Columbia University
Fathers as Caregivers: Peer Exposure to Household Gender Roles and Girls’ Beliefs and Achievement
Gender roles are shaped within families, but whether family gender-role arrangements extend beyond households and influence other children remains unclear. This paper studies whether exposure to peers from father-dominant caregiving households affects students’ gender beliefs and educational… 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 shape children’s communication and, once they enter shared classrooms, the experiences of their peers. This… more →
One Fell Through the Safety Net: Embeddedness and Take Up of Social Benefits
The U.S. social safety net comprises a patchwork quilt of welfare programs, but not all eligible beneficiaries receive aid. Incomplete take-up suggests that some children and families are not receiving access to the education, healthcare, housing, and income needed to break the cycle of poverty… more →
Using experimental variation to examine the (co-)development of cognitive and social-emotional skills in early childhood
How cognitive and social-emotional skills emerges in childhood is a central question in developmental psychology. Despite a proliferation of theory and empirical work, the field has struggled to establish causal effects. We employed a novel approach to test the stability and codevelopment of… more →
A Systematic Review of Research Designs Used to Evaluate State and Locally Funded Pre-K Programs
Expansions of state and locally funded pre-k programs in recent decades have been promoted by advocates citing strong research support. However, questions have been raised about how supportive the research base actually is. We conducted a systematic review of pre-k evaluation studies (from 2000… more →
Who Belongs in Math? Gendered Peer Math Beliefs and Girls' Gender Beliefs, Math Beliefs, and Achievement
This paper studies how exposure to gendered peer math beliefs shapes girls' gender-math beliefs, their own math beliefs, and mathematics achievement. I exploit quasi-random variation in girls' exposure to peer math beliefs generated by random classroom assignment at entry into Chinese middle… more →
23 Years of State Pre-K Expansion: How States Balance Investment, Access, and Quality in the Modern Era
We describe state-funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) expansion in the modern era from 2002 to 2024, documenting patterns of investment and reach. Although spending and enrollment increased substantially, states pursued widely varying expansion strategies. A 200% increase in pre-K enrollment did not… 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… 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… more →
Democratizing School Reform: Race, Participation, and Redistribution in Education
This paper examines a school-based participatory budgeting initiative as a form of race-conscious democratic design. Drawing on a multi-year study of Participatory Redistribution (PR) in middle schools, I analyze whether embedding deliberative structures into schools can empower racially… more →
The Reliability of Classroom Observations and Student Surveys in Non-Research Settings: Evidence from a Middle-Income Country
We present one of the first Generalizability studies of non-test measures of teaching effectiveness administered by practitioners in a middle-income country. The reliability of observations varies widely (from 0 to 0.75 on a 0-1 scale) and depends upon their context (whether they are conducted… more →
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… 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… more →
The reliability of classroom observations and student surveys in non-research settings: Evidence from Argentina
There is a growing consensus on the need to measure teaching effectiveness using multiple instruments. Yet, guidance on how to achieve reliable ratings derives largely from formal research in high-income countries. We study the reliability of classroom observations and student surveys conducted… more →
Bureaucracy and Burden: Understanding Take-up of a Need-Based Financial Aid Program
Social welfare programs, including college financial aid, often only reach a fraction of eligible beneficiaries. We examine this problem through the lens of Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program (TIP), a state need-based grant aid program. We conduct a large-scale mixed-methods study using data… more →
Toward More Equitable Learning Environments: Insights from Digital Trace Data on Inclusive Instructional Design Features
Seminal teaching and learning theories converge on the critical role of instructional design in promoting equity and inclusivity in higher education. However, large-scale evidence remains limited as to which specific design features promote more equitable outcomes across diverse student… more →
The Net Benefits of Raising Bachelor’s Degree Completion through the City University of New York ACE Program
In 2015, the City University of New York (CUNY) launched a new program— Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE)—aimed at improving college graduation rates. A randomized-control evaluation of the program found a nearly 12 percentage point increase in graduation five years after college entry.… more →
Cosmetology Gets a Trim: The Impact of Reducing Licensing Hours on Colleges and Students
In the United States, licenses are required for entry into many different occupations. Requirements vary by state and occupation, but many licenses require a minimum number of training or instructional hours. We consider the impact of these hours requirements on students and postsecondary… more →
A Family Affair: The Effects of College on Parent and Student Finances
Paying for college is often a family affair, with both parents and students contributing. We study the effects of college on family finances using administrative data on the universe of federal aid applicants in California linked to credit records. We provide the first comprehensive analysis of… more →
What happened to adult education in the United States?
In 2000, federally funded public adult education programs provided basic skills training and English language instruction to over 2.6 million students, or about 1.5% of the U.S. adult population. By 2021, enrollment had plummeted to under 900,000, or less than 0.4% of adults. What explains these… more →