Nick Ainsworth
@nick-ainsworth.bsky.social
phd student @UCIeducation | interested in ece and sped policy | former k-2 sped teacher | @vanderbiltu @unlv alum | he/him 🏳️🌈 | www.njainsworth.com
New paper! w/ @edizonross.bsky.social, @cedr.bsky.social, Tom Kane, Andrew McEachin, and @ermorton.bsky.social. We know the pandemic hit student test scores hard. But what happened to attendance, discipline, and grades? Did ESSER-funded intervention programs affect students on these measures?
New CALDER paper by @marylaski.com, Calen Clifton, & @cedr.bsky.social studies the impact of team teaching in AZ. Student achievement effects are mostly null overall, but middle school math improves. Teachers also see lower turnover & higher evaluation ratings. Read: caldercenter.org/publications...
Brown just opened a cluster hire for two tenure-track positions in Education Policy. Come join our vibrant community of scholars at @brownedudept.bsky.social & @annenberginstitute.bsky.social! apply.interfolio.com/190527 Please help spread the word.
Federal data can help identify trends in #SpecialEducation teacher pathways. At our next webinar, our experts will explore Title II data across our partner states and how it can inform evidence-based decision-making in special education policy and practice: binghamton.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
🧵 1/ Many of us tuned in to the World Cup finale. More households certainly watched Super Bowl LX this past winter. But did you know in 1977, a larger % of households tuned into the finale for a TV miniseries- on the transatlantic slave trade and the multigenerational impacts of racial injustice?
So glad to see this paper out at EFP! It makes an important contribution to the emerging literature on the effects of four day school weeks on teachers and staff. Check out Aaron’s thread and give the paper a read!
Aaron Ainsworth@ajainsworth.bsky.social · 2mo agoExcited to see our study on four-day school weeks and teacher retention out at Education Finance & Policy! Using 18 years of data from Oregon, we find that switching to a four-day week actually increased teacher turnover by about 2 percentage points. direct.mit.edu/edfp/article... 1/4
If you want to read just an absolutely joyful celebration of teachers' work, check out this amazing study of students' perspectives on special education teaching quality, by @hannahmmathews.bsky.social, Audrey Milam, Flo Bason, & Maria Giani! journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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I am excited to share that I was selected as a 2026 NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellow! Thank you to my mentors at UC Irvine for guiding me throughout this process. I look forward to continuing my dissertation work on special education policy and learning from the fantastic NAEd/Spencer community.
Wealthy students are more likely to get disability accommodations, study finds www.the74million.org/article/weal...
Very thoughtful coverage of our work on family income and disability identification in K-12 schools by Kevin Mahnken in @the74.bsky.social. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Check out the piece below! www.the74million.org/article/weal...
Wealthy Students More Likely to Get Disability Accommodations, Study Finds
Section 504 plans are one of the most important sources of disability services in schools. Why are well-off families their biggest beneficiaries?
the74million.org
I've got a new report out about school district finances in California. It's part of the massive Getting Down to Facts III project out of the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University, and an update of my similar report in 2018. gettingdowntofacts.com/reports/dist...
District Dollars 3: Recent Patterns in California School District Finances, Trends in Teacher Compensation, and Within-District, Between-School Spending | Getting Down to Facts
This report provides a descriptive overview of California school district finances, updating prior analyses in the Getting Down to Facts series. It examines district resources, expenditures, financial...
gettingdowntofacts.com
Interested in some highlights from our latest paper about the effects of Ethnic Studies while it scales district-wide? Our friends at EdWorkingPapers have you covered. edworkingpapers.com/policy-pract...
Cultural Relevance at Scale: The Effects of an Ethnic Studies Expansion on Academic Outcomes
Ethnic Studies (ES) has emerged as a promising approach to address this challenge. By centering the histories, cultures, and lived experiences of communities of color, ES is designed to make learning ...
edworkingpapers.com
In “Net Worth Poverty in Childhood,” Gibson-Davis, @lisagennetian.bsky.social et al. use @umpsid.bsky.social data to examine the “role of wealth deprivation across a child’s life course” & assoc. w/ HS graduation & college attendance. @duke-university.bsky.social read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...
New working paper alert! Our team developed a web crawler to study the accessibility of information related to special education on school district websites in four states (MA, RI, IN, and FL). Read the full WP here: edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1447 And check out Cam's thread below for more detail!
Cam Arnzen@camarnzen.bsky.social · 4mo agoI'm excited to share our latest EdWorking paper, "The Politics of Administrative Ease: Public Access to Local Special Education Information" (w/ @lindseykaler.bsky.social and co-authors). edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1447 #SpecialEducation #EdResearch @annenberginstitute.bsky.social
Vanderbilt seeks a Postdoctoral Scholar to support two grant-funded initiatives: the Improvement Scholars Network & the Network Health Project. Focuses on advancing improvement research & studying the development and effectiveness of education improvement networks. www.vanderbilt.edu/postdoc/pros...
