Faculty and Research Center Projects
and Initiatives
Both domestically and globally, research by Wagner faculty examines issues of public importance with an eye to making a difference.
- Financial Access Initiative
Jonathan Morduch (NYU)
Dean Karlan (Yale)
Sendhil Mullainathan, (Harvard)
Christina Barrineau, Managing Director (NYU)
Financial Access Initiative
The Financial Access Initiative (FAI) is a consortium of researchers at NYU, Yale, Harvard and IPA focused on finding answers to how financial sectors can better meet the needs of poor households.
Financial access holds the promise to help low-income individuals in developing countries manage their economic lives and build wealth. The Initiative aims to provide rigorous research on the impacts of financial access and on innovative ways to improve access.
- The IRB Initiative
Jan Blustein, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Associate Professor of Medicine
The IRB Initiative
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) system, and the accompanying regulatory framework, were designed with biomedical research as the model. Yet IRB review also applies to work in social science. There is a sense in the social science world that the framework (as currently applied) does not necessarily achieve the goals of protecting human subjects or ensuring ethical conduct. Moreover, many believe that the system impedes important work. The IRB Initiative website provides an introduction to the ongoing national debate on these issues. As an online resource for faculty and students at schools of policy and management, the initiative's aim is to educate and to foster dialogue on research and professional ethics. Top
- The Organizational Performance Initiative
Paul Light, Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service
The Organizational Performance Initiative
The Organizational Performance Initiative is designed to help organizations respond to the increased uncertainty that surrounds their missions. The Initiative focuses on helping all organizations in all sectors of the economy, government, charitable, and business. It also focuses on helping learning institutions such as colleges and universities, standard-setting agencies, Congress, and the presidency improve their policies on behalf of greater preparedness for the many futures ahead.
- Good Schools, Good Students? Measuring School Performance with Diverse Students
Amy Ellen Schwartz, Professor of Public Policy
Leanna Stiefel, Professor of Economics
Taub Urban Research Center
While measures of school performance are increasingly being used to guide school improvement, reward successful principals or teachers, and assist parents in choosing schools, relatively little attention has been paid to constructing and choosing appropriate performance measures. Instead, the wide variety of measures used by public school systems across the country reflects, in large part, a combination of happenstance, history and convenience. Unfortunately, there are significant differences in these measures, both practically and conceptually, and the differences are likely to be most important in schools and school systems serving diverse populations of students. The substantial and growing diversity in public school students across the U.S. generally, and in troubled urban schools specifically, makes it particularly important to identify appropriate and useful methods for measuring school performance, even when students vary considerably in their language skills, prior academic experience, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This research funded by the U.S. Department of Education uses data on public schools in New York City and Ohio in order to identify such methods, and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of these alternative methods. Top
- Public Education and New York City's Immigrant Children
Amy Ellen Schwartz, Professor of Public Policy
Leanna Stiefel, Professor of Economics
Taub Urban Research Center
In the United States, immigrants and their children are highly concentrated in large urban areas, especially in central cities. Educators in school systems in these areas are operating with inadequate information on the experiences and performance of immigrants. To address this issue, this research funded by the Spencer Foundation includes three projects integrating several dimensions of the educational experiences of immigrant students, using data from 840 elementary and middle schools in New York City. The rich data and unmatched diversity of New York’s school population provide a unique opportunity to move beyond an investigation of immigrants as a single group, and to investigate individual, peer and school-level factors that all contribute to the dynamics of isolation, exposure, resource allocation, performance, and educational experiences more generally. The first project explores the changes in school composition over time, in order to provide insight into the dynamics of school communities. The second project incorporates data on school resources (financial, teaching and organizational) to investigate how research patterns have changed over a five-year period and to investigate the factors that drive these changes. Finally, the third project focuses on understanding the academic experience of both immigrant and native-born students. Top
- Assessment of Border Crossing Needs in New York State
Allison L. C. de Cerreño, Co-Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management
