Publications
Partisan Politics and Public Education: Finding the formula for (electoral) success , at State Politics & Policy Quarterly
Available here or the published version here.
Abstract: Do state politicians reward school districts that vote in favor of the party in power more than school districts that vote in favor of opposing party? With large shares of money at the state level to transfer to local governments and the ability to target core voters, it would seem likely that politicians would take advantage of the ability to distribute education funds. However, in understanding how states distribute education funds, little emphasis is given to partisan influences, particularly the congruence between local school districts and the state level. To test this, I collected data at the precinct level within each state, and using mapping software, spatially joined precinct boundaries to school district boundaries. Once this relationship was established, I aggregated precinct level information to school districts to understand the partisan voting patterns within each school district for elections from 2000 to 2010. This article finds evidence that funding formulas are susceptible to political influence and that parties are able to influence the geographic distribution of education funds to core voters.
Exit or Invest: Segregation increases funding for public education, at Journal of Politics
Article can be downloaded here and the data can be found: here. It is also available here.
Abstract: Does segregation help or hurt support for public education? Previous literature has identified diversity, and more recently segregation, as key predictors for spending less on public goods. Because of schools' historical legacy with segregation, segregation could play a very different role in funding public education. To test this, I have collected data on the 11,000 plus school district in the United States from 1995 to 2011. Using multi-level models with a state-school district nested design, I find that white-black segregation leads to more investment in public education while white-Hispanic segregation, as well as segregation by income, has no effect. This result is robust across a broad array of alternative specifications, including an instrumental variable analysis using the number of years after an overturned court desegregation order as an instrument for school segregation. The results imply that segregation is still shaping public education.
Social Transformation and Violence: Evidence from U.S. Reconstruction, with Megan Stewart, forthcoming at Comparative Politics Study
Available here.
Abstract: How do political actors achieve revolutionary social transformation, and what are the consequences of their efforts? In this paper, we argue that the greater resources allocated to the beneficiaries of transformative social and political schemes, the more successful political actors will be in achieving the change they desire. But success comes at a cost: violence is more likely to emerge when transformative projects succeed, specifically, when they succeed in reducing social hierarchies between historically repressed and privileged communities. Effective reductions to long-standing social inequities trigger resentment among privileged communities leading to violence against repressed communities. Furthermore, because historically repressed communities work to institutionalize and preserve socio-economic gains arising from statebuilding interventions, such gains in status, as well as violence in response to them, persist over the long-term. We quantitatively test our arguments using historical, county-level data on post-U.S. Civil War Reconstruction and we supply both quantitative and qualitative evidence for our mechanisms. Our findings support our theory. We thus introduce a new mechanism that causally links social transformation to violence, thereby expanding our understanding of how actors consolidate social orders, and how societies' respond to these efforts.
Dividing lines: The role school district boundaries play in spending inequality for public education at Social Science Quarterly
Available here
Abstract: Do political boundaries, particularly along racial cleavages, contribute to differences in spending on public goods? In explaining differences in per child expenditures across school districts, economic differences are the most cited. Racial segregation often occurs along school district borders and could lead to differences in per child expenditures through concentration of resources in certain districts. To test whether racial segregation across districts impacts inequality in education funding, I have collected data on the 11,000 plus school district and 1,800 counties in the United States from 1995 to 2011. Using a series of panel models, I find that white-black segregation leads to increased variation in per child local revenue within counties. Within these segregated counties, districts with larger black populations collect less in local revenue but have a higher tax burden.
Do Better Schools Help to Prolong Early Childhood Education Effects? (with William Gormley and Sara Anderson), at Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
Available Here
Abstract: As scholars investigate factors to prolong early childhood education (ECE) effects on student achievement, a neglected hypothesis is that magnet school attendance promotes this goal. We test this premise, using data from 1,844 students who attended kindergarten in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) in 2006 and who were identifiable in the school district a decade later. Approximately half of those students attended an ECE program. Using propensity score weighting with multiple imputation, we find that ECE alumni are more likely to attend a magnet middle school and a magnet high school. We also find that magnet middle school attendance yields higher test scores, after controlling for multiple variables. Under the right conditions, magnet schools could help public schools to sustain short-term gains from ECE for a diverse cross-section of students. We discuss results within a broader context of mechanisms to sustain ECE effects.
