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NEW EdWorkingPapers
Marginal Returns to Public Universities
This paper studies the returns to enrolling in American public universities by comparing the long-term outcomes of barely admitted versus barely rejected applicants. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of all American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in… more →
Variations in Pre-Primary Education Infrastructure Within and Across Administrative Sectors in Rwanda
This study examines disparities in structural quality across Rwanda’s pre-primary modalities—centre-based, community-based, and home-based—operating under a single policy framework. Using data from 4,875 settings across 91 administrative sectors in seven districts, we applied multilevel models to separate within-sector differences by modality from between-sector variation, associated with… more →
Ready for What? School and District Responses to State College and Career Readiness Accountability in Tennessee
Tennessee’s K-12 accountability system incorporates three distinct measures of college and career readiness (CCR) for state and federal accountability. Each of these indicators applies its own set of metrics and performance benchmarks, but they all consistently draw upon similar components including participation in Early Postsecondary Opportunities (EPSOs), standardized tests like the ACT and… more →
Selling Student Success: A Critical Analysis of Predictive Analytics Vendors in Higher Education
As predictive analytics become increasingly embedded in higher education, commercial vendors offering these tools play a growing role in shaping institutional decision making, particularly through identifying students deemed “at risk.” In this qualitative study, we analyzed 161 publicly available materials from 15 vendors to examine these companies’ marketing of predictive analytics. Drawing… more →
Fast Track to Success? A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Condensed Course Formats at Tennessee Community Colleges
As colleges face increasing pressure to improve student outcomes, one solution gaining traction is the adoption of condensed courses (i.e., shortened academic terms). We employ quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effect of enrolling in a condensed course on course- and student-level outcomes at all public community colleges in Tennessee. We also leverage interviews with college faculty… more →
The Role of Education-Industry Match in College Earnings Premia
Many states incentivize college students to major in fields aligned with specific, often “in-demand” industries. While their goal is often to raise students’ labor market outcomes, little is known about whether matching one’s degree with an industry of work improves employment and earnings. We leverage a novel education-industry crosswalk applied to student and worker panel data covering over… more →
Policy and Practice Series
Webinar Series
The Bigger Picture: Key Trends in America’s Changing Education Landscape
Are the enrollment and achievement declines we’re seeing just pandemic fallout, or something deeper? The papers featured in this webinar provide essential context for evaluating common narratives about recent changes in student achievement and enrollment.