EdWorkingPapers
Unpacking the Impacts of a Youth Behavioral Health Intervention: Experimental Evidence from Chicago
… Racial disparities in violence exposure and criminal justice contact are a subject of growing policy and public concern. We conduct a … and Latinx youth in Chicago. Over 24 months, youth offered the program experienced an 18 percent reduction in the …Racial disparities in violence exposure and criminal justice contact are a subject of growing policy and public concern. We conduct a large-scale, randomized controlled trial of a six-month behavioral health intervention combining intensive mentoring and group therapy designed to reduce criminal justice and violence involvement among Black and Latinx youth in Chicago. Over 24 months, youth… more →
Unintended Consequences of Youth Entrepreneurship Programs: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda
… The persistently high employment share of the informal sector makes entrepreneurship a necessity for … teachers, finding pedagogical changes as intended and increased entrepreneurial activity among students. In …The persistently high employment share of the informal sector makes entrepreneurship a necessity for youth in many developing countries. We exploit exogenous variation in the implementation of Rwanda’s entrepreneurship education reform in secondary schools to evaluate its effect on student economic outcomes up to three years after graduation. Using a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated a… more →
School-Based Disability Identification Varies by Student Family Income
… Currently, 18 percent of K-12 students in the United States receive additional … Using unique data linking information on Oregon students and their family income, we document pronounced income-based …Currently, 18 percent of K-12 students in the United States receive additional supports through the identification of a disability. Socioeconomic status is viewed as central to understanding who gets identified as having a disability, yet limited large-scale evidence examines how disability identification varies for students from different income backgrounds. Using unique data linking information… more →
Evaluating Education Governance: Does State Takeover of School Districts Affect Student Achievement?
… have primary authority for running educational systems in the U.S. but little is known empirically about the merits of this arrangement. State takeovers of struggling districts … a rare alternative form of educational governance and have become an increasingly common response to low …Local school boards have primary authority for running educational systems in the U.S. but little is known empirically about the merits of this arrangement. State takeovers of struggling districts represent a rare alternative form of educational governance and have become an increasingly common response to low performance. However, limited research explores whether this effectively improves… more →
Bridging human and machine scoring in experimental assessments of writing: tools, tips, and lessons learned from a field trial in education
… that each document first be manually coded for constructs of interest by human raters. An impact analysis can then be conducted to compare treatment and control groups, using the hand-coded scores as a measured outcome. This process is …In a randomized trial that collects text as an outcome, traditional approaches for assessing treatment impact require that each document first be manually coded for constructs of interest by human raters. An impact analysis can then be conducted to compare treatment and control groups, using the hand-coded scores as a measured outcome. This process is both time and labor-intensive, which creates… more →
Helping the Many by Tutoring the Few: The Social Multiplier of Early Literacy Instruction
… onto classmates. We instead randomize 81 Danish schools and 2,583 kindergartners, tutoring a few children in each and … all. Decoding improved 0.38 standard deviations among the pre-registered target group and 0.27 SD school-wide. … gained at least 0.19 SD, implying a social multiplier of at least three. Tutors were the schools’ own staff, so …Tutoring is almost always evaluated by randomizing students within schools, a design that differences out any spillover onto classmates. We instead randomize 81 Danish schools and 2,583 kindergartners, tutoring a few children in each and testing all. Decoding improved 0.38 standard deviations among the pre-registered target group and 0.27 SD school-wide. Bounds requiring only the test’s range and… more →
The Architecture of Expected Wage Gaps: Between- and Within-School Sources of Career Education Inequality
… even before labor market entry by examining Career and Technical Education (CTE) as a key mechanism for sorting … returns. Using Delaware administrative data and Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, we introduce … to these inequalities than schools' program offerings. The findings advance our understanding of novel mechanisms …This study investigates how school-level variation contributes to social stratification even before labor market entry by examining Career and Technical Education (CTE) as a key mechanism for sorting students into pathways with unequal economic returns. Using Delaware administrative data and Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, we introduce “expected wage” as a measure to quantify… more →
The Sensitivity of Value-Added Estimates to Test Scoring Decisions
… Value-Added Models (VAMs) are both common and controversial in education policy and accountability research. While the sensitivity of VAMs to model specification and covariate selection is …Value-Added Models (VAMs) are both common and controversial in education policy and accountability research. While the sensitivity of VAMs to model specification and covariate selection is well documented, the extent to which test scoring methods (e.g., mean scores vs. IRT-based scores) may affect VA estimates is less studied. We examine the sensitivity of VA estimates to scoring method using… more →
Backlash? Schooling Reassignments and the Politics of School Desegregation
… is typically ascribed to families’ dissatisfaction with the changes in schooling assignments required to achieve … aims. In this paper we use the empirical context of the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) to estimate … we combine unique data detailing the geography and timing of school reassignments within WCPSS with rich, …School desegregation efforts often spark fierce political backlash. This dissent is typically ascribed to families’ dissatisfaction with the changes in schooling assignments required to achieve desegregation aims. In this paper we use the empirical context of the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) to estimate the effect of diversity-driven schooling reassignments on public engagement with… more →
Credit Loss, Institutional Retention, and Postsecondary Persistence Among Vertical Transfer Students
… have served as a gateway to universities for millions of students—disproportionately so for students from … in higher education—prior research has demonstrated that the majority of vertical transfer students lose at least some … study, we drew from the literature on academic momentum and examined the relationship between credit loss, …Although community colleges have served as a gateway to universities for millions of students—disproportionately so for students from populations historically underrepresented in higher education—prior research has demonstrated that the majority of vertical transfer students lose at least some of their pretransfer credits. However, researchers examining how credit loss relates to subsequent… more →
Does Charter School Autonomy Improve Matching of Teacher Attributes with Student Needs?
