#  PIER Public Seminar Video Archive 

 



Video recordings of past PIER Public Seminars.



 

##  2026-2027 

Coming soon.

 

 





 

 

 

 

##  2025-2026 

 





###    sean reardon, Stanford University: Why Have Girls’ Test Scores Declined Relative to Boys’ in Recent Years?  expand\_more  

 

  

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Mahounan Yedomiffi: Activating Parental Managerial Capital  expand\_more  

 

  

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Jeff Denning, Easy A's, Less Pay: The Long Term Effects of Grade Inflation  expand\_more  

 

  

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Lesley Turner: The Impact of a Two Generation College Pipeline Program  expand\_more  

 

  

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Elizabeth Tipton: What Schools Want Versus What Evidence Can Deliver  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2024-2025 

 





###    Anna Markowitz, University of California Los Angeles- Descriptive Data for Early Education Policy Partners  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Zachary Bleemer, Princeton University- Affirmative Action and Racial Integration  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Susanna Loeb, Stanford University - High Impact Tutoring Across Our Decentralized U.S. Education System  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    John Papay, Brown University (& Askwith Panel) - Eliminating the MCAS HS Graduation Requirement  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

**Overview**  
As election day quickly approaches, local voters are considering Massachusetts Ballot Question 2, a measure that would repeal the requirement that students earn a passing score on tenth-grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams to graduate high school.

Supporters of the ballot measure argue that the changes will help address inequities in graduation outcomes and free teachers to focus less on test prep and more on knowledge and skills not captured by standardized exams. Obtaining a diploma would depend on meeting each school district’s local academic standards and course requirements instead of passing the MCAS tests.

Opponents argue that this change would undermine the effectiveness of the MCAS as a tool for measuring student progress and lead to uneven and inequitable expectations for student success across the state’s more than 300 school districts.

**Host:** [**Martin West**](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/directory/faculty/martin-west)**,** Academic Dean and Shattuck Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

**Speaker:** [**John Papay**](https://annenberg.brown.edu/people/john-papay), Associate Professor of Education and Economics and Director of Annenberg Institute, Brown University

**Panelists**

- [**Mary Bourque**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-bourque-181965269/?trk=people-guest_people_search-card), Executive Director, Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents
- [**Max Page**](https://massteacher.org/about-the-mta/mta-leadership-affiliates/president), President, Massachusetts Teachers Association
- [**Patrick Tutwiler**](https://www.mass.gov/info-details/secretary-of-education), Secretary of Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts



 

 

 



###    Anjali Adukia, University of Chicago - Separation of Church and State  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Tom Dee, Stanford University — The Effects of Instructionally Supported Detracking  expand\_more  

 

  

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2023-2024 

 





###    Olivia Chi, Boston University - Who Becomes a Teacher When Entry Requirements are Reduced?  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Jim Soland, University of Virginia - Why Program Evaluators Should Lose Sleep Over Measurement: Through the IRT Looking Glass  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Sade Bonilla, University of Pennsylvania - Examining the Effects of Culturally Relevant Education  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Steve Hemelt, UNC Chapel Hill - Skills, Majors, and Jobs: Does Higher Education Respond?  expand\_more  

 

 *\*Due to a technical issue, there is no recording of this seminar; please reach out to [Steve Hemelt ](mailto:hemelt@email.unc.edu)directly if you would like more information on the talk\**

 *Abstract:* How do college students and postsecondary institutions react to changes in skill demand in the U.S. labor market? We quantify the magnitude and nature of response in the 4-year sector using a new measure of labor demand at the institution-major level that combines online job ads with geographic locations of alumni from a professional networking platform. Within a shift-share setup, we find that the 4-year sector responds. We estimate elasticities for undergraduate degrees and credits centered around 1.3, generally increasing with time horizon. Changes in non-tenure-track faculty allocations and the credits they teach partially mediate this overall response. We provide further evidence that the magnitude of the overall response depends on both student demand and institutional supply-side constraints. Our findings illuminate the nature of educational production in higher education and suggest that policy efforts that aim to align human capital investment with labor demand may struggle to achieve such goals if they target only one side of the market.

