EdWorkingPapers
The Causal Effects of Federal Work-Study Offers on College Enrollment and Program Participation
Federal Work-Study (FWS) is a distinctive type of financial aid, originally intended to both reduce financial constraints and improve access to career-relevant job opportunities. Prior research on FWS has primarily focused on post-enrollment, post-program-participation outcomes, leaving potential upstream margins of impact unexplored. Using a unique administrative data source tracking FWS offers… more →
Localized Teacher Recruitment through “Grow-Your-Own”: Impacts of the High School Teacher Academy of Maryland Program
Recruiting teachers via “grow-your-own” (GYO) programs is a popular, yet rarely evaluated, strategy for addressing local workforce shortages and ensuring that incoming teachers resemble, understand, and have strong connections to their communities. We provide novel evidence on the impacts of one such GYO program by exploiting the staggered rollout of the Teacher Academy of Maryland Career… more →
Disparate Pathways: Understanding Racial Disparities in Teaching
Long standing evidence on the importance of a diverse teacher workforce prompts policymakers to scrutinize existing recruitment pathways. Following Maryland public high-school students over 14 years reveals that early barriers require timely interventions, aiding Black and other students of color in achieving educational milestones that are prerequisites for teacher candidacy (high school… more →
Residential Segregation and Unequal Access to Local Public Services in India: Evidence from 1.5m Neighborhoods
We study residential segregation and access to public services across 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods in India. Muslim and Scheduled Caste segregation in India is high by global standards, and only slightly lower than Black-White segregation in the U.S. Within cities, public facilities and infrastructure are systematically less available in Muslim and Scheduled Caste neighborhoods.… more →
Community College Bachelor's Degrees: How CCB Graduates' Earnings Compare to AAs and BAs
We provide the first national descriptive analysis of the economic value of Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degrees by examining graduates’ early-career earnings, the costs of completing these programs, and the alignment between field of study and subsequent employment. Using administrative data and controlling for institution and field, we find that CCB graduates earn $4,000 to $9,000 more… more →
The Effects of Teacher Strikes On Compensation, Working Conditions, and Productivity
We examine how teacher strikes in the United States affect compensation, working conditions, and productivity with an original dataset of 745 teacher strikes between 2007 and 2024. Using an event study framework, we find that the average strike leads to a 6% ($7,629) increase in combined annual wages and benefits and a 0.5 student (3.2%) decline in pupil-teacher ratios after five years. There is… more →
Strategic Decision-Making in Higher Education: State Legislators and Affordability Policy for Public HBCUs
This study uses a multiple-case qualitative research design to explores how power dynamics creates challenges and opportunities for SLBCs and their constituent members working to broaden college affordability and access for undergraduate low-income Black students attending public HBCUs. Guided by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and the Black Utility Heuristic (BUH), the study analyzed… more →
School-based language, math, and reading interventions for executive functions in children and adolescents: A systematic review
Executive functions are a set of cognitive skills and processes used when directing behaviour towards the attainment of a certain goal. A large literature has documented positive associations between executive functions and a variety of desirable outcomes throughout life, including academic achievement. However, training executive functions appears to have limited effects on academic achievement… more →
Making the Implicit Explicit: An Experiment with Implicit Gender Stereotypes and College Major Choice
We study whether making college students aware of their implicit gender–STEM stereotypes affects their pursuit of a STEM degree. In a field experiment at a large, selective U.S. university, over 800 undergraduates completed a gender–STEM Implicit Association Test (IAT) and a detailed survey on major preferences and beliefs. Students were randomly assigned to receive feedback about their IAT… more →
Why Fadeout is (Probably) Worse Than We Think: Adjusting for Correlated Sampling Error in Meta-Analyses of Behavioral Interventions
The extent to which intervention effects persist or fade over time is an important question in the behavioral sciences. In meta-analysis, persistence is typically assessed by meta-regressing effect sizes at followup on effect sizes at endline. While common, the standard meta-regression does not adjust for the shared sampling error between effect sizes across time points. We show that in general,… more →
College Enrollment Patterns After SFFA v. Harvard
We study how U.S. high school students’ patterns of college entry changed in the first year after the Supreme Court’s 2023 SFFA v. Harvard ruling. Drawing on a rich dataset linking more than 12 million domestic PSAT, SAT, and AP takers in the 2021-2024 high school graduation cohorts to their college enrollment records, we examine post-SFFA changes both in students’ college destinations and in the… more →
U.S. Schools’ Proximity to Environmental Hazard Sites: A National Analysis
We conduct a nationwide assessment of U.S. PreK-12 public and private schools’ proximity to known environmental hazard sites tracked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Superfund sites, Brownfields, and Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Prior research documents a range of negative health and academic consequences for youth exposed to pollution and legacy contaminants released by these… more →
What are schools doing to improve attendance? Evidence from Michigan and Georgia
This study presents evidence from Michigan and Georgia on the strategies that schools are using to improve attendance and how those strategies vary across contexts. We find that schools in both states rely heavily on communication-based practices aimed at changing student or parent behavior. Practices focused on removing barriers or improving student experiences in school are less common. We find… more →
Who Is Newly Absent? Racial Inequities in Post-Pandemic Transitions into Chronic and Severe Absence in Georgia
Chronic absenteeism rose sharply following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has declined only modestly since, yet most evidence remains cross-sectional and cannot distinguish persistence from redistribution in absence behavior. Using a cohort transition framework, the analysis compares students' typical absence profiles across pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The results show… 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 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 →
The lasting impact of youth bullying exposure on adult labor market outcomes: An inter-disciplinary review of the literature
Higher direct and indirect exposure to bullying has been linked to long-term increases in healthcare costs, worse mental health, and poorer social relationships as well as a reduction in human capital accumulation and economic productivity. Consequently, preventing and mitigating the long-lasting negative effects of bullying has become a worldwide challenge for school and health policies. This… more →
The Economics of Age at School Entry: Insights from Evidence and Methods
This article reviews the growing literature on age at school entry and its effects across the life course. Age at school entry affects a broad range of outcomes, including education, labor-market performance, health, social relationships, and family formation. We synthesize the evidence using a conceptual framework that distinguishes four empirically intertwined components of age-at-school-entry… more →
The Effect of Air Pollution on Student Achievement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence
Air pollution is one of the most pressing global public health challenges of the 21st century. This article presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of the best available evidence of the effect of air pollution on student achievement. A meta-analysis of 28 causal studies around the world yielding 62 effect sizes estimates that air pollution, across many contexts and pollutants, decreases… more →
Gifted Identification Across the Distribution of Family Income
Currently, 6.1 percent of K-12 students in the United States receive gifted education. Using education and IRS data that provide information on students and their family income, we show pronounced differences in who schools identify as gifted across the distribution of family income. Under 4 percent of students in the lowest income percentile are identified as gifted, compared with 20 percent of… more →
School-Based Disability Identification Varies by Student Family Income
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 →
The Trade-off between Quality and Quantity: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Tutoring
High-dosage tutoring has the potential to substantially raise adolescent academic achievement. However, at scale, schools may not have the financial ability to deliver small-group tutoring frequently. In this paper, I test the relative importance of group size (quality) versus tutoring frequency (quantity). I evaluate the impact of an in-school math tutoring program in a middle school in the… more →
The Nation’s Achievement Inequality Report Card: An Assessment of Test Score and Equality Trends in Traditional Public, Charter, Catholic, and Department of Defense Schools
We present a descriptive comparison of trends in achievement and inequality in traditional public, public charter, Catholic, and Department of Defense schools in the U.S. Our sample includes 6,155,570 observations for 4th and 8th graders in math and reading between 2005 and 2024. We focus on changes in the 90th and 10th percentile scores of the students in those school sectors on the National… more →
COVID-19, School District Operations, and Student Academic Performance in Virginia
We use longitudinal student-level data and interrupted time series methods to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mathematics achievement among 3rd-8th grade students in Virginia, a state that offered particularly low levels of access to in-person learning in the school reopening period. We find notably large negative initial effects on math in 2020-21, much greater in magnitude than… more →
A Longitudinal Study of External Contract Teacher Employment in Washington State School Districts
This study examines the phenomenon of external teacher contracting in Washington State schools. Using administrative data, we analyze shifting patterns of employment among external contract teachers. External contract teachers now represent a significant portion of the workforce in a few districts, but a very small portion statewide. These districts have formed robust online programs that may… more →
Running a Business in High School: Selection into the Virtual Enterprises Program
To better prepare high school students for the workforce, many schools and districts are building career and technical education coursework that provides students with the opportunity to deeply engage in work-based learning. Virtual Enterprises (VE) is a program where students open school-based enterprises, hold positions in the company (e.g., Chief Executive Officer, Marketing Director), sell… more →
The Chronic(les) of Absenteeism Measurement: Unpacking the Many Measures of Attendance and Evidence for a Lower Chronic Absenteeism Threshold
