The Annenberg Institute at Brown University, in partnership with the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University, offers this national working paper series to provide open access to high-quality papers from multiple disciplines and from multiple universities and research organizations on a wide variety of topics related to education. EdWorkingPapers focuses particularly on research with strong implications for education policy. EdWorkingPapers circulates papers prior to publication for comment and discussion; these papers have not gone through a peer review processes.
NEW EdWorkingPapers
Costly Withdrawals Reduce Future College-Going for Low-Income Students: Evidence from Return of Title IV Funds
Governments must strike a balance between promoting access to financial aid while at the same time remaining good stewards of taxpayer funds by preventing fraudulent access. This paper focuses on one of the largest-scale and most consequential policies determining whether students maintain access to Title IV aid, the “Return of Title IV” funds policy, referred to as R2T4.
Bring in the Subs: A Mixed-Method Investigation of the Substitute Teacher Labor Market in Michigan
Substitute teachers play a crucial role in how schools can function, yet little research has focused on understanding the contours of the substitute labor market. This paper uses a mixed method approach, including a survey of a random sample of the population of substitute teachers, state administrative data, and interviews with district administrators and substitute teachers in Michigan to… more →
Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Part-time Community College Students: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Community College Administrator Perspectives and State-Wide Administrative Data
While most community college students enroll part-time, there is little evidence on how to effectively improve college attainment of part-time students. This mixed methods study, situated in Texas, addresses this research gap by developing a more complete understanding of the part-time student population, their challenges and needs, as well as the types of interventions and programs that might… more →
Education Governance and Race: An Analysis of School Board Discourse Using Large Language Models
Despite growing attention to school boards, it is unclear whether they primarily operate as bureaucratic forums, policy-making bodies, or arenas for contentious debate—particularly on issues of race. Recent controversies suggest increasing public engagement and conflict, but little evidence documents how often questions of race arise in board deliberations. This study analyzes over 40,000… more →
Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Tutoring Format and Tutors: Findings from an Early Literacy Tutoring Program
This study presents the first within-program, within-tutor experimental evidence comparing the impact of in-person versus remote tutoring. Based on results from an early literacy tutoring initiative delivered by university students over Summer 2023, we find no statistically significant differences in students’ literacy outcomes by instructional modality. However, students receiving in-person… more →
Expanding Access to Highly Effective Educators for All Students: A Review of Recent Evidence
We have long known that some teachers are much more effective than others. Highly effective teachers and their students thrive in ways that have been hard to replicate on a large and consistent scale. In this paper, we read across studies to identify actionable lessons about what it will take to staff all schools with highly effective educators and to surface directions that are particularly… more →