RESEARCH
My work is at the intersection of education policy, sociology of education, and economics of education. I examine a constellation of topics centered on educational inequality and policy typically focused on students in K-12 schools. I am particularly interested in examining the intended and unintended consequences of policies and interventions, as well as courses, policies, and curricula that seek to meet the needs of historically marginalized and minoritized youth. I also examine questions about how school staff—their beliefs and actions and the challenges schools face in recruiting and supporting them—impact opportunities for students.
LINKS TO SELECTED PAPERS
Ethnic Studies and Culturally Relevant Courses
- Dee, Thomas S. and Emily K. Penner. “My Brother’s Keeper? The Dropout Effects of Targeted Educational Supports.” NBER Working Paper No. 26386.
- Dee, Thomas S. and Emily K. Penner. 2017. “The Causal Effects of Cultural Relevance: Evidence from an Ethnic Studies Curriculum.” American Educational Research Journal, 54(1): 127-166.
DOI: 10.3102/0002831216677002.
NBER Working Paper No. 21865.
Teachers
- Bitler, Marianne P., Sean P. Corcoran, Thurston Domina, and Emily K. Penner. Forthcoming. “Teacher Value-Added and Noise: An Analysis of Teacher Effects on Achievement and Anthropometrics.” Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
NBER Working Paper No. 26480. - Penner, Emily K. 2019. “Teach for America and Teacher Quality: Increasing Achievement over Time.” Educational Policy, 1-38.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819843595. - Penner, Emily K. 2016 “Teaching For All? Teach For America’s Effects on the Distribution of Student Achievement.”
Parents
- Reich, Stephanie M., Emily K. Penner., Greg J. Duncan, and Anamarie Auger. 2012. “Using Baby Books to Change New Mothers’ Attitudes about Corporal Punishment.” Child Abuse & Neglect, 36(2): 108-117.
- Reich, Stephanie M., Emily K. Penner, and Greg J. Duncan. 2011. “Using Baby Books to Increase New Mothers’ Safety Practices.” Academic Pediatrics, 11(1): 34-43.
- Auger, Ana, Stephanie M. Reich, and Emily K. Penner. “The Effect of Baby Books on Mothers’ Reading Beliefs and Reading Practices.”
- Penner, Emily K. “Parenting and the Reduction of Inequality: How the Impact of Early Parenting on Achievement Varies across Class and with Development.”
Districts and Schools
- Dizon-Ross, Elise, Susanna Loeb, Emily K. Penner, and Jane Rochmes. 2019. “Stress in Boom Times: Understanding Teachers’ Economic Anxiety in a High-Cost Urban District.” AERA Open.
- Domina, Thurston, Nikolas Pharris-Ciurej, Andrew Penner, Emily K. Penner, Quentin Brummet, Sonya Porter, Tanya Sanabria. 2018. “Is free and reduced-price lunch a valid measure of educational disadvantage?” Educational Researcher, 47 (9): 539–555.
DOI: 10.3102/0013189X18797609 - Domina, Thurston, Andrew M. Penner, and Emily K. Penner. 2017. “Categorical inequality: Schools as sorting machines.” Annual Review of Sociology, 43: 311-330.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053354. - Sun, Min, Emily K. Penner, and Susanna Loeb. 2017. “Resource- and Approach-Driven Multi-Dimensional Change: Three-Year Effects of School Improvement Grants.” American Educational Research Journal, 54(4): 607-643. DOI: 10.3102/0002831217695790.Media coverage: Brookings Econ.
- Bitler, Marianne P., Thurston Domina, Hillary Hoynes, and Emily K. Penner. “Distributional Effects of a School Voucher Program: Evidence from New York City.”
- Domina, Thurston, Andrew M. Penner, Emily K. Penner, and AnneMarie Conley. “Algebra for All: California’s 8th grade Algebra Initiative as Constrained Curricula.”