Paul vonHippel

Institution

LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin

Title

Professor

paulvonhippel@utexas.edu

Website

Paul von Hippel is a professor of public policy, sociology, statistics and data science at the University of Texas at Austin. He works on evidence-based policy, education and inequality, and the science of learning. He is a four-time winner of best article awards, as well as the Leo Goodman Award for contributions to statistical methods.

EdWorkingPapers

How Not to Fool Ourselves About Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects

Paul von Hippel, Brendan A. Schuetze. January 2025

Topics: Methods

Tags: Efficacy

Researchers across many fields have called for greater attention to heterogeneity of treatment effects—shifting focus from the average effect to variation in effects between different treatments, studies, or subgroups. True heterogeneity is important, but many reports of heterogeneity… more →
Download 01/2025
School Calendars and Student Obesity

Jennifer Graves, Paul von Hippel. January 2025

Topics: Student Well-Being and Mental Health

Tags: School schedules

Ample evidence documents rising student obesity in summer months and falling student obesity during the school year. One theory for this pattern is that out-of-school days lack some of the structure and health-promoting behaviors that schools provide. Given this observed seasonal pattern, a… more →
Download 01/2025
Multiply by 37 (or Divide by 0.023): A Surprisingly Accurate Rule of Thumb for Converting Effect Sizes from Standard Deviations to Percentile Points

Paul T. von Hippel. March 2024

Topics: Methods

Tags: Assessment

Educational researchers often report effect sizes in standard deviation units (SD), but SD effects are hard to interpret. Effects are easier to interpret in percentile points, but converting SDs to percentile points involves a calculation that is not transparent to educational stakeholders. We… more →
Download 03/2024
Estimating Learning When Test Scores Are Missing: The Problem and Two Solutions

Paul T. von Hippel. October 2023

Topics: Methods

Tags: Assessment, Learning environments

Longitudinal studies can produce biased estimates of learning if children miss tests. In an application to summer learning, we illustrate how missing test scores can create an illusion of large summer learning gaps when true gaps are close to zero. We demonstrate two methods that reduce bias by… more →
Download 10/2023
Bias in kindergarten ability group placement: Does parental lobbying make it worse? Do formal assessments make it better?

Ana P. Cañedo, Paul T. von Hippel. May 2022

Topics: Standards, Assessment, and Curriculum

Tags: Ability grouping, Assessment, Educator perceptions

Von Hippel & Cañedo (2021) reported that US kindergarten teachers placed girls, Asian-Americans, and children from families of high socioeconomic status (SES) into higher ability groups than their test scores alone would warrant. The results fit the view that teachers were biased.

Download 05/2022
Is kindergarten ability group placement biased? New data, new methods, new answers

Paul T. von Hippel, Ana P. Cañedo. December 2021

Topics: Student Learning

Tags: Ability grouping, Early childhood education, Equity

Half of kindergarten teachers split children into higher and lower ability groups for reading or math. In national data, we predicted kindergarten ability group placement using linear and ordinal logistic regression with classroom fixed effects. In fall, test scores were the best predictors of… more →
Download 07/2020
The effect of smaller classes on infection-related school absence: Evidence from the Project STAR randomized controlled trial

Paul von Hippel. May 2021

Topics: Student Well-Being and Mental Health

Tags: Class size

In an effort to reduce viral transmission, many schools are planning to reduce class size if they have not reduced it already. Yet the effect of class size on transmission is unknown. To determine whether smaller classes reduce school absence, especially when community disease prevalence is high… more →
Download 05/2021
How Much Does Teacher Quality Vary Across Teacher Preparation Programs? Reanalyses from Six States

Paul T. von Hippel, Laura Bellows. December 2020

Topics: Methods

Tags: Professional development, Assessment, Returns to education and skills

At least sixteen US states have taken steps toward holding teacher preparation programs (TPPs) accountable for teacher value-added to student test scores. Yet it is unclear whether teacher quality differences between TPPs are large enough to make an accountability system worthwhile. Several… more →
Download 12/2020
The data revolution comes to higher education: Identifying students at risk of dropout in Chile

Paul T. von Hippel, Alvaro Hofflinger. July 2020

Topics: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary

Tags: Higher education, International and comparative, Student supports

Enrollment in higher education has risen dramatically in Latin America, especially in Chile. Yet graduation and persistence rates remain low. One way to improve graduation and persistence is to use data and analytics to identify students at risk of dropout, target interventions, and evaluate… more →
Download 07/2020
Year-Round School Calendars: Effects on Summer Learning, Achievement, Parents, Teachers, and Property Values

Paul T. von Hippel. February 2020

Topics: Out-of-School and Alternative Education

Tags: Teacher hiring and retention

Year-round school calendars take the usual 175-180 instruction days of the school year and redistribute them, replacing the usual schedule – nine months on, three months off – with a more “balanced” schedule of short instruction periods alternating with shorter breaks across all four seasons of… more →
Download 02/2020

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Paul vonHippel

EdWorkingPapers

How Not to Fool Ourselves About Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects

School Calendars and Student Obesity

Multiply by 37 (or Divide by 0.023): A Surprisingly Accurate Rule of Thumb for Converting Effect Sizes from Standard Deviations to Percentile Points

Estimating Learning When Test Scores Are Missing: The Problem and Two Solutions

Bias in kindergarten ability group placement: Does parental lobbying make it worse? Do formal assessments make it better?

Is kindergarten ability group placement biased? New data, new methods, new answers

The effect of smaller classes on infection-related school absence: Evidence from the Project STAR randomized controlled trial

How Much Does Teacher Quality Vary Across Teacher Preparation Programs? Reanalyses from Six States

The data revolution comes to higher education: Identifying students at risk of dropout in Chile

Year-Round School Calendars: Effects on Summer Learning, Achievement, Parents, Teachers, and Property Values