K-12 Education
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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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.… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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-… 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… 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… more →