We evaluate public opinion on the sufficiency of school funding and teacher salaries in the United States, using a representative survey (n = 12,151). Data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020/2021), with schools and teachers having a reduced role due to homeschooling. While opinions are diverse for sufficiency of school funding, most…

Objective: To estimate the percentage of U.S. working-age (18- to 64-year-old) adults in 2023 who self-reported ever being diagnosed with ADHD by a health care professional. Method: We analyze data from the 2023 National Wellbeing Survey (N = 7,053) to estimate self-reported lifetime ADHD diagnosis status among working-age adults, overall and by…

Chronic absenteeism spiked during the pandemic and remains a serious problem. Drawing on the American Enterprise Institute's Return to Learn Tracker chronic absenteeism data collection, which includes district-level data from 44 states, this report documents modest progress: National chronic absenteeism fell to 25.4 percent in 2023 and to 23.5…

Purpose: Principal demotion is recognized as a signal of principal ineffectiveness and often coincides with other school-level challenges, but little is known about the demoted principals or their school contexts. This study therefore investigates the demography and timing of principal demotion in order to assess whether it is a differential…

Children from families across the income distribution attend public schools, making schools and classrooms potential sites for interaction between more- and less-affluent children. However, limited information exists regarding the extent of economic integration in these contexts. We merge educational administrative data from Oregon with measures…

We study how geographic access to public postsecondary institutions is associated with students' college enrollment decisions across race and socioeconomic status. Leveraging rich administrative data, we first document substantial differences in students' local college options, with White, Hispanic, and rural students having, on average, many…

Research shows that when students have access to advanced coursework opportunities, they work harder and are more engaged in school, have fewer absences and suspensions and higher graduation rates. Unfortunately, many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds lack equitable access to advanced coursework opportunities, such…

Research shows that when students have access to advanced coursework opportunities, they work harder and are more engaged in school, have fewer absences and suspensions and higher graduation rates. Unfortunately, many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds lack equitable access to advanced coursework opportunities, such…

Firearm suicides among adolescents have increased in the US and rates vary across racial and ethnic groups. In this study, we examined contextual information around adolescent firearm suicides and analyzed how incident characteristics vary across racial and ethnic groups. We analyzed firearm suicides among adolescents (ages 10-18 years) from 2004…

Utilizing a lottery-based natural experiment, this study assessed the longer-term impact of early colleges on postsecondary degree attainment. It found that early colleges significantly increased the overall degree completion and associate degree completion rates within 10 years of expected high school graduation. While the impact on bachelor's…

During the spring of 2019, approximately 1.6 million people in over 1700 cities worldwide participated in strike action to raise public awareness of government inaction on climate change. The large proportion of youth and young people mobilized through these climate strikes was unprecedented. However, we know very little so far about who these…

We used longitudinal staffing data from Pennsylvania to explore differences in special education personnel attrition across personnel categories, individual characteristics, and district characteristics. Special education administrators and school psychologists had the highest attrition rates among special education personnel, with special…

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have long been associated with attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) diagnoses in children; but the data used is now over 6 years old (from 2017 to 2018). Understanding the current landscape of their prevalence and association is needed to capture evolving social, environmental, and economic…

This report documents chronic absenteeism over the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the American Enterprise Institute's Return to Learn Tracker Chronic Absenteeism Data Collection, it shows that increases in chronic absenteeism were widespread during the pandemic. More worrisome, using the most recent data for the 2022-2023 school year, even after…

The expansion of early childhood education (ECE) and increased spending have benefited children and supported families. However, these investments have not addressed inequities within the ECE workforce. ECE providers face economic insecurity, earning an average of $14 per hour, which is below a living wage. In rural communities, this median wage…