The Hispanic Extracurricular Participation Gap in Middle School (with William Gormley) at Social Science Quarterly, 2018
Available Here
Abstract: Some scholars have noted a gap in extra-curricular (EC) participation between Hispanic students and other students (Darling, Caldwell & Smith 2005). But why exactly does this gap exist? One possibility is that Hispanic parents, whose education levels are relatively low, do not value EC activity as much as other parents. Another possibility is that limited financial resources make it difficult for Hispanic parents to finance EC activities that require special fees (like sports or marching bands). A third possibility is that Hispanic students have limited financial resources that limit time available for EC activity (e.g., girls have to baby sit). A fourth possibility is that there is less access to activities for Hispanic students. We analyze membership in EC activities across seven different activity types for 381 Hispanic students and 447 white students in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We find that parental awareness, as measured by mother’s education, is the dominant predictor of EC activity. We also find that EC activity predicts academic outcomes in middle school, even after controlling for early academic success.
Why Aren't There More Republican Women in Congress? Gender, Partisanship, and Fundraising Support in the 2010 and 2012 Elections (with Michele Swers) at Politics & Gender, 2016
Article can be found here.
Abstract: Research indicates that fundraising is not an impediment to women candidates because women raise just as much money as men after accounting for seat status. However, previous research focuses solely on general election candidates. By examining both primary and general election candidates, we find both gender and partisan differences in fundraising. While incumbency, competitiveness, and candidate quality predict fundraising in the general election, we show that Democratic women raise more money than their male counterparts in the primary election. However, Republican women do not enjoy greater fundraising success compared with their male counterparts, and in limited cases, being a Republican woman can be an obstacle to fundraising in the primary election.
Partisan Politics and Public Education: Finding the formula for (electoral) success , at State Politics & Policy Quarterly
Available here or the published version here.
Abstract: Do state politicians reward school districts that vote in favor of the party in power more than school districts that vote in favor of opposing party? With large shares of money at the state level to transfer to local governments and the ability to target core voters, it would seem likely that politicians would take advantage of the ability to distribute education funds. However, in understanding how states distribute education funds, little emphasis is given to partisan influences, particularly the congruence between local school districts and the state level. To test this, I collected data at the precinct level within each state, and using mapping software, spatially joined precinct boundaries to school district boundaries. Once this relationship was established, I aggregated precinct level information to school districts to understand the partisan voting patterns within each school district for elections from 2000 to 2010. This article finds evidence that funding formulas are susceptible to political influence and that parties are able to influence the geographic distribution of education funds to core voters.
Exit or Invest: Segregation increases funding for public education, at Journal of Politics
Article can be downloaded here and the data can be found: here. It is also available here.
Abstract: Does segregation help or hurt support for public education? Previous literature has identified diversity, and more recently segregation, as key predictors for spending less on public goods. Because of schools' historical legacy with segregation, segregation could play a very different role in funding public education. To test this, I have collected data on the 11,000 plus school district in the United States from 1995 to 2011. Using multi-level models with a state-school district nested design, I find that white-black segregation leads to more investment in public education while white-Hispanic segregation, as well as segregation by income, has no effect. This result is robust across a broad array of alternative specifications, including an instrumental variable analysis using the number of years after an overturned court desegregation order as an instrument for school segregation. The results imply that segregation is still shaping public education.
Social Transformation and Violence: Evidence from U.S. Reconstruction, with Megan Stewart, forthcoming at Comparative Politics Study
Available here.
Abstract: How do political actors achieve revolutionary social transformation, and what are the consequences of their efforts? In this paper, we argue that the greater resources allocated to the beneficiaries of transformative social and political schemes, the more successful political actors will be in achieving the change they desire. But success comes at a cost: violence is more likely to emerge when transformative projects succeed, specifically, when they succeed in reducing social hierarchies between historically repressed and privileged communities. Effective reductions to long-standing social inequities trigger resentment among privileged communities leading to violence against repressed communities. Furthermore, because historically repressed communities work to institutionalize and preserve socio-economic gains arising from statebuilding interventions, such gains in status, as well as violence in response to them, persist over the long-term. We quantitatively test our arguments using historical, county-level data on post-U.S. Civil War Reconstruction and we supply both quantitative and qualitative evidence for our mechanisms. Our findings support our theory. We thus introduce a new mechanism that causally links social transformation to violence, thereby expanding our understanding of how actors consolidate social orders, and how societies' respond to these efforts.
