Research 

Publications: 

The Long-Run Impacts of Special Education. (with Katelyn Heath) American Economic Journal: Economic Policy Volume 13 (4), 2021, pages 72-111. (Ungated Version, Online Appendix)
  • Abstract: Over 13 percent of US students participate in Special Education (SE) programs annually, at a cost of $40 billion. However, the effect of SE placements remains unclear. This paper uses administrative data from Texas to examine the long-run effect of reducing SE access. Our research design exploits variation in SE placement driven by a state policy that required school districts to reduce SE caseloads to 8.5 percent. We show that this policy led to sharp reductions in SE enrollment. These reductions in SE access generated significant reductions in educational attainment, suggesting that marginal participants experience long-run benefits from SE services.​
  • Press Coverage: Houston Chronicle, The 74, Chalkbeat, Texas Standard, The Education Gadfly Show

Loss and Risk Preferences and Exam Performance (with Lester Lusher and Paco Martorell) Economics of Education Review  Volume 90, 2022.
  • Abstract: We investigate how the framing of the point structure on an exam can influence test-taking effort and performance. Under traditional choice theory, students may choose to skip more questions if the framing induces loss averse preferences. We conduct a large-scale online experiment and a classroom experiment to instead find that loss-framed exams lead to less skipping. Further evidence finds that students induced greater effort, as measured through several proxies, under loss frames, and this greater effort led them to answer more questions. Consequently, student performance was improved under loss frames. We find little evidence of a gender differential response to frames.

Dreamers and Beyond: Examining the Broader Educational Effects of DACA  (Online Appendix)
- Forthcoming at Journal of Human Resources

  • Abstract: This paper examines the direct effects and spillover effects of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on human capital investments during high school. DACA significantly increased the returns to schooling for undocumented youth, while leaving the returns for their US-born peers unchanged. I estimate the impacts of DACA using detailed administrative data from Los Angeles Unified School District. I find that DACA induced undocumented youth to invest more in their education, which also had positive spillover effects on ineligible students (those born in the US) who attended high school with high concentrations of DACA-eligible youth.

Working Papers:


 The Long-Run Impacts of Racial Gaps in Special Education (with Katelyn Heath)
  • Abstract:  Black students are about 1.5 times more likely to be receiving special education (SpEd) services relative to white students. While there is concern that this implies some black students are inappropriately placed in SpEd, the impacts of the disproportionate representation of minority students in SpEd remains unclear. Using administrative data from Texas, we find that capping black disproportionality led to small gains in high school completion and college attainment for black students in special and general education. Overall, our results suggest that reductions in SpEd misclassification among black students may serve to reduce gaps in later-life success across race.

Early Life Health Conditions and Racial Gaps in Education 
  • Abstract:  This paper uses administrative data from Texas and the shift to Medicaid Managed care (MMC) to study the effects of infant health on outcomes throughout childhood and into adulthood. MMC has been shown to significantly worsen health in Texas, specifically among Black infants. In this paper, I document that the decline in health among Black infants reduced later academic achievement by 0.05 of a standard deviation from 3rd to 8th grade, increasing the black-white test-score gap by 14-18 percent. This significant reduction in achievement suggests that poor infant health has an impact on the black- white achievement gap comparable to reducing school segregation and equalizing school resources and home resources. Overall, I conclude that the effects of infant health for black infants have important effects on childhood development and overall well-being.



Works in Progress:
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  • How do Students and Schools Respond to Early Signals of College Readiness (with Minahil Asim, Scott Carrell, Michal Kurlaender, and Paco Martorell)
  • The Effects of Special Education on Crime (with Katelyn Heath)
  • Do the Health Effects of WIC transmit to Children's Academic Achievement? (with Marianne Page)
  • Diversity in Schools: Immigrants and the Short-Run Academic and Long-Run Outcomes of US-Born Students (with Derek Rury and Che Sun)
  • Sibling Spillovers and Special Education Access (with Jose Rosa)
  • Parent Divorce and Child Achievement (with Sam Arenberg, Andrew Johnston and Seth Neller)

Policy Writings:
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