Education Policy

Achievement gaps may explain racial overrepresentation in special education

March 19, 2020

U.S. school districts may be flagged as over-identifying students of color as having disabilities when other factors, such as achievement gaps, may explain these disparities, according to new Penn State research published in Exceptional Children. Federal legislation and regulations require U.S.…

Underlying factors affect children's early reading and math achievement

March 16, 2020

Underlying individual and environmental factors may better explain inter-relations between children’s early reading and mathematics achievement, according to new research that fails to support prior work suggesting that increasing children’s math skills might help increase their reading skills.…

Categorical inequalities between Black and white students are common in US schools—but they don’t have to be

February 24, 2020

By Kenneth Shores, Ha Eun Kim, and Mela Still for Brookings The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) reports large, persistent gaps between Black and white students on educational outcomes such as school suspensions, uptake of AP classes, assignment to special education and gifted and talented…

Education policy studies faculty member awarded co-funded grant

August 26, 2019

Kelly Rosinger, assistant professor of education in the Department of Education Policy Studies and research associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education, and a team of researchers were recently awarded a total of $373,590 to analyze how variations in performance-based funding (PBF)…

Study shows benefits to changing students' mindsets about learning

August 7, 2019

A groundbreaking new experimental study with more than 12,000 ninth grade students in the United States confirmed that a low-cost online program that takes less than an hour to complete can help students develop a growth mindset — the belief that intellectual abilities are not fixed but can be…

New research details increasing segregation in a transformed school population

May 13, 2019

As the nation prepares to mark the 65th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional, the UCLA Civil Rights Project and the Penn State Center for Education and Civil Rights today (May 10) published new research detailing…

National symposium to mark 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

April 9, 2019

To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Center for Education and Civil Rights and the Africana Research Center at Penn State will convene Brown@65, a national symposium of education, law and policy scholars and practitioners, May 10 on Penn…

SSRI Spotlight: Ericka Weathers

December 5, 2018

As a current assistant professor within the Department of Education Policy Studies, Ericka Weathers uses quasi-experimental methodologies to examine the impact of structural inequality on educational opportunities and outcomes in topic areas such as school finance, school discipline, academic…

Morgan's research featured recently in NYT & WSJ

February 15, 2018

CEDR director and PRI affiliate Paul Morgan's research was recently reported on in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and details why the research should be resulting in changes in federal-level educational policy. Additionally, Morgan gave the Naomi Zigmond Plenary Keynote at this…

Frankenberg named among RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings

January 21, 2018

PRI associate Erica Frankenberg was once again named among the 2018 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, identifying the university-based scholars in the U.S. who are doing the most to shape educational practice and policy. Simply being included in this list of 200 scholars is an…