EdWorkingPapers
The Geography of Gifted Education: Exploring School and Neighborhood Predictors of Access to Gifted & Talented Programs in New York City
This study examines the community factors associated with the presence and geographic availability of Gifted and Talented (G&T) programs across New York City public schools from 2010 to 2024. Using machine learning methods (Random Forest and Classification Trees) and cross-classified multilevel logistic regression, we identify school and neighborhood characteristics associated with G&T… more →
An inequitable distribution of teacher talent: How micropolitics shape the master schedule
Each year, school leaders must balance the competing interests of students and teachers when creating the master schedule and assigning teachers to courses. Using a micropolitical lens, this study draws on interviews with 17 secondary school leaders to examine how they navigate this process. We find that the course assignment process is largely centered on teacher satisfaction, with teacher… more →
The Labor Market Value of Community College Bachelor’s Degrees: Initial Evidence from a Resume Audit Study in Early Childhood Education
Community colleges are more financially, academically, and geographically accessible than four-year colleges. Despite most community college students intending to earn a bachelor’s degree, few transfer to a four-year institution and even fewer earn bachelor’s degrees, leading policymakers to explore alternative strategies for increasing postsecondary access and success. Community College… more →
The Role of Course Delivery Modality in Dual Enrollment
Dual enrollment, or college courses offered in high school, can be delivered using a variety of modalities. Conducted in North Carolina, this study uses a statewide dataset to examine participation in and outcomes for three different delivery modalities for general academic courses and Career and Technical Education (CTE) dual enrollment courses: 1) on the college campus; 2) online; and 3) at a… more →
Making Civics Salient: Local Political Knowledge for Democratic Participation
Civic education can provide students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become informed and engaged citizens. However, empirical research reveals that civics curricula have achieved limited or inconsistent success in meeting these democratic imperatives for young people in a pluralistic and multiracial United States. Drawing from scholarship on personal issue salience and local… more →
Selling Student Success: A Critical Analysis of Predictive Analytics Vendors in Higher Education
As predictive analytics become increasingly embedded in higher education, commercial vendors offering these tools play a growing role in shaping institutional decision making, particularly through identifying students deemed “at risk.” In this qualitative study, we analyzed 132 publicly available materials from 15 vendors to examine these companies’ marketing of predictive analytics. Drawing on… more →
Parental Health Behaviors Spill Over Through Peers to Shape Risk Environments and Adolescent Mental Health
I study whether peer-family health composition affects adolescent risk environments, school relationships, and mental health. Using nationally representative data from the China Education Panel Survey, I exploit quasi-random variation in the share of a student's middle school classmates whose parents report that they never smoke and never drink. A one-standard-deviation increase in exposure to… more →
Discipline Beyond Suspensions: Racial/Ethnic Disparities Across the Spectrum of Disciplinary Actions
Little research examines whether the alternatives to suspension reduce racial/ethnic discipline disparities. Using unusually rich administrative data from a large district in the South, we investigate how schools use a range of disciplinary actions and the racial/ethnic gaps in their use. School leaders may respond to discipline incidents with a variety of guidance-based and punitive actions, but… more →
Conditional Hypothesis Generation for LLM-Based Text Analysis with Researcher-Specified Covariates
A core goal of computational social science is to discover interpretable differences in how language varies across outcomes of interest, such as political affiliation or instructional quality. Recent LLM-based hypothesis generation methods describe such differences in natural language, but select for globally discriminative patterns without accounting for covariates — identified through… more →
“Does it fit in a box we can check off?” The interpretive work of identifying doubled-up homeless students
Identifying doubled-up homeless students is crucial to securing their educational rights and understanding the extent of housing insecurity among school-aged children. Drawing on a survey and focus groups conducted with NYC district and school staff, we introduce interpretive work as a central but underexamined feature of the identification process. While the broad and flexible federal definition… more →
Teacher Localness, Early-Career Effectiveness, and Retention
Recruiting locally connected individuals has gained policy attention under recent “Grow-Your-Own” initiatives, yet evidence linking teacher localness to student achievement and retention is limited. Using statewide Maryland data on teachers’ high school enrollment, postsecondary training, prior school employment, and certification, we examine three dimensions of localness: growing up locally,… more →
Resegregating the Academy: How Anti-DEI Politics Dismantle Faculty Racial Equity Infrastructure
Since 2021, state legislatures and then the federal government have moved to dismantle programs and offices built over seventy-five years to reduce barriers for racially marginalized people in American higher education—losses largely examined in scholarship and media piecemeal, one policy or state at a time. We argue that the supports under assault constitute a system of faculty racial equity… more →
Course Failure in Dual Enrollment and the Impact on College-Going
