K-12 Education
What Happens When We Pay Our Teachers More? Evidence from New Jersey Public Schools
This paper examines the impact of increasing teacher salaries on student outcomes by exploiting variation from the “50K The First Day” campaign that established a $50K salary floor for new teachers across New Jersey school districts. Using school-level data from 2003 to 2019, we employ a… more →
Measuring Conflict in Local Politics
Many of the most tangible and immediate political conflicts in American's lives occur at the local level. Yet, we lack large-scale evidence on how, why, and where conflict occurs in local governments. In this paper, we present a new dataset of nearly 100,000 videos of school board meetings, and… more →
Experimental Effects of “Opportunity Gap” and “Achievement Gap” Frames
Racial equity in education is often framed around “closing the achievement gap,” but many scholars argue this frame perpetuates deficit mindsets. The “opportunity gap” (OG) frame has been offered as an alternative to focus attention on structural injustices. In a preregistered survey experiment… more →
Integrating Open Science Principles into Quasi-Experimental Social Science Research
Quasi-experimental methods are a cornerstone of applied social science, providing critical answers to causal questions that inform policy and practice. Although open science principles have influenced experimental research norms across the social sciences, these practices are rarely implemented… more →
Entering and Exiting the Foster Care System: Implications for Absenteeism Among Child Welfare Involved Youth
While foster youth miss more school versus their non-foster counterparts, their status as a foster youth is not static, with many of them entering and exiting the foster care system over time. These dynamics of entry and exit can represent particularly crucial transition periods of stability and… more →
A Bibliometric Review of Research on Inequality of Educational Achievement, 1934 to 2023
In this bibliometric review of the research landscape on achievement gaps, we analyze temporal trends and geographic distributions, identify key scholars and publications, and uncover the intellectual structure and thematic focus of achievement gap research. By examining 1,607 achievement gap… more →
The Effects of School Building HVAC System Conditions on Student Academic and Behavioral Outcomes
There is growing awareness of the importance of school building environments for student health, well-being, and even educational outcomes. We ask in this study what role school building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems play in shaping student attendance, behavior, and… more →
Measuring the Affective Language of Principals' Evaluation Feedback and Investigating Differences by Principal Gender and Race
Over the past decade, reforms to principal evaluation systems have sought to incorporate formal feedback structures as a lever for principal improvement. However, we know little about the feedback that principals receive. Using statewide administrative data from Tennessee, including principals’… more →
Exploring the Move Away from ‘Zero -Tolerance’ Policies: Evidence from Restorative Justice Practices in Texas and Michigan Schools
This study examines the impact of statewide Restorative Justice (RJ) policy reforms in Michigan and Texas on student disciplinary outcomes and behavior, in light of increasing concerns over the negative effects of zero-tolerance policies. As schools move away from exclusionary discipline… more →
Pathways to the Teaching Profession: Teaching Assistants’ and Substitute Teachers’ Transitions into the Teacher Workforce
Teacher shortages and lack of teacher diversity have led to growing efforts nationally to recruit teaching assistants (TAs) to be classroom teachers. Substitute teachers are not typically considered in these efforts. We pair longitudinal administrative data from a mid-sized urban district with… more →
Causal Mechanisms of Relative Age Effects on Adolescent Risky Behaviours
We investigate the mechanisms by which a student’s age relative to classmates (i.e., relative age) influences risky health behaviors among European adolescents. Using a two-stage least squares approach, we show that relatively young students are more prone to engage in risky behaviors. These… more →
Effects of Early College on Educational Attainment for All in Massachusetts
Evaluations of Early College, a type of intervention that enables simultaneous enrollment in secondary and post-secondary courses in the United States, consistently find positive effects on educational attainment across racial and socioeconomic groups.
Leveling the Playing Field: Default Policy and its Effects on English Learner Reclassification
Reclassification, the process by which English learner (EL) students exit EL classification, often determines ELs’ access to mainstream academic coursework. While existing research finds that many students who demonstrate English proficiency do not reclassify, few studies evaluate policies that… more →
Socioeconomic and Racial Discrepancies in Algebra Access, Teacher, and Learning Experiences: Findings from the American Mathematics Educator Study
In this study, we highlight the differences in classroom-, teacher-, and school-level factors in 8th and 9th grade algebra experiences along socioeconomic and racial/ethnic lines using nationally representative survey data from the American Mathematics Educator Study. Several takeaways emerge… more →
Mechanisms of Effect Size Differences Between Researcher Developed and Independently Developed Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis of Item-Level Data
Differences in effect sizes between researcher developed (RD) and independently developed (ID) outcome measures are widely documented but poorly understood in education research. We conduct a meta-analysis using item-level outcome data to test potential mechanisms that explain differences in… more →
Teacher-colleague race congruence and mobility: Do colleague demographics impact teacher retention?
Teacher turnover is especially pronounced among teachers of color who play critically important roles in the success of students of color. A growing literature points to racial isolation as one factor that is associated with Black teacher job satisfaction in particular, which in turn could play… more →
Technology Apprenticeships and Labor Market Outcomes: Mixed-Methods Evidence from the LaunchCode Program
We leverage employment and earnings data from a large credit bureau, program data from LaunchCode—a free technology education, and in-depth interviews with applicants and instructors to examine if the LaunchCode program leads to economic benefits, who is most likely to experience these benefits… 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 →
Did Mathematics Achievement Gaps for Students with Disabilities Widen after the Introduction of the Common Core and its Aligned Assessments?
This study addresses the important yet underexplored question of whether the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, which emphasize critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as the computer-based assessments aligned with the Common Core, have facilitated or hindered learning for… more →
IncreasED: How Court Rulings Impact Special Education Identification
Healthcare services outside of school impact the likelihood of receiving a school-based special education classification and services. Using Massachusetts administrative data on public school students, this paper employs difference-in-differences to examine the impacts of expanded Medicaid… more →