Isaac McFarlin Jr.

U.S. school districts invest billions of dollars to upgrade school facilities on the assumption that this will improve student outcomes. Empirical evidence about the allocation of facilities spending and its effect on student performance is necessary to enable financially constrained school districts to judiciously invest their resources. The purpose of this project is to inform policies regarding capital investments in school facilities. Researchers will examine the following questions: (1)...

Governments spend a great deal of money on across-the-board subsidies to promote college access. Despite the expensive nature of this intervention, little is known about its impact on academic outcomes and labor market success. This project is the first comprehensive study of a state system of community college taxing districts (i.e., districts that have a property tax designed to help fund community college education) on individual economic and societal well-being. It is designed to answer...

Given the large benefits of college education and in particular of attending a selective college, the question of who has access to elite universities is a central issue in American higher education. This study will examine two questions related to the effect of access to selective colleges. The first is whether automatic admissions to selective colleges granted under "percent plans," which stipulate that students graduating in a certain top percentage of their high school class are automa...

Nearly one-third of college freshmen enroll in remedial courses because they are not prepared to handle college course work. Each year public postsecondary institutions spend over $1 billion on remedial education. To date, very little rigorous research has been conducted to determine if taking remedial courses improves subsequent student outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of remediation course work on academic outcomes (e.g., persistence, course completion, time...