Dual enrollment (DE) has expanded rapidly as a strategy to broaden access to college-level coursework, particularly for students historically excluded from advanced academic opportunities. This study examines the characteristics of students who fail dual enrollment, the consequences of failure, and whether attempting DE retains value even for students who do not succeed. Using administrative data… more →
Family Language Transmission Under Institutional Language Regimes Shapes Adolescent Mental Health Through Peers
In many societies, institutional languages shape participation, recognition, and belonging, while families transmit language backgrounds across generations. These inherited backgrounds may contribute to children’s communication and, once children enter shared peer environments, to the experiences of their classmates. I show evidence that family language backgrounds travel across households… more →
Examining the Relationship Between Randomization Strategies and Contamination in Higher Education Interventions
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the reference method for causal inference. To conduct field experiments in educational settings, study design must balance statistical power with the risk of treatment-control contamination. This study investigates both crossover and spillover contamination in a large-enrollment, in-person college course in which we tested an AI-enabled chatbot intervention… more →
Compounded Disadvantage: Intersectional Inequities in Chronic Absenteeism Prevalence and Recovery During the COVID-19 Era
This study applies an intersectional lens to examine how chronic absenteeism evolved across intersecting dimensions of race, gender, economic disadvantage, disability status, and housing instability before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic using statewide, administrative data from Georgia. Consistent with national evidence, chronic absenteeism roughly doubled from prepandemic levels and… more →
Career and Technical Education as a Strategy to Improve Long-term Outcomes for English Language Learners
Career and Technical Education (CTE) has emerged as a strategy to enhance college and labor market outcomes for all students, yet little is known about its implications for multilingual students classified as English Learners (ML-ELs). Using longitudinal data from Massachusetts, this study provides some of the first evidence on ML-ELs’ CTE participation and its relationship with long-term… more →
The Maternal Labor Market Effects of State Pre-K Funding
Public pre-kindergarten (pre-K) is primarily designed as an educational policy for young children but has attracted attention as a potential lever to support maternal employment. This study provides national evidence on the maternal labor market effects of state pre-K funding, exploiting variation in public investment across states and over time (academic years 2002-2024). Using a triple-… more →
Institutional Resources or Changing Compositions? Unpacking Neighborhood Effects on Education
Children in neighborhoods marked by concentrated poverty and racial isolation face persistent educational barriers, yet the mechanisms underlying neighborhood effects remain poorly understood. This study employs a multi-method analysis of the Near North Side Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) in St. Louis, Missouri—the nation's largest mixed-income redevelopment program—to unpack two core… more →
Why Are Bureaucrats More Left-Wing?
Government employees often have policy beliefs that do not reflect those of the public. Civil servants are frequently more supportive of redistribution, which critics attribute to a state that socializes employees to be self-interested. But left-leaning citizens may instead self-select into public jobs. We test these two explanations using the case of Brazilian teachers. Leveraging selection… more →
Teacher Sorting and Preferences over School Disadvantage: Evidence from Performance Pay in Texas
In this paper I study how performance-based compensation affects teacher mobility and sorting using the Texas Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA), a statewide program introduced in 2019. TIA gives teachers a tiered quality designation, Recognized, Exemplary, or Master, based on performance evaluations and value-added measures. These designations are portable across schools and come with a salary… more →
Unequal Foundations: Racial Disparities in School Building Conditions in New York State
School infrastructure is a critical yet often overlooked factor shaping student health, learning, and well-being. This study examines racial disparities in public school building conditions across New York State using building inspection data linked to demographic and fiscal data. Schools serving more students of color are significantly more likely to have poor overall conditions, inadequate… more →
Let’s Chat: Leveraging Chatbot Outreach for Improved Course Performance
This study provides pre-registered, experimental evidence on the use of non-generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to support students in large-enrollment undergraduate courses. We find the chatbot messaging increased students’ final grades and engagement with academic supports, such as tutoring. Treatment effects were generally consistent across student demographics, with the exception… more →
Boosting Dual Enrollment Participation by Simplifying Access for High School Students
Despite the promise of dual enrollment to expand college access, racial disparities in participation persist, and limited research examines policies designed to reduce access barriers. Using statewide student-level data from 2013–14 to 2021–22 and difference-in-differences approaches, I estimate the causal impact of College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) partnerships, which aimed to reduce… more →
Principal Effects on Teacher Working Conditions
Research on school principals highlights their role in shaping teachers’ work environments, but most evidence is qualitative or correlational. We provide plausibly causal estimates of how principals affect a wide range of teacher working conditions using data from Illinois, where the State Board of Education collects detailed information on working conditions annually. Our identification strategy… more →
