Remotely Learning
The long run effects of a teacher-focused school reform on student outcomes
Sarah Cohodes, Ozkan Eren & Orgul Ozturk
Journal of Public Economics, January 2026
Abstract:
This paper examines the effects of a teacher-focused school reform program -- combining performance pay with teacher observation and feedback -- implemented in high-need schools on students' longer-run educational, criminal justice, and economic self-sufficiency outcomes. Using linked administrative data from a Southern state, we leverage the quasi-randomness of the timing of program adoption across schools to show that the school reform improved educational attainment and reduced both felony criminal activity before age 19 and dependence on government assistance in early adulthood (ages 18-22). We find little scope for student sorting or changes in the composition of teacher workforce to explain the findings, and instead find changes in school climate consistent with improved school environments and increased teacher efficiency. Program benefits far exceeded its costs. A comparison with a similar educator-focused reform suggests that the individual incentive component of the program is necessary but not sufficient to improve student outcomes.
Easy A's, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation
Jeffrey Denning et al.
University of Maryland Working Paper, October 2025
Abstract:
Average grades continue to rise in the United States, prompting discussion about the possibility of grade inflation. However, we know very little about the consequences of grading standards for students. We study how grade inflating teachers affect students. First, we extend, develop, and validate teacher-level measures of grade inflation. We construct two measures of grade inflation, one that measures average grade inflation and another that measures whether teachers are more likely to give a passing grade. These measures pass forecast bias tests common in the teacher effects literature. We show that grade inflation is distinct from teacher value-added, with grade inflating teachers having moderately lower cognitive value-added and slightly higher noncognitive value-added. Next, we consider the effects of grade inflation on future outcomes. Mean grade inflation reduces future test scores, reduces the likelihood of graduating from high school, reduces college enrollment, and ultimately reduces earnings. However, passing grade inflation reduces the likelihood of being held back, increases high school graduation, and increases initial enrollment in two-year colleges.
Tracking to Retain Higher-Income Students: Evidence from the Addition of Advanced Courses
Farah Mallah
Harvard Working Paper, January 2026
Abstract:
Public schools may add academic tracks to attract or retain upper-income and higher-achieving students. However, tracking may also exacerbate sorting by student income and test scores within schools. I exploit variation in the timing of an Advanced Placement (AP) course addition within specific school subjects and find that the introduction of an AP course does not reduce lower-income students' exposure to upper-income classmates; if anything, it increases their exposure. This increase is driven by a rise in the overall share of upper-income students at the school following the addition of an AP course, offsetting increases in sorting by income. These findings provide new insights into how tracked courses can influence school environments, connecting the school choice and tracking literature, and contributing to the broader understanding of the equity implications of advanced courses.
The Impact of Preschool Entry Age on Children's Behavioral and Developmental Health in Medicaid
Maya Rossin-Slater, Adrienne Sabety & Aileen Wu
NBER Working Paper, January 2026
Abstract:
We find that preschools facilitate early diagnosis and treatment of conditions that can hinder learning. Low-income children born shortly before their state's school-entry cutoff date are 16.9, 9.3, and 14.8 percent more likely to be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a speech or language disorder, and a hearing or vision condition at ages three and four, compared to children born after the cutoff. They are also more likely to receive downstream services. Findings emphasize the role of earlier and longer exposure to public preschool in driving diagnostic gaps previously attributed to elementary school-entry and within-grade peer comparisons.
Switching Schools: Effects of College Transfers
Lois Miller
University of South Carolina Working Paper, January 2026
Abstract:
Over one-third of college students in the United States transfer between institutions, yet little is known about how transferring affects students' educational and labor market outcomes. Using administrative data from Texas and a regression discontinuity design, I study the effects of a student's transferring to a four-year college from either a two-year or four-year college. To do so, I leverage applications and admissions data to uncover unpublished GPA cutoffs used for transfer student admissions at each institution and then use these cutoffs as an instrument for transfer. In contrast to past work focused on freshmen students, I do not find positive earnings returns for academically marginal students who transfer from two-year colleges to four-year colleges or from less-resourced four-year colleges to flagship colleges, and show suggestive evidence of negative returns. I investigate several mechanisms behind this result and find evidence for academic "mismatch" among two-year to four-year transfers, and substitution out of high-paying majors into lower-paying majors for four-year to flagship transfers.
When Resources Meet Relationships: The Returns to Personalized Supports for Low-Income Students
Benjamin Goldman & Jamie Gracie
Harvard Working Paper, December 2025
Abstract:
Children from low-income families face persistent educational and economic disadvantages. This paper studies Communities In Schools (CIS), a program that places coordinators in high-poverty schools to connect struggling students with personalized support. CIS is the largest program of its kind in the US, reaching 2 million students each year -- nearly three times the size of Head Start -- and, unlike most programs of this scale, is funded largely by private philanthropy and local governments. Using the staggered rollout of CIS, we find that the program boosts test scores for struggling students, and that these improvements persist, ultimately increasing high-school completion and adult earnings. These long-run effects can be closely forecast from changes in short-run outcomes, with non-cognitive measures playing a central role. CIS emphasizes personalization as a core feature of its model, and our results are consistent with this claim: coordinators tailor services to distinct student needs, yet students with different needs still see similarly large long-run gains. CIS delivers returns that compare favorably to other major education interventions, such as class-size reductions.
