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Benjamin Castleman

Benjamin Castleman

Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy
Education & Training
Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2013
A.B. Honors, Environmental Studies, Brown University, 2000
Courses taught
Education Policy
Areas of focus
Education
UVA partners
EdPolicyWorks: Center for Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness
Curry School of Education

Ben Castleman is an Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Ben’s research focuses on policies to improve college access and success for low-income students. Several of his papers examine innovative strategies to deliver high-quality information about the college-going process to low-income students and their families, and to ease the process of students and families getting professional support when they need assistance. He has conducted several randomized trials to investigate how the offer of additional support during the summer after high school impacts the rate and quality of low-income students’ college enrollment. In addition, Ben uses quasi-experimental methods to study the impact of state and federal need-based grant programs on students’ long-term collegiate outcomes. His research has been featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, as well as in Time Magazine, USA Today, and the Huffington Post.

Related Content

Batten Expert Chats: “How Has Online Learning During COVID-19 Impacted Academic Performance?” with Ben Castleman

Event

In one of the most abrupt upheavals in the history of American education, schools across the country have responded to COVID-19 by shifting to online instruction. How has this affected the millions of students now taking classes virtually? Batten professor Ben Castleman, along with his collaborators Gaby Lohner and Kelli Bird from the UVA School of Education and Human Development, will take on this question in the latest edition of Batten Expert Chats.

Negative Impacts From the Shift to Online Learning During the COVID-19 Crisis: Evidence from a Statewide Community College System

Research

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an abrupt shift from in-person to virtual instruction in Spring 2020. Using a difference-in-differences framework that leverages within-course variation on whether students started their Spring 2020 courses in person or online, we estimate the impact of this shift on the academic performance of Virginia’s community college students. We find that the shift to virtual instruction resulted in a 6.7 percentage point decrease in course completion, driven by increases in both course withdrawal and failure. Faculty experience teaching a course online did not mitigate the negative effects of moving to virtual instruction.

Expert Chat: Using Data Science to Address Critical COVID-19 Workforce Needs in Virginia with Ben Castleman and Brian Kim

Event

As cases of COVID-19 continue to spread across Virginia, the need to connect workers to the commonwealth’s critical labor market needs is rising. To help address the problem, Ben Castleman and Brian Kim have created a workforce recruiting dashboard in partnership with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) to identify recent VCCS graduates who have the credentials and skill to fill health care labor needs.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? Investigating Rates and Patterns of Financial Aid Renewal Among College Freshmen

Research

College affordability continues to be a top concern among prospective students, their families, and policy makers. Prior work has demonstrated that a significant share of prospective students forgo financial aid because they did not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA); recent federal policy efforts have focused on supporting students and their families to successfully file the FAFSA. 
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