Research Projects
Faculty in the School of Education and Social Policy conduct research that investigates how people learn and develop over the course of the life span. Research themes focus on individual development and the personal narrative; the life course and culture; development, intervention and culture; the life course and policy; analysis of policy effects on lives. The results of such research become powerful tools to shape education and social programs that make a difference in schools and communities and change the lives of children and families. The School of Education and Social Policy is a member of the University-Based Child and Family Consortium.
Evaluation of After School Matters
Bart Hirsch and Larry Hedges are evaluating the apprenticeship programs of After School Matters, a large-scale after-school program for Chicago students, using an experimental design. Outcome domains include positive youth development, marketable job skills, academic performance and problem behavior. The research involves both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Foley Center for the Study of Lives
Funded by a grant from the Foley Family Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Foley Center for the Study of Lives is an interdisciplinary research project committed to studying psychological and social development in the adult years.
See Dan P. McAdams.
Improving Performance of High School Students in Mock Job Interviews
As part of an earlier evaluation of After School Matters, a research group led by Bart J. Hirsch developed a mock job interview for high school students that was administered by human resource (HR) professionals. Extensive debriefing of the HR interviewers revealed that many students had experiences and skills that would be valued by employers, but the young people themselves often had no idea of this and did not successfully communicate their credentials in the interview. A further project is developing and evaluating a curriculum to teach students how to do well in interviews for internships and jobs.
School Vouchers in Florida
David Figlio is evaluating the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, the largest school voucher program in the United States. He is currently following the performance of more than 20,000 voucher recipients statewide, which involves the collection of original source data from all participating private schools in the state. Using quasi-experimental research tools, Figlio will examine (1) the effect of voucher receipt on student performance and family satisfaction, (2) the effect of private school competition on public school performance and (3) how a large statewide voucher program changes the market for private education.
School Accountability and School Practice
Studying the effects of school accountability design on student achievement and school behaviors is another part of David Figlio's active research agenda. Early work on this topic has been published in the American Economic Review and Journal of Public Economics. Together with Cecilia Rouse of Princeton University and Urban Institute colleagues Dan Goldhaber and Jane Hannaway, Figlio is analyzing original survey data collected from a three-wave census of public school principals in Florida and a two-wave survey of teachers in a state-representative sample of Florida schools. The researchers hope to measure the degrees to which accountability is changing school policies and practices in an attempt to get "inside the black box" of the performance effects of accountability. With Tim Sass and Li Feng of Florida State University, he is also studying how school accountability has influenced the teacher labor market.
Intergenerational Issues in Health and Education
Using matched birth records and school records, David Figlio is currently studying the degree to which public policies might influence the outcomes of children from different backgrounds. Early work on this topic has been published in the Journal of Public Economics and a University of Chicago Press volume. With Jeffrey Roth and Sarah Hamersma at the University of Florida, he is studying the role of information in determining WIC Program participation and later school outcomes. Also, with Damon Clark of the University of Florida, Heather Royer of Case Western Reserve University, and Paco Martorell of the RAND Corporation, he is investigating the pathways through which the intergenerational transmission of human capital operates.
College Access and Success
With funding from the Spencer Foundation, James Rosenbaum and several graduate students are studying ways to improve the college access and college success of disadvantaged students. The researchers are analyzing a comprehensive survey of all students in Chicago Public Schools over a four-year time spa, and conducting detailed interviews with students at the beginning and end of their senior year. They are also doing surveys and interviews with guidance counselors. By identifying poor sources of information and problematic plans, they hope to identify and remedy some of the problems that can lead to ineffective college planning and decisions. Special attention is given to new counseling models and assessment of their impact, using quantitative and qualitative analyses.
Reducing Juvenile Delinquency by Building Noncognitive Skills
Each year between 300,000 and 600,000 youth spend time in juvenile detention facilities around the nation, with a disproportionate number being low-income and minority youth. Jonathan Guryan and Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago have undertaken a new project to examine the underlying problems that cause youth to become involved with delinquency and violence. Previous research indicates that deficits in noncognitive skills—such as self-regulation, impulse control, social information processing and moral reasoning—might account for involvement with and relapses into delinquency. Using a randomized experimental design, Guryan and Ludwig will begin collecting data on all the approximately 4,000 male juveniles, most of whom are Latino or African American, entering a county juvenile detention system over 14 months. These youth have been randomly assigned to either a typical residential center or one providing a cognitive behavioral therapy intervention to promote noncognitive skill development.
Family Stress Study
In the Family Stress Study, which was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Spencer Foundation, Emma Adam explores factors that increase or decrease stress hormone levels in children and parents as they go about their everyday lives. Adam uses a noninvasive method — measuring the stress-sensitive hormone cortisol in saliva — and diary entries to examine factors affecting the psychological and physiological states of the mothers, fathers and children throughout the day.
Everyday Experiences, Stress and Sleep Over the Transition to Adulthood
In this eight-year longitudinal study, which is part of the Northwestern-UCLA Youth Emotion Project and is funded by NIH and the William T. Grant Foundation, Emma Adam explores the implications of differences in stress exposure for the development of depression and anxiety in adolescents as they leave high school and move into college and work experiences. Life events interviews, questionnaires and diaries capture changes in adolescents' experiences over this transition. Cortisol stress-hormone measurement, as well as objective measurement of sleep quality (with wrist-watch sized "actigraphs"), traces the impact of these changes on adolescents' physiology. Yearly clinical interviews assess diagnoses of depression, anxiety and other emotional disorders. Adam is conducting this research in collaboration with Northwestern colleagues Richard Zinbarg and Susan Mineka and Michelle Craske at UCLA.
Social Influences on Early Adult Stress Biomarkers
In this NIH-funded project, Emma Adam, in collaboration with Thomas McDade, Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Thomas Cook and Greg Duncan, is utilizing the nationally representative Add Health study to examine whether stressors experienced during the adolescent and adult years are predictive of stress-related biomarkers in young adulthood. In particular, the project aims to examine whether changes in stress-related biomarkers as a result of chronic stress may help to explain the emergence of socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health disparities.
Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study
In this study, funded by an NIH Grand Opportunities Grant, Emma Adam, along with collaborators at Michigan, UCSF and Harvard, examines whether perceived racial discrimination, reported over a 20-year period (from ages 12 to 32), is related to biological markers of stress and health in young adulthood. Biological stress markers are measured during an in-home interview, in response to experimental computer-based stress tasks, and over the course of a one-week daily diary. With this research, Adam and colleagues will examine whether perceived discrimination and factors such as racial/ethnic identity and coping styles, which may modify responses to discrimination, help to explain racial/ethnic disparities in biomarkers of stress and health in early adulthood.
Distributed Leadership Study
The Distributed Leadership Study is a longitudinal study of urban school leadership. The study is designed to explore and understand leadership as a practice of instructional improvement and to examine the relations between leadership practice and teachers' classroom work. The goal is to construct a theoretical framework that is grounded in the day-to-day practice of leadership. See James P. Spillane.
Principal Policy and Practice Study
The primary goal of the Principal Policy and Practice Study is to examine the preparation, recruitment, retention and career paths of school principals through an in-depth look within Chicago Public Schools. Supported by funding from the Spencer Foundation, this work led by James P. Spillane is undertaken in collaboration with the Consortium for Chicago School Research.
NebraskaMATH
The NebraskaMATH study, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a collaboration with the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. The project aims to improve achievement in mathematics for all students and narrow achievement gaps among at-risk populations. Led by James P. Spillane, researchers at SESP collect and analyze survey data on social networks in schools.
