If You Can't Be With the Data You Love - And the Risks of Loving the Data You're With

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob

Policy analysis arguing that focusing on educational attainment as the main indicator of workforce readiness can mask serious essential-skill deficits. The report contrasts employment estimates of working-age adults with foundational skill weaknesses derived from credential data versus those derived from large-scale adult skills assessments. It examines relationships between adult literacy performance, educational credentials, and low wages, then evaluates the usefulness of an essential-skills proxy measure for policymakers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages40

Reading Time1 h 41 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

A Word about the Data

Divergent Measures: Educational Attainment vs. Essential Skills

Essential Skills Deficits of the Working-Age Population

Proxy Measures

Measuring and Comparing Skills Deficits Using PIAAC Data

The Interrelationship between PIAAC Literacy Scores and Educational Credentials

The Interrelationship between PIAAC Literacy Skills and Low Wages

What is the Utility of the Essential Skills Proxy Measure?

Implications

Appendix

About the Authors

Policy Report If You Can't Be With the Data You Love: And the Risks of Loving the Data You're With Neeta Fogg Paul Harrington Ishwar Khatiwada Center for Labor Marketsand Policy, Drexel University Irwin Kirsch Anita Sands Larry Hanover ETS THE ETS CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON HUMAN CAPITAL AND EDUCATION Table of Contents Preface ........................................................................ 1 Acknowledgments .....................................................4 Introduction ................................................................ 5 A Word about the Data .............................................7 Divergent Measures: Educational Attainment vs. Essential Skills ............................................................8 Essential Skills Deficits of the Working-Age Population ................................................................11 Proxy Measures ................................................11 Measuring and Comparing Skills Deficits Using PIAAC Data..............................................11 The Interrelationship between PIAAC Literacy Scores and Educational Credentials ..............13 The Interrelationship between PIAAC Literacy Skills and Low Wages .......................................18 What is the Utility of the Essential Skills Proxy Measure?...................................................................24 Implications ..............................................................27 Appendix ...................................................................28 About the Authors ...................................................29 This report was written by: Neeta Fogg Paul Harrington Ishwar Khatiwada Irwin Kirsch Anita Sands Larry Hanover The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and trustees of Educational Testing Service. Copyright © 2019 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. ETS, the ETS logo, and MEASURING THE POWER OF LEARNING are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service (ETS) . All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. September 2019 ETS Center for Research on Human Capital and Education Research and Development Educational Testing Service Rosedale Road Princeton, NJ 08541-0001 Preface Policymakers and others in the United States, driven by a reasonable belief that when individuals have more education they will be better prepared for today's economy and have abetter chance at favorable life outcomes, have recently redoubled efforts to improve rates of attaining credentials. On the surface, these efforts appear to be paying off. Today, a greater proportion of high school students are graduating on time than ever before, and among those who do not, most end up with a high school degree by their early 20s. What's more, the data show that the millennial generation has obtained the highest levels of postsecondary education of any previous generation in U.S. history. However, as Shakespeare once observed, "All that glitters is not gold." Mounting evidence, including this new paper, suggest that data on educational attainment and results from an array of skills assessments are telling divergent stories. In fact, recent research that examines the literacy and numeracy skills of America's millennial generation finds high levels of skills deficits. What's more, according to research on trends in fourth-and eighth-grade scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; better known as the "Nation's Report Card"),[I] the pattern of increasing scores and decreasing achievement gaps among race-ethnicity groups, evident in the first few years of the 2000s, has leveled off. Data on education in the United States has been formally collected since the late 19th century when Congress first passed legislation establishing a department to monitor the nation's educational progress. Of course

FAQs

What core risk does the report highlight about relying on educational attainment data?

It argues that using credentials alone as a proxy for skills can produce a misleading picture of productive ability and labor-market readiness.

How does the report compare skill deficits estimates?

It contrasts estimates of employed adults believed to have foundational skill deficits: one based on educational attainment as a proxy and the other based on adult skills data from a large-scale assessment.

Why are essential skills deficits significant for policymakers according to the report?

The report links adult literacy skill patterns to educational credentials and wages, and assesses whether an essential-skills proxy measure can better inform decisions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob