EdWorkingPapers
The Politics of Administrative Ease: Public Access to Local Special Education Information
What political and administrative resources contribute to the realization of rights in the United States? We examine this puzzle in the context of rights to education for students with disabilities by measuring the administrative ease of accessing local special education information: the extent to which governments actively reduce learning costs and make information accessible. To measure… more →
Towards a Developmental Model of Democratic Family Rights Policy Regimes: Tracing Federal Literacy Policy, 1968-1990
By excavating submerged dynamics underlying literacy accountability policy, this historical case study conceptualizes its institutional logic and political drivers. Bridging and extending theorization in American political development and racial political behavior, I contribute an original developmental model of democratic and respectable family rights policy regimes to address when, how, and… more →
Homelessness and Student Outcomes by Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and School Level
A substantial number of U.S. students experience homelessness, yet our understanding of how homelessness shapes student outcomes is limited. We use seven years of longitudinal data on Indiana students in kindergarten through eighth grade, including more than 40,000 students who experienced homelessness, to examine the associations between homelessness and academic and behavioral outcomes. Our… more →
Cultural Relevance at Scale: The Effects of an Ethnic Studies Expansion on Academic Outcomes
Ethnic Studies is a culturally relevant curriculum designed to address the instructional needs of an increasingly diverse student population. However, evidence regarding its effectiveness at scale remains limited. This study evaluates the impact of district-wide implementation using a student-level difference-in-differences design with two-way fixed effects. We find that enrollment increases… more →
Nudging Parents out the Door: The Impacts of Parental Encouragement on School Choice and Test Scores
This study evaluates a large-scale SMS outreach program to engage caregivers of students in private primary schools in Kenya. Using a two-stage randomization design, we tested two types of weekly SMS messages: growth-mindset encouragement and personalized performance information. We find two main effects: First, outreach improved test scores by 0.07 standard deviations, with particularly… more →
Title I and IDEA as Complementary Federal Responses: Distinguishing Opportunity-Mediated and Opportunity-Independent Underachievement
Title I and IDEA are complementary federal responses to different sources of low achievement. Title I targets opportunity-mediated underachievement, while IDEA targets persistent underachievement for which deficits in ordinary educational opportunity are not the primary explanation. A simple framework and stylized simulation show that performance-based IDEA increasingly converges toward the… more →
Operational Funding and Early Educator Wage Growth: Evidence from Massachusetts
Early educators are among the lowest-paid workers in the United States, in part because most early care and education (ECE) programs operate within constrained business models. In Massachusetts, the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) program distributes noncompetitive grants to licensed providers that can be used for operational expenses, including workforce investments. Using monthly… more →
A Degree of Choice: Educational Decision-Making after College
Despite the growing share of college-educated adults returning to higher education, we know little about how individuals weigh the consequential decision to go to graduate school. In this paper, we ask how individuals decide to pursue a particular graduate program within a field of study. We draw on two independent but complementary interview studies to examine this question across the two… more →
The Reliability of Classroom Observations and Student Surveys in Non-Research Settings: Evidence from a Middle-Income Country
We present one of the first Generalizability studies of non-test measures of teaching effectiveness administered by practitioners in a middle-income country. The reliability of observations varies widely (from 0 to 0.75 on a 0-1 scale) and depends upon their context (whether they are conducted during training or on the job) and rater assignment configurations. The reliability of surveys varies… more →
Transitioning Teacher Talent: An Ethnoracial Descriptive Portrait of the Paraprofessional-to-Teacher Pipeline in New York City Public Schools
Districts nationwide seek to diversify the educator workforce, yet pathways for paraprofessionals—typically more ethnoracially and linguistically diverse than the general teacher pipeline—remain understudied. Using administrative data from New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), this study examines paraprofessionals’ demographic, transition, and exit patterns. Between 2016–17 and 2023–24, the… more →
Closing the Gaps: An Examination of Early Impacts of Dallas ISD’s Opt-out Policy on Advanced Course Enrollment
Advanced high school courses predict subsequent student success, but fewer Black and Hispanic students take advanced courses compared to their White peers. One strategy to increase advanced course enrollment is to use an “opt-out” approach, in which all students are enrolled in advanced courses unless they decline. We use a synthetic control design to evaluate the impact of an optout policy in… more →
A Sandbox for Hard Choices: Using Simulation to Explore School Closure Scenarios and Their Consequences
School closures are often justified through seemingly neutral criteria such as enrollment or performance, but these metrics can unintentionally deepen educational disparities. This study uses a large urban district’s administrative data to simulate 5,040 closure scenarios, systematically varying seven policy design principles, including proximity, enrollment, seat utilization, building quality… more →
Landscape Analysis of the Teaching Profession
