Serving Diverse Student Populations

Refugee Students and Peer Effects

Georgia ranks among the top ten refugee resettlement states in the country. Even with important new contributions in what we know about refugee resettlement, there remain important knowledge gaps on the impact of resettlement on host communities, including the education sector. We leverage changes in the share of grade-level refugee students with schools in the district with the highest inflow of refugees to study whether there are any spillovers from attending school with refugee children.

ESL Delivery Methods

An important policy tool in the education of English Learners (ELs) is the classification of students into language services and the type of delivery methods provided to students with low English proficiency. In this study, we investigate the impact of EL classification and reclassification with emphasis on students with very low English proficiency. In addition, we estimate the effect of participating on a temporary intensive English program on the academic achievement of ELs and length to reclassification.

Dual Language Immersion Programs

This study is the first to evaluate the efficacy of Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs in Georgia, a state that rapidly expanded DLI programs from 2 schools in 2011 to over 60 in 2019. We utilize DLI enrollment lottery data from DLI programs across all MAPLE district partners to estimate the causal effect of attending a DLI program on student test scores, attendance, and behavior.