ICYMI!

New pub in EFP! Using NLSY + ONET, we compare mid-career job characteristics of 2-year vs 4-year college starters, examining not only their wages but also their job's sector, skill, & ed requirements, deepening insight into how college level shapes job & life course pathways. doi.org/10.1162/EDFP...

Back from AEFP and looking for some more new research to dig into? Check out my latest study (led by @kevincbastian.bsky.social) examining factors that predict whether student teaching placements occur with highly effective teachers! Open-access at JTE: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

ICYMI - check out this new mixed methods research brief from my team on absenteeism through the 2024-25 school year!

Excited to share a new research brief on absenteeism in NC through 2024-25! This mixed methods work shows that absence rates did not change much between '23-24 and '24-25, and describes key possible reasons why based on interviews with educators, parents, and students. epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

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/...

Now posted on @annenberginstitute.bsky.social EdWorkingPapers: What are schools doing to improve attendance? Based on school leader surveys in MI and GA, we describe the prevalence of various attendance practices and organizational systems. We find little variation, both between and within states.

Curious about what people said in response to the RFI about "re-imagining" the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)? I put the public comments in one file (763 pages) and used AI to analyze the themes and areas of agreement and disagreement (5 pages) by audience ⬇️: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Hi all, sharing that my org has put online 7(!) research reports conducted in the past 2 years in our partnered evaluation of GEAR UP NC. Topics relate to implementation & usage of services, effects of those services, and sustainability of services past the grant period. epic.unc.edu/publications...

Happy to share a new brief from our study of the WorkKeys in NC looking at exam participation & performance! A key takeaway: Students' WK & ACT scores are highly correlated, raising Qs about the extent to which these tests provide different info about students' skills. epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

Recently I shared a new pub from me & colleagues on student absenteeism. To accompany this, we've also produced a one-pager to share key takeaways in brief! Article: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... One-pager: epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u... @sarahcfuller.bsky.social @kevincbastian.bsky.social

We are so excited to be able to offer a limited number of subsidies to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as school district personnel, to present at NCARE 2026 thanks to our generous sponsors. Proposals are due November 7th: ncafrie.wildapricot.org/conference-i...

NEW from me and Amie Rapaport at @futureedgu.bsky.social: New Parent Research Helps Explain Causes of Post-Pandemic Absenteeism Crisis // www.future-ed.org/new-parent-r...

New paper! Using data from NC, we estimate that getting attendance rates back to pre-pandemic levels in 2023-24 could have improved state math achievement by 0.017-0.025 SDs in this year, or 13-19% of what would be needed for a full academic recovery. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Here’s a new perspective piece at EdNC focused on full time principal internships in NC. Good news is that the state has decided to fund them for the 2025-26 year! But the issue—questions about the importance of the internship and funding for it—will still be there. www.ednc.org/perspective-...

📢 Job Posting! 📢 We are hiring TWO postdocs at Detroit PEER at Wayne State (detroitpeer.org)! We are looking for one quant/mixed methods expert and one qual/mixed expert to work with me & @jeremylsinger.bsky.social on attendance research. Apply by Oct. 10, but flexible on start date! Please share!

NEW: We conducted a survey of all school leaders in Michigan in 2024-25 about their attendance strategies. Our report offers the most comprehensive evidence thus far of what schools are actively doing to reduce chronic absenteeism. @sarahlenhoff.bsky.social detroitpeer.org/wp-content/u...

My study on ACT/SAT test requirements has been issued at EEPA! Using time-varying DID, I found that requiring 11th graders to take the ACT or SAT had small to null effects on postsec outcomes, with some variation btw effects on students vs states' institutions. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3...

🚨Attention Job Seekers: We're hiring a quantitative researcher for a 1-year (possibly renewable for 2nd yr) position to study Career & Technical education! While not technically a postdoc, this would be a great fit for a recent PhD graduate! 🧵 careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

New pub (open-access)! School absence rates have been above pre-pandemic levels for multiple years. We show how this is adding up for students over time, revealing that some students are experiencing especially deep and persistent levels of absenteeism. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/...

