Working Papers, Policy Briefs & Reports
Massachusetts School Leader Workforce – Annual Snapshots
Project Summary Led by Dr. Olivia Chi, WEPC is partnering with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to study the characteristics, career trajectories, and outcomes of principals and assistant principals in public schools. These snapshots illustrate key facts and figures about the Massachusetts school leader workforce in 2023, 2024, and 2025, providing policy-relevant insights for the state and setting a foundation for future research and inquiry.Project Resources...
Special Education Substantially Improves Learning: Evidence from Three States
Authors: Stephanie Coffey, Joshua Goodman, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Leanna Stiefel, Marcus A. Winters, Yunee H. Yoon Project Summary Special education serves more than one in seven U.S. students, yet its causal impact remains understudied. In this paper, we estimate the effect of individualized supports with an event-study design that tracks achievement around initial classification. The research shows students’ scores decline prior to placement and rise sharply afterward. Overall, individualized...
Examining Wage Growth in ECE Programs: Evidence from Massachusetts
Authors: Pia Caronongan, Katie Hyland Project Summary Early educators are among the lowest-paid workers in the United States, in part because most early care and education (ECE) programs operate within constrained business models. In Massachusetts, the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) program distributes grants that can be used for workforce investments. We examined how educator wages changed during the program’s implementation and what factors explain variation in wage growth. Average...
Early Returns: Reversing Enrollment Declines in Massachusetts Community Colleges through MassReconnect
Authors: Shaun Dougherty, Morgan Fleming, Joshua Goodman, Yunee H. Yoon Project Summary When Massachusetts introduced MassReconnect in 2023, it aimed to reverse a decade of community college enrollment decline by offering free tuition to adults 25 and older. Early results prompted the state to expand the program to all residents through MassEducate, representing a substantial state investment in expanding access. This report analyzes MassReconnect's first two years, exploring enrollment...
Assessing the Potential Impact of Seniority-Based Reduction in Force Policies on the Changing Teacher Workforce in Connecticut Schools
Project Summary Over the last decade, policymakers and education leaders in Connecticut have prioritized efforts to improve the quality and diversity of the teacher workforce. Persistent focus and targeted investments in strong teacher pipelines have helped increase teacher diversity from 8% in 2014 to 12% of the workforce identifying as teachers of color in 2024. Through a research partnership with the Wheelock Educational Policy Center (WEPC) at Boston University, the Connecticut State...
Declining Community College Enrollment & Labor Market Strength
Authors: Joshua Goodman and Joseph Winkleman Project Summary Declining U.S. college enrollments have triggered questions about the health of the postsecondary sector. This project examines national data collected through the Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences to better understand shifts in the sector and help situate trends within the context of broader economic and labor market context. These findings have important implications for policy discussions about higher...
School Enrollment Shifts Five Years After the Pandemic
Authors: Abigail Francis, Joshua Goodman Project Summary When school doors closed in March 2020, many anticipated this disruption would have long-term effects on students. Nonetheless, a common assumption throughout this period was that students would eventually return to school. Five years post-pandemic, we are witnessing a more dramatic shift in the composition and enrollment of public schools than expected. This research documents the changes in public school enrollment in one state and...
Service Delivery Models: Impacts for Students With and Without Disabilities
Authors: Nathan Jones, Lindsey Kaler, Jessica Markham, Josefina Senese, Marcus A. Winters Project Summary When a student is identified with a disability, their school faces many decisions about how best to support their academic and developmental progress. One key decision point is how and where the student will receive needed services. Will they remain in a general education classroom all the time, be "pulled out" to a different environment for part of the day, or be placed in a separate...
English Learners’ Access to Massachusetts Early College Programs
Authors: Yasuko Kanno, Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Pierre Lucien Project Summary Early college programs (ECPs) are an increasingly common approach for promoting college enrollment and degree/credential completion, particularly for historically marginalized students. In Massachusetts, ECPs launched in 2017 and have since scaled rapidly. To better understand whether English learners (ELs) are taking advantage of these promising programs, the authors of this study examined the extent to which ELs are...
Reclassifying English Learners
Authors: Mingyan Ma & Marcus A. Winters Project Summary English learners (ELs) represent a large and rapidly growing proportion of U.S. public school students. Once ELs demonstrate sufficient English language proficiency, they are reclassified and begin receiving general education instruction without supplemental language supports in place. The reclassification process has major implications for policymakers, educators, and the families of ELs. To better understand how this process...