Education policy doesn’t always require sweeping reforms. Getting the basics right—retaining strong teachers, adopting high-quality curricula, and ensuring students have sufficient time in school—can go a long way.

Really glad that the importance of time in school is receiving greater attention among state lawmakers and the education press. www.the74million.org/article/amid...

NEW: The bad news about international-student enrollments at American colleges just got worse. An exclusive @chronicle.com analysis of just-released State Department data shows new visa issuances in the summer of 2025 dropped by more than a third. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Had to doublecheck the date on this

I’ve had people laugh saying 'A better Massachusetts is possible' sounds underwhelming. But do you actually believe it? That fixing the T, solving the housing crisis, making childcare affordable is around the corner? Or is believing that we can have a government that delivers genuinely radical.

Shout out to the NIMBY neighbors who managed to kill the original proposal because they felt their aesthetic prejudices, and access to street parking, were more important than having affordable housing. Hope they enjoy the resulting even-taller building!

Good thread and article. One factor it doesn't mention is that survey response rates have fallen a lot. The CPS (households) has gone from near 90% to <70%; the CES (estabs) from 60%+ to 42%; the JOLTS is in the low 30s. That hurts reliability and increases revisions. www.bls.gov/osmr/respons...

Amitabh is a coauthor on arguably the best paper on high-deductible health insurance that we have (link to thread from a few months ago to follow)

Economist Alex Imas has been tracking the evidence on AI and productivity changes, and now thinks that the macro-economic data is, rather suddenly, showing the increase in productivity that we have been seeing in our micro research. aleximas.substack.com/p/what-is-th...

What does this imply for those of us who are not Christian, and who labor under the assumption that we're protected by the First Amendment?

I continue to be gobsmacked at 1) how common this formulation is 2) how antisemitic and generally bigoted it is 3) and how for all the talk of anti-semitism this is never cited as an example even though it’s quite literally the original incarnation.

We need candidates who fall firmly into “looks like a cinnamon roll, could actually kill you” overlap.

We’re excited to introduce The Journal of Policy Implementation & Evaluation (JPIE), a new journal from APPAM launching in early 2027. We are currently accepting letters of interest from prospective editors through Wednesday, Apr 1. Learn more: https://ow.ly/YLNb50YpNiO

Conan was our Class Day speaker at graduation and knocked it out of the park. Given the important political role comedians and talk show hosts have played in this past year, I suspect he'll be both funny and substantive.

‘No-growth’ suburbs are hollowing themselves out & harming Massachusetts’ future. In Marblehead, public school enrollment has fallen from 3,144 students in 2016 to 2,389 today (-24%), while the share of residents 65+ has grown from 17.9% to 22.6%.

Good attempt in the title, but I think they missed a pun opportunity @joshua-goodman.com

Almost half of the campuses at the nation's largest public 4-yr university system have seen enrollments collapse by double digits since 2020. Campuses lose immediate tuition revenue, exacerbating existing issues as reserves deplete. I look at how one Cal State campus seeks to turn things around.

I have a new piece in The Argument. We haven't (yet?) seen AI affect the labor market by increasing number of people who are unemployed - but there's reason to believe it's contributing to a stagnant labor market by making firms less willing to hire. www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-tinder...

Believe in your work. Stop ending papers with “More research is needed” and start concluding with “No more research on this topic is needed.”

Sorry, Bluesky, but I have to say it: AI can already do social science research better than most professors with PhDs. And, for the first time in my life, I really have no idea what happens in five years. Things are changing already, we just need to wake up.

Summer camps are expensive.

Excited to release this policy brief exploring the college enrollment impacts of Massachusetts' recent dramatic expansions of free community college. TLDR: The clear messaging and simple design of MassReconnect & MassEducate sparked substantial increases in community college enrollment.

On Wednesday, I asked a room of 150+ people a question: Do you actually believe that housing will be affordable and transit will work in Massachusetts (even if kept electing good democrats for another decade)?The silence said everything.

Very much enjoying this new paper showing that: 1) Massachusetts high schools differ dramatically in their impacts on students' earnings 2) More effective high schools are those that tend to raise test scores the most www.nber.org/papers/w34913

2. This remarkable rise in CC enrollment is distinct from other trends in nearby states, suggesting that MA's free CC college policies are the driver of these changes. [Courtesy of publicly available data from the National Student Clearinghouse.]

To boil the findings down to two pictures: 1. Enrollment is way up vs pre-policy trends, particularly among the 25+ students first eligible for free CC (up 67% by '24!). By fall 2024, when CC was made free for all ages, the state saw 25,000 more CC enrollees than predicted.