Chronic absenteeism has surged in recent years, drawing growing policy and research attention. However, a complicating factor often overlooked is that the measurement of absenteeism is inconsistent, with substantial researcher degrees of freedom. This study investigates how researchers’ measurement choices shape predictions of academic risk and how absenteeism can be more effectively… more →
Using experimental variation to examine the (co-)development of cognitive and social-emotional skills in early childhood
Questions about the stability of psychological constructs, skill generalization, and transfer have long motivated psychological research. Despite a proliferation of theory, the field has rarely established causal effects. We employed a novel approach to test the stability and codevelopment of cognitive and social-emotional skills in early childhood using longitudinal randomized controlled trial… more →
Predicting Persistence and Fadeout Across Multi-Site RCTs of an Early Childhood Mathematics Curriculum Intervention
This study examined predictors of persistence and fadeout across multiple cluster RCTs that evaluated a preschool mathematics curriculum. We used meta-analytic methods to explore how impacts on student mathematics achievement faded between post-test (i.e., endline) and one-year follow-up. We found that the magnitude of the impact at post-test was a strong predictor of the one-year follow-up… more →
Mapping the Mechanisms of Interdisciplinary Learning Transfer from Reading to Math Achievement: Evidence from a Large-Scale Randomized Controlled Trial
Far transfer---the application of learning across distant domains---remains elusive in intervention research, and even when it is found, its mechanisms remain unclear or unexplored. This study analyzes data from the Model of Reading Engagement (MORE), a sustained content literacy intervention implemented in Grades 1-3 that demonstrated positive treatment effects on both near transfer reading and… more →
The Effect of Four-Day School Week Adoption on Teacher Retention and Sorting
As teacher shortages worsen across the U.S., many school districts have implemented a unique solution to attract and retain effective teachers: switching from the traditional five-day school week to a four-day school week (4DSW). I use 17 years of teacher-level employment data from Texas in a difference-in-differences analysis to examine whether the 4DSW truly affects teacher retention and… more →
Bulwark or Barrier? The Effect of Academic Criteria-Based Reclassification on the High School Outcomes of Multilingual Learners in Texas
English learner (EL) classification can provide multilingual students (MLs) with key supports while simultaneously limiting access to important educational opportunities. To determine when students are ready to exit EL status, some states require students to meet academic criteria in addition to demonstrated English proficiency. However, few studies empirically examine these criteria, which may… more →
Absent and Afraid? Immigration Enforcement and Student Attendance in the Second Trump Administration
Intensified immigration enforcement activity under the second Trump administration has increased anxiety for immigrants in the United States, including many families with school-age children. This study provides early evidence on the effects of the second Trump presidency on the attendance of students who may be from immigrant families. Using a difference-in-differences design, I estimate the… more →
Childhood Interventions and Life Course Development
A paradox has perplexed researchers studying childhood interventions: although program impacts on children’s skills often fade, some interventions have nonetheless produced long-run impacts on adult outcomes. Existing developmental theory does not provide a straightforward explanation. The fadeout-emergence paradox spotlights our limited understanding of how early skill gains shape long-run… more →
How General is Educational Intervention Fadeout? A Meta-Analysis of Educational RCTs with Follow-Up
Researchers and policymakers pursue educational interventions with the goal of altering children’s long-term trajectories. However, many effects fade quickly after interventions end. Researchers have sought to address the fadeout problem by identifying characteristics of interventions that lead to persistent effects, though reliable answers have been elusive. We present evidence from 87… more →
The Effect of Centralized-Admission School Lotteries on Between-School Segregation: Evidence from 300 Largest School Districts in the United States
This study examines how centralized-admission school lotteries affect between-school racial and ethnic segregation in the largest U.S. public school districts. Using original nationwide panel data and a difference-in-differences design with staggered adoption, the research analyzes effects on school composition, intergroup exposure, and distribution evenness. The findings reveal that centralized-… more →
The West Texas Measles Outbreak and Student Absences
Declining child-vaccination rates are driving a measles resurgence in the US, yet little evidence documents how these outbreaks may disrupt schooling. Using daily absence data from a school district at the center of the West Texas outbreak, this preregistered analysis finds absences increased 41 percent relative to the within-year variation from two prior years, with larger effects among younger… more →
No Pay? No Way! Teacher Compensation Reforms and the Market for Graduate Degrees
Graduate degrees in education provide financial stability for many institutions, yet reformers have sought to decouple teacher pay from these credentials. Without a wage premium, educators may skip advanced study, reducing enrollment at nearby universities. Using a natural experiment in Tennessee, we show that eliminating a graduate degree wage premium for teachers led to a 27% (140 student)… more →
More Often or Longer? The Effects of the Academic Schedule on Postsecondary Academic Outcomes
