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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

New pub in EFP! Using NLSY + ONET, we compare mid-career job characteristics of 2-year vs 4-year college starters, examining not only their wages but also their job's sector, skill, & ed requirements, deepening insight into how college level shapes job & life course pathways. doi.org/10.1162/EDFP...

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Back from AEFP and looking for some more new research to dig into? Check out my latest study (led by @kevincbastian.bsky.social) examining factors that predict whether student teaching placements occur with highly effective teachers! Open-access at JTE: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Title: Access and relationships: Investigating what predicts student teaching with a highly effective teacher.

Abstract: We link student teaching placement and K-12 administrative data from North Carolina to better understand the contexts in which educator preparation programs (EPPs) and K-12 districts make placements and the factors that predict whether EPPs and districts make placements with a highly effective teacher. Our work builds on two key findings from prior literature—cooperating teachers (CTs) are critically important to the development of preservice teachers (PSTs) and information asymmetries between EPPs and districts complicate the placement process. We find that there is significant variation across EPPs in their access to highly effective teachers and that there are opportunities to place many more PSTs with a highly effective teacher. Multiple measures of prior relationships, such as the EPP having recently placed with the CT and the CT being an alumnus of the EPP, predict the likelihood of EPPs and districts placing with a highly effective teacher.

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Excited to share a new research brief on absenteeism in NC through 2024-25! This mixed methods work shows that absence rates did not change much between '23-24 and '24-25, and describes key possible reasons why based on interviews with educators, parents, and students. epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Happy to share a new brief from our study of the WorkKeys in NC looking at exam participation & performance! A key takeaway: Students' WK & ACT scores are highly correlated, raising Qs about the extent to which these tests provide different info about students' skills. epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Recently I shared a new pub from me & colleagues on student absenteeism. To accompany this, we've also produced a one-pager to share key takeaways in brief! Article: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... One-pager: epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u... @sarahcfuller.bsky.social @kevincbastian.bsky.social

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

In addition, we found that the relationship between absenteeism and achievement weakened immediately post-pandemic, but only temporarily. Each absence typically lowers student achievement by ~0.0055 SDs. In 2022-23 this number was only 0.0032 SDs. But in 2023-24 it jumped back to 0.0057.

Figure 4: Coefficient plot of first-differences estimates of effect of absenteeism on achievement. The chart depicts the point estimates and 95% confidence intervals of the estimated effect of days absent on achievement in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2022-23, and 2023-24. The chart highlights that the three pre-pandemic estimates are all about 0.0055 SDs. In 2022-23, the estimate is only 0.0032 SDs. In 2023-24, the estimate is 0.0057 SDs. The confidence intervals for 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2023-24 all overlap with each other. The confidence interval for 2022-23 does not overlap with any other estimate.

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

My study on ACT/SAT test requirements has been issued at EEPA! Using time-varying DID, I found that requiring 11th graders to take the ACT or SAT had small to null effects on postsec outcomes, with some variation btw effects on students vs states' institutions. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3...

Picture of abstract, which reads: "Twenty-nine states require or allow all 11th graders to take the ACT or SAT in school, for free, eliminating access to testing as a barrier to college entry. I examine whether this affects postsecondary outcomes using state-aggregated panel data and time-varying difference-in-differences methods. I find policy adoption led to 2% increases in selective 4-year enrollments by students from treated states. However, adoption had no effect on enrollments within adopting states' selective institutions, in part because institutions enrolled fewer students from out-of-state after adoption. I also find null but directionally negative effects on the number of graduates from state institutions. Therefore, impacts are small but positive for students from adopting states, but null or negative for adopting states' institutions."

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

New pub (open-access)! School absence rates have been above pre-pandemic levels for multiple years. We show how this is adding up for students over time, revealing that some students are experiencing especially deep and persistent levels of absenteeism. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/...

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Tom Swiderski @tswid.bsky.social · 08/11/2023

I'm in ATL for APPAM! Friday at 10:15, I'll be presenting on this paper that started as a dissertation chapter and has since been published at Ed Finance & Policy! "The effect of Early College High Schools on STEM Bachelor's degree attainment: Evidence from North Carolina" doi.org/10.1162/edfp...

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