Computer-assisted learning in the real world: How Khan Academy influences student math learning
Taryn Eames et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6 January 2025
Abstract:
Computer-assisted learning (CAL) offers an affordable way to implement a mastery learning approach in the classroom. However, while experimental research suggests CAL can enhance student outcomes, such findings often rely on experimental conditions not easily replicated in ordinary classroom settings (e.g., opt-in participation, extensive training and support, and high CAL usage targets). To assess the real-world impact of CAL, we draw on a large three-year panel of administrative data covering over 200,000 students in school districts that licensed Khan Academy's Measures of Academic Progress accelerator, a program designed to support math learning. To identify causal effects, we exploit within-teacher and within-school changes in average classroom CAL practice time -- a strategy that yields precise, policy-relevant estimates even at modest usage levels. We find that a classroom with 6.6 h of annual Khan Academy practice (about 11 min per week) experiences a 0.031 SD gain in math test score performance compared to no practice. For classrooms with higher usage levels, we find approximately linear gains, with projected effects rising to 0.085 SD at the recommended 30 min per week. Higher-achieving students benefit most, in part because they spend more time on CAL and progress through more skills than lower-performing peers. Teachers might reduce achievement gaps and boost overall gains by encouraging more productive use of the platform (focused on skill mastery) -- especially among struggling students.
Assessing the impact of grade retention: A cautionary tale of exclusion restriction violations
Jordan Berne et al.
Journal of Public Economics, January 2026
Abstract:
State laws that mandate in-grade retention for struggling readers are widespread in the U.S., and retention at the secondary school level is common in many countries. Researchers often use regression discontinuity (RD) methods to study such policies, leveraging strict performance cutoffs as an instrument to estimate the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) of retention on student achievement. In this paper, we document a likely threat to the internal validity of these studies. Examining two cohorts of Michigan students, we find that being flagged for retention increases reading performance by roughly 0.05 SD, a modest but meaningful impact. However, because being flagged increases the likelihood of actually being retained by only 3.4 percentage points, the implied effect of retention itself under standard assumptions would be an implausibly large 1.3 SD. Survey evidence suggests that flagged students receive more intensive reading support even if they are not retained, a violation of the exclusion restriction. Moreover, we estimate similar effects in districts that did not retain any students. These results raise concerns about potential bias in previously estimated retention effects and highlight the importance of carefully considering exclusion assumptions in analyses of multifaceted education interventions.
Missing Classmates and Attendance Patterns in Elementary Schools
Jacob Kirksey et al.
American Educational Research Journal, February 2026, Pages 197-222
Abstract:
Policymakers and educational leaders have invested considerable effort in identifying factors that contribute to student absenteeism. While research has extensively examined environmental and school-level influences, less attention has been given to how classroom dynamics shape attendance patterns. This study examined the impact of peer absenteeism on individual student attendance in four Texas school districts, leveraging daily-level attendance data. Findings indicate that classmates' absences increase a student's likelihood of being absent the following day, and these effects persist even after removing absences attributed to illness. We did not find differences based on peer achievement levels. Lastly, we found that peer absences correspond to student absences not just the following day but for several days into the school week, reinforcing the broader role of classroom disruptions in shaping attendance behavior.
Linking Student Absenteeism on Different Weekdays to Student Achievement
Michael Gottfried, Colby Woods & Sam Peters
AERA Open, December 2025
Abstract:
Extensive research has found that when students miss more school days, they have lower test scores. However, little is known about the ways in which students miss these days -- namely how missing different days of the week might link differently to test scores. Having this insight, however, holds important knowledge for building interventions and supporting instruction. In that vein, this research explored whether accruing absences on particular days of the week linked differently to student performance on standardized exams. Relying on school district data for students in elementary school, there were two key findings. First, missing any amount of school is negatively associated with lower achievement. That said, our second finding suggests that missing more Mondays stood out as particularly negative for test score performance. The results were only present with excused absences, highlighting that this issue is about missing school, not disengagement necessarily. The results differed for different student groups, and implications are thus discussed.
Schedule-Driven Productivity: Evidence From Nontraditional School Calendars
Taylor Landon & Nolan Pope
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Winter 2026
Abstract:
Schools often overlook how structuring student and teacher schedules may impact educational outcomes. We analyze the impact of nontraditional school calendars on student and teacher productivity. These calendars differentially allocate mandated instructional time by choosing (1) the number of hours in the school day, (2) the number of school days each year, and (3) the distribution of school days throughout the year. To do this, we use administrative data on over 2 million students and exploit the staggered elimination of nontraditional school calendars that vary on these three dimensions. We find that while school schedules have little impact on younger children's learning, school schedules with longer and fewer school days have large negative effects on older students that are equivalent to decreasing teacher quality by nearly one standard deviation. Our results appear to be driven by changes in at-home study behavior and school start times rather than how school days are distributed throughout the year. In addition, school schedules with longer and fewer school days increase teacher turnover. Our results suggest an important role of daily schedules on school productivity.