working on a consulting project with a non-profit that provides entrepreneurial training to groups that might have little connection to the formal economy.

One of the goals of the project is to improve the non-profit's ability to assess the impact of the programs on the students and community. The organization already keeps good records on those students that DO leave to start a business, but they have a hard time figuring out how the courses affect the students that don't. The courses teach lots of basic business skills that might prove a boon to the small and medium size local firms that employ the students.

I am interested in finding literature that talks about methodology to measure the impact of education on an economy. I have no training in this area, so I assume that my inquiry is uselessly vague at the moment. Feel free to ask further questions about the purpose of the project to hone the advice.

Thanks!

GG

[Ed_Doc]

Hi,

I'm on this board because I'm interested in applying to PhD programs in political science, but at the moment I'm working on a consulting project with a non-profit that provides entrepreneurial training to groups that might have little connection to the formal economy.

One of the goals of the project is to improve the non-profit's ability to assess the impact of the programs on the students and community. The organization already keeps good records on those students that DO leave to start a business, but they have a hard time figuring out how the courses affect the students that don't. The courses teach lots of basic business skills that might prove a boon to the small and medium size local firms that employ the students.

I am interested in finding literature that talks about methodology to measure the impact of education on an economy. I have no training in this area, so I assume that my inquiry is uselessly vague at the moment. Feel free to ask further questions about the purpose of the project to hone the advice.

Thanks!

GG

I'd start by looking at the work of Richard (Dick) Murnane:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Murnane (list of publications at the bottom)

[GopherGrad]

Thanks!!