The following report represents our attempt both to synthesize the current landscape of the teaching profession in the United States and to identify areas of research, policy, and practice which show promise in strengthening the profession. To guide our development of this landscape analysis, we conducted a robust review of existing research on the state of the teaching profession, as well as… more →
Does Civic Education Impact Primary-School Students’ Civic Outcomes? Experimental Evidence from Liberia
We present experimental evidence on a civic education program in Liberia's public primary schools across 140 schools serving grades 3 and 4. The program provided new civic textbooks, teacher training, bi-weekly instruction, and regular classroom monitoring. After one school year, treatment students scored 0.38 SDs higher on civic knowledge assessments. Gains were concentrated in factual… more →
School Finance in the US
This chapter provides an overview of K-12 public school finance in the United States by tracing how funding systems changed over time, how they operate today, and how well they advance core policy goals. Section 2 documents the long-run shift from local property tax finance toward larger state and federal roles, driven by economic crises, legislation, and litigation. Section 3 describes the… more →
The Expansion of Alternative Schools: Impact of Schools Targeting Lower Performing Students
Despite rising high school graduation rates in the US, a substantial portion of students do not obtain a high school degree. Alternative schools have emerged as a potential solution offering opportunities for credit recovery and flexible scheduling. Using variation in the timing and proximity of alternative school expansions in Chicago, we find that living within a mile of an alternative… more →
Geographic and Community Influences on College Savings: Evidence from the Universe of Pennsylvania 529 Account Holders
Families’ college savings behaviors are important determinants of students’ postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment. While prior work has examined how economic and sociological aspects of families shape savings behaviors, no study has examined how geographic or community-level factors relate to families’ college savings. Drawing from prior work on the role of place in shaping economic… more →
How Large are District Effects on Student Attendance? Implications for School Funding Based on Average Daily Attendance
Greater attendance rates in the K-12 grades demonstrate motivation and discipline and contribute to other desired educational outcomes such as cognitive development. A growing number of states incentivize school districts to increase attendance by allocating funding based on the average number of students in attendance, or average daily attendance (ADA). Using statewide data from Texas, we… more →
Can We Save Failing Schools? Evidence From Los Angeles
Can investing in failing schools help them improve? This paper studies this question using a natural experiment based on a 2017 lawsuit settlement that allocated substantial resources to the lowest-performing schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Using a difference-in-differences design, I compare 50 secondary schools that received an increase of 13.5% on average in their… more →
Hold Harmless for Whom? The Impact of COVID Era Policies on School Funding, Teachers, and Students
This study evaluates the fiscal and academic consequences of New York City’s hold harmless policy during COVID-19, which aimed to stabilize school expenditures amid unexpected enrollment declines by restoring schools’ funding up to initial levels. We examine how school racial composition predicts whether or when schools receive hold harmless “treatment” and assess the impact of hold harmless… more →
Americans’ Attitudes about Political Neutrality in Public Schools
This paper presents the results of a study of Americans’ attitudes about political neutrality in public schools. Using data from a nationally representative survey conducted in March of 2025, I find that Americans across the political spectrum largely oppose schools attempting to promote either liberal or conservative viewpoints. However, a survey experiment reveals that partisans are… more →
The Role of Education-Industry Match in College Earnings Premia
Many states incentivize college students to major in fields aligned with specific, often “in-demand” industries. While their goal is often to raise students’ labor market outcomes, little is known about whether matching one’s degree with an industry of work improves employment and earnings. We leverage a novel education-industry crosswalk applied to student and worker panel data covering over… more →
A randomized controlled trial of HighScope’s teacher professional learning on preschoolers' executive function skills
Teacher professional learning has been shown to promote children’s language, literacy, and social-emotional functioning - however, less is known about its impact on children’s executive function. In the present study, we employed a randomized controlled trial to understand whether HighScope’s teacher professional learning workshops and coaching can promote children’s executive function… more →
Unpacking the Long-Term Impact of Holistic Supports for Community College Students
This paper presents longer-term findings from a randomized controlled trial of One Million Degrees (OMD), a comprehensive support program for community college students in the Chicago metro area that provides financial, academic, personal, and professional assistance. Results from an initial evaluation found that an offer of a spot in the OMD program led to increased college enrollment,… more →
The Effect of Merit-Based Free Community College
Free community college is often promoted as a way to expand access and reduce student debt, but may have unintended consequences if it reduces bachelor’s degree completion for students diverted from better resourced four-year universities. By examining a meritbased free community college program in Chicago called the Star Scholarship, we identify the impact of free community college on a… more →
