University of Kentucky
“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… more →
Indiana Charter School Performance During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted schooling nationwide and contributed to substantial declines in student achievement. At the same time, enrollment patterns shifted and charter school sectors expanded in several states, raising questions about whether charter schools were better positioned to… more →
From Disruption to Recovery: Charter School Performance During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
In recent decades, an increasing number of students have pursued alternative educational options, including charter schools, as school choice has continued to expand. This trend was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is well established that students experienced widespread learning… more →
Staffing Interventions to Support Students Experiencing Homelessness: Evidence from New York City
There is limited empirical evidence about educational interventions for students experiencing homelessness, who experience distinct disadvantages compared to their low-income peers. We explore how two school staffing interventions in New York City shaped attendance outcomes of students… more →
Falling Behind as Peers Age Up: The Effects of Peer Age on Student Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Outcomes
Understanding the factors that influence student outcomes is crucial for both parents and schools when designing effective educational strategies. This paper explores the impact of peer age on both cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes using a randomized sample of middle school students. By… more →
Do the Effects Persist? An Examination of Long-term Effects After Students Leave Turnaround Schools
Whole-school reforms have received widespread attention, but a critical limitation of the current literature is the lack of evidence around whether these extensive and costly interventions improve students’ long-term outcomes after they leave reform schools. Leveraging Tennessee’s statewide… more →
Staffing Interventions to Support Students Experiencing Homelessness: Evidence from New York City
There is limited empirical evidence about educational interventions for students experiencing homelessness, who experience distinct disadvantages compared to their low-income peers. We explore how two school staffing interventions in New York City shaped the attendance outcomes of students… more →
Is Reputational Pressure Enough to Create Competitive School Choice Effects? Evidence from Seoul’s School Choice Policy
During the pandemic, a number of states instituted hold-harmless funding policies to protect school district financially from declining enrollments (Center for Public Education, 2021). In addition, some school choice policies have protected traditional public schools financially from declining… more →
Beginning Teachers & Strategies for Asset-Based Pedagogy
Our study examines roughly 2,000 novice teachers’ responses about how they account for students’ cultural, ethnic/racial, and linguistic diversity. We qualitatively analyze robust open-ended survey responses to explore teachers’ reported strategies for how they integrate asset-based pedagogy… more →
Cream Skimming and Pushout of Students Participating in a Statewide Private School Voucher Program
A pervasive issue in the school choice literature is whether schools of choice cream-skim students by enrolling high-achieving, less challenging, or less costly students. Similarly, schools of choice may “pushout” low-achieving, more challenging, or more costly students. Using longitudinal… more →
The Impacts of School District Consolidation on Rural Communities: Evidence from Arkansas Reform
Over the past fifty years, school districts have consolidated in an effort to achieve economies of scale. While the determinants and effects of district mergers on operations have been studied (Gordon and Knight 2006; Duncombe and Yinger 2007; Jones et al 2008), the impact on communities has not… more →
The Dynamics and Measurement of High School Homelessness and Achievement Disparities
There is no national consensus on how school districts calculate high school achievement disparities between students who experience homelessness and those who do not. Using administrative student-level data from a mid-sized public school district in the Southern United States, we show that… more →
A Descriptive Analysis of Cream Skimming and Pushout in Choice versus Traditional Public Schools
One of the controversies surrounding charter schools is whether these schools may either “cream skim” high-performing students from traditional public schools or “pushout” low-achieving students or students with discipline histories, leaving traditional public schools to educate the most… more →
The Opioid Crisis and Educational Performance
The opioid crisis is widely recognized as one of the most important public health emergencies of our time, and an issue that is particularly acute for rural communities. We propose a simple model of how opioids in a community can impact the education outcomes of children based on both the extent… more →
Nearly three decades into the charter school movement, what has research told us about charter schools?
When charter schools first entered the landscape, the debate was contentious, with both advocates and critics using strong rhetoric. Advocates often sold charter schools as a silver bullet solution for not only the students who attend these schools, but the broader traditional public school… more →
General Equilibrium Effects of Recruiting High-Performing Teachers for School Turnaround: Evidence from Tennessee
Many districts and states have begun implementing incentives to attract high-performing teachers to low-performing schools. Previous research has found that these incentives are effective. However, effects on the schools and students these teachers leave behind has not been examined.… more →
Peeking into the Black Box of School Turnaround: A Formal Test of Mediators and Suppressors
A growing body of research evaluates the effects of turnaround on chronically low-performing schools. We extend this research to formally test factors that either mediate or suppress the effects of two turnaround initiatives in Tennessee: the Achievement School District (ASD) and local… more →