… We examine the efficiency of traditional school districts versus charter schools in … students with teachers who meet their demographic and education needs. Using panel data from the state of …We examine the efficiency of traditional school districts versus charter schools in providing students with teachers who meet their demographic and education needs. Using panel data from the state of Michigan, we estimate the relationship between enrollment of Black, Hispanic, special education, and English learner students and the presence of Black, Hispanic, Special Education, and ESL teachers… more →
The Returns to Experience for School Principals
… Despite increasing recognition of the importance of high-quality school leadership, we know … Using administrative data from Tennessee, Oregon, and New York City, we estimate the returns to principal …Despite increasing recognition of the importance of high-quality school leadership, we know remarkably little about principal skill development. Using administrative data from Tennessee, Oregon, and New York City, we estimate the returns to principal experience as measured by student outcomes, teacher hiring and retention patterns, and teacher and supervisor ratings of principals. The typical… more →
PLUS or Minus? The Effect of Graduate School Loans on Access, Attainment, and Prices
… In 2006, the federal government effectively uncapped student borrowing for graduate programs with the introduction of the Graduate PLUS loan program. Access to additional … federal loans increased graduate students’ borrowing and shifted the composition of their loans from private to …In 2006, the federal government effectively uncapped student borrowing for graduate programs with the introduction of the Graduate PLUS loan program. Access to additional federal loans increased graduate students’ borrowing and shifted the composition of their loans from private to federal debt. However, the increase in borrowing limits did not improve access to existing programs overall or for… more →
Race below the fold: Race-evasiveness in the news media’s coverage of student loans
… The media discourse on student loans plays a significant role … in the way that policy actors conceptualize challenges and potential solutions related to student debt. This study … news outlets between 2006 and 2021. We found that 18% of articles use any racialized language, though use has …The media discourse on student loans plays a significant role in the way that policy actors conceptualize challenges and potential solutions related to student debt. This study examines the racialized language in student loan news articles published in eight major news outlets between 2006 and 2021. We found that 18% of articles use any racialized language, though use has accelerated since 2018.… more →
Digital redlining: the relevance of 20th century housing policy to 21st century broadband access and education
… its increasing importance to education. We investigate the relationship between broadband and housing policy by joining two measures of broadband access with Depression-era redlining maps that …Broadband is not equally accessible among students despite its increasing importance to education. We investigate the relationship between broadband and housing policy by joining two measures of broadband access with Depression-era redlining maps that classified neighborhoods based in part on racist and classist beliefs. We find that despite internet service provider selfreports of similar… more →
Comparing the School Readiness Skills of Public Pre-Kindergarten and Head Start Participants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
… A systematic review of the literature (1965–2022) and meta-analysis were …A systematic review of the literature (1965–2022) and meta-analysis were undertaken to compare the school readiness skills of children participating in public pre-kindergarten (pre-K) or Head Start. Seven quasi-experimental studies met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis and 38 effect sizes were analyzed. Results indicated no reliable meta-analytic effect in relation to children’s school… more →
The Other Half of the Story: Does Excluding the Early Grades from School Ratings Matter?