The Effects of An Automatic Notification Tool to Increase Participation in Advanced High School Courses: Results from a Large-Scale Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
Taking advanced courses in high school is associated with many positive high school and college outcomes. States and school districts are increasingly interested in more systematic approaches to identify qualified students for advanced course work. We developed an automatic notification tool, which used universal screening and a behavioral nudge for Grade 9 students to increase advanced course… more →
Exploring Factors Influencing Administrative Spending in Higher Education
Despite increasing financial challenges facing much of higher education, relatively little is known about how institutions allocate resources to different activities, particularly in areas other than instruction. In this research, I used detailed personnel spending data from HelioCampus and less granular functional expenditure data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to… more →
The Impact of Tutor Gender Match on Girls’ STEM Interest, Engagement, and Performance
Gender disparities in STEM persist despite girls performing as well as boys academically, suggesting girls may benefit from role models who shape their perceptions of STEM. We examine whether female math tutors influence girls’ STEM interest, attendance, and performance. We randomly assigned 422 ninth-grade students taking Algebra 1 to a same gender or opposite-gender tutor. Girls assigned to… more →
"Feel" as a Determinant of College Choice: Evidence from Campus Tour Weather
The feeling or impression that students get about enrolling in a particular college may be an important determinant of their college application decision. Combining institutional records on college campus tour participants over the last decade with hourly weather information, we leverage tour weather as a plausibly exogenous shock to students’ "feel" for attending the toured college. We find… more →
Math coursetaking trajectories in high school during the COVID-19 disruptions to schooling
Using student-level transcript data and information about instructional mode among public high school students in Massachusetts, this study examines the impact of disruptions to in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ math coursetaking trajectories. We find that rates of advancement (that is, of taking a higher-level math course in one year compared to the prior year)… more →
Remote Learning in 2020-21 and Student Attendance Since the COVID-19 Pandemic
Student attendance declined during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. This study examines the role of remote learning in these post-pandemic declines in student attendance. I find that remote learning in 2020-21 led to persistent declines in post-pandemic attendance, with generally larger negative effects for students exposed to longer periods of remote learning… more →
Dual-Enrollment Dosage Design: Conceptualization and Measurement of Student Profiles and School Structures
Dual-enrollment (“DE”), in which students enroll in college-level courses and receive college credit in high school, has become one of the most prominent strategies for promoting college access and readiness. DE models range from a la carte options or "random acts of dual-enrollment" to highly structured pathways leading to associate degrees embedded in whole-school reform models. However,… more →
Switching Schools: Effects of College Transfers
Using Texas administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, I study how transferring between colleges affects students’ earnings. I leverage applications and admissions data to uncover unpublished GPA cutoffs used for transfer student admissions at each fouryear institution, then use these cutoffs as an instrument for transfer. I do not find positive earnings returns for… more →
The Language of Closure: Examining Racial Differences in How A Community Discusses School Closure Metrics
School closures in urban districts disproportionately affect marginalized communities, yet community input often goes unanalyzed or is reduced to simple frequency counts. This study applies BERTopic, a neural topic modeling approach, to analyze 4,159 suggestions from 2,006 community members regarding school closure metrics in a large urban district. Through extensive hyperparameter tuning… more →
Testing frequency and student achievement: A systematic review
School-based testing is widely used for monitoring students’ academic progress. Proponents argue that testing ensures accountability and guides teachers and managers, whereas opponents point to adverse consequences such as teaching to the test, and frequent testing creating anxiety and stress. This review examined the effects of interventions that change how frequently primary and second-ary… more →
Are Work-Based Professional Skills Associated with Postsecondary Entrance and Persistence? Novel Evidence from the Cristo Rey Network
Professional skills such as initiative, communication, and adaptability are thought to shape postsecondary success, but most evidence comes from self- or teacher-reported measures collected in school settings. This study uses employer ratings of students’ professional skills gathered through corporate internships undertaken by economically disadvantaged high school students. After controlling… more →
Who Leaves? How Job and Teacher Characteristics Relate to Turnover in Child Care Settings
Early childhood care and education (ECCE) settings rely on teachers to support children’s development and families’ workforce participation. Yet ECCE teachers turn over at high rates, often twice as often as teachers in K-12 settings. Because large-scale ECCE workforce data are rare, little is known about how job and teacher characteristics relate to turnover. Using data on a large sample (N… more →
Not Too Young to Notice: The Early Emergence of Racial Disparities in Elementary Students’ School Climate Perceptions
Scholarship on school climate often fails to explore the perspectives of elementary-school students. To fill this gap, we use survey-data from Georgia to examine racial disparities in elementary-school students’ school climate perceptions, how they vary over time, and the factors that associate with them. We find that Black and "Other Race" students report worse school climate perceptions than… more →
