Harnessing Student-Level Datasets for Policy-Relevant Studies
The IES-funded Multidisciplinary Program in Education Science (MPES) at Northwestern University hosted a one-day conference on May 21, 2010 regarding the use of student-level administrative datasets in education research. In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number and quality of administrative student-level datasets collected at the state and local levels, and it is a high priority of the U.S. Department of Education to facilitate development of these datasets for the purposes of policy and research. The 2010 MPES conference highlighted a number of different ways in which these administrative data have been creatively and effectively used to study first-order policy-relevant research questions at the K-12 and higher education levels.
Welcome and Introductory Marks
- David Uttal, Director of the Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences; Professor of Psychology and Education, Northwestern University
- Penelope L. Peterson, Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy; Eleanor R. Baldwin Professor, Education; Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and of Learning Sciences, Northwestern University
- David Figlio, Orrington Lunt Professor of Education and Social Policy; Professor of Economics and of Human Development and Social Policy; and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University
- James E. Rosenbaum, Professor of Sociology and of Human Development and Social Policy; Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University
Presentations
"Value Added in High and Low Poverty Schools: Implications for Management and Policy"
- Jane Hannaway, Director of the Education Policy Center at The Urban Institute
"Constrained Job Matching: Does Teacher Job Search Harm Disadvantaged Urban Schools?"
"Using Research to Build Capacity in Urban School Systems: The Consortium on Chicago School Research's Postsecondary"
- Melissa Roderick, Herman Dunlap Smith Professor from the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
"College Remediation"
Speakers
Jane Hannaway
Jane Hannaway is the Director of the Education Policy Center at The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. and part of the Institute's senior management team. She is an organizational sociologist whose work focuses on the study of educational organizations. She is also the director of a new federally funded research center, CALDER (Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research), focused on analyses of state longitudinal student- and teacher- level administrative databases. Much of her recent research has focused on structural reforms in education, including reforms promoting accountability and reforms related to resource management in education. Hannaway has served twice as vice president of the American Educational Research Association and also served on the Executive Board. She also was elected to the Council of the Association for Public Policy and Management (APPAM) and is a member of the advisory committee to the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) for education studies. Hannaway serves on the editorial board of a number of journals and is past editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, the main policy journal of the American Educational Research Association. She is currently on the Executive Board of the American Education Finance Association and also serves on the National Academy of Sciences panel examining the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Eric A. Hanushek
Eric A. Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow from the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. His research spans such diverse areas as the impacts of teacher quality, high stakes accountability, and class size reduction on achievement and the role of cognitive skills in international growth and development. He is chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He currently serves as chair of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences and is the area coordinator for Economics of Education of the CESifo Research Network. Hanushek's government service includes being Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers, and Senior Economist at the Cost of Living Council. He has been appointed to a variety of policy commissions including the Governor's Committee on Education Excellence in California and the Governor's Commission for a College Ready Texas. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education along with being a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and the American Education Research Association. He was awarded the Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in 2004.
Melissa Roderick
Melissa Roderick is the Hermon Dunlap Smith Professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and a co-director at the Consortium on Chicago School Research where she leads CCSR's research on post-secondary. Professor Roderick is also the co-director of the Network for College Success, a network of high schools focused on developing high quality leadership and student performance in Chicago's high schools. Professor Roderick is an expert in urban school reform, high school reform, high stakes testing, minority adolescent development, and school transitions. Her work has focused attention on the transition to high school as a critical point in students' school careers and her new work examines the transition to college among Chicago Public School students. In prior work, she led a multi-year evaluation of Chicago's initiative to end social promotion and has conducted research on school dropout, grade retention, and the effects of summer programs. She is an expert in mixing qualitative and quantitative methods. Her new work focuses on understanding the relationship between students' high school careers and preparation, their college selection choices and their post-secondary outcomes through linked quantitative and qualitative research. From 2001 to 2003, Professor Roderick served as Director of Planning and Development for the Chicago Public Schools. At SSA Professor Roderick is the faculty director of the community schools program and serves as a member of the University of Chicago's Committee on Education. Professor Roderick has a PhD from the Committee on Public Policy from Harvard University, a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and an A.B. from Bowdoin College.
Eric Bettinger
Eric Bettinger is an Associate Professor of Economics and Education from the Stanford School of Education. His current research focuses on factors that improve students' access to and success in college. Some of these factors include the role of teacher characteristics and class sizes in college, the role of need-based financial aid, and the complexity of the application process. Bettinger has also conducted significant research on the effects of financial incentives for students and on the effects of voucher programs on both academic and non-academic outcomes of participating students. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research.
