New Books in Public Policy Jose Eos Trinidad, "Subtle Webs: How Local Organizations Shape US Education" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Jan 15, 2026
Join Jose Eos Trinidad, an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley and author specializing in educational organizational influences, as he unveils the invisible networks shaping U.S. education. He discusses how local organizations in cities like Chicago and New York are using data to tackle dropout rates and shares insights on early warning indicators that signal student struggles. Trinidad contrasts various approaches across cities, examines the risks and benefits of outside influence, and emphasizes the importance of 'outside-in' changes in educational reform.
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Pandemic Sparked Research Into External Actors
- Trinidad moved from a pandemic-era interest in external organizations to studying EWIs because he couldn't access schools.
- He reached out to researchers and philanthropies and became fascinated by the people building dropout-prediction systems.
Early Signals Make Dropout Prevention Possible
- Early warning indicators (EWIs) use attendance, behavior, and course performance to flag students at risk of dropping out by ninth grade.
- EWIs create dashboards that let schools intervene early with targeted supports before students fall irreversibly off track.
Twenty-Five Year Oral-Document History
- Trinidad compiled a 25-year history of EWIs by interviewing nearly 100 people and collecting over 3,000 pages of documents.
- He combined oral histories and archival materials across Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York to trace hidden actors and change over time.
