News

Paper on STEM summer programs for high-achieving high school students released as an NBER Working Paper (July 2022) and featured in the NBER Digest (October 2022)

My paper with Helen Ho and Silvia Robles, “STEM Summer Programs Increase STEM Degrees” is now available as an NBER Working Paper. It was summarized in the NBER Digest in October 2022.

Co-Editor at Journal of Public Economics (July 2022)

I’ve joined the editorial team at the Journal of Public Economics as a co-editor where I’ll be handling education and related papers. See the announcement here.

I’ll continue to handle manuscripts currently in my queue at JPAM but transition away from being a co-editor there when those manuscripts are through the process.

Paper on New York City high school choice released as an NBER Working Paper (January 2022)

My paper with Sean Corcoran, Jennifer Jennings, and Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, “When Do Informational Interventions Work? Experimental Evidence from New York City High School Choice” is now available as an NBER Working Paper.

Editorial Board at AEJ-Policy (January 2022)

I joined the Editorial Board of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, in January 2022.

Charter schools and learning modality in 2020-2021 (January 2022)

I wrote a brief with Christine Pitts on the learning modality offerings of charter schools during the Covid-19 pandemic for the Center for Reinventing Public Education. Charter schools were more likely than their counterparts to offer virtual learning. We also review data sources for understanding school modality in the 2020-2021 school year.

In honor of Josh Angrist’s Nobel Prize win (December 2021)

In honor of Josh Angrist’s Nobel Prize, I wrote a short appreciation of him and his contributions to the economics of education at Education Next. Josh was a member of my dissertation committee and is one of my research collaborators.

Paper on Boston charter school impacts on voting released as an NBER Working Paper (September 2021)

My paper with James Feigenbaum, “Why Does Education Increase Voting? Evidence from Boston’s Charter Schools” is now available as an NBER Working Paper.

Academic impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic (July 2021)

I participated in a consensus panel at the Center on Reinventing Public Education on the academic impacts of Covid-19 after school disruptions is 2020 and 2021. Our consensus was finalized in this report.

Visiting Scholar at the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute at the Minneapolis Fed (April 2021)

I have been named a Visiting Scholar at the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank in 2021-2022 academic year.

Paper on what we know about charter schools after 30 years released as an NBER Working Paper (February 2021)

My paper with Katharine Parham summarizing the research on charter schools’ effectiveness, mechanisms, and competitive influence is now available as an NBER working paper. It is also forthcoming at the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance.

Paper on scaling up charter schools released at the AEJ: Economic Policy (February 2021)

The published version of my paper with Elizabeth Setren and Chris Walters, on scaling up charter schools is now available at the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. A preprint is available here.

School Reopening and Education During the COVID19 Pandemic (Summer and Fall 2020)

I wrote a column on my recommendations for reopening K-12 schools in Fall 2020 during the COVID19 pandemic in The Atlantic (July 2020). I followed this up with a column in the New York Times (October 2020) on the externalities and the role of colleges in the pandemic.

I also discussed school reopening and the educational implications of the pandemic with several news outlets or had my article referenced, including: The New York Time (Upshot), The New York Times (The Morning), The 74 (1), The 74 (2), The Christian Science Monitor, VICE, NY1, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Chalkbeat (1), Chalkbeat (2), Chalkbeat (3), Bloomberg, Early Learning Nation, The Economist, Grow, ParentData (Emily Oster’s newsletter), and Ed Week.

J-PAL featured an interview with me on the topic on their blog (August 2020).

I presented at an IZA conference on school reopening in the U.S. (September 2020). My presentation is here.

I discussed school reopening at at web event for AEI. The video is available here (October 2020).

Some of the resources I’ve relied on in my writing and interviews are gathered in a Google Document here.

Teachers College awarded IES training grant (July 2020)

I am pleased to be a co-PI on an Institute for Education Sciences (IES) funding training grant which will support doctoral students. The focus is on postsecondary education. See the announcement here.

More information on how to apply to the Postsecondary Education Applied Research (PEAR) Fellowship is here.

Co-editor at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (July 2020)

I’ve joined the editorial team at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management as a co-editor where I’ll be handling education papers. See the announcement here.

Paper on scaling up charter schools accepted at the AEJ: Economic Policy (May 2020)

An updated version of my paper with Elizabeth Setren and Chris Walters, on scaling up charter schools has been accepted at the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. A preprint is available here.

Paper on specialized programming for high-achieving students released in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (February 2020)

My paper on the Advanced Work Class program in Boston Public School is now available in the February 2020 volume of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

NBER paper on scaling up charter schools is now available (May 2019)

An updated version of my paper with Elizabeth Setren and Chris Walters, on scaling up charter schools is now available as an NBER working paper.

Harvard EdCast on charter schools (February 2019)

I spoke about charter schools and replicating what works on the Harvard EdCast. Our conversation references my paper on charter schools for the Future of Children as well as my work with Elizabeth Setren and Chris Walters.

New NBER Working Paper on informational interventions for school choice (April 2018)

The paper, joint with Sean Corcoran, Jen Jennings, and Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, is available from NBER here or on the research tab of this website. More information about the study that this paper is a part of is available here.

A new version of my paper on scaling up charter schools is now available (March 2018)

In joint work with Elizabeth Setren and Chris Walters, we examine what happens in Boston after a change in law that allowed charter schools to expand. The paper is here.

My new paper on charter schools is out in The Future of Children (February 2018)

I summarized and synthesized the current research on charter schools for the Future of Children. The paper is here.

Talking about Massachusetts charter schools on the EdNext podcast (September 2016)

Last week, I spoke with Harvard’s Marty West about the Massachusetts ballot question on charter schools for the Education Next podcast, expanding on my recent essay on the topic. You can listen to the podcast here.

Summarizing Massachusetts Charter School Research (September 2016)

Sue Dynarski and I summarized the research on Massachusetts charter schools in light of the upcoming ballot question in Massachusetts on lifting the charter cap in a report for Evidence Speaks at the Brooking Institution. You can read the report here: Massachusetts Charter Cap Holds Back Disadvantaged Students. It has also been posted on Education Next.