EdWorkingPapers
The Impact of School District Turnaround on Postsecondary Outcomes: Evidence from Lawrence, Massachusetts
Limited research examines the impact of accountability interventions on outcomes beyond test-based measures of short-term academic achievement. We examine the effects of the 2012 state takeover and districtwide turnaround of Massachusetts’ Lawrence Public Schools—a district serving a majority-low-income, majority-Hispanic student population—on high school and postsecondary outcomes using… more →
College as a Marriage Market
College graduates tend to marry each other. We use detailed Norwegian data to show that strong assortativity further arises by institution and field of study, especially among high earners from elite programs. Admission discontinuities reveal that enrollment itself, rather than selection, primarily drives matching by institution and field among the college-educated, and that these matches can… 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… more →
McCleary at Twelve: Examining Policy Designs Following Court-Mandated School Finance Reform in Washington State
All fifty U.S. state constitutions include language that guarantees residents’ access to a free public education. Plaintiffs in all but two states have brought litigation challenging state school finance systems, and in over half the cases, judges ruled the systems unconstitutional and mandated state legislators to provide more equitable and adequate funding. In 2012, state supreme court… more →
The Prevalence of LGBTQ+ Teachers in the U.S.
Due to limited data, we know little about the prevalence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) educators. Using the American Community Survey and Census Pulse, we examine the representation of LGBTQ+ individuals in PK-12 teaching. We find that 3.3-3.5 percent of LGBTQ+ individuals are teachers; in contrast, 4.4-4.9 percent of non-LGBTQ+ individuals are teachers. This new… more →
Remote Learning in 2020-21 and Student Attendance Since the COVID-19 Pandemic
Student attendance declined during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. There is little evidence explaining the decline. This study examines the role of remote learning. In Michigan, compared to students never provided with remote-only learning in 2020-21, students provided with remote-only learning for 1-2 months had no decline in attendance post-pandemic, and… more →
Separation of Church and State Curricula? Examining Public and Religious Private School Textbooks
Curricula impart knowledge, instill values, and shape collective memory. Despite growing public funding for religious schools through U.S. school choice programs, little is known about what they teach. We examine textbooks from public schools, religious private schools, and home schools, applying computational methods -- including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools -- to measure the… more →
From Sentence-Corrections to Deeper Dialogue: Qualitative Insights from LLM and Teacher Feedback on Student Writing
Effective writing feedback is a powerful tool for enhancing student learning, encouraging revision, and increasing motivation and agency. Yet, teachers face many challenges that prevent them from consistently providing effective writing feedback. Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have led educators and researchers to experiment with AI tools powered by large language… more →
Disentangle the Curriculum and Structural Effects of Math Pathway Reforms: Evidence from Maryland Community College System
This study evaluates the impact of Maryland's Mathematics Reform Initiative (MMRI), which sought to improve student success in developmental and college-level math through comprehensive curriculum and structural reforms. Launched in 2015, the MMRI developed and implemented non-algebra math pathways tailored to students’ chosen program of study. Using administrative data of Maryland community… more →
Impacts of Oversubscribed Boston Pre-K Programs through Middle School
In this pre-registered study, we explored the impacts of Boston Pre-K on children’s educational trajectories, school progress/engagement, and academic achievement in late elementary and middle school using lotteries for oversubscribed schools in 2007-2011 (N=3,092 students; 24% of all applicants). Importantly, the program was unique nationally in its strong supports for teachers and in its use… more →
New Places, New Players, a New Politics of Education
In the last decade, many political conflicts over K-12 education in the United States have increasingly divided along party lines. While it may seem like this development represents a sudden and surprising departure from a long-standing tradition of bipartisanship, I argue that the politics of education has been gradually growing more exposed to partisan conflict over a much longer period of… more →
Lifting Up Attendance in Rural Districts: A Multi-Site Trial of a Personalized Messaging Campaign
Student absenteeism has remained high following the COVID-19 pandemic and districts need low-cost strategies to improve attendance. In 2020-21, the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks piloted a promising personalized messaging intervention in 8 rural districts in New York and Ohio. We worked with a student information system provider to replicate the intervention in a… more →
The Impacts of Grade Retention Policy With Minimal Retention
State laws that mandate in-grade retention for struggling readers are widespread in the U.S., covering 34% of public-school third graders in 2023-24. This study investigates the impacts of Michigan’s third-grade reading law on subsequent test scores and school progress outcomes for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 third-grade cohorts. Using a regression discontinuity (RD) design, we find that being… more →
A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence Linking Mathematics and Science Professional Development Interventions to Teacher Knowledge, Classroom Instruction, and Student Achievement