Comparative Cost Analyses of Community College Student Success Initiatives
Limited resources hinder community college completion. Even with strategies shown to improve outcomes, decisionmakers still ask: What does it cost? Can we afford it? I present the first comparative cost analyses of six student success initiatives: basic needs supports, college/career success courses, early alerts, embedded tutoring, retention/emergency aid, and first-year experience programming.… more →
Does Relative Performance Feedback Improve Academic Outcomes? Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial in a Spanish University
The effects of relative performance feedback on student achievement remain contested in the economics of education literature. Some studies find that providing students with information about their standing relative to peers improves academic outcomes, while others show negative effects driven by reduced effort among students who learn they perform better than expected. This paper provides new… more →
Access is Not Enough: Human Support Improves Engagement with AI Tutoring
AI tutoring platforms offer a promising path to scaling personalized instruction, but only if students use them. We report findings from two randomized controlled trials in which elementary students were assigned to use an AI literacy platform independently or with an in-person tutor focused on engagement, not direct instruction. Despite dedicated session time, nearly half of students in the… more →
The Anatomy of a High-Price Question: Text, Skills, and the Economics of Achievement Measurement
Standardized test scores aggregate item (question) responses into a single scalar, collapsing distinct skills into an undifferentiated measure of proficiency. Which of these component skills matter most for long-run economic outcomes is a question that aggregate scores cannot answer. We develop a framework that looks both inside the score - re-weighting items by their predictive power for a… more →
Quantifying the Double Advantage: A Multilevel Bayesian Analysis of Same-Race (Black) Teacher Matching on Literacy and Promotion
A growing body of research has highlighted the positive impact of Black teachers on the academic outcomes of Black students. This experimental study contributes to that literature by examining the relationship between teacher–student race matching and the likelihood of grade retention for third-grade Black students in Jackson, Mississippi. This study built on the historical legacy of Black… more →
Property Tax Salience and Public Good Investment: Evidence from School Bond Elections
In 2019, Texas passed legislation requiring that the ballot text for all school bond referenda include the phrase “THIS IS A PROPERTY TAX INCREASE,” highlighting property taxes as their primary funding mechanism. Evaluating the impact of this policy change on voter behavior in a difference-in-differences framework, we find that the introduction of property tax disclaimers reduced the passage rate… 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 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 →
Do Neighbors Shape the Sticker Price? Spatial Competition and State Funding in Cost of Attendance Reporting Over Time
Federal law requires U.S. postsecondary institutions to publish a Cost of Attendance (COA) that serves as the legal ceiling on a student's federal financial aid eligibility, yet off-campus living costs are estimated by institutions at their own discretion, with no standardized methodology or external audit. Using a 14-year panel of 2,311 four-year institutions (2010-2023) and externally… more →
Separation of Church and State Curricula? Public Standards, Private Values, and Textbook Content
Curricula are a critical site of cultural transmission, yet we know little about the values conveyed in textbooks across educational settings or the forces that shape them. We examine textbooks from Texas and California public schools and religious-private and home schools spanning 1980-2022, using computational and AI tools to measure presence and portrayal of people, topics, and values over… more →
Identifying Effective Attendance Strategies in Michigan
Chronic absenteeism remains a persistent challenge in Michigan and across the country in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic (Singer, 2024). While schools have expanded their efforts to improve attendance—implementing a wide range of practices, systems, and supports (Singer & Lenhoff, 2025)—there is still limited evidence about which of these strategies are most effective in improving… more →
Beyond School Police Officers: Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Exposure to a Fuller Range of School Security Personnel
Using data from the 2017–18 and 2020–21 Civil Rights Data Collection, we document dispari-ties in exposure to security personnel across US high schools and geographic levels. We dis-tinguish between law enforcement officers (LEOs) and school security guards (SSGs) to cap-ture variation in how security roles are deployed. Results show that Black and Hispanic stu-dents experience greater exposure… more →
High School Effects on Civic Engagement
Preparing young people for citizenship is a foundational purpose of public education, yet little is known about whether or how K-12 schools impact civic engagement. Using education, birth, and voting records for nine cohorts of students in Indiana, I estimate and assess the validity of high school effects on voting. School effects on voting are significant and practically meaningful: a one… more →
The Impact of Statewide Virtual Charter Schools on District Segregation
Enrollment patterns in K-12 online (“virtual”) charter schools have the potential to influence segregation in traditional brick-and-mortar public schools. Yet, research has largely ignored how online schooling options impact racial segregation and poverty concentration within district schools. To address this gap, I conduct two complementary studies: In the first study, I exploit variation in the… more →
