"Should we live together first?" Yes, say Democrats. No, say Republicans...
There is a marriage gap in America. This is not just a gap in choices and actions, but in norms and attitudes. Each generation is more liberal, on average, when it comes to issues like premarital...
View ArticleAfter second verdict in Freddie Gray case, Baltimore's economic challenges...
Baltimore police officer Edward Nero, one of six being tried separately in relation to the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, has been acquitted on all counts. The outcome for officer Nero was widely...
View ArticleHere's what America would be like without immigrants
“There is room for everybody in America,” wrote French-American author Hector St. John de Crèvecœur in 1782’s Letters from an American Farmer. Like most of the founding generation, Crèvecœur believed...
View ArticleColorado's poor now get to visit the dentist
“A society of equals is a society in which disadvantages do not cluster,” say Jonathan Wolff and Avner de-Shalit in their book Disadvantage. Low income matters greatly in itself, of course. But it...
View ArticleFewer field trips mean some students miss more than a day at the museum
As every good teacher knows, education is not just about academics. It is about broadening horizons and discovering passions. (The root of education is the Latin e ducere, meaning “to draw out.”) From...
View ArticleModeling equal opportunity
The Horatio Alger ideal of upward mobility has a strong grip on the American imagination (Reeves 2014). But recent years have seen growing concern about the distance between the rhetoric of...
View ArticleGive fathers more than one day: The case for paternity leave
Feminism needs fathers. Unless and until men and women share the responsibilities of parenting equally, gender parity in the labor market will remain out of reach. As Isabel Sawhill and I argued in...
View ArticleTransfer season: Lowering the barrier between community college and four-year...
Community colleges are a vital part of America’s opportunity structure, not least because they often provide a way into higher education for adults from less advantaged backgrounds. Each year there...
View ArticleBrexit: British identity politics, immigration and David Cameron’s undoing
Like many Brits, I’m reeling. Everyone knew that the "Brexit" referendum was going to be close. But deep down I think many of us assumed that the vote would be to remain in the European Union. David...
View ArticleMemo to the boss: Follow the BBC’s lead and measure class diversity, too
The BBC is doing something I think is awesome but many of my American friends think is awful: gathering information of the social class background of their recruits. The move is part of an aggressive...
View ArticleHow much paid parental leave do Americans really want?
Paid leave for parents is likely to be an important issue on the campaign trail this year. Hillary Clinton, positioning herself as the candidate on the side of families, argues for all parents to be...
View ArticleAs Brexit fallout topples U.K. politicians, some lessons for the U.S.
British politics is starting to resemble a bowling alley. One after another, political figures are tumbling–including the leading lights of the Brexit campaign. They sowed the wind and now are reaping...
View ArticleSeven takeaways from Theresa May's ascension to U.K. prime minister
Editor's note: This piece originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire on July 11, 2016. Theresa May has since succeeded David Cameron as UK prime minister. Theresa May is poised...
View ArticleWhy rich parents are terrified their kids will fall into the "middle class"
Politicians and scholars often lament the persistence of poverty across generations. But affluence persists, too. In the U.S. especially, the top of the income distribution is just as “sticky”, in...
View ArticleHow a U.K. Labour party meltdown could play out in wake of Brexit vote
Britain’s Conservative Party just tore itself apart over the EU referendum; David Cameron was forced to resign as prime minister. Yet the party in meltdown is Labour. Polling out this past weekend...
View ArticleSocial mobility: A promise that could still be kept
As a rhetorical ideal, greater opportunity is hard to beat. Just about all candidates for high elected office declare their commitments to promoting opportunity – who, after all, could be against it?...
View ArticleFAFSA completion rates matter: But mind the data
By Richard V. Reeves, Katherine GuyotFAFSA season has just ended — the final deadline to fill out the 2017-18 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was June 30. This year, as every year,...
View ArticleDo school secessions worsen racial segregation? It’s complicated
By Richard V. Reeves, Nathan Joo What if a school could breakaway from its district to form its own school system? It turns out that in many parts of the country schools can, and these ‘school...
View ArticleRandomistas and the importance of random-assignment studies
Nearly all scientists are now convinced that the most reliable way to create knowledge about human health and behavior is to conduct random-assignment studies—an experimental technique that compares...
View ArticleFewer Americans are making more than their parents did—especially if they...
By Richard V. Reeves, Katherine Guyot One of the most striking social science findings of recent years is that only half of today’s 30-year-olds earn more than their parents. Raj Chetty and his...
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