Education drives labour market outcomes and social mobility. When educational attainment is influenced by socioeconomic factors, many students from disadvantaged backgrounds are left behind. This is undesirable as it greatly reduces the human capital that could have been present in the national economy, therefore affecting the potential of economic growth. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the impact of a policy that has the purpose of reducing the gap in educational attainment between disadvantaged students and their peers.  The analysis takes place over a 12 year time span and across 22 local authority areas in Wales. The results highlight the importance in the measure of the attainment gap. The implementation of Pupil Premium can be correlated with a reduction in the gap that is defined by the proportional difference between disadvantaged students and their peers. The magnitude of the attainment gap has stayed fairly constant but overall attainment has risen significantly over the period under analysis.  There is room for further study into the possibility that the impact of Pupil Premium has affected some groups of students more than others.

To find out how adolescents' individual and environmental factors impact adulthood education and employment outcomes, this longitudinal study examined 10th graders' individual (such as math scores, intrinsic motivation, and school engagement) and environmental (i.e. parental involvement) factors through their education and employment outcomes in emerging adulthood. The current study examined the differentiated effect of parental involvement being autonomy-supportive or control on adolescents' academic achievement in high school and also young adulthood educational and occupational outcomes 10 years later. This research is based on an analysis of data drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), which is a nationally representative longitudinal study that follows adolescents at four main timelines: the base year of students in 10th grade (Time 1), the first follow up at 12th grade(Time 2), the second follow up two years after the expected high school of high-school, and the third follow up when students who may have gone on to post-secondary education would complete their postsecondary education (Time 3). 5,439 students and their parent(s) were included in the study. Overall, the final model supported the majority of the hypotheses and revealed how differentiated parental involvements and students' previous academic performance influence their math scores at Time 2 (r = .80), and both educational (r = .32) and career (r = .27) outcomes at emerging adulthood.

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As a group, youth who have spent time in foster care are far behind the general population in postsecondary educational attainment. Nevertheless, most do hold aspirations for higher education. For those who make it to college, foster care alumni face a variety of obstacles related to successful postsecondary completion. However, it is unclear whether the factors that affect postsecondary success in this population are similar to those identified for other college students or more unique to the distinctive experience of being in foster care. Furthermore, while there is general consensus that higher education is beneficial to foster care alumni in overcoming adversity, no study has examined how foster care alumni who graduate from college actually fare in their adult lives compared with the general population of college graduates, or with those in the general population who did not graduate college. The study aims first to identify the predictors of postsecondary retention and success using survey data from a cross-sectional sample of foster care alumni who received Casey Family Scholarship Program or Orphan Foundation of America Foster Care to Success postsecondary scholarships. Second, the study compares adult outcomes of foster care alumni graduates with general population graduates and general population non-graduates to explore the role higher education plays in these youths' lives. Results are interpreted in relation to Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, theories of educational persistence and motivation, trauma theory, and theories related to other difficulties of being in foster care. Analyses include bivariate examinations of postsecondary factors and their relation to college disengagement; discrete-time survival analysis of general college retention factors and factors more unique to the foster care population in predicting college graduation; and multivariate comparisons (ANOVA's, ANCOVA's, and chi-squares) of foster youth graduates and non-foster youth graduates and non-graduates in relation to their post-college life circumstances. In bivariate comparisons of general population factors related to retention, five of the nine factors (academic-related skills, institutional commitment, social support, social involvement, and institutional financial support) had at least one indicator with a significant or trend-level relationship with college disengagement. In bivariate comparisons of foster care-specific factors related to retention, four out of the seven factors (maltreatment/ trauma/PTSD, other mental health problems, independent living stability, tangible support) had at least one item with a significant or trend-level relationship with college disengagement. Comparing the two separate factor models, the general population factor group modeled the data slightly better in predicting college graduation than the foster care-specific factor model. No model improvement was found when foster care-specific factors were added into the general population factor model. Both general population and foster care alumni graduates fared more positively than general population non-graduates for three post-college factors: individual income, financial satisfaction, and happiness. Only the general population graduates were found to be faring better than general population non-graduates on a variety of other factors. Foster youth graduates fared less positively than general population graduates on a variety of post-college outcomes. Results have implications for policy and practice regarding the most effective means of supporting postsecondary aspirations of youth with foster care experience.