Current Opportunities at Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt is committed to providing a meaningful, robust experience for postdocs. Below is a list of currently available postdoctoral opportunities. Postdocs interested in applying for a specific pos...
vanderbilt.edu
It’s a good thing when education policy ideas can garner big, bipartisan constituencies. Such reforms are more durable, widespread, and amenable to reflective, iterative updating. We should pursue and celebrate them. But… 1/5
Matt Barnum@mattbarnum.bsky.social · 4mo agoNew: There's an effort to reassemble the bipartisan school reform coalition that once dominated Washington. Will it work? I look at why it might and why it might not. These ideas are dominating the media narrative but it's not clear they have a real constituency. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/14/b...
If any other intervention produced outcomes of this size - GPA improvements of .24SD & reductions in course failure of .14SD - districts would be desperate to implement it. Instead, because ethnic studies has been labeled as "woke," efforts to scale have slowed.
Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com · 4mo agoCultural Relevance at Scale: The Effects of an Ethnic Studies Expansion on Academic Outcomes journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3... "enrollment increased overall grade-point average...and reduced course failure...benefits extended to all student groups"
Some good news: SFUSD's high school Ethnic Studies course has substantial academic benefits when implemented district-wide. New research by @birajbisht.bsky.social, Sade Bonilla, Grace Kim, and myself just out today in @aeraedresearch.bsky.social 🧵 doi.org/10.3102/0002...
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Delighted to share our revised paper (w/ @juliaturner.bsky.social & @jacobbastian.bsky.social ) showing that Universal Pre-K has broad effects on local labor markets — effects well beyond only mothers. Larger effects for full-day programs. nber.org/papers/w33767 #EconSky #EarlyChildhood #ECE
Really interesting paper on the impacts of special education services on student achievement. Huge effects! There is a lot to dig into here. Check out the thread and give the paper a read!
Joshua Goodman@joshua-goodman.com · 5mo ago🚨New working paper alert! 🚨 The US spends huge $ on special education services for students with disabilities. Is that spending effective? Today we released a working paper suggesting it is. "Special Education Substantially Improves Learning: Evidence from Three States" Let me explain...
New paper: Morocco's Pioneer Middle Schools—a government-led whole-school reform—improved socioemotional skills, tripled year-on-year learning, reduced dropout ~1/3. "Beyond Basics" w/ Campos Quintero, El Amrani Mida, Glewwe, Kumar, and Lépine de-barros.com/publication/... @cega-uc.bsky.social
IncreasED: How Court Rulings Impact Special Education Identification journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3...
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Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
The “big beautiful bill” greatly expanded SNAP work requirements for parents In my paper with @jasonbcook.bsky.social, forthcoming at JPUBE, we ask what similar, existing requirements do SNAP work requirements for parents deny vulnerable parents SNAP benefits and do not increase their employment
POSTDOC OPENING! We are hiring a Postdoctoral Fellow for a mixed-methods project aimed at supporting and researching implementation of high-quality preschool curricula. The position is 1-2 years and can be in person or remote. More details here: edpolicy.umich.edu/what-we-do/j...
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SPARC Center experts are presenting at #AEFP2026 this week! Sessions are in the thread below, with 💥indicating sessions related to #SpecialEducation:`
New paper on skill formation, with evidence from Zambia's foundational skills program (Teaching at the Right Level / Catch Up) Targeting Foundational Skills at Scale: Skill Specificity and Transfer w/ T. Lubozha Preprint & brief de-barros.com/publication/... Also @cesifo.org @cega-uc.bsky.social
@mattbarnum.bsky.social of @chalkbeat.org highlights our research about the relationship between students’ gifted and special education identification and family income. Higher income -> gifted education Lower income -> special education There’s a lot to ponder about why this happens.
Matt Barnum@mattbarnum.bsky.social · 5mo agoYep these numbers are incredibly striking. Full newsletter is here with additional tidbits on AI-cheating, state funding effort, and "zero-percent proficient" schools. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/chalkbeat-...
Glad to see our work about special ed and gifted identification across the income distribution appear in this week's @chalkbeat.org
Chalkbeat@chalkbeat.org · 5mo agoPlus quick hits on AI cheating, strikes, gifted ID, and time in class in this Chalkbeat Ideas roundup.
Yep these numbers are incredibly striking. Full newsletter is here with additional tidbits on AI-cheating, state funding effort, and "zero-percent proficient" schools. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/chalkbeat-...
States made less of an effort to fund schools after federal COVID dollars surged — coincidence or crowd-out?
Plus quick hits on AI cheating, strikes, gifted ID, and time in class in this Chalkbeat Ideas roundup.
cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org
Betsy Wolf@betsyjwolf.bsky.social · 5mo agoA stunning (yet unsurprising) graph of who gets identified for special versus gifted education in Oregon. Graph reported by @mattbarnum.bsky.social.
