Amy Ellen Schwartz
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 4399245 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Amy Ellen Schwartz |
| NOMBRES | Amy Ellen |
| APELLIDO | Schwartz |
| FIRMA | SCHWARTZ A E |
| AFILIACIONES | Syracuse University |
| VERIFICADO | No |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 37 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 167 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 37 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1996 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Towering Intellects? Sizing up the relationship between height and academic success
What makes a classmate a peer? Examining which peers matter in NYC elementary schools
This paper identifies and estimates the effects of student-level social spillovers on standardized test performance in New York City (NYC) elementary schools. We leverage student demographic data to construct within-classroom social networks based on shared student characteristics, such as gender or ethnicity. Rather than aggregate shared characteristics into a single network matrix, we specify additively separate network matrices for each shared…
Are public housing projects good for kids after all
Is public housing bad for children? The net effect of moving into public housing on children's academic outcomes is theoretically ambiguous and likely to depend on changes to neighborhood and school characteristics. Drawing on detailed individual‐level longitudinal data on New York City public school students, we exploit plausibly random variation in the precise timing of entry into public housing to estimate credibly causal effects of public hou…
Riding the Yellow School Bus
While the yellow school bus is emblematic of American education, there is variation in bus service across the country. Millions of students rely on the bus, making transportation an essential part of a student’s educational experience. Thus, equity in transportation access is a key component of educational equity. Using national district-level data and New York City student-level data, we examine equity in transportation finance and bus provision…
The Link between Gentrification, Children’s Egocentric Food Environment, and Obesity
While advocates argue that gentrification changes the neighborhood food environment critical to children's diet and health, we have little evidence documenting such changes or the consequences for their health outcomes. Using rich longitudinal, individual-level data on nearly 115,000 New York City children, including egocentric measures of their food environment and BMI, we examine the link between neighborhood demographic change ("gentrification…
The effects of owner-occupied housing on student outcomes
The Relationship between School Infrastructure and School Nutrition Program Participation and Policies in New York City
School nutrition programs (SNP) provide much needed access to fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods at low or no cost. Yet, the infrastructure of school kitchens and cafeteria vary across schools, potentially contributing to systematic barriers for SNP operation and equity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between school infrastructure and outcomes including meal participation, untraditional lunch periods, and having …
Exposure to local violent crime and childhood obesity and fitness
The academic effects of chronic exposure to neighbourhood violence
This paper estimates the causal effect of repeated exposure to violent crime on test scores in New York City. We use two empirical strategies; value-added models linking student performance on standardised exams to violent crimes on students’ residential block, and a regression discontinuity approach that identifies the acute effect of additional crime exposure within a one-week window. Exposure to violent crime reduces academic performance. Valu…
Do school buses make school choice work
The Effects of Special Education on the Academic Performance of Students with Learning Disabilities
In the 40‐plus years since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act , special education has grown in the number of students and amount spent on services. Despite this growth, academic performance of students with disabilities remains troublingly low compared to general education students. To some extent, these differences reflect persistent underlying disabilities, but they also may reflect ineffective services. Does special education impr…
Does proximity to fast food cause childhood obesity? Evidence from public housing
Relationship between retail food outlets near public schools and adolescent obesity in New York City
Is Special Education Improving? Case Evidence From New York City
In this study, we assess changes in the education of students with disabilities (SWDs) in the nation’s largest school district, New York City (NYC), over the decade 2005–2015. Specifically, we examine progress toward the twin legislative goals of both the federal Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) and NYC district goals of (a) including SWDs in general education settings and (b) improving their academic performance. We find that the…
School Climate and the Impact of Neighborhood Crime on Test Scores
Does school climate ameliorate or exacerbate the impact of neighborhood violent crime on test scores? Using administrative data from the New York City Department of Education and the New York City Police Department, we find that exposure to violence in the residential neighborhood and an unsafe climate at school lead to substantial test score losses in English language arts (ELA). Middle school students exposed to neighborhood violent crime befor…
Do Housing Vouchers Improve Academic Performance? Evidence from New York City
The Housing Choice Voucher program is currently the largest federally funded housing assistance program. Although the program aims to provide housing assistance, it also could affect children's educational outcomes by stabilizing their families, enabling them to move to better homes, neighborhoods, and schools, and increasing their disposable incomes. Using data from New York City, the nation's largest school district, we examine whether—and to w…
Let Them Eat Lunch
This paper investigates the impact of extending free school lunch to all students, regardless of income, on academic performance in New York City middle schools. Using a difference‐in‐differences design and unique longitudinal, student‐level data, we derive credibly causal estimates of the impacts of “Universal Free Meals” (UFM) on test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics, and participation in school lunch. We find UFM increases…