… it is possible that children’s test scores in grades 3 and above are highly correlated with children’s outcomes in the untested grades, research provides reasons to believe … case in all schools. This study explores whether measures of school quality based on test scores in grades 3 through 5 …Because high-stakes testing for school accountability does not begin until third grade, accountability ratings for elementary schools do not directly measure students’ academic progress in grades K through 2. While it is possible that children’s test scores in grades 3 and above are highly correlated with children’s outcomes in the untested grades, research provides reasons to believe that this… more →
Student Selection into an Income Share Agreement
… an income share agreement (ISA) is an arrangement where the student agrees to pay a fixed percentage of future earned income for a designated period of time in exchange for college funding. Using administrative and survey data for all eligible applicants to a university …Financing college expenses through an income share agreement (ISA) is an arrangement where the student agrees to pay a fixed percentage of future earned income for a designated period of time in exchange for college funding. Using administrative and survey data for all eligible applicants to a university ISA program, I estimate the adverse selection into the ISA and provide preliminary estimates… more →
Racial Category Usage in Education Research: Examining the Publications from AERA Journals
… included all original empirical studies published in the non-review AERA journals from 2009 to 2019. We found two-thirds of articles used at least one racial category term, with an … to almost three-quarters of published studies between 2009 and 2019. Other trends include the increasing popularity of …How scholars name different racial groups has powerful salience for understanding what researchers study. We explored how education researchers used racial terminology in recently published, high-profile, peer-reviewed studies. Our sample included all original empirical studies published in the non-review AERA journals from 2009 to 2019. We found two-thirds of articles used at least one racial… more →
Does Principal Professional Development Improve Schooling Outcomes? Evidence from Pennsylvania’s Inspired Leadership Induction Program
… Principals shape the academic setting of schools. Yet, there is limited evidence on whether … Using panel data on all Pennsylvania students, teachers, and principals, we leverage variation in the timing of PIL …Principals shape the academic setting of schools. Yet, there is limited evidence on whether principal professional development improves schooling outcomes. Beginning in 2008-09, Pennsylvania’s Inspired Leadership (PIL) induction program required that newly hired principals complete targeted in-service professional development tied to newly established state leadership standards within five years… more →
Reaping the Rewards Later: How Education Improves Old-Age Cognition in South Africa
… Cognition, a component of human capital, is fundamental for decision-making, and understanding the causes of human capital depreciation in old age is …Cognition, a component of human capital, is fundamental for decision-making, and understanding the causes of human capital depreciation in old age is especially important in aging societies. Using various proxy measures of cognitive performance from a longitudinal survey in South Africa, we study how education affects cognition in late adulthood. We show that an extra year of schooling improves… more →
College Credit on the Table? Advanced Placement Course and Exam Taking
… Millions of high school students who take an Advanced Placement (AP) … 30 subjects can earn college credit by performing well on the corresponding AP exam. Using data from four metro-Atlanta … which generally commands college credit at colleges and universities across the United States. Next, we examine …Millions of high school students who take an Advanced Placement (AP) course in one of over 30 subjects can earn college credit by performing well on the corresponding AP exam. Using data from four metro-Atlanta public school districts, we find that 15 percent of students’ AP courses do not result in an AP exam. We predict that up to 32 percent of the AP courses that do not result in an AP exam… more →
Effectiveness Research for Teacher Education
… Despite calls for more evidence regarding the effectiveness of teacher education practices, causal research in the field remains rare. One reason is that we lack designs and measurement approaches that appropriately meet the …Despite calls for more evidence regarding the effectiveness of teacher education practices, causal research in the field remains rare. One reason is that we lack designs and measurement approaches that appropriately meet the challenges of causal inference in the context of teacher education programs. This article provides a framework for how to fill this gap. We first outline the difficulties of… more →
First Impressions: The Case of Teacher Racial Bias
… We study racial bias and the persistence of first impressions in the context of education. Teachers …We study racial bias and the persistence of first impressions in the context of education. Teachers who begin their careers in classrooms with large black-white score gaps carry negative views into evaluations of future cohorts of black students. Our evidence is based on novel data on blind evaluations and non-blind public school teacher assessments of fourth and fifth graders in North… more →
Developing Ambitious Mathematics Instruction Through Web-Based Coaching: A Randomized Field Trial
… This paper describes and evaluates a web-based coaching program designed to … and on their instructional practice, as measured the Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI) instrument and student surveys. However, …This paper describes and evaluates a web-based coaching program designed to support teachers in implementing Common Core-aligned math instruction. Web-based coaching programs can be operated at relatively lower costs, are scalable, and make it more feasible to pair teachers with coaches who have expertise in their content area and grade level. Results from our randomized field trial document… more →
Does High School Size Affect Rates of Risky Health Behaviors and Poor Mental Health Among Low-Income Teenagers? Evidence from New York City