Masters of Commerce / From 194 7-1994, South Africans were ruled under apartheid - a racially discriminatory political and economic system. As the name itself implies, apartheid is an Afrikaans name meaning "apartness". The provision of education in South Africa during this regime was poor, particularly for the African (black) population and most especially those living in homelands. This led to under-investment in human capital development particularly in the rural areas which resulted in, low levels of skills that have persisted till today. This has hindered those lacking the required skills to obtain lucrative employment and earning prospects. This study aims at investigating the impact of a household head's educational attainment level on the poverty status of the household in South Africa with case study of Limpopo province.

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Underage drinking has featured prominently in both scholarly and conventional literature in recent decades as a major health and socio-economic concern in the United States. As new evidence emerges associating underage drinking with a host of negative outcomes for both the youth who drinks and society in general, a closer examination of the long-term effects of underage drinking is critical. This exploratory study was designed to examine predictor variables and their ramifications (1) using logistic regression to identify a model for underage drinking history (UDHISTORY) as a predictor of concomitant alcohol dependence and poor educational attainment (CADAPEA) among individuals aged 25 and above, and (2) obtain a better understanding of how demographic variables (age, gender, race/ethnicity) influence the prediction. The nature and strength of the effect(s) of these demographic variables on the prediction were also investigated. The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data set ICPSR 32722-0001 which is previously unexploited for this purpose is utilized in this study. The data analysis tool, SDA on SAMHSA's website and IBM SPSS were used for correlation analysis and logistic regression to test the hypothesis that currently legal age drinkers 25 years and older with UDHISTORY are more likely to experience CADAPEA than their counterparts without UDHISTORY. When considered alone, UDHISTORY was a strong and statistically significant predictor of CADAPEA. The identified bivariate logistic regression model was statistically significant, &chi2 (1, n = 60) = 13.39, Adjusted Wald F1, 60 = 13.39, p = 0.001 < .05, accounting for 1.26% (Cox and Snell R square), 1.3% (Log Likelihood Pseudo R square), to 7.9% (Nagelkerke R square) of the variance in CADAPEA. However, adding demographic variables to the model made UDHISTORY a much stronger and more statistically significant predictor. The identified final multivariable logistic regression model was statistically significant, &chi2 (6, n = 55) = 170.43, Adjusted Wald F6, 55 = 26.04, p = 0.00 < .001, accounting for 1.8% (Cox and Snell R square), 7.2% (Log Likelihood Pseudo R square) to 7.9% (Nagelkerke R square) of the variance in CADAPEA. The model also correctly classified 99.1% of cases.

