Research
I study how policies of student assignment and resource distribution affect educational opportunities for students. I try to take a holistic approach to the study of educational policy, combining personal experience, historical research, normative thinking, and descriptive & causal analysis of specific policy interventions to more fully understand how institutional resources and demographics matter for student outcomes and opportunity.
Area 1. The Geography of Opportunity: Education policy and the measurement of school economic disadvantage
I study how policies of student assignment and resource distribution (boundaries, finance, and school choice) help create schools and neighborhoods of concentrated poverty and affluence.
Dissertation Project
The End of Desegregation? School Improvement, Integration, and Equal Opportunity in Durham, North Carolina (in progress) (presentation)
Co-authored Academic Work
There is such thing as free lunch: School meals, stigma, and student discipline (2024) (AERJ) (with T. Domina, L. Clark, R. Bhaskar)
Measuring school economic disadvantage (2022) (EEPA) (with M. Spiegel, L. Clark, T. Domina, P. Yoo, A. Penner)
Structured Choice: School Segregation at the Intersection of Policy and Preferences (under review) (with T. Domina, D. Carlson, J. Carter, R. Perera, A. McEachin)
Blogs & Random Maps
Mapping K-12 Education in the Triangle (Durham, Chapel Hill, and Wake County)
Comparing two midwestern cities: Columbus, OH & Indianapolis, IN: Similar systems of spatial & educational segregation (some early maps)
Area 2. Higher Ed: Affordability and College Access & Success
I am interested in how college affordability shapes who attends college (access) and how students experience higher education (success). I also want to study how measures of cost, affordability, and now ROI have been used to justify who pays for higher education and how.
Blogs & Thoughts
How Students Decide: Matching, Undermatching, & Creating a College List (slides)
Justice in College Affordability (blog)
College Athletics: Athletics-Dependent Colleges (blog)
College Advising Resources & Data Visualizations
Other/Past Work
Radsky, V. (2013). Developing Inclusive Social Policies: Education for Azerbaijan’s Internally Displaced. Presented at AAA Education Policy Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2013. Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwlZa2UYi4PNYWdJcV92RE5UaVE/view?usp=sharing.
Mikailova, U. & Radsky, V. (2013). School Leadership in Azerbaijani Early Childhood Education: Implications for Education Transfer. In Eeva Hujala, Manjula Waniganayake & Jillian Rodd (Eds). Researching Leadership in Early Childhood Education. Tampere: Tampere University Press 2013, 193–212. Article Available: http://ilrfec.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/art_11Mikailova-Radsky.pdf and book information available: http://ilrfec.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/art_00Kansi.pdf.
Kazimzade, E. & Jokić, B (2013). The Roles of Parents in the Decision Concerning the Use of Private Tutoring Services. In Jokic, B., (Ed.) (2013). Emerging from the Shadow: A Comparative Qualitative Exploration of Private Tutoring in Eurasia. Zagreb: NEPC. Book available: https://www.edupolicy.net/portfolio-posts/emerging-from-the-shadow-a-comparative-qualitative-exploration-of-private-tutoring-in-eurasia/
*Although I am not an author, I contributed significantly to the cited chapter of the book and am acknowledged following the table of contents.