Without standardized tests, college admissions may reward high schools' reputation over effectiveness--a phenomenon we study in Peru. We first estimate the impact of selective public exam schools on college outcomes by leveraging the admissions mechanism in a single- and multiple-offers RDD. Despite no conclusive evidence of learning gains,…

Despite decades and hundreds of billions of dollars of federal and state investment in policies to promote postsecondary educational attainment as a key lever for increasing the economic mobility of lower income populations, research continues to show large and meaningful differences in the mid-career earnings of students from families in the…

As the COVID-19 crisis disrupted schooling, recovery efforts in California included the adoption of Senate Bill (SB) 98, which mandated local educational agencies to complete Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans (LCPs). These plans act as critical snapshots of sensemaking and local policy implementation during crisis; however, their details…

Head Start (HS) is our nation's largest two-generation program that provides early education services to children and a variety of family support services that may promote economic wellbeing. Yet, no prior research has documented or described the effects of HS on parental earnings. We explore whether the program promotes parental earnings on…

Informed by interviews with administrators, faculty, and students at the University of North Texas (UNT) this case study explores how a public four-year institution and designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), sets a powerful example for leveraging data to improve student outcomes for all. This research shares insights from UNT's efforts to…

Trauma is defined as an experience that threatens the life or physical integrity of oneself or others (Enlow, et al., 2019). A significant number of school age children are impacted by trauma. According to Martin et al. (2017), two-thirds of the US child population have been exposed to some level of trauma. Although trauma affects children from…

The Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) was established to promote equity in education by ensuring every child has the same opportunity to succeed, with a focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap. It is underpinned by the National Improvement Framework, Curriculum for Excellence and Getting it Right for Every Child. It focuses on…

This article describes a conceptual and empirical approach for estimating a human capital production function of child development that incorporates mother- or child-fixed effects. The use of mother- or child-fixed effects is common in this applied economics literature, but its application is often inconsistent with human capital theory. We…

Childhood obesity in Chicago, particularly in underrepresented communities of color, exceeds that of national rates. Access to healthy foods in these communities is also often limited. A garden-based education program was implemented in Chicago's South and West Side elementary, middle and high schools. Findings from this work augment the…

This article examines Namibian San youths' aspirations about the future. Based on 170 essays, the analysis shows that disadvantaged San students aspire for future lives radically different from the lives of their families. We argue that San students have acquired the repertoire of "the good Namibian citizen" as a form of resistance…

There are vast disparities in educational outcomes along the lines of race and socioeconomic status in the American PreK-12 education system. One of the contributing factors to this discrepancy is the enrichment gap. Put simply, racially marginalized and low-income students are less likely to participate in enriching, supplemental learning…

Adolescents from low-income families generally have limited resources, which may negatively impact their career development. This study reports findings from the Youth Work-Explorer (Y-WE) career development program for 519 high-school students from low-income families in Hong Kong. One hundred forty-six participants received a three-day career…

Despite decades and hundreds of billions of dollars of federal and state investment in policies to promote postsecondary educational attainment as a key lever for increasing the economic mobility of lower-income populations, research continues to show large and meaningful differences in the mid-career earnings of students from families in the…

Recently there has been an emphasis on how time spent outside of the classroom can affect student outcomes, including high school graduation, with the hope of closing academic achievement gaps along socioeconomic and racial lines. This paper provides experimental evidence regarding a particular type of out-of-school activity--early work…

I use rich administrative data and several quasi-experiments in Texas to study which students benefit most from college grant aid and why. For "extensive-margin" students, grant aid causes enrollment in college, and therefore has potentially large benefits relative to these students' no-college counterfactual. In contrast,…