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the impact of large-scale education policies changing high school duration in a sub-Saharan Africa context, specifically Ghana. These policies vary critical factors, namely instruction time and age at test, competition, and incentives to enroll in high school, which have implications for educational and labor market outcomes. I exploit these exogenous time series variations created to study impacts on learning, college application decisions, educational attainment, and labor market outcomes. A common thread across chapters is the examination of differential impact by gender or socio-economic vulnerability. In Chapter 1, I interrogate a nationwide reform in Ghana that reduced curricular pace by extending high school duration by a year without changing the breadth of the curriculum and the grade structure at lower levels of schooling. Maintaining the curriculum while increasing duration was aimed at reducing the curricular pace to one more suited to students' learning pace. This is key because, despite enormous strides in increasing school enrollment in developing countries, widespread low and stagnant learning outcomes remain a concern for policymakers and an active line of inquiry for researchers. Exploiting time-series variation from this quasi-random experiment, I implement a cohort analysis and a regression discontinuity design that leverages a compulsory school start law to examine the impact on learning at the end of high school, collegiate attainment, and labor market outcomes. I find significant positive effects on learning, with females benefiting more. Varying impact sizes across baseline ability levels suggest an extreme curricular gap in this setting. This reform has some positive impact on the decision to apply to college. Furthermore, young individuals who gain from increasing the depth of human capital but do not further their education beyond high school are more likely to be engaged in paid employment outside their household, although males drive these gains. I continue to investigate this setting in Chapter 2 by examining another nationwide reform that reduced high school duration by a year, three years after it was increased. This removal resulted in two cohorts graduating high school at the same time - the last before the removal of the extra year and the first after the removal. An immediate implication is a sharp increase in the number of students who graduated high school and could apply to university in a given year, exogenously increasing graduating cohort size. A larger high school graduating cohort size may affect human capital formation by impacting accumulated knowledge at the end of high school and collegiate attainment. Fewer high school resources per student and changes in student effort are possible mechanisms through which this cohort size can affect knowledge accumulation. On the college education market, a larger graduating cohort may signal a fall in admission probability through increased college demand if there is no expected commensurate increase in supply. In response, students may change their application strategy on the extensive and intensive margin depending on their revised admission probability estimate. I test these hypotheses by combining a cohort analysis and a regression discontinuity design leveraging a compulsory schooling law to isolate causal effects. Focusing on students with the extra year, I find a notable fall in end-of-high school performance for students who faced a larger cohort. These individuals are less likely to obtain a college degree. First, they are less likely to apply immediately after graduation, which persists for two years, suggesting many forgo applications altogether. Even when they do, universities face supply constraints and cannot absorb the increased demand. Second, they reduce the selectivity of their applications' field choices. Analogous results hold for females and economically vulnerable students. In Chapter 3, I assess a possible tradeoff between increased years of schooling and the likelihood of graduating high school in a setting where high school is neither free nor compulsory from the nationwide policy considered in Chapter 1 that increased high school duration by a year. This policy creates an exogenous shock to high school duration for the universe of middle school graduates at this transition point. Bunching in the number of students who complete the highest grade of a schooling level and then drop out is a common phenomenon. It suggests factors that change incentives to enroll at the next level may affect their continuation decisions. Using a multiple linear regression model with fixed effects to estimate the impact from this exogenous shock, I find that those who expect to be affected by the policy spend more years in pre-tertiary schooling, but this comes at a statistical and economically significant cost to graduating. This finding aligns with policymakers' concerns that some students would be precluded from obtaining a high school education. It is worth noting that sub-groups in the population who may be disadvantaged - females, students from low socio-economic backgrounds, and lower ability students are not more likely to bear the brunt. If anything, they have significantly lower costs.

Developmental Dyslexia (DD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Educational Attainment (EA) are highly prevalent conditions that have a significant impacton individuals' academic and social functioning. These conditions have a complex genetic basis and are often comorbid. To assess the polygenic architecture of these traits, psychiatric genetics researchers utilize a sophisticated tool known as polygenic scores (PGS). By combining numerous genes of individually modest effects, PGS summarizes an individual's genetic risk as a single score. In this study, we aimed to examine the association between PGS for ADHD and EA with typical DD traits. Using a meta-analytic approach, we analyzed data from earlier studies and found that PGS-ADHD accounts for 1.2% of the variance in DD, with a pooled effect size of r = -0.11 (95% CI = [-0.171, -0.050]). Similarly, PGS-EA accounted for 3.2% of the variance in DD, with a pooled effect size of r = 0.18 (95% CI = [0.070, 0.288]). Although these effect sizes are relatively small, it is important to note that PGS are not typically strong predictors on their own, but rather capture a small portion of the genetic variation that contributes to a trait or outcome. My findings suggest that PGS for ADHD and EA are associated with DD, indicating that DD has a complex genetic basis. However, these findings also raise questions about the impact of PGS on psychiatric research moving forward. To address these questions, I provide recommendations for future researchdirections.