… There is increasing concern about risky behaviors and poor mental health among school-aged youth. A critical … and structure affect health outcomes by examining the impacts of a popular urban high school reform -- “small schools” -- …There is increasing concern about risky behaviors and poor mental health among school-aged youth. A critical factor in youth well-being is school attendance. This study evaluates how school organization and structure affect health outcomes by examining the impacts of a popular urban high school reform -- “small schools” -- on youth risky behaviors and mental health, using data from New York City… more →
Political Views and College Choices in a Polarized America
… We examine the role of students’ political views in shaping college enrollment … political identities, which could reinforce demographic and regional disparities in educational attainment and reduce …We examine the role of students’ political views in shaping college enrollment decisions in the United States. We hypothesize that students derive utility from attending institutions aligned with their political identities, which could reinforce demographic and regional disparities in educational attainment and reduce ideological diversity on campuses. Using four decades of survey data on college… more →
Experimental Evidence on the Robustness of Coaching Supports in Teacher Education
… Many novice teachers learn to teach “on-the-job,” leading to burnout and attrition among teachers and negative outcomes for … with optimizing teacher readiness, but there is a lack of causal evidence regarding effective ways for preparing new …Many novice teachers learn to teach “on-the-job,” leading to burnout and attrition among teachers and negative outcomes for students in the long term. Pre-service teacher education is tasked with optimizing teacher readiness, but there is a lack of causal evidence regarding effective ways for preparing new teachers. In this paper, we use a mixed reality simulation platform to evaluate the causal… more →
Public-Sector Leadership and Venture Philanthropy: The Case of Broad Superintendents
… Major philanthropic initiatives that incorporate features of venture-capital practices have become increasingly … education. In this study, we provide empirical evidence on the reach, character, and impact of the Broad Superintendents Academy, a prominent …Major philanthropic initiatives that incorporate features of venture-capital practices have become increasingly prominent, particularly in K-12 public education. In this study, we provide empirical evidence on the reach, character, and impact of the Broad Superintendents Academy, a prominent and controversial venture-philanthropic initiative designed to transform leadership in the nation’s… more →
The Inequitable Effects of Teacher Layoffs: What We Know and Can Do
… including teacher layoffs. In this brief, we synthesize the empirical literature on the widespread teacher layoffs … find that teacher layoffs harmed student achievement and were inequitably distributed across schools, teachers, … and students. Research suggests that specific elements of the layoff process can exacerbate these negative effects. …Economic downturns can cause major funding shortfalls for U.S. public schools, often forcing districts to make difficult budget cuts including teacher layoffs. In this brief, we synthesize the empirical literature on the widespread teacher layoffs caused by the Great Recession. Studies find that teacher layoffs harmed student achievement and were inequitably distributed across schools, teachers,… more →
Practitioner Voices Summit: How Teachers Evaluate AI Tools through Deliberative Sensemaking
… as agentic decision-makers in this process. Understanding the criteria teachers use to evaluate AI tools, and the conditions that support such reasoning, is essential … Rigorous) — that addressed both AI outputs and the process of using AI. Criteria contained productive tensions (e.g., …Teachers face growing pressure to integrate AI tools into their classrooms, yet are rarely positioned as agentic decision-makers in this process. Understanding the criteria teachers use to evaluate AI tools, and the conditions that support such reasoning, is essential for responsible AI integration. We address this gap through a two-day national summit in which 61 U.S. K–12 mathematics educators… more →
Superintendent (In)Stability and Student Achievement in the United States
… Superintendents shape conditions for teaching and learning, yet the limited studies of their impact—concentrated in a few states and focused on …Superintendents shape conditions for teaching and learning, yet the limited studies of their impact—concentrated in a few states and focused on superintendent turnover—find small or null effects on student achievement. Using more than 37,000 district-year records from national superintendents and student achievement datasets, and drawing on organizational learning and managerial succession… more →
First Impressions Matter: Instructor Gender and Women’s Persistence in Economics
… Using near-random assignment of students to instructors in introductory economics at a … economics. Female instructors close roughly 40 percent of the gender gap in advanced economics course-taking, with a … one-third of the gender-match effect. Class fixed effects and the absence of a detectable male-student response make it …Using near-random assignment of students to instructors in introductory economics at a broad-access public university, we study how instructor gender affects women’s persistence in economics. Female instructors close roughly 40 percent of the gender gap in advanced economics course-taking, with a similar but less precisely estimated improvement in major completion. The effect is concentrated in… more →
Leveraging Large Language Models to Assess Short Text Responses
… Educational practitioners and researchers often score short, unstructured text for the presence or strength of domain-specific constructs. Manual scoring, however, faces …Educational practitioners and researchers often score short, unstructured text for the presence or strength of domain-specific constructs. Manual scoring, however, faces limitations, including time- and labor-intensiveness. Large language models (LLMs) offer an automated alternative to manual scoring, yet questions remain regarding LLM implementation and performance when scoring text requires… more →
Contemporary Child Labor and Declining School Attendance in the U.S.