Raising the Floor: Teacher Retention Effects of a Statewide Minimum Salary Increase
Attracting and retaining a high-quality teacher workforce is a central challenge for education policy, and higher teacher salaries are often proposed as a solution. The LEARNS Act increased Arkansas's minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, guaranteed all teachers a minimum raise of $2,000, and provided school districts with the flexibility to deviate from traditional, seniority-based… more →
Examining the Role of Policy Instruments in Supporting Public HBCUs’ College Affordability
This study uses a multiple-case qualitative research design to examine the fiscal policy instruments that members of State Legislative Black Caucuses (SLBC) use to strengthen college affordability and broaden access for undergraduate low-income Black students attending public HBCUs. Guided by the Policy Design Theory, this study analyzes nine semi-structured interviews and eleven legislative… more →
Understanding High Schools’ Effects on Longer-Term Outcomes
Improving education and labor market outcomes for low-income students is critical for advancing socioeconomic mobility in the United States. We use longitudinal data on five cohorts of 9th grade students to explore how Massachusetts public high schools affect the longer-term outcomes of students, with a special focus on students from low-income families. Using detailed administrative and… more →
Scaling student support with conversational artificial intelligence
AI-enabled chatbots are increasingly used to support student success, yet evidence on their long-term sustainability and impacts remains limited. We examine the implementation of an AI-enabled text-messaging chatbot at a large, urban public university. Drawing on system observation, discussions with administrators, and a four-year randomized controlled trial, we assess institutional conditions… more →
IDEA-Aligned Estimates of Racial Disproportionality in Special Education versus Conventional Approaches: A cautionary note on included-variable bias when achievement and socioeconomic status proxy for special education need
Racial disproportionality in special education is a contested policy space. Federal oversight has traditionally focused on minority over-representation through IDEA’s significant disproportionality framework. However, observational studies report that Black students appear under-identified based on a canonical model that regresses special education receipt on race and controls, notably prior… more →
The Consequences of Cellphone Restrictions in Classrooms
Schools are increasingly restricting cellphones worldwide amid concerns about achievement and mental health, yet causal evidence on school-level bans remains mixed. We examine cellphone restrictions in Chile before the pandemic, where teacher discretion over cellphone use generated classroom-level variation. Using administrative and survey data, we exploit cross-cohort, within-teacher, and… more →
Cheapskin Effects? The Heterogeneous Value of Industry-Recognized Certificates Earned by High School Students
Human capital theory and signaling models posit that educational credentials convey information about workers’ skills, producing discrete labor market returns beyond years of schooling. While extensive evidence documents these “sheepskin effects” for degrees, far less is known about industry-recognized certifications (IRCs) earned in high school. Using statewide administrative data from Texas… more →
Digital Incentives in Surveys: Response Rates and Sociodemographic Effects in a Large-Scale Parental Nudge Intervention
This study examines how digital incentives influence survey participation and engagement in a large randomized controlled trial of parents across six school districts. We test how incentive amount and information about vendor options affect response behavior and explore differences by language background. Incentivized parents were more likely to engage in the program, from starting the survey… more →
Beyond the Shutdown: Tracking Language Growth in Early Head Start Children Before, During, and After COVID-19
Understanding early language outcomes for low-income children in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is an important concern for researchers, policymakers, and educators. We examined language environments and language development among infants and toddlers in Early Head Start from pre-COVID, through the pandemic peak and beyond to 2025. Study children were aged 2-43 months (N = 2,763; 47% girls… more →
From Statistical to Analytic Generalization: New Directions for Qualitative Research on Teacher Retention
Quantitative research has played a prominent role in studies and policies focused on teacher retention. However, the field would benefit from qualitative research that utilizes analytic generalization, an approach where researchers generalize from empirical data by creating theoretical propositions about how, why, and under what conditions certain phenomena occur. This essay distinguishes… more →
Is Teacher Effectiveness Fully Portable? Evidence from the Random Assignment of Transfer Incentives
We examine how performance changes when teachers transfer across very different school contexts. The Talent Transfer Initiative program created a rare natural experiment to study such transfers by randomly assigning low-achieving schools the ability to offer high-performing teachers at higher-achieving schools a $20,000 transfer stipend. Forecast tests show that these high-performing teachers… more →
Understanding How HBCUs Leverage Partnerships to Support Students’ Basic Needs
Basic needs insecurity has become a pressing equity issue in U.S. higher education, yet little research examines how historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) address students’ holistic needs. Guided by a practice-based, pragmatic analytic orientation and informed by a basic needs services implementation rubric and an HBCU-based theoretical model, this qualitative case study… more →