Upward Bound, Science and Advocacy

The same advocacy group that successfully pushed through a congressional ban on any further randomized control trial (RCT) of Upward Bound now protests that the quality of the one existing RCT is unacceptable. Not coincidentally, this RCT found Upward Bound to be ineffective.

The first and only RCT of Upward Bound did find suggestive evidence that the program helped students who had the lowest college aspirations. The follow-up RCT, which was strangled in its cradle, would have investigated this finding further.

Disclaimer: I was on the Technical Working Group for the second Upward Bound RCT, which met exactly once before it was killed. I didn't know this at the time; when I was never called for a second meeting I thought maybe I had been expelled for talking too much.

NYT Gives a Shout-Out to My Research on Inequality

The NYT editorial page cites my research with Martha Bailey on growing gaps in college completion. Unfortunately, they did not link to our paper properly - it's here.

Thoughtful Discussion of Our Research on Early Interventions and College Outcomes

Tim Bartik, an economist at the UpJohn Institute here in Michigan, has a very thoughtful post about our new paper on the relationship between class size in kindergarten and postsecondary outcomes, which I blogged about earlier this fall. In that paper, we calculate that early interventions are no more effective (dollar-f0r-dollar) than later investments in increasing college attendance.

Bartik reports that our work has generated concern among some advocates of early childhood investments, who worry it undermines support for funding for early interventions. Bartik has a sensible response, which speaks to the complementarity of interventions at different ages. A recommended read.

Student Debt

This short, well-written article puts rising college costs and student debt in perspective. 

College Tuition, Student Loans, and Unemployment : The New Yorker

Using randomized trials to make management decisions

In this piece, Columbia professor Ray Fisman describes how a business uses a randomized trial to determine whether a new personnel policy (allowing employees to work from home) increases productivity and employee satisfaction. Same approach could be taken in a public or non-profit setting to test myriad practices.

Is working from home a good idea? - Slate Magazine

Learning What Works in Teaching

This is a fabulous article. A successful school leader lays out a roadmap to how schools and academic researchers can combine to use rigorous research methods to learn what works in teaching. A must-read for researchers, school leaders, teachers and those who train teachers.

Studying Teacher Moves : Education Next

Association for Education Finance and Policy, March 15-17 2012, Boston

Please submit a paper, session, or poster! AEFP members and prospective members are invited to submit proposals for the AEFP 37th Annual Conference on March 15-17 2012. Proposals may address any of a broad range of topics in education finance and policy. Open for proposals: 10/1/2011 Close: 11/8/2011 Submission portal: http://www.aefpweb.org/proposals