Batten Faculty Dominate the University's New Public Service Awards Program Apr 25, 2019 Batten Faculty Dominate the University's New Public Service Awards Program Benjamin Castleman Ben Castleman is an Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Read full bio Brian N. Williams I am an Associate Professor of Public Policy in the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, after previous faculty appointments at Florida State University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Georgia (UGA), as well as administrative appointments at UGA and Vanderbilt. My research centers on issues related to demographic diversity, local law enforcement, and public governance, with special attention devoted to the co-production of public safety and public order. Read full bio Daphna Bassok Daphna Bassok is an Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia and is also the Associate Director of EdPolicyWorks a joint collaboration between the Curry School of Education and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Read full bio David Leblang David Leblang is the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia as well as a Professor of Public Policy at the University’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Read full bio James H. Wyckoff Jim Wyckoff is the Curry Memorial Professor of Education and Policy, and Director of the Center for Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness at the University of Virginia. He has published widely on issues of teacher labor markets, teacher preparation, recruitment, assessment and retention. In this work he has collaborated with policymakers in New York City, New York State and most recently the District of Columbia. Read full bio Related Content Benjamin Castleman Stacking the Deck for Employment Success: Labor Market Returns to Stackable Credentials Research With rapid technological transformations to the labor market along with COVID-19 related economic disruptions, many working adults return to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Using a comparative individual fixed effects strategy and an administrative panel dataset of enrollment and employment in Virginia, we provide the first causal estimates of credential “stacking” among working adults. Pushing College Advising Forward: Experimental Evidence on Intensive Advising and College Success Research Growing experimental evidence demonstrates that low-touch informational, nudge, and virtual advising interventions are ineffective at improving postsecondary educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged students at scale. Intensive in-person college advising programs are a considerably higher-touch and more resource intensive strategy; some programs provide students with dozen of hours of individualized assistance starting in high school and continuing through college, and can cost thousands of dollars per student served. Castleman and Colleague Shed Light on Rewards of 'Credential Stacking' News The impact of “credential stacking” among community college students had long been of interest to Batten’s Ben Castleman and his colleague Katharine Meyer, but they became even more curious about it during the pandemic. UVA Researchers Offer Data on One of Higher Education’s Most Dramatic Shifts News In a new study, Batten’s Ben Castleman, along with his collaborators Gaby Lohner and Kelli Bird from the UVA School of Education and Human Development, investigated how the shift to online learning during COVID-19 has affected student success. Brian N. Williams Corrective Action as Collective Action News On UVA’s Lifetime Learning podcast, Batten professor Brian Williams argues that we should let diverse groups drive police reform. Batten Students Examine the Relationship between Police and Community News Through the Central Virginia Listening & Learning Exchange, Batten professor Brian Williams and his students are examining the problems of police and community relations and what can be done to resolve them. Daphna Bassok Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions at Scale: The Implications of Using Local Practitioners to Conduct Classroom Observations Research Are Parents’ Ratings and Satisfaction with Preschools related to Program Features? Research This study examines whether parents’ overall satisfaction with their child’s early childhood education (ECE) program is correlated with a broad set of program characteristics, including (a) observational assessments of teacher-child interactions; (b) structural features of the program, such as teacher education and class size; (c) practical and convenience factors (e.g., hours, cost); and (d) a measure of average classroom learning gains. It then describes associations between parents’ evaluation of specific program characteristics and externally collected measures of those features. UVA Honors Its Leading Researchers at Boar's Head Banquet News The inaugural Research Achievement Awards featured University leaders handing out 13 honors to UVA’s most outstanding researchers, including Batten's Daphna Bassok and Brian Williams. With a Kindergarten Teacher’s Perspective, Professor Pushes Early Childhood Education News Daphna Bassok first became acutely aware of the importance of early childhood education when she taught in a kindergarten classroom. The difference in readiness between the children who came into her classroom with preschool experience and those without was striking, she said. David Leblang Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in