Schooled by Reality
Competence over Partisanship: Party Affiliation Does Not Affect the Selection of School District Superintendents
Greer Mellon
American Sociological Review, August 2025, Pages 561-593
Abstract:
In recent decades, affective polarization and partisan animosity have risen sharply in the United States. To what extent have these trends affected hiring decisions? I examine partisan biases in hiring by considering the case of school district superintendent appointments: chief executives of local U.S. elementary/secondary education systems. I analyze mixed-methods data on a decade of hiring outcomes in Florida and California from 2009 to 2019. Despite rising polarization, the data consistently show that partisan affiliation is not a primary factor in these hiring decisions. Quantitative analyses reveal no significant relationship between changes in board partisan composition and superintendent hiring outcomes within school districts. I find no relationship between board-level partisan composition and superintendent exits. Qualitative findings show hiring decisions are primarily shaped by evaluations of candidates’ interpersonal skills and competence, even among board members with strong partisan views on other policy issues. Board members discuss a strong commitment to building consensus in their selections. While I cannot rule out very small effects, these results show that school boards do not routinely prioritize applicants from their own political party. This study advances research on affective polarization and social closure by demonstrating the contingent nature of partisan affiliation on decision-making and by providing evidence of a strong respect for professionalism in a critical U.S. public sector setting.
The Benefits of Scholastic Athletics
James Heckman, Colleen Loughlin & Haihan Tian
NBER Working Paper, July 2025
Abstract:
This paper uses longitudinal data to study the benefits of participation in scholastic athletics starting with high school participation and continuing with college athletics, including the benefits of intramural athletics. We study the impact of participation on a number of important life outcomes, including graduation from high school and college and wages after schooling is completed. Controlling for rich measures of cognitive and personality skills and social background, we find substantial benefits at all levels. Participation in athletics promotes social mobility for disadvantaged and minority students.
Tenure and research trajectories
Giorgio Tripodi et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 29 July 2025
Abstract:
Tenure is a cornerstone of the US academic system, yet its relationship to faculty research trajectories remains poorly understood. Conceptually, tenure systems may act as a selection mechanism, screening in high-output researchers; a dynamic incentive mechanism, encouraging high output prior to tenure but low output after tenure; and a creative search mechanism, encouraging tenured individuals to undertake high-risk work. Here, we integrate data from seven different sources to trace US tenure-line faculty and their research outputs at a remarkable scale and scope, covering over 12,000 researchers across 15 disciplines. Our analysis reveals that faculty publication rates typically increase sharply during the tenure track and peak just before obtaining tenure. Post-tenure trends, however, vary across disciplines: In lab-based fields, such as biology and chemistry, research output typically remains high post-tenure, whereas in non-lab-based fields, such as mathematics and sociology, research output typically declines substantially post-tenure. Turning to creative search, faculty increasingly produce novel, high-risk research after securing tenure. However, this shift toward novelty and risk-taking comes with a decline in impact, with post-tenure research yielding fewer highly cited papers. Comparing outcomes across common career ages but different tenure years or comparing research trajectories in tenure-based and non-tenure-based research settings underscores that breaks in the research trajectories are sharply tied to the individual’s tenure year. Overall, these findings provide an empirical basis for understanding the tenure system, individual research trajectories, and the shape of scientific output.
STEM Linked-Course Communities Can Increase Student Success: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial
Laura Ramsey, Thomas Kling & Wanchunzi Yu
Research in Higher Education, June 2025
Abstract:
Many campuses have utilized linked-course communities in an effort to enhance learning and build community, but most of the research on these communities are case studies or correlational designs subject to selection effects. This study conducted a randomized controlled trial of STEM linked-course communities for first-semester students with STEM majors. Students (N = 291) were randomly assigned to either a linked-course community (wherein students took three courses with the same peers) or a control group (wherein students took similar courses but with a random mix of students). Utilizing institutional records, student progress was tracked for the students’ first year. Results showed that students in the community were retained into the sophomore year 10 percentage points higher at the university and 15 percentage points higher in STEM, compared to the control group. Additional comparisons to the control group showed that community students earned more credits in both the fall and spring, more STEM credits in the spring, and higher grades in the fall. The effects were consistent across a variety of demographic groups (race, first-generation status, gender, etc.), though the retention effects were significantly stronger for students with low math placement scores. Mediation analyses showed that, compared to the control group, students in the communities had a higher number of classes with a peer, which in turn predicted increased retention. Given that this seems to be the first randomized controlled trial of linked-course communities utilizing students’ majors, future research should replicate these findings and more deeply explore the mechanisms by which these communities increase student success.
The Net Benefits of Raising Bachelor’s Degree Completion through the City University of New York ACE Program
Judith Scott-Clayton et al.
