Speaker

Meghan Oster, PhD Candidate in Education, University of Michigan

Date & time

Apr 26, 2017, 8:30-10:00 am EDT

Location

Open to PhD students and faculty engaged in causal inference in education research.

About CIERS:

The objective of the Causal Inference in Education Research Seminar (CIERS) is to engage students and faculty from across the university in conversations around education research using various research methodologies. This seminar provides a space for doctoral students and faculty from the School of Education, Ford School of Public Policy, and the Departments of Economics, Sociology, Statistics, and Political Science to discuss current research and receive feedback on works-in-progress. Discourse between these schools and departments creates a more complete community of education scholars, and provides a networking opportunity for students enrolled in a variety of academic programs who share common research interests. Open to PhD students and faculty engaged in causal inference in education research.

Abstract:

Performance-based funding policies allocate state appropriations according to specific formulas that include student success outcomes. More than half the states across the country have implemented performance-based funding policies to increase higher education accountability and transparency. In this work in progress, I describe the history of performance-based funding, provide current examples of policies throughout the country, and summarize the current research on performance-based funding. Then, I explain some of the limitations of the prior research. To address some of the concerns of past research, I focus on community colleges in the state of Ohio to explore the effect of performance-based funding at the institution level. In the aggregate, I find that performance-based funding in Ohio may not be effective at increasing associate’s degrees. Preliminary results also suggest that the effect of performance-based funding may not vary by institutional characteristics.