Excited to release this policy brief exploring the college enrollment impacts of Massachusetts' recent dramatic expansions of free community college. TLDR: The clear messaging and simple design of MassReconnect & MassEducate sparked substantial increases in community college enrollment.

Made a database that harmonizes all of IPEDS... this is so much better than suffering through the horrid data and code on the site!

A sincere thank you to all candidates in our election for the AEFP board of directors. We appreciate your commitment to AEFP. Welcome and congratulations to our newly elected board members!

The moment many of us in #edresearch have been waiting for... Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences has been released. ies.ed.gov/ies/2026/02/...

Burhan has been such a powerful voice for making Massachusetts affordable - making Massachusetts the kind of place that can welcome more people to such a great place to live.

Why Burhan for State Senate? #mapoli ✅ Has a track record of meaningful policy changes that address affordability ✅ Puts his progressive values into action Bonus points: ✅ Mom raised him while working at Dunkin'

This is a great video from someone who's consistently pushed for changes that make our community — and will make our state — more accessible to all. I'm a fan, and a supporter of his state senate run.

I just attended Burhan's campaign kickoff. The energy was fantastic! The room was full of people looking for leaders with the energy, brains, and disposition to do big things. Burhan's been great for Cambridge. I'm excited to see what he'll do statewide on housing, transit, energy, and education.

You'll understand our campaign more from this launch video than anything else. We gave it our heart and soul. Give it a watch.

Over at SCHOOLED, our discussion about grade inflation continues, with great suggestions on how to tamp it down from Bibb Hubbard, Mike Goldstein, Dale Chu, Thibaut Delloue, @davidbnitkin.bsky.social, and Kevin Teasley, among others. Check it out! schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/fixing-gra...

New from APPAM: The Journal of Policy Implementation & Evaluation (JPIE)! JPIE will publish short, peer-reviewed articles with timely, real-world insights on policy design, implementation & evaluation. Learn more: https://ow.ly/TPNW50YmzVr

Check out our new paper investigating teacher retention effects of a statewide minimum salary increase. 🚨Spoiler alert 🚨: paying teachers more increased retention👇

As someone who actually believes that good instructional policy can meaningfully move the needle for kids, it’s important to remember that everything else the state does in terms of policy matters too.

New- I spoke with political scientist Vlad Kogan about his provocative new book "No Adult Left Behind." He argues that the politics of public education privilege the interest of adults over students. I tried to pressure test his arguments in this Q&A. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/no-adult-l...

THAR SHE SNOWS! @universalhub.com

I am currently on track to give talks at 3 out of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks this year (Boston, New York, Dallas). And yet I still have to explain to my kids that just because I'm an economist doesn't mean I know how the stock market is doing.

Medicare Part B spends over $40 billion on physician-administered drugs. Our new study, forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics, finds that the program's payment formula slows drug price growth over time.

this is worth reading. More important than the assessement of AI is the analysis of higher ed "Higher education produces two things at once: the learning product (the transformation of the student...), and the credential product (the public signal...)." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Since this will likely come up in the SOTU: Yes, US stock markets are up since Trump took office (14%). But in the rest of the world, markets are up WAY more. Cumulative market gains are more than triple ours (43%)

Haven't seen it on Bluesky yet: a nice paper is making the rounds, estimating that the cost of housing permits in LA can explain 1/3 of the gap between construction costs and housing prices. That is: LA's terribly slow housing permitting is extremely costly!

1. Take a look at this chart. That black line? Technically, it's the decline in the percentage of Americans who move each year—from about one in five to less than one in thirteen. But it's more than that. You're looking at the decline of the American dream.

#EconSky: Registration for "The Craft of Publishing in Economics" is now open! March 9, 12-1:30 EDT. Three fantastic editor will give suggestions for how to navigate the publication process w/ plenty of time for Q&A. More info & registration form below. econ4ua.org/the-craft-of...

Some good news for higher ed: current and recent students give the sector good marks in most areas (other than affordability), with few gaps by political leaning. The challenge still remains reaching those who haven't recently been in college.

Blizzard of '26, a clone of Blizzard of '78? It's close. '78 top snow totals: 36" in MA, 38" in RI '26 top snow totals: 31" in MA, 36.2" in RI Lowest pressure: '26 = 968 mb, '79 955.5 '78 wins, but barely. Both near exact storm track. Wow. #mawx #riwx #blizzard #noreaster @bostonglobe.com