🚨Ed policy researchers, look at the newest special call!
📲 We’re eager to fund RCTs and quasi-experimental studies that produce actionable evidence on how K–12 cell phone policies affect student learning, behavior, and well-being.
🗓️ 3-page LOIs due May 1. Learn more: bit.ly/47n9e1L
And declines in student achievement among Hispanic and Spanish-speaking students, both U.S. and foreign born.
www.nber.org/papers/w34452
DO NOT check silver!
🚨📢 Call for papers - IV Workshop on Economics of Education, Valle Nevado 🇨🇱⛷️
📅 August 18-21
📍Valle Nevado, Chile
Keynotes by Josh Goodman (
@buwheelock.bsky.social ) and Chris Neilson (Yale)
Submit by March 6 👇
bit.ly/49QSsd3
@joshua-goodman.com @christopherneilson.bsky.social
🎯 Essential takeaways from the #EdWorkingPapers Policy and Practice Series!
A summary of “The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida” by David Figlio and @uozek.bsky.social
📄 edworkingpapers.com/policy-pract...
#AnnenbergEdExchange
Pretty well established finding that immigration raids of workplaces reduce student test performance for nearby schools, including for non-vulnerable students. The general DHS surge appears to be doing the same for student performance. www.nber.org/papers/w34452
Congrats, @jieezhong.bsky.social!
📢 #EdWorkingPapers: How does the surge in US immigration enforcement affect students?
David Figlio and @uozek.bsky.social find that heightened immigration enforcement in 2025 reduced test scores for both US-born and foreign-born Spanish-speaking students.
📄https://buff.ly/ejMnGpY
Nice summary of our paper and related work by @tomdee.bsky.social and @kslungaardmumma.bsky.social here.
www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/10/i...
New evidence on how ICE is affecting student learning
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erU5Oe0vJYdVjuqQi4sfhUGxS0BGjWl8/view?usp=drivesdk
(Extremely) proud musician husband moment!!
New Paper 📝📢
"The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida"
✍️ David N. Figlio @uozek.bsky.social
The study highlights that cellphone bans have a greater effect in middle and high schools, where smartphone ownership is more common.
🔗 www.ifo.de/en/cesifo/pu...
New study on the impact of cellphone bans from Figlio & @uozek.bsky.social - evidence backs MCPS policy.
Featured in @chalkbeat.org www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/20/n...
Paper in @nber.org www.nber.org/system/files...
cc @julieyangmoco.bsky.social
New study on student cellphone bans finds short-term increases in discipline issues but ultimately improvements in both attendance and student achievement. www.nber.org/papers/w3438...
Cellphone bans can help kids learn — but Black students are suspended more as schools make the shift
Thirty states now limit or ban cellphone use in classrooms, and teachers are noticing children paying attention to their lessons again. But it’s not clear whether this policy — unpopular with…
Main takeaway:
"...cellphone bans could improve student outcomes, yet these benefits come at the cost of elevated suspension rates in the short term. The challenge that educators face is to minimize these short-term adverse effects until a new status quo is established in schools."
"In fact, our exploratory analysis suggests that nearly half of the test score effects of the ban in middle and high schools in the first two years can be explained by the effect of the ban on unexcused absences."
We found evidence the ban significantly reduced unexcused absences in both first and second years, especially for students in middle and high schools, providing suggestive evidence that improved student engagement and school climate could be important factors behind the observed test score benefits
Well done, Kaiser Permanente...hope to hear similar news from other insurance providers.
Nice summary of this paper by @futureedgu.bsky.social
www.future-ed.org/research-not...
I am so sorry for your loss, Daniel...
Like Chris, I am from a country with two inflation numbers - the official one and the unofficial one that is significantly higher.
I hope we can avoid that here in the U.S.
This is incredibly concerning for the reliability of federal data moving forward...
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...
Such a waste of talent...
We are looking for a postdoc to work on exciting RCTs circling around scaling up mentoring interventions, starting in July 2026 💪🏻🚀
Amazing team at @ifoeducation.bsky.social & the perfect place to thrive with ifo, @cesifo.org + @econmunich.bsky.social 🫶🏻🌟
Please share widely 🙏🙏
Link below 👇
Really glad that this paper found a great home!
This is the third paper that came out of a project that started in 2018...hard to believe that we will have (at least) one more related paper after 7 years!
What to do?
- target students with lower baseline achievement
- allow students in remedial schedule to take advanced courses in non-remediation subjects to alleviate tracking concerns
- provide remediation outside of regular school hours to alleviate crowding out concerns.
These negative effects take place despite the fact that students in remedial schedule receive additional instructional resources in remediation subject (as intended by the policy) such as:
- smaller classrooms
- additional instruction time
- higher value-added teachers
Results also suggest that remedial high school courses could crowd out electives, especially CTE courses...
...which could, in turn, hurt students beyond the adverse effects on college attainment given the potential benefits of some CTE courses on labor market outcomes.
This is a great summary!
In a nutshell, I show that high school remediation could hurt college degree attainment.
Why?
Mostly because it hinders student access to advanced high school courses...especially for those with higher baseline achievement.