… The United States has experienced a 400% increase in reported … decade, coinciding with declines in K-12 school attendance and enrollment. We examine the causal relationships between … farms. A 10-percentage-point increase in the local share of employment in high child labor violation industries leads …The United States has experienced a 400% increase in reported child labor violations over the past decade, coinciding with declines in K-12 school attendance and enrollment. We examine the causal relationships between these patterns with microdata from the American Community Survey (ACS) from 2005 to 2023. Using a shift-share instrumental variable approach, our findings show that increased local… more →
Closing the Gender Gap in STEM: Role of Performance Feedback and Advice
… The gender gap in STEM careers is shaped in part by … two interventions—absolute performance feedback and personalized advice— aiming at narrowing the gender … chose between a math or verbal task after receiving one of three treatments: performance feedback on prior tasks, …The gender gap in STEM careers is shaped in part by educational choices. This study investigates two interventions—absolute performance feedback and personalized advice— aiming at narrowing the gender disparities in investments in math skills. Using an online lab experiment, participants chose between a math or verbal task after receiving one of three treatments: performance feedback on prior… more →
Investing in College Readiness: Societal Benefits and Costs of the El Dorado College Promise Program
… A growing volume of research shows college promise programs increase the likelihood that students enroll in and complete college. Place-based promise programs provide a …A growing volume of research shows college promise programs increase the likelihood that students enroll in and complete college. Place-based promise programs provide a guaranteed college scholarship for students who attend a specified school district. We examine the societal benefits and costs of a place-based scholarship program in rural Arkansas, the El Dorado Promise. Our cost framework… more →
Framework for Evaluating & Reforming Education Finance Systems
… paper presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating and reforming education finance systems to ensure equity, … conceptual work, explaining our evolving understanding of the role and purpose of school finance systems, leading to …This paper presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating and reforming education finance systems to ensure equity, adequacy, and equal opportunity in publicly funded education. We summarize decades conceptual work, explaining our evolving understanding of the role and purpose of school finance systems, leading to our current framing that the purpose of these systems is to deliver the… more →
What Happens When We Pay Our Teachers More? Evidence from New Jersey Public Schools
… This paper examines the impact of increasing teacher salaries on student outcomes by … a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach and first show that the campaign raised salaries for all …This paper examines the impact of increasing teacher salaries on student outcomes by exploiting variation from the “50K The First Day” campaign that established a $50K salary floor for new teachers across New Jersey school districts. Using school-level data from 2003 to 2019, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach and first show that the campaign raised salaries for all… more →
Human Capital at Home: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in the Philippines
… Children spend most of their time at home in their early years, yet efforts to promote human capital at home in many low- and middle-income settings remain limited. We conduct a … gain 0.52 and 0.51 standard deviations relative to the control group on math and phonics tests, respectively …Children spend most of their time at home in their early years, yet efforts to promote human capital at home in many low- and middle-income settings remain limited. We conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an intervention which encourages parents and caregivers to foster human capital accumulation among their children between ages 3 and 5, with a focus on math and phonics skills.… more →
Public Good Perceptions and Polarization: Evidence from Higher Education Appropriations
… To understand the causes and consequences of polarized demand …To understand the causes and consequences of polarized demand for government expenditure, we conduct three field experiments in the context of public higher education. The first two experiments study polarization in taxpayer demand. We provide information to shape beliefs about social returns on investment. Our treatments narrow the political partisan gap in ideal policies---a reduction in… more →
Constrained Agency and the Architecture of Educational Choice: Evidence from New York City
… greater access to high-quality schools by weakening the link between residential location and school assignment. We leverage data on the school choices … and high-quality schools enroll smaller proportions of students from traditionally disadvantaged families. We …Many school districts consider family preferences in allocating students to schools. In theory, this approach provides traditionally disadvantaged families greater access to high-quality schools by weakening the link between residential location and school assignment. We leverage data on the school choices made by over 233,000 New York City families to examine the extent to which the city’s… more →
