Education Policy

My policy research uses quasi-experimental methods and large-scale administrative data to evaluate whether federal and state education programs achieve their intended effects, with a particular focus on rural schools and the funding mechanisms that serve them. Much of this work centers on the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP), the federal government's primary vehicle for supporting small and rural districts. In related studies, I examine whether the Rural and Low-Income School grant improves student achievement and narrows achievement gaps (Lee & Curs, in press) and map how locale, race, and achievement intersect across the landscape of rural schools (Lee, in press). A second strand connects rural policy to the educator workforce, analyzing what vacancy and application data reveal about the rural teacher labor market (Lee & Yang, 2025) and how the timing of teacher hiring shapes staffing outcomes (Lee, 2022).

A growing focus of my current work is the four-day school week, an increasingly common scheduling policy in rural districts that remains under-examined despite its rapid spread. Drawing on administrative data, this research investigates how the four-day week affects teacher recruitment and retention (Camp, Anglum, Lee, Koedel, & Nguyen, in press), a critical question as districts weigh the tradeoffs of a policy adopted largely on the promise of cost savings and staffing benefits. Across these projects, my aim is to generate causal evidence that can help policymakers and educational leaders understand when—and whether—rural education programs deliver on their goals.

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