Free and open to the public Teach For America (TFA) is an important but controversial source of teachers for hard-to-staff subjects in high-poverty U.S. schools. We present findings from the first large-scale experimental study of secondary math teachers from TFA. We find that TFA teachers are more effective than other math teachers in the same schools, increasing student math achievement by 0.07 standard deviations over one school year.
Scott Carrell, Associate Professor of Economics at UCDavis Social interest in problems such as domestic violence is typically motivated by concerns regarding equity, rather than efficiency. However, we document that taking steps to reduce domestic violence by reporting it yields substantial benefits to external parties. Specifically, we find that while children exposed to as-yet-unreported domestic violence reduce the achievement of their classroom peers, these costs disappear completely once the parent reports the violence to the court.
About the speaker: Dr. Dan Goldhaber is the Director of the Center for Education Data & Research and a Professor in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell.
About the speaker Douglas N. Harris is an Associate Professor of Economics and University Endowed Chair in Public Education at Tulane University in New Orleans. About the topic: One of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history, Hurricane Katrina spawned a flurry of public policy reforms. The public school system, in particular, became one of the most radical experiments in more than a century.
Free and open to the public. About the Presentation: Improving students' access to information about college attendance and affordability is a simple, inexpensive intervention which has received much attention in policy circles. The hope is that providing accurate information to potential college students may dramatically improve their ability to calibrate the costs and benefits of college. Many have argued that providing information early in their high school years might build more expectations about college attendance.
Free and open to the public. From the speaker's abstract: The federal Pell Grant Program provides billions of dollars in subsidies to low-income college students to increase affordability and access to higher education. In her recent research, Lesley Turner tests whether colleges respond to the Pell Grant program by altering institutional aid provided to Pell Grant recipients. Turner's findings show that, overall, 16 percent of all Pell Grant aid is passed-through to schools in the form of higher effective prices.
Free and open to the public. About the lecture: The presentation will address four topics: (1) why it is important to step up our use of evidence if we are to improve education outcomes; (2) strategies for engaging stakeholders in using and generating credible evidence; (3) the importance of adopting common standards for design and evidence standards; and (4) a proposal for a common evidence platform. About the speaker: Rebecca Maynard is a leading expert in program evaluation, including the design and conduct
Teachers are the most important in-school contributors to student achievement, but there is widespread concern that the rigidities of the public school system make it unresponsive to teacher quality. In this lecture Dr. Chingos will discuss three studies of how schools respond to differences in teacher effectiveness (as measured by value-added to student achievement), all of which are based on administrative data from the state of Florida. Mathew Chingos, Fellow, Brookings Institution Matthew M.
The Michigan Consortium for Educational Research (MCER) will present early impact analyses for the first graduating cohort to experience the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC). This first-look at results will address what has happened to student achievement, graduation and dropout rates, and college enrollment and persistence as a result of MMC implementation. In addition, representatives from the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) will discuss Michigan's efforts to adopt new College and Career Ready standards.
Sean F. Reardon, Professor of Education, Stanford University Income inequality among the families of school-age children in the US has grown sharply in the last 40 years. In this talk Dr. Reardon will describe his research findings from three studies that examine the relationship of income and income inequality to educational outcomes. The first focuses on trends in the 'income achievement gap' (the test score gap between children from high- and low-income families) over the last 50 years, using data from 13 nationally representative studies conducted between 1959-2009.
ABSTRACT: Politicians tend to underestimate and to undervalue societal benefits that come far in the future, and this is particularly problematic with schools. Even though the economic benefits of improving growth through better schools far exceed the benefits from short run macro policies, the latter receives much more attention. In this talk, the returns to improved schools are described, and these returns are related to a variety of possible school reform policies. Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
Abstract As a new administration takes the reins of the federal education research enterprise, the former director of federal education research, evaluation, and statistics will reflect on his experience in leading a research agency within the Bush administration that maintained its independence and integrity, and will offer his thoughts on what must be done to strengthen education research further so as to provide practitioners and policymakers with the knowledge to improve education outcomes substantially.
Dr. Pianta is Dean of the Curry School of Education, as well as the Novartis Professor of Education and Director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia. A former special education teacher, Dr. Pianta's research focuses on investigating the effects of schooling on children's social and academic outcomes and on improving school and classroom experiences through teachers' professional development. He has been involved in developing observational assessments of classrooms and observationally-based systems for professional development. Dr.
Abstract: Teacher Preparation and Student Achievement: This research project describes the recent changes in the routes into teaching in New York City. It assesses the effects of these changes on the distribution of teachers across schools and the academic achievement of students. It then looks more closely at the preparation of teachers in the district and estimates the effects of characteristics of this preparation on teachers' value-added to student achievement in their first two years of teaching.
Abstract: Community colleges today enroll over one-half of all college students nationwide or nearly 12 million students. And yet, fewer than 40% of those who start at a public two-year college earn any type of degree within six years. Even among those students who intend to complete a degree, only about one-third do so within six years.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Superintendent Kevelin Jones and Dr. Sam Trejo discuss the academic impacts of the Flint Water Crisis 7-8 years later, and the big picture implications for young people in the community.
Come learn from four stakeholders renowned for their experience and expertise in improving children's literacy; two professors of education, an education reporter, and the head of one of Michigan's school administrator associations.
Professor Yoshikawa is a core faculty member of the Psychology of Social Intervention and Human Development and Social Intervention programs at Steinhardt.
Sean Reardon describes his research findings from three studies that examine the relationship of income and income inequality to educational outcomes. September, 2012.
