The Learning Curve is a series of data-driven essays on timely education policy topics intended to inform and empower decision makers at the federal, state, and local levels. Data and code are provided whenever possible so readers can dig deeper into the issues important to them. New essays are published every other Thursday. To stay up to date on the latest research, sign up for our newsletter.
If you have an idea for an essay or a question about a published essay, check out our contributor's guidelines, and then email us at learningcurve@urban.org.
We are currently seeking proposals to analyze the effects of policies in PK-12 and higher education that have been enacted in the past 10 years or the likely effects of proposed policies. Authors invited to turn their proposal into an essay for the Learning Curve will receive technical and editorial support from Urban Institute staff, have their product published on urban.org, and receive a $2,500 honorarium. More information on our call for proposals can be found here. Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis until Wednesday, August 31, 2022.
Early education
- November 2021: Examining the landscape of prekindergarten programs (Michael Little)
- April 2022: State Policies Shape the Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the Prekindergarten Workforce (Erica Greenberg, Grace Luetmer)
K-12
- November 2021: The implications of expanding the Community Eligibility Program to states (Emily Gutierrez)
- November 2021: The distribution of police officers and social workers in schools (Mauro Ampie)
- December 2021: Comparing student outcomes at Catholic schools and other nonpublic schools in Florida (David Figlio)
- January 2022: Support for Mask and Vaccine Policies in Schools Falls along Racial and Political Lines (Dan Silver, Michael Fienberg, Morgan Polikoff)
- February 2022: Documenting Inequitable Patterns in Spending by Parent Teacher Associations, Parent Teacher Organizations, and “Friends of” Fundraising Groups at Illinois Public Schools (Claire Mackevicius)
- February 2022: The Leaky Pipeline of Advanced Placement Testing - Essay (Kristen Hengtgen, Kimberly Lent Morales)
- February 2022: The Leaky Pipeline of Advanced Placement Testing - Interactive Map (Kristen Hengtgen, Kimberly Lent Morales)
- March 2022: Disparities in Advanced Placement Course Enrollment and Test Taking: National and State-Level Perspectives (Paula Kim-Christian, Logan McDermott)
- March 2022: The Impact of Rural and Urban School Reopening on Missouri Students (Andrew Diemer, Aaron Park)
- March 2022: Regional and Grade-Level Patterns of Pandemic Enrollment Declines in Hawai`i Public Schools (Mark Murphy, Kiley Oeda)
- April 2022: COVID-19 and the System Resilience of Public Education: A View from North Carolina (Thurston Domina, Ayesha Hashim, Caitlin Kearney, Lam Pham, Cole Smith)
- May 2022: In the Strike Zone: New Data to Contextualize the Recent Surge in Teacher Strikes (Melissa Arnold Lyon)
- June 2022: Leveraging Nuanced Data to Inform Research and Policy for Immigrant Students and Families (Kristin Blagg, Marguerite Lukes)
- June 2022: Both Supply and Demand for COVID-Related Academic and Social Interventions Are Insufficient to Address the Negative Effects of the Pandemic (Morgan Polikoff, Dan Silver)
- July 2022: The Students Alternative Schools Serve (Adam Kho, Sarah Rabovsky)
Higher education
- December 2021: The COVID-19 pandemic changed which types of colleges offered test-optional admissions (Darrell Lovell, Daniel Mallinson)
- March 2022: Analyzing the Landscape of Reentry Services for Formerly Incarcerated Californians in Higher Education (Elif Yucel)
- May 2022: The Fine Print on Free College: Who Benefits from New York’s Excelsior Scholarship? (Judith Scott-Clayton, CJ Libassi, Daniel Sparks)
- May 2022: How Should Federal Policymakers Hold Short-Term Credential Programs Accountable (Kathryn Blanchard)
- July 2022: A Closer Look at College Affordability: The Link between Living Allowances and Student Debt (CJ Libassi, Zachary Mabel)