complex humanitarian crises Research Over 168 million people across 50 countries are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2020. Response to epidemics in complex humanitarian crises— such as the recent cholera epidemic in Yemen and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo— is a global health challenge of increasing scale. The thousands of Yemeni and Congolese who have died in these years-long epidemics demonstrate the difficulty of combatting even well-known pathogens in humanitarian settings. The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may represent a still greater threat to those in complex humanitarian crises, which lack the infrastructure, support, and health systems to mount a comprehensive response. Familiarity Breeds Investment: Diaspora Networks and International Investment Research What explains cross-national patterns of international portfolio and foreign direct investment (FDI)? While existing explanations focus on the credibility of a policy maker’s commitment, we emphasize the role of diaspora networks. The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Refugee Policy News In honor of Global Week at UVA, Batten professor and policy expert David Leblang and Anne Richard, who served as assistant secretary of state for population, migration, and refugees under President Obama, discussed the dramatic shift in our country's stance on people seeking asylum in the U.S. Leblang's "Pandemics Beyond the Headlines" Among Signature J-Term Courses News This year, UVA's J-Term offerings feature interdisciplinary courses addressing some of today’s most urgent issues and team-taught by great professors across Grounds, including Batten's David Leblang. James H. Wyckoff Teacher Turnover, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement in DCPS Research In practice, teacher turnover appears to have negative effects on school quality as measured by student performance. However, some simulations suggest that turnover can instead have large positive effects under a policy regime in which low-performing teachers can be accurately identified and replaced with more effective teachers. Teacher Layoffs: An Empirical Illustration of Seniority v. Measures of Effectiveness Research School districts are confronting difficult choices in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Today, the financial imbalance in many school districts is so large that there may be few alternatives to teacher layoffs. Study: DC Public School’s Teacher Evaluation System Continues to Improve Teacher Workforce News As IMPACT enters its second decade, two new studies from team including Batten's Jim Wyckoff provide evidence that the initiative continues to support meaningful improvement in the effectiveness of DCPS teachers.
Benjamin Castleman Ben Castleman is an Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Read full bio
Brian N. Williams I am an Associate Professor of Public Policy in the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, after previous faculty appointments at Florida State University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Georgia (UGA), as well as administrative appointments at UGA and Vanderbilt. My research centers on issues related to demographic diversity, local law enforcement, and public governance, with special attention devoted to the co-production of public safety and public order. Read full bio
Daphna Bassok Daphna Bassok is an Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia and is also the Associate Director of EdPolicyWorks a joint collaboration between the Curry School of Education and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Read full bio
David Leblang David Leblang is the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia as well as a Professor of Public Policy at the University’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Read full bio
James H. Wyckoff Jim Wyckoff is the Curry Memorial Professor of Education and Policy, and Director of the Center for Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness at the University of Virginia. He has published widely on issues of teacher labor markets, teacher preparation, recruitment, assessment and retention. In this work he has collaborated with policymakers in New York City, New York State and most recently the District of Columbia. Read full bio
Stacking the Deck for Employment Success: Labor Market Returns to Stackable Credentials Research With rapid technological transformations to the labor market along with COVID-19 related economic disruptions, many working adults return to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Using a comparative individual fixed effects strategy and an administrative panel dataset of enrollment and employment in Virginia, we provide the first causal estimates of credential “stacking” among working adults.
Pushing College Advising Forward: Experimental Evidence on Intensive Advising and College Success Research Growing experimental evidence demonstrates that low-touch informational, nudge, and virtual advising interventions are ineffective at improving postsecondary educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged students at scale. Intensive in-person college advising programs are a considerably higher-touch and more resource intensive strategy; some programs provide students with dozen of hours of individualized assistance starting in high school and continuing through college, and can cost thousands of dollars per student served.