From Pilot to Policy: Experimental Evidence from Scaling Online Tutoring
We study a randomized controlled trial of an online mathematics tutoring program scaled from a successful pilot and implemented entirely by regional education authorities in Spain, using interim public-school teachers rather than specially recruited tutors. Assignment to tutoring increased end-of- year grades by 0.15σ and standardized math test scores by 0.11σ — approximately one-third of pilot… more →
The Effects of High-Impact Tutoring on Student Attendance: Evidence from a State Initiative
Student absenteeism surged during and after the pandemic, harming engagement and achievement. We evaluate the impact of Washington DC’s High-Impact Tutoring (HIT) Initiative—designed to mitigate learning loss through targeted academic supports—on student absenteeism. Using daily attendance data and a within-student fixed effects design, we find that students were 1.2 percentage points less likely… more →
Sensemaking in the Program Stream: How Local Leaders Re-purposed the “ALL In Virginia” Policy
School and district leaders are challenged to comprehend and translate policy into practice, a process shaped by cognitive, social, and political dynamics. This study offers a conceptual analysis of Virginia's post-COVID-19 “ALL In” policy, which directed nearly half a billion dollars to school districts, primarily for high-dosage tutoring. We examine ALL In VA implementation through the… more →
Success Begets Success: The Dynamic Treatment Effects of Financial Aid Tournaments
Financial aid programs in higher education vary widely in design, including how aid is structured and the timing of provision. This paper studies the impact of financial aid provided as a repeated tournament and its dynamic treatment effects. Pooling administrative data that captures 32% of all tertiary students in a single European country, I exploit a relative GPAbased eligibility rule in a… more →
The Fall of Accountability: Federal Education Politics in an Era of Polarization and Regime Decay
Twenty-five years ago, the United States was on the cusp of a major expansion of the federal government’s role in K-12 education policy. The No Child Left Behind legislation passed with bipartisan support and established standards and accountability as strategies to improve education. Until roughly 2013, reading and math scores did improve; however, in the years since, student achievement on test… more →
The Causal Effect of Student Absences Post Pandemic: Evidence from Three School Systems
Researchers, educators, and policymakers have long worried about the consequences of student absences for educational achievement and attainment—concerns that have grown with the significant rise in absenteeism during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. Using administrative data from Maryland, North Carolina, and a large urban school district, we find that the impact of absences on test scores… more →
Embrace, Contradiction, or Prohibition: A National Scan of State Policies for Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education
This qualitative document review is a national scan of state policies pertaining to culturally responsive and sustaining education (CRSE) as of September 2025. We present a typology of states—CRSE Forward, CRSE Conflicted, CRSE Limited, and CRSE Prohibitive—reflecting how CRSE is taken up in states’ teaching standards and the extent to which states’ policy environments are supportive of CRSE. Our… more →
The Challenge of Capturing Higher-Order Thinking Skills at Scale
Higher-order thinking skills are important for K-12 students’ long-term success. However, the lack of widely administered assessments designed to capture this construct has made it difficult to measure higher-order skills at scale. This paper examines the measurement properties of an approach to capturing higher-order skills using extant statewide standardized testing data. We use item-level data… more →
Effects of Dual-Language Immersion on Attendance and Reclassification in a Large Urban District
Dual-language immersion (DLI) programs have proliferated across the United States, yet evidence on their effects for English Learner-designated (EL) students in large, diverse urban districts remains limited. This study examines DLI's effects on attendance and reclassification—two outcomes that worsened for ELs following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using restricted student-level data from the Los… more →
Trends in Local Teacher Supply Since the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Teacher Job Applications
Recent survey evidence documents pandemic-era challenges in filling teacher vacancies and hiring from too-small applicant pools. However, direct evidence quantifying changes in teacher supply since the onset of the pandemic is scarce. Using longitudinal teacher job application data from a large southeastern school district, we examine trends in local teacher supply from 2015 to 2023. We find… more →
Growing Up in Disability-Dense School Districts: Long-Term Impacts of Childhood Exposure on Educational Attainment
This study examines whether growing up in a district with a higher share of people with disabilities shapes long-term educational attainment for children with and without disabilities. Using administrative data on more than 170,000 children from six Texas kindergarten cohorts (1994–1999) who move across districts during K–12, I exploit variation in disability density across school districts to… more →
Hmong but not Asian, Sāmoan but not Pacific Islander: Tracing the ECLS-K Racial Data (Mis)Classification Journey
Race is a socially and politically charged concept that remains contested in the United States. We examine racial data (mis)classification in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS-K) dataset. Centering the racial data journey of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA&NHPI) students, we find two types of racial data (mis)classification: (1) racial reformation… more →