Search and Filter
Higher education
The Effect of College Entrance Exam Policies on Test Preparation and Tutoring Services
Multiple studies suggest that policies mandating college entrance exams can have positive impacts on college outcomes, especially for students who would otherwise not sit for the exam. Less understood is how families react to this increased competition for college admissions. Our study estimates… more →
The Design of Promises: The Structure of Local College Affordability Programs in the United States
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Higher educationWe analyze 314 local college affordability programs (i.e., “Promise” or “free college” programs) using a novel dataset detailing, for each program, rules stipulating what programs provide (provision), where they may be used (applicability), and who may use them (eligibility). We perform three… more →
Exploring Test-Optional Admissions Policies: Patterns in Applications, Enrollment, and Diversity During the COVID-19
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Higher educationThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of higher education, including college admissions processes. Since 2020, numerous universities and colleges have adopted test-optional policies, allowing applicants to decide whether to submit standardized test scores. Although such policies have been… more →
Bureaucracy and Burden: Understanding Take-up of a Need-Based Financial Aid Program
Elizabeth Burland, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Kelcie Ferrara-Gerson, Xavier Fields, Katherine Michelmore, Nathan Sotherland, Kevin Stange, Marissa Thompson, Megan Tompkins-Stange.Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Higher educationSocial 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 →
Political Views and College Choices in a Polarized America
Tags: Higher educationWe examine the role of students’ political views in shaping college enrollment decisions in the United States. We hypothesize that students derive utility from attending institutions aligned with their political identities, which could reinforce demographic and regional disparities in… more →
Toward More Equitable Learning Environments: Insights from Digital Trace Data on Inclusive Instructional Design Features
Topics: Student LearningSeminal 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 →
Financial Aid For Future Educators: Assessing A Federal Grant's Impact On Students' Postsecondary Decisions
Created in 2007, the federal TEACH grant program is a large federal financial aid program that seeks to attract postsecondary students to the teaching profession by providing financial assistance to help pay for a teaching degree. This paper describes the uptake and usage of the federal TEACH… more →
Comparing Machine Learning Methods for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Randomized Trials: A Comprehensive Simulation Study
Topics: MethodsThis study compares 18 machine learning methods for estimating heterogeneous treatment effects in randomized controlled trials, using simulations calibrated to two large-scale educational experiments. We evaluate performance across continuous and binary outcomes with diverse and realistic… more →
Who Wants to Be a Teacher in America?
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentLong-standing compositional disparities and more recent concerns about the health of the teaching profession highlight the need to increase our understanding of the pipeline into K–12 teaching. Leveraging data from 11.5 million college applicants from 2014–2025, we provide the most detailed… more →
Efficiency or Burnout? The Effects of Condensed Course Formats on Student Achievement in Community Colleges
Topics: Student LearningCondensed courses—those that compress instructional content into a shorter time frame—are increasingly popular in higher education. While they offer greater flexibility, concerns remain that the accelerated pace may compromise learning. Using administrative data from a state community college… more →
The Many Paths to College Enrollment: Re-Conceptualizing the Transition to College
Traditional college choice models often fall short in capturing the complex paths that today’s student population takes to postsecondary enrollment. This paper identifies the limitations of the predominant frameworks, such as Hossler and Gallagher’s (1987) three-phase model, arguing that they… 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… more →
Neighborhood Effects on STEM Major Choice
Tags: Higher education, NeighborhoodsThis paper provides causal evidence that the neighborhoods where students grow up play a significant role in shaping their college major choices, focusing on STEM fields. Using administrative data from Texas and variation in the timing of school moves across counties and districts, we estimate… more →
A Degree of Choice: Educational Decision-Making after College
Despite the growing share of college-educated adults returning to higher education, we know little about how individuals weigh the consequential decision to go to graduate school. In this paper, we ask how individuals decide to pursue a particular graduate program within a field of study. We… more →
Empirical Analysis of STEM Faculty Productivity: Using NbClust and Logistic Regression to Explore Interactions Among Faculty Teaching and Research Productivity Metrics, Demographic, and Disciplinary Characteristics
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentTags: Higher educationThis study investigates the nexus between research and teaching productivity among STEM faculty at a public research-intensive university, analyzing data from 553 faculty members across four STEM disciplines: Biological Sciences, Engineering, Information and Computer Sciences, and Physical… more →
High School Equivalency Credentialing and Post-Secondary Success: Pre-Registered Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the GED® Test
For the over 24 million American adults who do not hold a traditional high school diploma, high school equivalency (HSE) credentials represent the primary “second-chance” pathway to many careers or educational opportunities. This project uses current, representative data to assess whether, how,… more →
Politics of the professoriate: Longitudinal evidence from a state public university system’s universe of faculty
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Higher educationOver the past decade, Democrats and Republicans have grown increasingly polarized in their views of American higher education. Republicans in particular have become far more critical of the political and social views of faculty. In this paper, we thus investigate whether the commonly held belief… more →
The Net Benefits of Raising Bachelor’s Degree Completion through the City University of New York ACE Program
Judith Scott-Clayton, Irwin Garfinkel, Elizabeth Ananat, Sophie Collyer, Robert Paul Hartley, Anastasia Koutavas, Buyi Wang, Christopher Wimer.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 →
Implicit Gender-STEM Stereotypes and College Major Choice
Implicit stereotypes about gender and STEM may unconsciously shape students' academic choices and contribute to gender gaps in major choice, but there is limited economic evidence on this channel. To study this relationship, we administer a gender-science Implicit Association Test (IAT) to a… 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 →