Castleman and Colleague Shed Light on Rewards of 'Credential Stacking' News The impact of “credential stacking” among community college students had long been of interest to Batten’s Ben Castleman and his colleague Katharine Meyer, but they became even more curious about it during the pandemic.
UVA Researchers Offer Data on One of Higher Education’s Most Dramatic Shifts News In a new study, Batten’s Ben Castleman, along with his collaborators Gaby Lohner and Kelli Bird from the UVA School of Education and Human Development, investigated how the shift to online learning during COVID-19 has affected student success.
Corrective Action as Collective Action News On UVA’s Lifetime Learning podcast, Batten professor Brian Williams argues that we should let diverse groups drive police reform.
Batten Students Examine the Relationship between Police and Community News Through the Central Virginia Listening & Learning Exchange, Batten professor Brian Williams and his students are examining the problems of police and community relations and what can be done to resolve them.
Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions at Scale: The Implications of Using Local Practitioners to Conduct Classroom Observations Research
Are Parents’ Ratings and Satisfaction with Preschools related to Program Features? Research This study examines whether parents’ overall satisfaction with their child’s early childhood education (ECE) program is correlated with a broad set of program characteristics, including (a) observational assessments of teacher-child interactions; (b) structural features of the program, such as teacher education and class size; (c) practical and convenience factors (e.g., hours, cost); and (d) a measure of average classroom learning gains. It then describes associations between parents’ evaluation of specific program characteristics and externally collected measures of those features.
UVA Honors Its Leading Researchers at Boar's Head Banquet News The inaugural Research Achievement Awards featured University leaders handing out 13 honors to UVA’s most outstanding researchers, including Batten's Daphna Bassok and Brian Williams.
With a Kindergarten Teacher’s Perspective, Professor Pushes Early Childhood Education News Daphna Bassok first became acutely aware of the importance of early childhood education when she taught in a kindergarten classroom. The difference in readiness between the children who came into her classroom with preschool experience and those without was striking, she said.
Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in complex humanitarian crises Research Over 168 million people across 50 countries are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2020. Response to epidemics in complex humanitarian crises— such as the recent cholera epidemic in Yemen and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo— is a global health challenge of increasing scale. The thousands of Yemeni and Congolese who have died in these years-long epidemics demonstrate the difficulty of combatting even well-known pathogens in humanitarian settings. The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may represent a still greater threat to those in complex humanitarian crises, which lack the infrastructure, support, and health systems to mount a comprehensive response.
Familiarity Breeds Investment: Diaspora Networks and International Investment Research What explains cross-national patterns of international portfolio and foreign direct investment (FDI)? While existing explanations focus on the credibility of a policy maker’s commitment, we emphasize the role of diaspora networks.
The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Refugee Policy News In honor of Global Week at UVA, Batten professor and policy expert David Leblang and Anne Richard, who served as assistant secretary of state for population, migration, and refugees under President Obama, discussed the dramatic shift in our country's stance on people seeking asylum in the U.S.
Leblang's "Pandemics Beyond the Headlines" Among Signature J-Term Courses News This year, UVA's J-Term offerings feature interdisciplinary courses addressing some of today’s most urgent issues and team-taught by great professors across Grounds, including Batten's David Leblang.
Teacher Turnover, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement in DCPS Research In practice, teacher turnover appears to have negative effects on school quality as measured by student performance. However, some simulations suggest that turnover can instead have large positive effects under a policy regime in which low-performing teachers can be accurately identified and replaced with more effective teachers.
Teacher Layoffs: An Empirical Illustration of Seniority v. Measures of Effectiveness Research School districts are confronting difficult choices in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Today, the financial imbalance in many school districts is so large that there may be few alternatives to teacher layoffs.
Study: DC Public School’s Teacher Evaluation System Continues to Improve Teacher Workforce News As IMPACT enters its second decade, two new studies from team including Batten's Jim Wyckoff provide evidence that the initiative continues to support meaningful improvement in the effectiveness of DCPS teachers.