Despite evidence that teacher professional development interventions in mathematics and science can increase student achievement, our understanding of the mechanisms by which this occurs – particularly how these interventions affect teachers themselves, and the extent to which teacherlevel changes predict student learning – remains limited. The current meta-analysis synthesizes 46 experimental… more →
School Choice and Household Participation in School District Politics
We examine whether policies that enable families to opt out of locally provided public services are associated with reduced political participation. Our study is focused on two types of school choice policy in Michigan: inter-district choice and charter schools. Do parents who send their children to schools of choice or charter schools vote at lower or higher rates than those who use their… more →
Going the Distance or Growing More Remote? The Academic Impacts of Course Modality following Pandemic-Era Investments
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, distance education has rapidly expanded, transforming the landscape of community colleges. This paper explores how different online learning modalities impact student success in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), one of the largest and most diverse systems in the United States. With the purpose of providing actionable insights to community college… more →
From Population Growth to Demographic Scarcity: Emerging Challenges to Global Primary Education Provision in the Twenty-first Century
Demographic pressures are reshaping the challenges faced by primary education systems around the world in ways that carry significant implications for the landscape of global educational inequality. We first demonstrate highly disequalizing demographic pressures on the world's educational systems today: persistent expansionary pressures burden some of the world's least-resourced educational… more →
The Impact of Tutor Gender Match on Girls’ STEM Interest, Engagement, and Performance
Persistent gender disparities in STEM fields, even when young girls perform as well in STEM in school as boys, highlight the potential importance of preconceived views of STEM work in these difference and the potential need for role models to upend these views. In this study, we investigate whether female math tutors positively influence girls’ STEM interest, attendance, and math performance.… more →
Searching for the Queen’s Gambit: An Exploratory Analysis of Male-Female Ratings Gaps in U.S. Chess
We examine the origin and evolution of male-female rating gaps for young chess players using two decades of data from the U.S. Chess Federation, the national chess association that tracks competitive tournament play and provides ratings for U.S. chess players. An important feature of our research is that we examine male-female gaps across a broad range of chess ratings, from novice to expert.… more →
Costly Withdrawals Reduce Future College-Going for Low-Income Students: Evidence from Return of Title IV Funds
Governments must strike a balance between promoting access to financial aid while at the same time remaining good stewards of taxpayer funds by preventing fraudulent access. This paper focuses on one of the largest-scale and most consequential policies determining whether students maintain access to Title IV aid, the “Return of Title IV” funds policy, referred to as R2T4. Students receiving… more →
Bring in the Subs: A Mixed-Method Investigation of the Substitute Teacher Labor Market in Michigan
Substitute teachers play a crucial role in how schools can function, yet little research has focused on understanding the contours of the substitute labor market. This paper uses a mixed method approach, including a survey of a random sample of the population of substitute teachers, state administrative data, and interviews with district administrators and substitute teachers in Michigan to… more →
Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Part-time Community College Students: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Community College Administrator Perspectives and State-Wide Administrative Data
While most community college students enroll part-time, there is little evidence on how to effectively improve college attainment of part-time students. This mixed methods study, situated in Texas, addresses this research gap by developing a more complete understanding of the part-time student population, their challenges and needs, as well as the types of interventions and programs that might… more →
Education Governance and Race: An Analysis of School Board Discourse Using Large Language Models
Despite growing attention to school boards, it is unclear whether they primarily operate as bureaucratic forums, policy-making bodies, or arenas for contentious debate—particularly on issues of race. Recent controversies suggest increasing public engagement and conflict, but little evidence documents how often questions of race arise in board deliberations. This study analyzes over 40,000… more →
Expanding Access to Highly Effective Educators for All Students: A Review of Recent Evidence
We have long known that some teachers are much more effective than others. Highly effective teachers and their students thrive in ways that have been hard to replicate on a large and consistent scale. In this paper, we read across studies to identify actionable lessons about what it will take to staff all schools with highly effective educators and to surface directions that are particularly… more →
Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Tutoring Format and Tutors: Findings from an Early Literacy Tutoring Program
This study presents the first within-program, within-tutor experimental evidence comparing the impact of in-person versus remote tutoring. Based on results from an early literacy tutoring initiative delivered by university students over Summer 2023, we find no statistically significant differences in students’ literacy outcomes by instructional modality. However, students receiving in-person… more →
