Judith Scott-Clayton

Judith Scott-Clayton is a Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, in the Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis (EPSA), Economics & Education Program. She recently returned to Teachers College after a year of public service as a Senior Economist at the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. *Scott-Clayton will be on sabbatical for the 2023-24 academic year.

Scott-Clayton’s research is focused at the intersection of labor economics and higher education, with an emphasis on postsecondary education finance, financial aid, community colleges, and the outcomes of students after college, including labor market trajectories and patterns of student loan default. She teaches courses on labor economics, causal inference, and the economics of education. She is also a Faculty Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Senior Research Scholar at the Community College Research Center (CCRC). 

Scott-Clayton’s work crosses disciplinary boundaries and has been published in economics, education, and policy journals including the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Education Finance and Policy, and Economics of Education Review. Her work has been covered by national media including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, PBS, NPR, and CNN. She has written for the Urban Institute's Learning Curve series, Brookings Institution's Evidence Speaks series, as well as for the New York Times’ Economix and Upshot blogs. Scott-Clayton actively participates in higher education policy discussions at the state and federal level, including testifying four times (most recently in 2020) to the U.S. Senate as an expert on financial aid research and policy.

Scott-Clayton holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University.