With over 37 million residents, California is the most populous state in the country. California's primary and secondary schools enroll over 6.2 million students,1 and there are 3.4 million undergraduates attending 683 postsecondary institutions in California. Yet, because of the lack of a strong data infrastructure, we are unable to answer basic…

We analyze how fatal shootings in high schools affect schools and students using data from shooting databases, school report cards, and the Common Core of Data. We examine schools' test scores, enrollment, number of teachers, graduation, attendance, and suspension rates at schools that experienced a shooting, employing a difference-in-differences…

We compared the performance of Hispanic students from California, Texas, and Arizona on the two Advanced Placement (AP) English exams (i.e., English Language and Composition and English Literature and Composition) using archival data from the College Board from 1997 through 2012. Pearson chi-square tests yielded statistically significant…

What was the role of imperfect local information in the growth, gender gap, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) major selection of early 20th century American universities? In order to examine pre-1950 American higher education, this study constructs four rich panel datasets covering most students, high school teachers, and…

Over the past decade, research on dropout prevention has become focused on using evidence-based practice, and data-driven decisions, to mitigate students' dropping out of high school and instead, support and prepare students for career and college. Early warning systems or on-track indicators, in which readily available student-level data are used…

Out-of-school time (OST) programs focused on older youth--specifically, youth in middle and high school--can help participants successfully navigate their adolescence and learn new skills well into their teens. OST programs can also help prepare older youth for a variety of new roles that they will assume as they enter college and the workforce.…

Latino/as are an increasingly large subset of the United States population; however, they continue to be underrepresented in science careers. Because of this increase, research regarding Latino/as has improved, but there are still many gaps in regards to gender-specific predictors to pursue science careers. To address this lack of literature, the…

How many beginning teachers struggle to create new lessons despite the fact that experienced teachers have already designed effective lessons for the same content? Shulman (1987) used the term "collective amnesia" to describe the failure of school leaders to design professional development that included the collection of its best…