Research

WORKING PAPERS

The Educational Impact of School District Wi-Fi Spending Under the E-rate Program

Since the launch of the ConnectED initiative in 2013, there has been a significant surge in digital learning classrooms, driven by the Obama Administration's goal to provide 99% of schools with high-speed wireless broadband. This mission was later integrated into the E-rate program, a national initiative offering discounts to schools and libraries to facilitate internet access. In spite of the anticipated advantages, the educational impact of Wi-Fi integration in schools remains unclear. Utilizing school district-level Wi-Fi deployment data and student performance data, this paper investigates the effects of school district Wi-Fi investments on student academic and disciplinary outcomes. The findings suggest that, on average, the introduction of Wi-Fi in schools widens the achievement gap between racial groups, particularly negatively affecting disadvantaged subgroups. This effect is more pronounced in economically disadvantaged regions, including those with more rural schools or higher levels of racial segregation, as well as in technologically lagging areas characterized by larger household internet access disparities. When exploring potential mechanisms, this study finds evidence that Wi-Fi-equipped school districts did not necessarily invest more in supplementary resources to effectively utilize Wi-Fi, while student disciplinary problems arising from Wi-Fi usage seemed to be of lesser concern.

The Spillover Effect of Third-Grade Retention Policy on Earlier Grades

In 1998, California became the first state to require third grade students to be retained if they do not meet reading proficiency. By 2020, seventeen states plus D.C. required retention for students not reading at proficiency by the end of third grade. Since third grade is the time when the focus shifts from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”, retaining students has become a popular strategy for states and districts looking to improve literacy skills and retain struggling readers. Most studies of grade retention policies are conducted at the state level to evaluate efforts from the teachers’ side, like early identification and intervention. However, studying reactions from children’s and parents’ perspectives is also important in order to understand their concerns about the policies and to improve the cooperation between the two sides. This study uses the October Current Population Survey data to estimate the impact of third grade retention policies on K-2 retention rates and kindergarten entrance age at the national level. I find that the introduction of the retention policies decreases kindergarten and second grade retention rates for boys, and decreases kindergarten entrance age by approximately one month for girls.

The Path of Student Learning Delay During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Michigan (with Katharine O. Strunk, Bryant Hopkins, Tara Kilbride and Scott Imberman)

Educators and policymakers have been concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to substantial delays in learning due to disruptions, anxiety, and remote schooling. We study student achievement patterns over the pandemic using a combination of state summative and higher frequency benchmark assessments for middle school students in Michigan. Comparing pre-pandemic to post-pandemic cohorts we find that math and ELA achievement growth dropped by 0.22, and 0.03 standard deviations more than expected, respectively, between 2019 and 2022. These drops were larger for Black, Latino, and economically disadvantaged students, as well as students in districts that were at least partially remote in 2021-22. Benchmark assessment results are consistent with summative assessments and show sharp drops in 2020-21 followed by a partial recovery and potential stall-out in 2021-22.