Dividing lines: The role school district boundaries play in spending inequality for public education at Social Science Quarterly
Available here
Abstract: Do political boundaries, particularly along racial cleavages, contribute to differences in spending on public goods? In explaining differences in per child expenditures across school districts, economic differences are the most cited. Racial segregation often occurs along school district borders and could lead to differences in per child expenditures through concentration of resources in certain districts. To test whether racial segregation across districts impacts inequality in education funding, I have collected data on the 11,000 plus school district and 1,800 counties in the United States from 1995 to 2011. Using a series of panel models, I find that white-black segregation leads to increased variation in per child local revenue within counties. Within these segregated counties, districts with larger black populations collect less in local revenue but have a higher tax burden.
Do Better Schools Help to Prolong Early Childhood Education Effects? (with William Gormley and Sara Anderson), at Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
Available Here
Abstract: As scholars investigate factors to prolong early childhood education (ECE) effects on student achievement, a neglected hypothesis is that magnet school attendance promotes this goal. We test this premise, using data from 1,844 students who attended kindergarten in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) in 2006 and who were identifiable in the school district a decade later. Approximately half of those students attended an ECE program. Using propensity score weighting with multiple imputation, we find that ECE alumni are more likely to attend a magnet middle school and a magnet high school. We also find that magnet middle school attendance yields higher test scores, after controlling for multiple variables. Under the right conditions, magnet schools could help public schools to sustain short-term gains from ECE for a diverse cross-section of students. We discuss results within a broader context of mechanisms to sustain ECE effects.
The Hispanic Extracurricular Participation Gap in Middle School (with William Gormley) at Social Science Quarterly, 2018
Available Here
Abstract: Some scholars have noted a gap in extra-curricular (EC) participation between Hispanic students and other students (Darling, Caldwell & Smith 2005). But why exactly does this gap exist? One possibility is that Hispanic parents, whose education levels are relatively low, do not value EC activity as much as other parents. Another possibility is that limited financial resources make it difficult for Hispanic parents to finance EC activities that require special fees (like sports or marching bands). A third possibility is that Hispanic students have limited financial resources that limit time available for EC activity (e.g., girls have to baby sit). A fourth possibility is that there is less access to activities for Hispanic students. We analyze membership in EC activities across seven different activity types for 381 Hispanic students and 447 white students in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We find that parental awareness, as measured by mother’s education, is the dominant predictor of EC activity. We also find that EC activity predicts academic outcomes in middle school, even after controlling for early academic success.
Why Aren't There More Republican Women in Congress? Gender, Partisanship, and Fundraising Support in the 2010 and 2012 Elections (with Michele Swers) at Politics & Gender, 2016
Article can be found here.
Abstract: Research indicates that fundraising is not an impediment to women candidates because women raise just as much money as men after accounting for seat status. However, previous research focuses solely on general election candidates. By examining both primary and general election candidates, we find both gender and partisan differences in fundraising. While incumbency, competitiveness, and candidate quality predict fundraising in the general election, we show that Democratic women raise more money than their male counterparts in the primary election. However, Republican women do not enjoy greater fundraising success compared with their male counterparts, and in limited cases, being a Republican woman can be an obstacle to fundraising in the primary election.
Papers Under Review and Working Papers
Race, School Discipline, and Magnet Schools with NaLette Brodnax
Understanding turnout at the local level using spatial data
The Revolution Will Be Routine: Social Legacies of Contraband Camps with Megan Stewart
School Boards and COVID Re-opening plans with Sabrina Harris and Kathryn Miller
Race, School Discipline, and Magnet Schools with NaLette Brodnax
Understanding turnout at the local level using spatial data
The Revolution Will Be Routine: Social Legacies of Contraband Camps with Megan Stewart
School Boards and COVID Re-opening plans with Sabrina Harris and Kathryn Miller
Additional Research
Center for Research on Children in the United States (CROCUS), Georgetown University
As a fellow at CROCUS, I have worked on varies projects relating to the long-term effects of pre-k. I have worked on policy briefs, including "Do Middle Class Families Benefit from Pre-k?". A more detailed description of on-going projects and presentations can be found here: CROCUS WEBSITE
RAND Corporation
I have worked on a variety of topics at RAND including education, transportation, and Army Force Structure. Publications can be found here: RAND Website
Center for Research on Children in the United States (CROCUS), Georgetown University
As a fellow at CROCUS, I have worked on varies projects relating to the long-term effects of pre-k. I have worked on policy briefs, including "Do Middle Class Families Benefit from Pre-k?". A more detailed description of on-going projects and presentations can be found here: CROCUS WEBSITE
RAND Corporation
I have worked on a variety of topics at RAND including education, transportation, and Army Force Structure. Publications can be found here: RAND Website