New results from "The Nation's Report Card" just dropped and they are pretty bad. I got a sneak peek as a member of IES’s Standing Committee, so I had an extra day or so to ruminate about them. A few thoughts 👇 1/n

Out today! I wrote an op-ed for EdNC reflecting on learning recovery. I suggest that the multiple other challenges schools face (attendance, mental health, teacher burn-out) undercut recovery efforts, & offer some ideas about what that means we should do moving forward. www.ednc.org/learning-los...

Come join my data team! We are hiring another Strategic Research Fellow! (Or two) It’s a great opportunity for an early career researcher with an interest in higher ed policy. Priority deadline is Feb 7, more details below. northcarolina.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Excited to release, with coauthors Camille Mikkelsen and @sarahcfuller.bsky.social, a new research brief on NC’s support personnel workforce (counselors, social workers, school psychologists) through the pandemic epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u... A few key findings:

Interesting participatory research on attendance that centers student voice! "The solutions students relayed were holistic in scope and emerged directly from their expressed needs, emphasizing structural pathways, school improvement, and social-emotional support" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Last year was a big year for me. I hear there's some merit in reflection and sharing successes, so here's a thread highlighting some, and thanking those who enabled those successes. An especially big thanks to my co-authors and committee members @gzamarro.bsky.social and @jbmcgee.bsky.social.

Receiving this email just made my day. ❤️ Always great to hear that your research is being used to inform policy and practice 😊

To close 2024, I want to celebrate some of my work from this past year that I’m most proud of - and encourage others to do the same!! #1 Exploring student absence patterns over 3 post-COVID yrs, revealing variation in the persistence & depth of absence problems: www.brookings.edu/articles/stu...

NEW pub! We show changes in means & distributions of several "non-test" outcomes from pre-COVID to '22. Results show how different outcomes have had different post-COVID trajectories. Grades recovered quickly, but absenteeism got worse from 21 to 22. For each, changes were larger at the tails.

We're getting more evidence that absence rates remained high, again, last school year. And this is occurring even though (I think) school leaders are very aware of this problem and have been trying to get attendance rates back up already.

I’ve done a decent amount of work around course taking, but this highlights just how different the same course can be across different classrooms and contexts. Definitely something I’ll try to keep in mind more. Also would love to be able to know how Covid impacted things like this!

I'm starting to gear up for APPAM 2024 later this week! On Thursday morning, I'll be presenting on this new working paper of ours that looks at the relationship between post-pandemic absenteeism and achievement. Looking forward to seeing folks there!

New (and early) work from EPIC on paid teacher residency programs in TX epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u.... Much thanks to coauthors @sarahcfuller.bsky.social and Andrew Otte. Several key findings stand out:

New WP! How might post-COVID test scores change if absence rates returned to pre-COVID levels? We estimate achievement would improve some, but not enough for full academic recovery. Absences may also be having less of a negative impact on scores post-COVID vs pre. edworkingpapers.com/ai24-951

While the rise in chronic absenteeism has made national headlines, prior research mainly focuses on state, district, or school-level chronic absence rates. In this new report, my team examined individual absence patterns in NC over the first 3 years after pandemic onset. epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

Education researchers: Want to learn how to write for non-academic audiences? EdResearch for Action is accepting applications for the 2nd year of its writing fellowship program! Apps due by Friday 12/1. Details at edresearchforaction.org/writers-fell...

I'm in ATL for APPAM! Friday at 10:15, I'll be presenting on this paper that started as a dissertation chapter and has since been published at Ed Finance & Policy! "The effect of Early College High Schools on STEM Bachelor's degree attainment: Evidence from North Carolina" doi.org/10.1162/edfp...

New work out by Sarah Fuller & I on the Brookings Brown Center Chalkboard today! "Student GPA and test score gaps are growing--and could be slowing pandemic recovery" www.brookings.edu/articles/stu...

#Econsky job market paper thread! Using an RD design and admin TX data, I estimate the effects of college transfers. I find negative earnings returns for marginal students who transfer from 2-yr to 4-yr colleges or 4-yr nonflagship to flagship college. users.ssc.wisc.edu/~lmmiller22/...

For a first post here, I'll share some recent research that I never posted on the other site! In this brief, we show that enrollment in AP/dual-enrollment math & science declined from '20-21 to '21-22 in NC, standing in contrast to other outcomes like test scores that began to bounce back by '22.