Body mass index (BMI) screening and reporting programs have been implemented in the U.S. for over a decade to combat rising childhood obesity. While these programs have raised significant public concerns about potential negative impacts on students' socioemotional outcomes, existing evidence is limited, often constrained by small sample sizes due to challenges in collecting socioemotional data. This study leverages data from the New York City (NYC) Learning Environment Surveys from 2010 to 2014 to examine the effects of receiving obesity notices on eight socioemotional outcomes among middle school girls in NYC. Using a regression discontinuity design, we assess student perceptions of bullying, harassment, physical fights, feelings of being welcomed and respected by teachers and peers, as well as attendance and chronic absenteeism. We find no evidence of negative impacts on any of the eight outcomes examined, and our results are robust across various sensitivity analyses and robustness checks. These findings caution against overstating the potential harmful effects of informing children and adolescents of their weight status, a key component of BMI reporting programs.

Interim assessments are widely adopted in school districts across the United States and are often employed to help predict student performance on end-of-year (EOY) state summative assessments. Although several studies have examined the predictive validity of interim assessments, most do not account for information from students’ prior state test performance. Using data from South Carolina, we assess the added predictive value of within-year interim assessments for forecasting student performance levels and gains on state summative assessments, compared to predictions based solely on prior state summative assessment data. Our findings indicate that while fall and winter interim assessments offer only modest improvements in predicting EOY state test performance levels, they significantly enhance predictions of performance gains, for which past performance alone provides little information. Additionally, we observe that the longer i-Ready and MAP interim assessments add more predictive power relative to the shorter Star assessment when predicting student performance on state summative assessments. This study underscores the value of interim assessments in providing insights into student performance changes within a school year.

While the central goal of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was to close achievement gaps, the extent to which school accountability pressure under NCLB has helped disadvantaged students catch up to their more advantaged peers remains surprisingly unclear. This paper investigates this critical research question and explores potential underlying mechanisms to inform the design of future school accountability policies. Utilizing administrative data from Title I public elementary and middle schools in North Carolina, I employ a difference-in-differences strategy, estimated using the method proposed by Gardner (2022). To validate the underlying identification assumption, I conduct event studies that reveal similar pre-trends. The findings indicate that, among Title I schools, accountability pressure in math significantly boosts math scores for traditionally low-performing student subgroups, including Black, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities. Furthermore, these larger effects in math for disadvantaged groups are primarily driven by the policy’s greater impact on low-performing students, who constitute a significant portion of these groups. In contrast, the effects of reading accountability pressure on reading scores are smaller, with the most substantial gains observed among Hispanic students.

COVID-19 has profoundly disrupted student learning, particularly for disadvantaged students. In response, schools, districts, and the nation have been seeking strategies to safeguard student learning. This paper explores the role of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and School Culture & Climate in mitigating learning loss during the COVID-disrupted years, with a focus on whether these factors are especially beneficial for historically marginalized students. We utilize comprehensive student-level data from CORE districts in California spanning 2019 to 2022. Our findings indicate that self-management, growth mindset, and self-efficacy are positively associated with math and English Language Arts scores on both summative and interim assessments, even after controlling for prior test scores and demographics. Notably, the differential impacts of SEL emerge in later grades. For instance, in fifth grade, English Language Learners benefit more from self-management and social awareness, but less from self-efficacy compared to their more advantaged peers. Additionally, our study reveals that a positive perception of school safety is linked to improved test performance.

An increasing body of literature in economics and psychology highlights that students' social-emotional learning (SEL) skills are closely tied to various outcomes, including academic achievement, educational attainment, and overall well-being. Given the importance of SEL, it is crucial to understand how these skills evolve over time and how their development differs across student groups. Answering these questions is essential for informing the timing and target of SEL interventions, particularly in resource-limited settings where it may not be feasible to implement SEL programs for every student at every grade level. In this paper, we analyze detailed SEL data from the CORE districts in California to examine the developmental trajectories of SEL skills and the variations between different student groups.

School accountability has been a part of the U.S. education system for decades, aimed at improving the quality of public education. While existing literature has extensively examined the impacts of school accountability on student performance, there has been little focus on how this policy affects families' attitudes toward public education. Understanding these attitudes is crucial for policymakers to make informed decisions regarding school accountability systems. In this paper, we explore the impacts of accountability on families’ school choices by analyzing public school enrollment data. We utilize Common Core Data from 1990 to 2002 and employ a difference-in-differences strategy that leverages the timing of when states implemented their accountability systems. Our findings reveal that the introduction of school accountability does not lead to overall changes in public school enrollment. However, this apparent lack of effect masks significant differential impacts across racial and ethnic groups, as we observe increases in enrollment among Hispanic and Asian students, alongside a decrease in enrollment among White students.

School leaders and educators are keen to understand the impacts of their implemented interventions on end-of-year (EOY) state test performance to make necessary adjustments throughout the academic year. However, since state summative tests are administered only at the end of the school year, there is no opportunity to directly evaluate the impacts earlier in the year. In this paper, we utilize student-level data from a southern state to assess the role of Interim Assessments in predicting the effects of educational interventions on EOY summative tests. We will examine the impacts of two educational interventions on student performance in both EOY state tests and throughout-year interim assessments. We will then compare the impacts on the two assessments, evaluating the potential of using the effect measured against interim assessments to assess the impact on EOY state tests.