 *Joint work with Johnathan G. Conzelmann (UNC Chapel Hill), Brad J. Hershbein (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research), Shawn Martin (Cornerstone Research), Andrew Simon (University of Chicago and ANU RSE), Kevin M. Stange (University of Michigan)*



 

 

 



###    Raj Chetty, Harvard University - College Admissions and Generational Privilege  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2022-2023 

 





###    Jesse Rothstein, UC Berkeley - Student Supports: The Role of Social Safety Net Programs in College Student Success  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Christina Brown, UChicago - Cognitive Endurance as Human Capital  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Sam Trejo, Princeton - The Psychosocial Effects of the Flint Water Crisis on School-Age Children  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Kirabo Jackson, Northwestern - What Impacts Can We Expect from School Spending Policy? Evidence from Evaluations in the U.S.  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2021-2022 

 





###    Christina Weiland, UMichigan - Text-Based Mentoring for Postpartum Mothers  expand\_more  

 

## Text-Based Mentoring for Postpartum Mothers:  
Impacts and Lessons from a Mixed-Methods Randomized Trial  
 



 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Barbara Biasi, Yale - The Education-Innovation Gap  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Sidney D'Mello, UC Boulder - Understanding Human Functioning & Enhancing Human Potential  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Michael Lovenheim, Cornell - The Returns to College Major Choice  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Michael Kofoed, West Point - Zooming to Class? Experimental Evidence on College Students' Online Learning During COVID-19  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Dominique Baker, SMU - The Politics of Community College Districts: A Nat'l Overview & Implications for Racial Gerrymanderiing  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2020-2021 

 





###    Jens Ludwig, UChicago - Personalized Education  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Joshua Angrist, MIT - Simple and Credible Value-Added Estimation Using Centralized School Assignment  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Chris Candelaria, Vanderbilt - Spending More on the Poor? A Comprehensive Summary of State-Specific Responses to School Finance  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Benjamin Castleman, UVA - Cash for College Apps: The Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Selective College Enrollment  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Katherine Strunk, MSU - The Implementation and Impact of Michigan’s Partnership Turnaround Model  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Daphna Bassok, UVA - Teacher Turnover in Early Childhood Education: New Findings from Research Policy Partnerships in LA and VA  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Constance Lindsay, UNC - The Effects of Principal-Teacher Demographic Matching on Teacher Turnover in North Carolina  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Peter Blair, Harvard - A National Study of School Spending and House Prices  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Angela Duckworth, UPenn - The Science of Character  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2019-2020 

 





###    Eric Taylor - Does evaluation distort teacher effort and decisions?  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Phillip Levine - Do College Applicants Respond to Changes in Sticker Prices Even When They Don't Matter?  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    John Gabrieli - Education Neuroscience, Learning Science, and Education  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Rucker Johnson - Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2018-2019 

 





###    Sarah Cohodes - What do we know about charter schools? Can successful charters replicate?  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Kirabo Jackson - Reducing Inequality Through Dynamic Complementarity  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Matthew Kraft - Teacher Evaluation Reforms and the Supply and Quality of New Teachers  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2017-2018 

 





###    Susanna Loeb - Engaging Teachers: Measuring the Impact of Teachers on Student Attendance in Secondary School  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Judith Scott-Clayton - Financial Aid, Debt Management, and Socioeconomic Outcomes: Post-College Effects of Merit-Based Aid  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Bridget Terry Long - Simplification, Assistance, and Incentives: An Experiment to Increase College Savings  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

##  2016-2017 

 





###    Lindsay Page - Customized Nudging to Improve FAFSA Completion and College Access  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Sean Reardon - 200 Million Test Scores and What Do We Know? Income, Race, and the Geography of Educational Opportunity in the US  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    James Kemple - High School Closures in New York City: Impacts on Students' Achievement, Attendance, and Mobility  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Robin Jacob - Understanding Mathematics Instruction in Kindergarten  expand\_more  

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



###    Darryl V. Hill & Matthew A. Lenard - The Gold Standard: Conducting Randomized Trials in Education Agencies  expand\_more