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• Using Predicted Academic Performance to Identify At-Risk Students in Public Schools

  Measures of student disadvantage—or risk—are critical components of equity-focused
  

• The Education and Earnings Returns to Postsecondary Technical Education: Evidence from Missouri

  We estimate the education and earnings returns to enrolling in technical two-year degree programs at community colleges in Missouri. A unique...

• CALDER Explainers: Paying Attention to Teacher Pensions

  CALDER Policy Brief No. 1-1115-1

  This CALDER Explainer reviews the issue of teacher pensions. We provide background information...

• Using Longitudinal Student Mobility Across Schools and Districts to Identify At-Risk Students

  CALDER Policy Brief No. 25-0421

• The Community Eligibility Provision, Free and Reduced-Price Lunch, and Measurement of Poverty: Implications for Education Policy

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• Career Readiness in Public High Schools: An Exploratory Analysis of Industry Recognized Credentials

  We use statewide administrative data from Missouri to document the prevalence of Industry Recognized Credential (IRC) programs in public high...

• Free and Reduced-Price Meal Eligibility Does Not Measure Student Poverty: Evidence and Policy Significance

  Free and reduced-price meal eligibility (FRM) is commonly used in education research and policy applications as an indicator of student poverty....

• Free and Reduced-Price Meal Eligibility Does Not Measure Student Poverty: Evidence and Policy Significance

  Free and reduced-price meal eligibility (FRM) is commonly used in education research and policy applications as an indicator of student poverty....

• Estimating Test-Score Growth for Schools and Districts with a Gap Year in the Data

  We evaluate the feasibility of estimating test-score growth for schools and districts with a gap year in test data. Our research design uses a...

• How Do Teachers from Alternative Pathways Contribute to the Teaching Workforce in Urban Areas? Evidence from Kansas City

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• The Effect of the Community Eligibility Provision on the Ability of Free and Reduced-Price Meal Data to Identify Disadvantaged Students

  The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a policy change to the federally-administered National School Lunch Program that allows schools...

• The Effect of the Community Eligibility Provision on the Ability of Free and Reduced-Price Meal Data to Identify Disadvantaged Students

  The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a policy change to the federally-administered National School Lunch Program that allows schools...

• Academic Mobility in U.S. Public Schools: Evidence from Nearly 3 Million Students

  We use administrative panel data from seven states covering nearly 3 million students to document and explore variation in “academic mobility,” a...

• Non-Resident Postsecondary Enrollment Growth and the Outcomes of In-State Students

  We study the effects of exposure to non-resident students on the outcomes of undergraduate in-state students during a period of high non-resident...

• Using Free Meal and Direct Certification Data to Proxy for Student Disadvantage in the Era of the Community Eligibility Provision

  Free and reduced-price meal (FRM) data are used ubiquitously to proxy for student disadvantage in education research and policy applications. The...

• Does Regulating Entry Requirements Lead to More Effective Principals?

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• Public Accountability and Nudges: The Effect of an Information Intervention on the Responsiveness of Teacher Education Programs to External Ratings

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• High School Course Access and Postsecondary STEM Enrollment and Attainment

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• Accounting for Student Disadvantage in Value-Added Models (Update)

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• The Compositional Effect of Rigorous Teacher Evaluation on Workforce Quality

  We study how the introduction of a rigorous teacher evaluation system in a large urban school district affects the quality composition of teacher...

• Labor Market Frictions and Production Efficiency in Public Schools

  State-specific licensing policies and pension plans create mobility costs for educators who cross state lines. We empirically test whether these...

• High Schools and Students’ Initial Colleges and Majors

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• Pensions and Late Career Teacher Retention (Update)

  Public school teachers retire much earlier than comparable professionals. Pension rule changes affecting new teachers can be used to close this...

• The Common Core Conundrum: To What Extent Should We Worry That Changes to Assessments and Standards Will Affect Test-Based Measures of Teacher Performance?

  Using administrative longitudinal data from five states, we study how value-added measures of teacher performance are affected...

• Benefit or Burden? On the Intergenerational Inequity of Teacher Pension Plans

  Most public school teachers in the United States are enrolled in defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Using administrative micro data from four...

• Incorporating End-of-Course Exam Timing into Educational Performance Evaluations

  There is increased policy interest in extending test-based evaluations in K-12 education to include student achievement in high school. High...

• Pension Enhancements and the Retention of Public Employees: Evidence from Teaching

  We use data from workers in the largest public-sector occupation in the United States – teaching – to examine the effect of pension enhancements...

• The Efficiency Implications of Using Proportional Evaluations to Shape the Teaching Workforce

  We examine the efficiency implications of imposing proportionality in teacher evaluation systems. Proportional evaluations force comparisons to be...

• Who Benefits from Pension Enhancements?

  During the late 1990's public pension funds across the United States accrued large actuarial surpluses. The seemingly flush conditions of the...

• Pension-Induced Rigidities in the Labor Market for School Leaders

  Educators in public schools in the United States are typically enrolled in defined-benefit pension plans, which penalize across-plan mobility. We...

• Teacher Pension Systems, the Composition of the Teaching Workforce, and Teacher Quality

  Teacher pension systems target retirements within a narrow range of the career cycle by penalizing individuals who separate too soon or remain...

• Teacher Preparation Programs and Teacher Quality: Are There Real Differences Across Programs

  We compare teacher preparation programs in Missouri based on the effectiveness of their graduates in the classroom. The differences in...

• Selecting Growth Models for School and Teacher Evaluations: Should Proportionality Matter?

  The specifics of how growth models should be constructed and used to evaluate schools and teachers is a topic of lively policy debate in states...