Equalizing Educational Opportunity 

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...

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...

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...

Authors: Jesse Bruhn, Christopher Campos, Eric Chyn  Project Summary At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts around the country quickly transitioned to providing full- or part-time remote learning options for students who had otherwise been attending school completely in person. These unusual and unprecedented circumstances meant that families suddenly had an opportunity to assess the suitability of remote learning for their children over an extended time. Although there is...

Authors: Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Tareena Musaddiq, Joshua Goodman, & Kevin Stange This reflects joint work with colleagues at the Education Policy Initiative at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy. Project Summary This study builds upon the authors’ prior research on enrollment shifts across school sectors during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and examines whether these patterns persisted into the subsequent school year. The authors use longitudinal...

Authors: Kirsten Slungaard Mumma and Marcus A Winters Project Summary This study examines the impact of Mississippi’s test-based promotion policy, adopted in 2013 as part of a comprehensive statewide effort to improve early literacy. The authors employ a research design that allows them to estimate the causal impact of third-grade retention under the policy on test scores and non-test-score outcomes in the sixth grade. The findings contribute to our growing knowledge of how elementary-level...

Authors: Kirsten Slungaard Mumma Project Summary This study begins by compiling a novel data set on the books in over 6,000 school libraries across the country. With this unique look inside school library shelves, the author then details some trends and themes related to the collections based on various characteristics, including for instance difference across high and low-income schools and the political leanings of surrounding areas. Key Findings Schools with more white students, schools...

Authors: Marcus A. Winters, Boston University, Cheonghum Park, Korea Institute of Public Finance Project Summary This study leverages Massachusetts's adoption of a statewide requirement for charter schools to backfill vacancies within some grades to provide the first causal estimates for the effect of incorporating new students on the performance of incumbent charter school pupils. Using data from the universe of Massachusetts public school students enrolled in Grades 5 through 8 from...