ANN ARBOR---The financial value of a higher education increased in the mid-1990s, according to a federally-funded University of Michigan study. But the dollar value of a high school diploma or less dropped by 8 percent.

The new analysis of nationally representative data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), shows that the median income of families whose heads graduated from high school was $34,569 in 1994. That's 75 percent of the median income of families headed by someone who attended college.

In 1984, by comparison, families headed by someone with a high school diploma earned 83 percent of those headed by someone who went to college.

The earnings gap between American families headed by someone who did not finish high school and those headed by someone with at least some post-graduate education also widened significantly, according to U-M economics Prof. Frank Stafford, who co-directs the Panel Study.

The median income in 1994 for families headed by someone without a high school diploma was $17, 918, or 29 percent of a family headed by someone with a college degree plus some graduate education. In 1984, by comparison, family heads who did not finish high school earned $20,291, or 36 percent of the median income of those with some post-graduate education.

"What's surprising," says Stafford, "is that even with a strong economy, which tends to boost the earnings of those with 12 or fewer years of schooling, the income and earnings gap across education groups widened."

        MEDIAN FAMILY INCOME AND EARNINGS IN 1996 DOLLARS Education of household head        1984      1994 Less than a high school diploma   20,291    17,918 High school diploma               34,569    31,648 Some college                      41,794    42,160 More than a college degree        56,798    64,294 Source:  University of Michigan Panel Study of          Income Dynamics Number of interviews in 1984:  6,918        Number of interviews in 1994: 10,406