Item-Level Heterogeneity in Value Added Models: Implications for Reliability, Cross-Study Comparability, and Effect Sizes
Value added models (VAMs) attempt to estimate the causal effects of teachers and schools on student test scores. We apply Generalizability Theory to show how estimated VA effects depend upon the selection of test items. Standard VAMs estimate causal effects on the items that are included on the test. Generalizability demands consideration of how estimates would differ had the test included… more →
Making the Case? Unpacking Family Case Management Effects and School Effects in Neighborhood Redevelopment Initiatives
Mixed-income initiatives provide critical investments in neighborhoods, including investments to improve schools, and provide case management and family support services to low-income families. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) is one of the largest and most comprehensive mixed-income neighborhood redevelopment initiatives to date; however, research has yet to examine the CNI’s impacts… more →
Weighing Risks: How Families of Disabled Children Made School Choices During the Pandemic
In this paper, we show how positionality shapes caregivers’ decisions about children’s schooling, by expanding on research on Black families’ educational decision-making (Cooper, 2025; Posey-Maddox et al., 2021) to examine the positions from which families of disabled and multiply-marginalized children make educational choices. The families of disabled children in our sample made holistic,… more →
What are Promises Made of? The Design of Local College Affordability Programs
U.S. postsecondary education is populated by hundreds of state and local affordability initiatives sometimes referred to as “Promise programs”, many of which claim to make college free or tuition-free. These programs vary tremendously in terms of what they provide, where they can be used, and who is eligible for them. But we know little about the details of their structuring, or about the… more →
Disparate Teacher Effects, Comparative Advantage, and Match Quality
Does student-teacher match quality exist? While prior research documents disparities in teachers' impacts across student types, it has not distinguished between sorting and causal effects as the drivers of these disparities. I develop a flexible disparate value-added model (DVA) and introduce a novel measure of teacher quality–revealed comparative advantage (CA)–that captures the degree to… more →
Unveiling Racism: A Systematic Review of Survey Measures of Racism in Education
Education policy research aimed at eliminating racism necessitates methodological innovation that fosters both equity-centered approaches and robust empirical analysis of the systemic nature of racism. Most quantitative research in educational psychology omits the racist environment that students in K-12 education exist in (DeCuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2014; Strunk & Andrzejewski, 2023).… more →
Scaffolding Middle-School Mathematics Curricula With Large Language Models
Despite well-designed curriculum materials, teachers often face challenges implementing them due to diverse classroom needs. This paper investigates whether large language models (LLMs) can support middle school math teachers by helping create highquality curriculum scaffolds, which we define as the adaptations and supplements teachers employ to ensure all students can access and engage with… more →
Buying time: Financial aid allows college students to work less while enrolled
Many empirical studies have found that financial aid improves college attainment. Few have been able to test why. This study used administrative records of employment and earnings to get a more complete picture of students’ finances during college and test one potential mechanism: financial aid buys students time by allowing them to work less in off-campus jobs. We studied recipients of New… more →
Closing the Gender Gap in STEM: Role of Performance Feedback and Advice
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 →
The inequity of opt-in educational resources and an intervention to increase equitable access
Billions of dollars are invested in opt-in educational resources to support struggling students. Yet, there is no guarantee these students will use these resources. We report results from a school system’s implementation of on-demand tutoring. The take up was low. At baseline, only 19% of students ever accessed the platform and low-performing students were even less likely to log in. We… more →
Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead? Evaluating the Effects of Virginia’s Workforce-Targeted Free College Program
Tuition-free college programs are gaining momentum as policymakers address rising college costs and workforce readiness. Despite their growing adoption, limited research examines how workforce-focused eligibility criteria impact student outcomes beyond enrollment. This pre-registered study employs two within-study quasi-experimental designs—regression discontinuity and difference-in-… more →
Who Leads During and After a Crisis? The Pandemic’s Role in Diversifying School Leadership
Organizational crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, influence the appointment of leaders from underrepresented groups, including women and people of color. This study examines the relationship between the pandemic, school organizational characteristics, and the appointment of women and people of color to school leadership (e.g., Head of School, HoS) roles. Using administrative data from the… more →
SEEDS of Early Learning: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Early Literacy Teacher Professional Development Program
