DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH METHODS TO INFORM EQUITABLE POLICY
Overview
CEPEG faculty conduct descriptive research that contributes to our understanding of the inequalities in our educational landscape that policymakers seek to address. In order for policy solutions to transform our education system into one that is more equitable along dimensions of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender, we must understand current inequalities, their dynamics, and how methodological choices in our research affect these understandings. Center researcher David M. Quinn has studied trends in inequalities of educational outcomes across social groups – and in factors relevant to these trends – as well as the ways in which different statistical modeling approaches can affect our conclusions. Co-Director Burch studies how mixed methods approaches can help policymakers learn not just whether programs work for historically disadvantaged populations, but how and why they do.
A list of recent publications and projects is available below.
Good, A., Burch, P., Stewart, M., Acosta, R., & Heinrich, C. (2014). Instruction Matters: Lessons from a Mixed Method Evaluation of Out-of-School Time Tutoring Under No Child Left Behind, Teachers College Record. Teachers College Record, 116(3).
Quinn, D. M. (2017). Racial Attitudes of PreK-12 and Postsecondary Educators: Descriptive Evidence from Nationally-representative Data. Educational Researcher, 46, 397-411. doi:10.3102/0013189X17727270.
Quinn, D. M. (2015). Black-White Summer Learning Gaps: Interpreting the Variability of Estimates across Representations. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37(1): 50-69. doi: 10.3102/0162373714534522.
Quinn, D. M. (2015). Kindergarten Black-White Test Score Gaps: Re-examining the Roles of Socioeconomic Status and School Quality with New Data. Sociology of Education, 88(2): 120-139. doi:10.1177/0038040715573027.
Quinn, D. M., & Cooc, N. (2015). Science Achievement Gaps by Gender and Race/Ethnicity in Elementary and Middle School: Trends and Predictors. Educational Researcher, 44(6): 336-346. doi: 10.3102/0013189X15598539.
Quinn, D. M., Cooc, N., McIntyre, J., & Gomez, C.J. (2016). Seasonal Dynamics of Academic Achievement Inequality by Socioeconomic Status and Race/ethnicity: Updating and Extending Past Research with New National Data. Educational Researcher, 45(8), 443-453. doi:10.3102/0013189X16677965.
Quinn, D. M., & Le, Q. T. (2018). Are we trending to more or less between-group achievement inequality over the school year and summer? Comparing across ECLS-K cohorts. AERA Open, 4(4), 1-19.
Quinn, D. M., & McIntyre, J. (2017). Do Learning Rates Differ by Race/ethnicity over Kindergarten? Reconciling Results across Gain Score, First-Difference, and Random Effects Models. Economics of Education Review, 59, 81-86. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.06.006.
Trends in the Seasonal Dynamics of Academic Achievement Inequality by Race/ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status.
AERA Grants Program. Principal Investigator David Quinn, 2017-2018. This project uses data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) nationally representative ECLS-K:99 and ECLS-K:2011 studies to ask: How do the patterns of inequality in math and reading growth by race/ethnicity and SES over the school year and summer differ among the cohort of students who were kindergartners in 1999, compared those who were kindergartners in 2011?
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