Papers

“Assessing the Costs of K-12 Education in California Public Schools”, part of the Getting Down to Facts project, Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice (2007).

"Tiebout Choice and Universal School Vouchers” (with Eric Brunner), Journal of Urban Economics (forthcoming).

“Does No Child Left Behind Place a Fiscal Burden on States? Evidence from Texas” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Education Finance and Policy 1 (Spring 2006), 217-246.

“Fiscal Stress and Voluntary Contributions to Public Schools” (with Eric Brunner), Developments in School Finance (2005), National Center for Education Statistics.

“Assessing the Use of Econometric Analysis in Estimating the Costs of Meeting State Education Accountability Standards: Lessons from Texas” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Peabody Journal of Education 80 (2005), 96-125.

“Teacher Salaries and Teacher Attrition,” Economics of Education Review 24 (2005), 431-449.

“Is No Child Left Behind an Un(or under)funded Federal Mandate? Evidence from Texas” (with Andrew Reschovsky), National Tax Journal 57 (2004), 571-588.

“School Finance Reform in Texas: A Never Ending Story?” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Helping Children Left Behind: State Aid and the Pursuit of Educational Equity, John Yinger, ed., MIT Press (2004), 251-281.

“Financing Adequate Education in Rural Settings” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Journal of Education Finance 29 (Summer 2003), 137-156.

“Let No Child Be Left Behind: Determining the Cost of Improving Student Performance” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Public Finance Review 31 (May 2003), 263-290.

"Class-Size Reduction and Teacher Quality: Evidence from California," School Finance and Teacher Quality: Exploring the Connections, David Monk and Margaret Plecki, eds. (2003), 159-178.

"Teacher Attrition and Mobility in Urban Districts: Evidence from Wisconsin," Fiscal Issues in Urban Schools; Research in Education: Fiscal Policy and Practice, Volume 1, Jennifer King Rice and Christopher Roelke, eds. Information Age Publishing Inc.: Greenwich, CT (2002), 119-136.

“Achieving Educational Adequacy through School Finance Reform” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Journal of Education Finance 26 (Spring 2001), 373-396.

"The Development of School Aid Formulas to Guarantee Adequacy" (with Andrew Reschovsky), in Developments in School Finance 1997, National Center for Education Statistics, 121-148.

This study synthesizes what we know and do not know about policies to attract and retain teachers in high-need schools and assesses the relative cost-effectiveness of two types of policies. Research consistently shows that teacher quality is likely to be lower in schools with higher proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This pattern is likely a result of several factors but the most well-documented is teachers’ mobility choices within and across districts. Although there are numerous programs across the country intended to attract and retain highly-skilled teachers in high-need schools, there is very little assessment of their effectiveness. Given the lack of evidence on specific interventions, I use the results from existing studies of
teacher mobility and attrition to compare the effect of salary incentives and induction or mentoring programs. Although financial incentives are arguably the most straightforward policies for states and districts to adopt, high-need schools may be better served if policymakers and researchers devoted more attention to more cost-effective alternatives. (presented at APPAM conference, November 2007)

Opponents of school vouchers often argue that school vouchers will lead to white flight from public schools that are disproportionately nonwhite, creating more racially segregated schools. However, recent studies that examine white flight from public schools into private schools have produced conflicting evidence on whether or not white flight actually exists. In this paper, we present new evidence on whether universal vouchers will lead to more racially segregated schools. Specifically, we use data on vote outcomes from a state-wide universal voucher initiative to estimate the likelihood that white households with children currently in public schools will use vouchers to switch out of more-integrated schools. Our results indicate that white households with children attending schools with large concentrations of nonwhite schoolchildren are significantly more likely to support school vouchers, an effect that is absent for non-white households with children and households without children. However, it also does not appear to be race, per se, that is the primary concern, but other school factors that are correlated with race, such as test scores and limited English proficiency.

In this paper, I analyze how state-adopted caps on school district revenue and teacher salary increases have affected the distribution of teacher salaries in Wisconsin. Specifically, a fixed effects model is used to estimate the effect that these policy changes have had on beginning and experienced teacher salaries and confirms that the revenue limits have had different effects on different districts, with high-salary districts being more strongly affected. I then estimate a model of compensating differentials to uncover changes in relative wages for districts that serve disadvantaged student populations.

"Grade-Dependent Costs of Education: Evidence from Illinois", 2001

In this paper, I estimate cost functions for public education in Illinois. I examine whether there are differences in the cost structures of K-12, elementary and high school districts, and discuss the implications of these differences for policy. I use the cost function results to generate cost indices for each district type. I find that the cost structures of unified and separated districts are likely to be different. Assuming that they are the same can lead to an over-statement of costs in elementary districts and an under-statement of costs in high school districts.