On the Learning Curve, contributors analyze local, state, and federal policies that affect students enrolled in primary and secondary education. Authors provide analyses on various K–12 topics, including accountability, the pandemic’s effects on the education system, and how different policies and practices—such as exposure to school resource officers, Advanced Placement access, and class size limits—affect students and equitable outcomes.
Accountability and Student Outcomes
- December 2021: Comparing student outcomes at Catholic schools and other nonpublic schools in Florida (David Figlio)
- September 2022: The Availability of Truancy Data across States (Ericka S. Weathers, David Loeb)
- December 2022: Will the Virginia Governor’s Push for Higher Expectations on State Tests Affect Student Learning? (Matthew Chingos)
- May 2023: Do Active-Shooter Drills Hurt Students? (Elc Estrera)
- December 2024: States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2022 Nation’s Report Card (Matthew Chingos)
- January 2025: States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (Matthew Chingos, Kristin Blagg)
Effects of the Pandemic
- January 2022: Support for Mask and Vaccine Policies in Schools Falls along Racial and Political Lines (Dan Silver, Michael Fienberg, Morgan Polikoff)
- 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)
- 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)
- February 2023: Where the Kids Went: Nonpublic Schooling and Demographic Change during the Pandemic Exodus from Public Schools (Thomas S. Dee)
- July 2023: The Rapid Increase of School Accountability during the Pandemic (Josh Bleiberg)
Equity and Diversity
- November 2021: The distribution of police officers and social workers in schools (Mauro Ampie)
- 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)
- June 2022: Leveraging Nuanced Data to Inform Research and Policy for Immigrant Students and Families (Kristin Blagg, Marguerite Lukes)
- July 2022: The Students Alternative Schools Serve (Adam Kho, Sarah Rabovsky)
- September 2022: Which Students Are We Counting? A Descriptive Analysis of Student Characteristics and Data Availability of US Territories and Commonwealths (Wendy Castillo)
- April 2023: Unequal Exposure to School Resource Officers, by Student Race, Ethnicity, and Income (Sagen Kidane, Emily Rauscher)
- August 2023: Class Size Reductions May Be Inequitably Distributed under a New Mandate in New York City (Matthew Chingos, Ariella Meltzer)
- February 2024: Suspension Restrictions and Restorative Justice Funding in New York City: Interactions between Program and Policy Reforms (Jo Al Khafaji-King)
- April 2024: Moving the Needle on Equity in Computer Science Education: Lessons from New York City (Cheri Fancsali, Janice Lee)
- April 2024: Enhancing Diversity in Selective-Admissions Schools: Are Centralized Lotteries and Geographic Preferences Effective? (Sarah A. Cordes)
- July 2024: Will Implementing Class Size Caps Exacerbate Hiring Challenges in New York City’s Highest-Poverty Schools? (Matthew Chingos, Ariella Meltzer, James Carter)
- September 2024: School Segregation on School Report Cards: Who Are We Grading Anyway? (Jay Carter, Leonardo Restrepo)
- October 2024: House Bill 5 Expands Postsecondary Pathways for Rural Texas Students (Jacob Kirksey, Kristin Mansell, Teresa Lansford, and Angela Crevar)
- November 2024: Has Ending Suspensions for Willful Defiance Improved Discipline Disparities? Evidence from California (Rebecca A. Cruz, Mary C. Cunningham)
Funding
- November 2021: The implications of expanding the Community Eligibility Program to states (Emily Gutierrez)
- October 2022: More Money on Learning, Less Learning Loss? Variations in How Rhode Island Districts Spent Federal COVID Relief Funding (Xiaoyang Ye)
- March 2023: Adequately Funding Low-Income Students: Options for Michigan Policymakers (Jeremy Singer)
- September 2023: Contextualizing the Push for More School Resource Officer Funding (Montserrat Avila-Acosta, Lucy C. Sorensen)
- November 2023: How Will Implementing Class Size Caps in New York City Affect Funding Equity? (Matthew Chingos, Ariella Meltzer, James Carter)
- March 2024: Allocating Additional Funding for Low-Income Students: Michigan’s Section 25m Funding Proposal (Jeremy Singer)
- March 2025: How Many Students Would Lose Access to Free Meals under House Republicans’ Proposed Changes to the Community Eligibility Provision? (Emily Gutierrez)
