Caren Arbeit

Caren Arbeit is a researcher in our Education and Workforce Development division with expertise in graduate education, postgraduate labor market outcomes (including postdocs), non-traditional postsecondary students and non-traditional forms of postsecondary education, such as bootcamps. She specializes in analytic work and data quality efforts for our clients. Thus she writes reports, analyzes data, designs data dissemination products such as tables, and runs quality control checks for several projects including the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, Survey of Earned Doctorates, and Early Career Doctorates Survey contracts with the National Science Foundation. Similarly, she develops report proposals, analyzes data, and writes reports / working papers for the Postsecondary Education Analysis Resources contract with the National Center for Education Statistics and in a report on equity in career and technical education programs for the National Center for Innovation in Career and Technical Education.

Dr. Arbeit leads our work on coding academies and other forms of alternative credentials. Her team undertook the first independent analysis of bootcamp/coding academy programs. As part of this work, they defined the different types of bootcamp programs, examined the cost, admissions processes and geographic availability of bootcamp programs in the U.S., Canada and online.

Her prior research focuses on education, social stratification and demography. This includes research on differences in labor market outcomes of college-educated individuals by gender and immigration status; access to health insurance and healthcare for children based on race/ethnicity and immigration status; and how parental job loss impacts children’s educational attainment.