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Josh Goodman

@joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social

1353 followers 219 following 309 posts

Education economist @ BU Wheelock & Economics Dept | www.joshua-goodman.com | Co-editor @ JHR | White House CEA alum (2022-23)

Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Definitely glad that we got it over the finish line!

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Yes! See link in final post in the thread.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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The full paper is available here:

edworkingpapers.com/ai21-367

Thanks to my coauthors Edward Kim and Martin West for getting this over the finish line, as well as to the editors of EFP for being flexible in their deadlines.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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The rapid rise in high-income families’ demand for this form of private educational investment mimics phenomena observed in other spheres of education and family life, with potentially important implications for inequality in student outcomes.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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The strongest predictors of the density of tutoring centers are: family income, parental education, and proportion of families who identify as Asian American. Tutoring centers are heavily concentrated in school districts in the top 15-20% of those characteristics.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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After-school tutoring centers are most prevalent on the coasts, but every state has at least some.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Large chains are a big part of the story. In 2022, the top 10 chains had 4,100+ locations, or 43% of the market. Kumon had nearly 1,900 sites. Mathnasium and Sylvan each had just over 600. Even so, 57% of sites were either single location firms or smaller tutoring chains.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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We use nationwide, finely geocoded, annual data on every after-school tutoring center in the US from 1997-2022 to describe demand for this form of education. The most striking fact is that the number of after-school tutoring centers has tripled over the past quarter century.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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I'm interested in the ways that families use private resources to supplement or substitute for public schooling. So I'm thrilled that our (cleverly titled?) paper "Kumon In: The Recent, Rapid Rise of Private Tutoring Centers" has been conditionally accepted by Education Finance and Policy. .

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Reposted by Josh Goodman

Mingyan Ma's avatar Mingyan Ma @mingyanma.bsky.social
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Had an incredible time presenting my research with Dr. Marcus Winters on the effects of English learner reclassification at my first European conference IWAEE in late June! It was lovely catching up with old friend and mentors, and making new connections.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Proof that global warming is real: Our paper on "Heat and Learning" is rapidly overtaking my "Snow Days" paper in citation count.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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I was lucky to have very organized co-economists who put this swag together.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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There's no better way to spend Father's Day than camping with my kids while reminding them I coauthored something President Biden predicted would "help me sleep more soundly tonight."

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Reskeet with how old you are, using a vague proxy: The first computer games I played were on floppy disks that were actually floppy.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Yup, if the author had simply decline to review, that'd be another matter. But to repeatedly accept the review request and then fail to return a report is pretty egregious behavior.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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What's uncomfortable is my sense that taking this action myself seems a but unilateral and journal-specific. If we had a centralized mechanism to observe the peer review contributions of authors, there could be a more sensible system for creating the right incentives.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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I lean that way too but am asking my editor-in-chief for guidance (don't want to unilaterally decide without understanding whether there's a broader policy).

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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On the one hand, it's irrelevant to the quality of the author's own work. On the other hand, it's one of the few (only?) opportunities I have to enforce social norms that keep the peer review process vaguely functional.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Was just asked to handle an academic article submitted by an author who has repeatedly agreed to review other articles for this journal but has never actually submitted a review. Should that factor into my decision about how to handle the article?

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Not today, spammer trying to fake working for BU HR while writing from a U Maryland e-mail address.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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I was! But boy are some of the scientists around doing amazing work.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Have I helped create a new vaccine? No. But have I helped create a new vaccine delivery system? Also no. Have I successfully reshaped data on the first try and remembered to cluster my standard errors at the appropriate level? No and no.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Just did a STEM panel at my kids' elementary school in university/tech/biotech-centric Cambridge, which means that: 1) I was the 4th most interesting speaker out of 4. 2) I am again questioning whether economics is a science.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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In the short-run, I need to monitor work-related conversations on e-mail, Slack, Twitter/X, BlueSky and LinkedIn. In the long-run, this will mean I have no work product about which to converse.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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How else are they going to pay for those nice outfits? (Naked mole rats don't wear clothing, hence the name.)

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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University just sent an email titled "Lab Animal Per Diem Rate Changes" and I'm just now learning that naked mole rats are the high earners on campus.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Both of those make sense (even if they turn out not to!). Thanks for explaining that.

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Reposted by Josh Goodman

Kit Deming 's avatar Kit Deming @kitdeming.bsky.social
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The more recent rationale is that it is a teacher retention mechanism. Teachers get the same pay as if they were working all 5 days so it's a way to give them a "raise" without giving them a raise.

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Reposted by Josh Goodman

Kit Deming 's avatar Kit Deming @kitdeming.bsky.social
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There have been a couple of common rationales for going to a 4 day school week. When the first wave of schools shifted it was in order to save costs: less heating/cooling, less bussing etc. but it turns out it doesn't actually save money.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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I, along with Edward Kim and Martin West, have written about the rise of private tutoring centers that also serve to meet demand for advanced learners (as well as students who need more support).

An updated draft of this paper will be available soon!

edworkingpapers.com/ai21-367

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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For those who might think these are relatively small effects, I disagree. Eliminating 20% of instructional time produces learning by about 20% what you'd expect to see in a year. That's a lot!

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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This is a good way to refute the views of those who think schools are completely ineffective at teaching literacy and numeracy. On average, time in school helps build those skills!

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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I almost started this post with "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes" but decided I don't know enough about the constraints facing the districts that shifted to four-day school weeks.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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That's rough. But glad they're physically safe now.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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Really appreciate the McDonald's employee who apologized for running out of spoons and then handed me a fork and knife with which to eat my McFlurry.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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So sorry to hear this, Filipe. Hope all those you love are OK.

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Josh Goodman's avatar Josh Goodman @joshgoodmanbu.bsky.social
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It's that time of year when professors read lots of great student evaluations and then the occasional one that really stings and distracts from the whole endeavor.

Here's my advice for getting only the constructive stuff out of such evaluations:

www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

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