School absences can negatively impact a child's schooling, including the loss of teacher-led lessons, peer interactions, and, ultimately, academic achievement. However, little is known about the long-term consequences of school absences for overall educational attainment and labour market outcomes. In this paper, we used data from the 1970 British…

This randomized trial investigates the long-term effects of a primary school scholarship program in rural Cambodia. We estimate impacts--9 years after program inception--on educational attainment, cognitive skills, socio-emotional outcomes, labor market outcomes, and well-being. Our results point to systematic improvements in educational…

In West Virginia mental health woes are fueled by social problems and a shortage of providers. West Virginia has one of the nation's highest rates of deaths of despair: fatalities attributed to suicide, drug overdoses, and alcohol-related disease. This infographic highlights the problems and possible solutions of the mental health needs of West…

Educators are vital in capturing students' STEM interest. An integrated approach to STEM education is necessary to promote students' interest and curiosity while building the foundation of STEM concepts needed to fuel the STEM workforce. This exploratory case study examined K-5 STEM educators' perceptions of a successful STEM elementary school.…

The present paper is a comparative examination of three European Commission (EC) countries' primary and elementary education curricula with the European Commission's Communication and its consequences for curriculum skills relating to children's lives as adults and workers. It is a documentary analysis of secondary sources of the texts of the…

Recent studies describe Jordan as a context where the encounter between modernity and tradition in the framework of neo-liberal transformations in the labour market have brought about paradoxes affecting women's lives. Despite several policies to implement gender equality introduced by the government, the rapid reduction of the gender gap in…

Prior research substantially overstates the cost of retention under test-based promotion policies to both taxpayers and students who delay labor market entry because it omits two important factors. First, there is a delay between the intervention and the taxpayer's expenditure. Second, on average, the treatment leads to less than a full year of…

School closings displace thousands of teachers in the United States every year. This paper explores how elementary school teachers in North Carolina respond to this labor market shock. After documenting in our study that declining enrollment is a key driver of school closings, we find that whereas most displaced teachers move to new schools in the…

This dissertation is comprised of three essays, each examining a different topic in labor economics. In Chapter 1, I examine the productivity and selection effects of K-12 teacher tenure by leveraging variation from New Jersey's TEACHNJ Act. This law extended the pre-tenure period from three to four years and allowed districts to dismiss…

Teacher labor markets are evolving across the United States. The rise of charter schools, alternative teacher certification, and portfolio districts are transforming teachers' access to employment, changing the way they search for and apply for jobs, and may also change the role that social networks play in the job search. However, we know little…

Observing the transition from industrial work to more and more digitalised work in the last decades, in this paper we discuss changes in employment and the relevance of numeracy in adult basic education and in working environments. In a knowledge society, the demand for highly qualified professionals is growing. It is questionable what effects…

In 2013, the Chicago Board of Education closed 47 elementary schools, directly affecting 13,000 students and 900 teachers. The closures created employment uncertainty for closed-school teachers, and this article investigates the labor market consequences for teachers. We employ a difference-in-differences approach that compares the exit rates of…

In 2013, the Chicago Board of Education closed 47 elementary schools, directly 16 affecting 13,000 students and 900 teachers. The closures created employment uncertainty for 17 closed-school teachers, and this paper investigates the labor market consequences for teachers. We employ a difference-in-differences approach that compares the exit rates…

This dissertation consists of three essays focused on policies that hold the potential to reduce gender and socioeconomic gaps in the developing world. The first two chapters focus on higher education while the last chapter focuses on STEM gender gaps during primary school. Chapter 1 looks at the impacts of new transportation infrastructure on…

The Smithsonian Science Education Center in collaboration with Howard University received a Planning Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) and Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) (Grant Award #2040784) for the…