Canada is the United State's strongest trading partner, exceeding trade with Mexico and with the European Union. On land, this trade flows through 22 principal border crossings between the United States and Canada, with 90% of the value and three-quarters of the tonnage and truck trips originating in or destined for locations beyond the border states. Three of the six crossings are in New York State. However, up to one-half of the trips originate in or are destined for locations beyond the border states. Thus, while they generate economic value nationally, the burdens they bring are concentrated in border state. Recognizing the significance of the border states and the need for transportation corridors throughout the country to facilitate the projected growth in trade, Congress established the Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program and the National Corridor Planning and Development Program in 1998. However, these programs have fallen short of their goals, principally as a result of under-funding and earmarking. If the current funding levels and practices of the Borders and Corridors Program continue, there is concern that freight volume at the key crossings in New York will continue to grow without the ability to effectively and efficiently service it. The goal of this study is to assess the implications for New York State and for the country if New York's border and corridor needs are unmet. Top
- The Impact of MTA Capital Spending
Allison L. C. de Cerreño, Co-Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management
In 1981, with New York's transit system in a state of near-collapse, the state legislature asked New York's transit authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), to begin regular five-year planning of its capital program. Since that time, the MTA has developed five successive plans aimed at bringing the system to a state of good repair. With the current plan coming to a close and a new plan slated for release later this year, the Rudin Center is taking a close look at the transportation and economic impacts that have occurred as a result of these five-year plans. The study reviews the rationale for the initial five-year capital program, examines the relationship between particular capital investments and subsequent performance improvements (if any), and looks at how transit investment may have impelled economic development in the New York region. Top
- Value Pricing and Changes in the Toll Schedule on Port Authority Facilities
Allison L. C. de Cerreño, Co-Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management
Part of a larger project assessing the efficacy of value pricing and changes in the toll schedule on Port Authority facilities, the Rudin Center recently completed a study documenting the decision-making process leading up to and immediately following the implementation of value pricing so as to derive lessons learned that could be utilized when implementing similar programs elsewhere. Top
- National Evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Urban Health Initiative
Beth Weitzman, Professor of Health and Public Policy
Center for Health and Public Service Research
In 1996, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched the ten-year Urban Health Initiative (UHI) with the goal of improving the health and safety of young people in economically distressed cities. After a two year planning process, five cities -- Baltimore, MD. Detroit MI, Oakland CA, Philadelphia PA and Richmond VA -- were selected to implement their plans for UHI. Although the Foundation allowed cities considerable latitude in developing their strategies, collaboration, the use of data, and changing public and private health, education and social systems guide the way in which sites are to move forward with their plans. The purpose of the national evaluation is to determine whether UHI can effect change on a range of health and safety outcomes for young people in the five cities over the course of eight years. These changes will be examined relative to trends in other distressed cities in the U.S. To assess UHI the national evaluation team uses a theory of change approach and a quasi-experimental design. Five methods of data collection are being employed. Annual visits are made to each of the UHI sites to meet with program staff and other leaders. Interviews with a group of civic leaders in each of the five UHI cities and 10 other economically distressed cities are conducted most years. Public expenditures for children and youth, including federal, state, and local dollars, are being analyzed in the UHI cities at three points over the ten program years. A national telephone household survey of adults and youth (SAY) is also being conducted three times over the ten years; the survey includes over samples in each of the five UHI cities and their suburbs and in the group of comparison cities and their suburbs. Finally, there is an analysis of trends on over 25 contextual indicators and health and safety outcomes in both the UHI and comparison cities. Beyond the evaluation of UHI, this rich blend of data also allows for the investigation of a number of pressing issues concerning the health and well-being of youth in distressed communities throughout America. Top
- A Performance-Based Evaluation of Comprehensive Communication Skills Training at Three Medical Schools
Michael Yedidia, Research Professor of Public and Health Administration
Colleen Gillespie, Research Assistant Professor of Public and Health Administration
Three medical schools (New York University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Massachusetts) committed themselves to developing and implementing major new curricula designed to improve doctor-patient communications. The heart of the evaluation, funded by the Josiah Macy Junior Foundation, consists of a controlled, performance-based assessment examining change in communication abilities among students exposed to the new curriculum as compared to students undergoing traditional training at the three institutions. Standardized patients (i.e., actors trained to portray patients) and associated scoring protocols have been employed to assess student performance on an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE), using a pre-/post-test design. The goals of the evaluation are to generate documentation of a spectrum of communications training strategies, an assessment of their effectiveness in achieving specific behavioral objectives, specification of those conditions necessary to their success, and a comprehensive set of performance measures that can be utilized to support training as well as evaluation in other settings. Top