HBCU Enrollment and Longer-Term Outcomes
… data from nearly 1.2 million Black SAT takers, we estimate the impacts of initially enrolling in an Historically Black College and University (HBCU) on educational, economic, and financial …Using data from nearly 1.2 million Black SAT takers, we estimate the impacts of initially enrolling in an Historically Black College and University (HBCU) on educational, economic, and financial outcomes. We control for the college application portfolio and compare students with similar portfolios and levels of interest in HBCUs and non-HBCUs who ultimately make divergent enrollment decisions -… more →
The Role of School Context in Explaining Racial Disproportionality in Special Education
… There has been an explosion of research on racial disproportionality in special education. Some recent research shifts the focus from the role of student characteristics alone to … literature using eight years of elementary student-and school-level data from NYC public schools, examining more …There has been an explosion of research on racial disproportionality in special education. Some recent research shifts the focus from the role of student characteristics alone to inquire whether school context moderates findings (e.g., is a Black student less likely than a White student to receive special education services as the proportion of a school’s Black students increases?). We… more →
Discipline Reform, School Culture, and Student Achievement
… Using a difference-in-differences framework, we exploit the sharp timing of the reform and natural variation in its impact to measure …Does relaxing strict school discipline improve student achievement, or lead to classroom disorder? We study a 2012 reform in New York City public middle schools that eliminated suspensions for non-violent, disorderly behavior, replacing them with less disruptive interventions. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we exploit the sharp timing of the reform and natural variation in its… more →
Second Time's the Charm? How Sustained Relationships from Repeat Student-Teacher Matches Build Academic and Behavioral Skills
… We examine the dynamic nature of student-teacher match quality by studying the effect of … teacher for more than one year. Using data from Tennessee and panel methods, we find that having a repeat teacher …We examine the dynamic nature of student-teacher match quality by studying the effect of having a teacher for more than one year. Using data from Tennessee and panel methods, we find that having a repeat teacher improves achievement and decreases absences, truancy, and suspensions. These results are robust to a range of tests for student and teacher sorting. High-achieving students benefit most… more →
The Effect of Active Learning Professional Development Training on College Students’ Academic Outcomes
… Growing literature documents the promise of active learning instruction in engaging students in … of these programs is limited. Using administrative data and an individual fixed effects approach, we estimate the …Growing literature documents the promise of active learning instruction in engaging students in college classrooms. Accordingly, faculty professional development (PD) programs on active learning have become increasingly popular in postsecondary institutions; yet, quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of these programs is limited. Using administrative data and an individual fixed effects… more →
Segregating Gotham's Youngest: Racial/Ethnic Sorting and the Choice Architecture of New York City’s Pre-K for All
… New York City’s Pre-K for All (PKA) is the Nation’s largest universal early childhood initiative, … seat availability, site-level enrollment priorities, and the PKA algorithm that weighs these and other considerations. We find that a majority of PKA segregation lies within rather than between local …New York City’s Pre-K for All (PKA) is the Nation’s largest universal early childhood initiative, currently serving some 70,000 four-year-olds. Stemming from the program’s choice architecture as well as the City’s stark residential segregation, PKA programs are extremely segregated by child race/ethnicity. Our current study explores the complex forces that influence this segregation, including… more →
Class Rank and Long-Run Outcomes
… This paper considers an unavoidable feature of the school environment, class rank. What are the long-run … third-grade academic rank, conditional on achievement and classroom fixed effects, have higher subsequent test …This paper considers an unavoidable feature of the school environment, class rank. What are the long-run effects of a student’s ordinal rank in elementary school? Using administrative data on all public-school students in Texas, we show that students with a higher third-grade academic rank, conditional on achievement and classroom fixed effects, have higher subsequent test scores, are more likely… more →
Examining the Educational Spillover Effects of Severe Natural Disasters: The Case of Hurricane Maria
… This study examines the effects of internal migration driven by severe natural disasters on host communities, and the mechanisms behind these effects, using the large …This study examines the effects of internal migration driven by severe natural disasters on host communities, and the mechanisms behind these effects, using the large influx of migrants into Florida public schools after Hurricane Maria. I find adverse effects of the influx in the first year on existing student test scores, disciplinary problems, and student mobility among high-performing students… more →