Ben Backes

Education policy at American Institutes for Research and CALDER

[CALDER Center @caldercenter]

New CALDER paper by @_ZeyuXu_ & @brbackes finds that in 2-year colleges in @KCTCS, HS GPA is a stronger predictor of gateway course success than test scores-- though neither has very strong predictive power alone. Read the full paper to learn more: https://t.co/JsFug6DjYd

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

Still looking for 1-2 more papers- please get in touch if thinking of submitting something value-added-ish to #2025APPAM

https://t.co/ePYsdmIKeK

[Hema Shah @shahh_hema]

Looking to form/join a panel at #2025APPAM with my JMP!

I estimate teacher value added on ACT scores, then look at impacts on college enrollment & college performance. Message me if you have a related paper on teacher/school VA or predictors of college enrollment/ performance!

[Roddy Theobald @RoddyTheobald]

Publication alert! Our @caldercenter
paper on inclusion and special education teacher attrition in MA, w/ @brbackes, @jecowan,
@CEDR_US, & Zeyu Jin, is now published in JLD. Abstract and links below!

Published: https://t.co/vVvND6MfC9
Ungated: https://t.co/6Wv9h9aZmH

[CALDER Center @caldercenter]

Want to learn more about what different measures tell us about the quality of the teacher workforce? Check out this new CALDER Brief by @brbackes, @jecowan, @DeArmondMM, @CEDR_US & @RoddyTheobald based on findings from the paper below.

Brief: https://t.co/zSrkdsfxsH

[The JHR @J_HumanResource]

@brbackes, James Cowan, Dan Goldhaber (@CEDR_US) & @RoddyTheobald connect "nontest" teacher performance markers, such as absences and grade progression, to student college enrollment with important findings for #EducationEquity.
https://t.co/jbfTUtTEV3

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

@EdFuller_PSU @caldercenter @jecowan @RoddyTheobald @CEDR_US Thank you for the heads up! I'm guessing it's because we revised the paper after that original tweet. I think this should work: https://t.co/xlffZGPugq

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

Excited to finally release into the wild our @caldercenter Working Paper that examines the relationship between both test and non-test value added and student long-run outcomes (i.e., college enrollment) (with @jecowan, @RoddyTheobald, and @CEDR_US)

https://t.co/INBmfr4HmV

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

Now published! https://t.co/0qDDuTDNhG

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

Excited to finally release into the wild our @caldercenter Working Paper that examines the relationship between both test and non-test value added and student long-run outcomes (i.e., college enrollment) (with @jecowan, @RoddyTheobald, and @CEDR_US)

https://t.co/INBmfr4HmV

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

@MatthewAKraft Thanks for sharing this! It's very well done. The chapter on foreign language instruction makes me wish we had more widespread foreign-language instruction in the US (especially in elementary)

[Roddy Theobald @RoddyTheobald]

A big thanks to @NCTQ for their write up of our (@brbackes, @jecowan, @CEDR_US) research on emergency license teachers in MA. This paper is now out in EER, see below for the paper and one page summary!

Published paper: https://t.co/ddTWjgM3hX

One pager: https://t.co/HCwOz7xOO9

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

Pleased to say that this article is now published in EER! @jecowan @RoddyTheobald @CEDR_US

https://t.co/yR7AprdhJ5

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

New working paper! With @jecowan @CEDR_US @RoddyTheobald

We examine a pandemic-era policy in Massachusetts that allowed prospective teachers to become licensed to teach without first completing typical requirements such as licensure testing. https://t.co/1eGAhWkBKR

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

A takeaway: short-run impact of a pandemic response is not necessarily same as long-run impact if policy made permanent.

E.g., if initial wave represented a pool of interested teachers held out by barrier, different selection mechanism than those who tried teaching bc of policy

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

New working paper! With @jecowan @CEDR_US @RoddyTheobald

We examine a pandemic-era policy in Massachusetts that allowed prospective teachers to become licensed to teach without first completing typical requirements such as licensure testing. https://t.co/1eGAhWkBKR

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

We do *not* find any evidence that differences across Emergency license cohorts are explained by prior contact with teacher pipeline, such as being employed in MA public schools, enrolling in prep, etc. Instead, there appear to be unobservable differences driven by selection

[Roddy Theobald @RoddyTheobald]

It feels crazy that, in these times of school staffing challenges, we're likely facing staff layoffs in coming years as we reach the ESSER fiscal cliff. See ⬇️ for Dan's overview of our attempt, with Grace Falken, to quantify the likely impact on the public school workforce in WA

[Roddy Theobald @RoddyTheobald]

See below for Dan's thread about our new @caldercenter paper on teacher education program admissions. I rarely get to do new things in this job, and I loved learning about and doing our first conjoint analysis as part of this paper!

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

@ericlerum Thank you for reading, appreciate it!

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

@DrMikeHansen Side note: as easy as it is to complain when the review process is frustrating, I'd like to balance that here by saying that the referees for this submission gave incredibly thoughtful and useful feedback. The process can work well!

[Ben Backes @brbackes]

New! With @DrMikeHansen, we examine whether there's any evidence that TFA impacts on test scores translate to improvements in other measurable student outcomes

https://t.co/Ki7gkXHcCD