- Optimizing Future Roles of Psychiatrists in a Changing Health Care Environment
Michael Yedidia, Research Professor of Public and Health Administration
This study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), is designed to (a) critically examine the future role of psychiatrists in public sector care, given transformations in health care delivery and (b) to assess the responsiveness of psychiatric residency training programs to such changes. Among those forces whose impact will be investigated are changes in the psychiatric knowledge base (e.g., diagnostic breakthroughs, advances in neurobiology and psychopharmacology); the proliferation of non-physician professionals licensed to provide psychotherapy; the ascendancy of managed care with its emphasis on reducing practice variation, increasing efficiency, and lowering costs; reductions in availability of funds for psychiatric training; the prevalence of severe mental illness among marginalized populations in public settings; and the emphasis on primary care providers as coordinators of health services. The study aims to generate a vision of appropriate roles of psychiatrists in this changed environment and characterize the current status of residency programs in preparing psychiatrists for these roles by surveying the directors of the nation's 180 training programs. Top
- The World Cities Project: The Impact of Longevity on Health and Quality of Life in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo
Victor G. Rodwin, Professor of Health Policy and Management
The World Cities Project (WCP) is a joint venture of the International Longevity Center (ILC-USA) with New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. WCP compares health and social services, health and the quality of life for older persons (65 years and over) in four world cities: New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. The project grew out of Professor Rodwin's R.W. Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award on "Megacities and Health." For a complete project description, see http://www.ilcusa.org/prj/research.htm. Top
- Evaluation of the Ways to Work Demonstration Project
Colleen Gillespie, Research Assistant Professor
Center for Health and Public Service Research
This project will collect, analyze and report appropriate data regarding the integration of employment services within clinical settings as part of New York Work Exchange's Ways to Work demonstration projects. A series of focus groups and interviews will be conducted with key agency staff in order to document the process of implementing the programs. A survey will be administered to clinicians in order to gauge their attitudes and abilities regarding integration. Consumers will be asked to complete questionnaires about their experiences with and satisfaction regarding integrated employment services. Administrative and other data will be collected to describe key pre- and post-integration consumer outcomes including quality of life, functioning, attitudes toward employment, and employment status. Ultimately, data will be used to suggest ways in which mental health service providers throughout the country can most effectively integrate employment services into clinical settings and to document the impact of such integration on agencies, staff, and consumers. Top
- Leadership for a Changing World: Research and Documentation Component
Sonia Ospina, Associate Professor of Public Management and Policy
Research Center for Leadership in Action
Leadership for a Changing World (LCW) seeks to recognize community leaders who through their own acumen are addressing complex social issues while making a difference in their communities. The Leadership Center works in partnership with the Ford Foundation and the Advocacy Institute to recognize, support, document and share the leadership accomplishments of the LCW award recipients. Within the LCW partnership, the Leadership Center leads the effort to create a research and documentation agenda to further our understanding of social change leadership and to draw lessons about leadership practice, contributing also to the program's broad goal of shifting the conversation about leadership in this country. The Leadership Center does this by developing opportunities to engage awardees in conversations and reflections to deepen our collective understanding of leadership practices and to produce new knowledge that is grounded in experience. Lead by Professor Ospina, the LCW Research & Documentation team is committed to doing research on leadership with leaders, rather than about leaders. For this reason awardees are invited to become co-researchers as they enter the program, to explore collectively how leadership happens in their communities. The inquiry is based on a multimodal qualitative research design that includes three different strategies: ethnographies, narrative inquiry and cooperative inquiry. Top
- Next Generation Leadership Alumni Network
Sonia Ospina, Associate Professor of Public Management and Policy
Research Center for Leadership in Action
The Leadership Center has been selected to house a network of the 117 alumni of the Next Generation Leadership Program, a program created by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Center works in collaboration with NGL alumni to deepen and strengthen the NGL network by providing network members with varied opportunities for engaging in co-research and reflective practice, and by organizing meetings that support alumni's common work interests or regional connections. These opportunities will include practice-grounded approaches to inquiry that have also been effective in the Leadership for a Changing World Research and Documentation Project. Through these joint activities, the network also seeks to generate new knowledge about leadership.
