The Education Exchange

Dan Hamlin, a postdoctoral fellow at the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at the Harvard Kennedy School, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss their new article, "Have States Maintained High Expectations for Student Performance? An analysis of 2017 state proficiency standards." http://educationnext.org/have-states-maintained-high-expectations-student-performance-analysis-2017-proficiency-standards/

Schools are paying increasing attention to the problem of truancy, and many states are including an indicator measuring chronic absenteeism in their accountability plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act. In this episode, Paul E. Peterson talks with Peter Bergman about the phenomenon of joint absences, when students have a peer with whom they systematically skip class. Peter Bergman, Assistant Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, is the co-author, with Magdalena Bennett, of "Better Together? Social Networks in Truancy and the Targeting of Treatment," available at http://papers.nber.org/conf_papers/f104327/f104327.pdf

The Trump administration may undo regulations that punish for-profit colleges if their graduates are unable to earn enough money to repay their student loans. In this episode, Paul Peterson is joined by the authors of a new study that examines the impact on student enrollment in for-profit colleges and community colleges when the federal government cracks down on for-profit colleges with high rates of students defaulting on their loans. Stephanie R. Cellini and Lesley J. Turner, who are guests on the podcast, are the authors of "Where Do Students Go when For-Profit Colleges Lose Federal Aid?," along with Rajeev Darolia: http://papers.nber.org/conf_papers/f104339/f104339.pdf

A little over a decade ago, a new government in the United Kingdom issued a report recommending that early reading instruction include phonics. What has been the impact of that change in approach to teaching reading? Martina Viarengo, the author of a study on this topic, joins Paul Peterson to discuss her research. The study, "'Teaching to Teach' Literacy," was co-written with Stephen J. Machin and Sandra McNally. It is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2786039

After a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, thousands of Haitians moved to the U.S. and enrolled their children in school here. David Figlio, Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research on the impact these Haitian refugee students had on the non-refugee students who were already attending those schools. Read the full article, "Influx of Haitian Refugees in Florida Didn’t Hurt Student Outcomes," co-written with Umut Ozek, here: http://educationnext.org/influx-haitian-refugees-florida-didnt-hurt-student-outcomes/

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss efforts to bring education savings accounts and full-day kindergarten to his state.

Instead of just looking at the effect teachers have on the test scores of their students, researchers have expanded their focus to include the impact of teachers on student attendance and the long run outcomes of their students. Seth Gershenson joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the latest findings on the impact teachers have on their students.

In Colombia, a voucher program has awarded over 125,000 poor children scholarships to help them attend private high schools. Eric Bettinger of Stanford University talks with Paul Peterson about the program, which has been found to have positive long-term impacts on participating students, including better labor market outcomes.

Results from a survey released last week showed that support for charter schools has come back up after a sharp drop last year. In this week's episdode, Nina Rees of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss what might have caused support for charters to dip and then rise and to consider the results of some recent studies on charter schools.

School choice researchers are finding that vouchers may impact student test scores and later attainment outcomes in different ways. In this episode, Patrick Wolf joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss why researchers should consider other outcomes besides test scores when evaluating school choice programs. Wolf is the co-author of a new report, "Do Impacts on Test Scores Even Matter? Lessons from Long-Run Outcomes in School Choice Research." The report was co-authored by Michael Q. McShane and Collin Hitt and was recently published by AEI. http://www.aei.org/publication/do-impacts-on-test-scores-even-matter-lessons-from-long-run-outcomes-in-school-choice-research/