NORC at the University of Chicago designed and implemented an impact evaluation of the SEEDS of Learning (SEEDS) professional development (PD) program on behalf of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, in collaboration with Kidango. SEEDS of Learning is an evidence-based PD program that prepares early childhood educators to help children develop the social-emotional, language, and emergent literacy… more →
Who may enter? Qualification and ranking in centralized admission systems to higher education
Admission systems play a critical role in shaping educational opportunities by determining what choices are available to whom. Policy makers and institutions must balance multiple, often conflicting, goals which requires trade-offs between competing values. In this paper, we present core values for admission to higher education alongside a novel framework for centralized admission systems,… more →
The Effects of Losing Pell Grant Eligibility on Student Outcomes
While initial Pell Grant eligibility is solely determined by financial need, students must achieve Satisfactory Academic Progress to retain it. Students eligible for higher aid are less likely to complete college when they lose eligibility compared to those with lower aid. This non-random attrition introduces bias in the Local Average Treatment Effects. I construct nonparametric bounds on LATE… more →
The “Work” of Mobilizing, Advocating, and Organizing for Care in The School District Central Office
This paper presents a case study of a caring school district located in a farmworker community composed largely of Latinx families. I examine how central office leaders create or maintain care supports under crisis conditions. Findings suggest that district-level care was multidimensional and distributed, involving mobilization of community leadership, improvisational structures, and novel… more →
Does Increased Agency Improve the Effectiveness of Self-Directed Professional Learning for Educators?
The role of teacher agency in professional learning has been the subject of several qualitative studies but has not yet been tested in an experimental setting. To provide causal evidence of the impact of teacher agency on the effectiveness of professional learning, we conducted a preregistered randomized controlled trial in an online computer science course with volunteer instructors who teach… 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 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 →
Switching Schools: Effects of College Transfers
Over one-third of college students in the United States transfer between institutions, yet little is known about how transferring affects students’ educational and labor market outcomes. Using administrative data from Texas and a regression discontinuity design, I study the effects of a student’s transferring to a four-year college from either a two-year or four-year college. To do so, I… more →
From Passive Promises to Proactive Guarantees: The Efficacy of Financial Certainty Interventions Among Automatically (In-)Admissible Students
Low-income high-achieving students are less likely than high-income peers to enroll in selective colleges. Financial certainty interventions can address administrative burdens that stifle their enrollment, even when colleges are tuition-free for them. However, we do not know whether these interventions are effective when students enjoy admissions certainty (e.g., with percent plans) or how… more →
The Effects of Daily Air Pollution on Students and Teachers
Recent empirical research shows that air pollution harms student test scores and attendance and increases office discipline referrals. However, the mechanism by which air pollution operates within schools to negatively affect student and teacher outcomes remains largely opaque. The existing literature has primarily focused on the effects of prolonged exposure to pollution on end-of-year test… more →
Are Students On Track?: Comparing the Predictive Validity of Administrative and Survey Measures of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills for Long-Term Outcomes
Education leaders need valid metrics to predict students’ long-term success. We use a unique dataset with cognitive skills, self-regulation, behavior, course performance, and test scores for 8th-grade students from a Northeast school district. We link these data to students' high school outcomes, college enrollment, persistence, and on-time degree completion. Survey-based cognitive and self-… more →
Heterogeneous Effects of Closing the Digital Divide During COVID-19 on Student Engagement and Achievement
Equitably expanding technology access among K-12 students has long been viewed as critical for equalizing educational opportunities. But these interventions may influence students’ academic outcomes in unexpected ways. Prior research suggests key technological resources, like broadband Internet, are a double-edged sword, conferring both educational benefits and distractions for children.… more →
The Politics of Pandemic School Operations for Reopening and Beyond: Evidence from Virginia
Post COVID, is education losing its special status as a policy domain more insulated from partisan politics than other policy areas? Indeed, a community’s political makeup influenced its’ schools’ pandemic learning modality, but did it predict other aspects of educational operations? We study the role of Republican vote share, race, markets, and public health in predicting a range of… more →
Are School Discipline Practices Pushing Students Out…to Another School? A Longitudinal Analysis of School Transfers in Five Midwest Counties
Sociology of education scholars have positioned punitive discipline practices as factors that work to “push” unwanted students to drop out of school before graduating. However, limited research examines how punitive discipline practices may push students to transfer to another schools—potentially acting as a critical step in the process of pushing students out of the formal education system… more →