The Rockefeller Foundation created the Next Generation Leadership (NGL) program in 1997 out of a commitment to building a stronger, more sustainable democracy for the United States in the 21st century. NGL is based on the premise that future leadership can be identified and connected to develop solutions to the most difficult problems facing the United States and the world. The NGL alumni network is that is highly diverse and that remains committed to seeking to develop solutions to major challenges of democracy, including issues of race, changing demographics, the digital divide and massive globalization. These areas become the foundation for some of the explorations undertaken within this project. Top
- How Should We Organize Primary Schooling? Grade Span, School Size and Student Academic Performance
Amy Ellen Schwartz, Professor of Public Policy
Leanna Stiefel, Professor of Economics
Ross Rubenstein
Jeffrey Zabel
Despite the growing body of research directed to understanding and ameliorating “test score gaps” and the impetus provided by the No Child Left Behind Act, an important factor affecting children’s educational experience – school organization - has been largely overlooked in the research literature. School organization, however, should not be ignored because in large districts with many schools, the ability to consciously design how schools are organized is a “lever of change” that may be a tractable cost-effective way to increase academic achievement.
Despite the attraction of school organization as a possible instrument for increasing achievement in large districts, there is consensus that research on grade span configuration is “seriously wanting” (Howley, 2002), with a “dearth of empirical research” (Renchler, 2000), and that “researchers must continue to disentangle grade span from its corollaries” (Coladarci and Hancock, 2002). Bickel, et al, (2001) report that “grade span configuration” has been used just four times to index items in the ERIC database of educational research. Perhaps because of the thin research base, variations in school organization in practice often appear to be matters of happenstance or convenience rather than well-developed policy decisions. This proposed research will be one of the first efforts to systematically identify and measure the effects of school grade span organization on student achievement in a large urban school district. Specifically, it will seek answers to the following questions:
1. What effect does the grade span configuration of primary schools have on student achievement?
2. Do the observed effects differ depending on student characteristics, such as grade level, income, race, immigrant status, English proficiency, and eligibility for special education? How does the test score gap across students vary with school organizational factors, such as school size, or grade span, or articulation grade?
3. What related factors (for example, the particular grades served, school size and composition, timing of transitions to new schools) mediate the effects of grade span configuration?
We will exploit the natural variation found in the country’s largest school district (New York City) and take advantage of unique longitudinal student data that will allow us to examine the performance of cohorts of students through seven years of schooling and as they transition from elementary schools to middle school. Our research will focus on identifying ‘optimal’ ways to organize schools and explore differences in optimal configurations across students of different backgrounds. We will examine this in the context of a larger analysis of the determinants of the test score gaps between groups. Since an important consequence of differences in school size and grade span lies in the potential for ability grouping or segregation of students within schools, we will also examine heterogeneity across classes within schools. Our data allow us to group students by their classrooms, identifying differences in the number, size and composition of classrooms. We will develop measures to characterize the distribution of students within a school and explore the relationship between these measures and student performance. Additionally, our dataset includes detailed data on school-level resources, allowing us to explore how variations in resource levels and deployment may mitigate or exacerbate these effects.
We expect our research to be of value to educators, researchers and policymakers. While schools could not be reorganized overnight, school grade span configuration may be one of the more easily-manipulated factors affecting student achievement. Just as research on the costs and benefits of small schools has led to an increased emphasis around the country on breaking up large schools into smaller units, the results of this research could be used to systematically organize schools to best meet the needs of diverse groups of children. Moreover, our research will be among the first to measure not only whether grade span configurations affect student performance in urban settings, but for which students these effects might be strongest. Such evidence could provide important insights to educators seeking to close achievement gaps between students. In addition, the results of our research will move us closer to understanding why school organization makes a difference in student academic achievement. Top