One of the most common scheduling decisions in higher education is the determination of biweekly or triweekly classes. On the surface, these two formats are equivalent in terms of the number of minutes in a course (75 minutes twice a week or 50 minutes three times a week). However, the two structures may have different pros and cons for both students and faculty and it is ambiguous which course… more →
The Influence of Partisanship in Local School Board Elections: Evidence from Exit Polling in Michigan & Rhode Island
Education in the U.S. has long been shaped by local school boards elected in nonpartisan contests, a structure intended to shield schools from broader political forces. Today, many states are considering reforms to make school board elections partisan, yet the impact on voters remains unclear. Using exit poll data from 839 voters in Michigan (nonpartisan elections) and Rhode Island (partisan… more →
Assessing Permanent School Closures: A Conceptual Framework
Amid widespread declining enrollment, the expiration of COVID-19 ESSER funding, and looming uncertainty in federal P-12 education involvement, many school districts may soon consider permanent school closures. While extant permanent school closure literature provides a starting point for future analyses, it often fails to advise the breadth of contexts in which future closures may occur, limiting… more →
Effects of a non-traditional teacher preparation program on non-test outcomes: evidence from relay graduate school of education in New York City
This study examines the effects of a non-traditional teacher preparation program, the Relay Graduate School of Education, on non-test outcomes for New York City public school students in Grades 3–8. By controlling for student and school fixed effects, I use plausibly random variation in Relay teacher assignments within students over time to identify causal Relay program effects. Results indicate… more →
Online Tutoring, School Performance, and School-to-Work Transitions: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
Tutoring programs for low-performing students, delivered in-person or online, effectively enhance school performance, yet their medium- and longer-term impacts on labor market outcomes remain less understood. To address this gap, we conduct a randomized controlled trial with 839 secondary school students in Germany to examine the effects of an online tutoring program for low-performing students… more →
Values, Visions, and Variation in American School Districts: A Computational Mixed Methods Analysis of School District Strategic Plans
The decentralization of power is a defining feature of the American education system, allowing schools to reflect community values and needs. Yet, little is known about how values and visions for education hold constant or vary across districts. Through an analysis of 617 district strategic plans, combining qualitative coding and computational topic modeling, we provide insight into how local… more →
Understanding the decision (not) to become a teacher: evidence from survey experiments with undergraduates in the UK and US
Teacher shortages are widespread, yet the reasons people choose (not) to enter the profession remain poorly understood. We conducted two survey experiments in which thousands of undergraduates chose between pairs of hypothetical jobs. This allowed us to evaluate the effects of differences in pay, working patterns and other job attributes on job choices, as well as explore how personality type and… more →
Does State-Mandated Third-Grade Reading Retention Policy Improve Achievement? Evidence from a Staggered-Adoption Difference-in-Differences Design
This paper investigates whether the state-mandated third-grade reading retention policy autonomously enhances student achievement or depends on broader literacy reforms. Using district-level data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (2010–2019), I employ a staggered-adoption Difference-in-Differences design, as per Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021), to assess heterogeneous treatment effects… more →
Marginal Returns to Public Universities
This paper studies the returns to enrolling in American public universities by comparing the long-term outcomes of barely admitted versus barely rejected applicants. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of all American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in SAT/… more →
Variations in Pre-Primary Education Infrastructure Within and Across Administrative Sectors in Rwanda
This study examines disparities in structural quality across Rwanda’s pre-primary modalities—centre-based, community-based, and home-based—operating under a single policy framework. Using data from 4,875 settings across 91 administrative sectors in seven districts, we applied multilevel models to separate within-sector differences by modality from between-sector variation, associated with sector-… more →
Ready for What? School and District Responses to State College and Career Readiness Accountability in Tennessee
Tennessee’s K-12 accountability system incorporates three distinct measures of college and career readiness (CCR) for state and federal accountability. Each of these indicators applies its own set of metrics and performance benchmarks, but they all consistently draw upon similar components including participation in Early Postsecondary Opportunities (EPSOs), standardized tests like the ACT and… 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 161 publicly available materials from 15 vendors to examine these companies’ marketing of predictive analytics. Drawing on… more →
Fast Track to Success? A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Condensed Course Formats at Tennessee Community Colleges
As colleges face increasing pressure to improve student outcomes, one solution gaining traction is the adoption of condensed courses (i.e., shortened academic terms). We employ quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effect of enrolling in a condensed course on course- and student-level outcomes at all public community colleges in Tennessee. We also leverage interviews with college faculty,… more →