NBER Working Paper, June 2025
Abstract:
In 2015, the City University of New York (CUNY) launched a new program -- Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE) -- aimed at improving college graduation rates. A randomized-control evaluation of the program found a nearly 12 percentage point increase in graduation five years after college entry. Using this impact estimate and national data on earnings by gender, age, and degree status; we estimate incremental expected long-run benefits and costs for participants, as well as intergenerational effects for the children of participants, relative to “business as usual” for the control group. Our main estimate indicates net social benefits of more than $48,000 over a lifetime per participant from greater earnings and labor force attachment, improvements in health, and savings in public transfers. A major contribution of our analysis is the estimation of second-generational benefits. Including intergenerational benefits for children who grow up in newly higher-earning families nearly triples this estimate, to over $130,000 in net social benefits per participant. These results are sensitive to assumptions about whether the impact on graduation after five years persists indefinitely, or whether the control group eventually catches up. Still, net social benefits are strongly positive even under our most conservative assumptions.
The Effects of Race to the Top on Student Achievement: Evidence From National Data
Tuan Nguyen & Christopher Redding
American Educational Research Journal, August 2025, Pages 798-829
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of Race to the Top (RTTT) on test scores, both overall and in terms of narrowing demographic achievement gaps -- a central focus in the original RTTT applications. We draw on student-level NAEP data in reading and mathematics for fourth and eighth graders from 1996 to 2019. An event-study difference-in-difference research design is used to estimate the impact RTTT had on NAEP scores. We show that RTTT had a consistently positive effect on test scores with average treatment effects ranging from .06 to .11 standard deviations, depending on grade and subject. Estimates are generally larger for Black students and, to a lesser degree, economically disadvantaged students.
Do Pensions Enhance Teacher Effort and Selective Retention?
Michael Bates & Andrew Johnston
NBER Working Paper, July 2025
Abstract:
Theoretical rationales for employer-provided pensions often focus on their ability to increase employee effort and selectively retain quality workers. We test these hypotheses using rich administrative data on public school teachers around the pension-eligibility threshold. When teachers cross the threshold, their effective compensation drops by over 50 percent of salary due to sharply reduced pension accrual rates. Standard economic models predict this compensation reduction should decrease teacher effort and output, yet we observe no such decline. This suggests that yearly pension accruals near retirement do not meaningfully increase effort. Similarly, if pensions selectively retained better teachers, we would expect average teacher quality to decline when the retentive incentive disappears at the threshold. Instead, we find no change in the composition of teacher quality, suggesting pensions do not selectively retain higher-performing workers in late career.
Optimal School System and Curriculum Design: Theory and Evidence
Glenn Ellison & Parag Pathak
NBER Working Paper, August 2025
Abstract:
This paper develops a model of education production and uses it to study optimal school system and curriculum design. Curriculum design is modeled as a time-allocation problem. A school teaches students many skills and allocates time to different skills based on student characteristics. Our framework provides a novel interpretation of studies that find zero achievement effects at selective school admission cutoffs. We show that such findings may be consistent with highly effective schools implementing optimal curricula, rather than necessarily indicating ineffective schools. The interpretation depends on the alignment between measured outcome skills and skills emphasized in the curriculum. We test several model predictions using data from a prominent exam school and find supporting evidence that would be difficult to rationalize if selective schools were ineffective.
The Effects of School Accountability Ratings in California Under ESSA on Student Graduation and College and Career Readiness
Drew Atchison et al.
AERA Open, July 2025
Abstract:
Using a regression discontinuity design, we examine the effects on graduation and college and career readiness of two types of school performance designations under ESSA in California: (1) color ratings based on individual performance measures that are highly visible, yet do not carry direct ramifications; and (2) federally-mandated Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) designations based on multiple performance measures that are less visible, but have explicit consequences for designated schools. We find significant positive effects of a red color rating (the lowest performance designation) on the outcome on which the rating was based, yet no significant effect of a CSI designation. Descriptive evidence from a principal survey and interviews with district administrators highlight two potential mechanisms behind the differential effects: (1) the relative clarity of color ratings that rely on a single performance measure; and (2) the visibility of color ratings that may induce a sense of urgency among stakeholders.
Introducing a High-School Exit Exam in Science: Consequences in Massachusetts
Ann Mantil et al.
NBER Working Paper, July 2025
Abstract:
Preparing students for science, technology, and engineering careers is an urgent state policy challenge. We examine the design and roll-out of a science testing requirement for high-school graduation in Massachusetts. While science test performance has improved over time for all demographic subgroups, we observe rising inequality in failure rates and retest success. English learners, almost 8% of all test-takers, account for 53% of students who never pass. We find large differences by family income, even conditional on previous test scores, that raise equity implications. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we show that barely passing the exam increases high-school graduation and college outcomes of students near the score threshold, particularly for females and students from higher-income families.