The Effect of Residential Mobility on Student Performance
Residential mobility is likely to have consequences for student performance, but prior empirical work is largely correlational and offers little insight into its impacts. Using rich, longitudinal data, we estimate the effects of residential mobility on the performance of New York City public school students. Using both student fixed effects and instrumental variables approaches, we find that long-distance moves have negative effects, while short-…
Who Feels Included in School? Examining Feelings of Inclusion Among Students With Disabilities
The passage of landmark federal legislation in 1975 guaranteed students with disabilities (SWDs) a free appropriate public education. Over time, reauthorization of this legislation has highlighted the importance of educating SWDs in the general education environment where appropriate, and significant interaction with general education peers who are not receiving special education services (GENs) has followed. The largest U.S. school district—New …
Why Don't Housing Choice Voucher Recipients Live Near Better Schools? Insights from Big Data
Housing choice vouchers provide low‐income households with additional income to spend on rental housing in the private market. The assistance vouchers provide is substantial, offering the potential to dramatically expand the neighborhoods—and associated public schools—that low‐income households can reach. However, existing research on the program suggests that housing choice voucher holders live in neighborhoods with schools that are no better th…
The Effect of Breakfast in the Classroom on Obesity and Academic Performance
Participation in the federally subsidized school breakfast program often falls well below its lunchtime counterpart. To increase take-up, many districts have implemented Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC), offering breakfast directly to students at the start of the school day. Beyond increasing participation, advocates claim BIC improves academic performance, attendance, and engagement. Others caution BIC has deleterious effects on child weight. We…
Is neighbourhood destiny? Exploring the link between neighbourhood mobility and student outcomes
The notion that children from ‘good’ neighbourhoods are destined for success while those from ‘bad’ neighbourhoods are destined for failure has considerable popular appeal. Residential location is strongly linked to school quality, access to educated adults, exposure to violence, etc. There is, however, surprisingly little evidence on the link between the neighbourhood in which a child begins school and later schooling outcomes. Understanding ear…
Do Top Dogs Rule in Middle School? Evidence on Bullying, Safety, and Belonging
Recent research finds that grade span affects academic achievement but only speculates about the mechanisms. In this study, we examine one commonly cited mechanism, the top dog/bottom dog phenomenon, which states that students at the top of a grade span (“top dogs”) have better experiences than those at the bottom (“bottom dogs”). Using an instrumental variables strategy introduced in Rockoff and Lockwood (2010) and a longitudinal data set contai…
Does Small High School Reform Lift Urban Districts? Evidence From New York City
Research finds that small high schools deliver better outcomes than large high schools for urban students. An important outstanding question is whether this better performance is gained at the expense of losses elsewhere: Does small school reform lift the whole district? We explore New York City’s small high school reform in which hundreds of new small high schools were built in less than a decade. We use rich individual student data on four coho…
Carole Edelsky
High Stakes in the Classroom, High Stakes on the Street
This article examines the effect of exposure to violent crime on students' standardized test performance among a sample of students in New York City public schools. To identify the effect of exposure to community violence on children's test scores, we compare students exposed to an incident of violent crime on their own blockface in the week prior to the exam to students exposed in the week after the exam. The results show that such exposure to v…
Does federally subsidized rental housing depress neighborhood property values
Few communities welcome federally subsidized rental housing, with one of the most commonly voiced fears being reductions in property values. Yet there is little empirical evidence that subsidized housing depresses neighborhood property values. This paper estimates and compares the neighborhood impacts of a broad range of federally subsidized rental housing programs, using rich data for New York City and a difference‐in‐difference specification of…
Who Feels Included in School? Examining Feelings of Inclusion Among Students With Disabilities
The passage of landmark federal legislation in 1975 guaranteed students with disabilities (SWDs) a free appropriate public education. Over time, reauthorization of this legislation has highlighted the importance of educating SWDs in the general education environment where appropriate, and significant interaction with general education peers who are not receiving special education services (GENs) has followed. The largest U.S. school district—New …
The Effect of Residential Mobility on Student Performance
Residential mobility is likely to have consequences for student performance, but prior empirical work is largely correlational and offers little insight into its impacts. Using rich, longitudinal data, we estimate the effects of residential mobility on the performance of New York City public school students. Using both student fixed effects and instrumental variables approaches, we find that long-distance moves have negative effects, while short-…
The Effects of Special Education on the Academic Performance of Students with Learning Disabilities
In the 40‐plus years since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act , special education has grown in the number of students and amount spent on services. Despite this growth, academic performance of students with disabilities remains troublingly low compared to general education students. To some extent, these differences reflect persistent underlying disabilities, but they also may reflect ineffective services. Does special education impr…
Let Them Eat Lunch
This paper investigates the impact of extending free school lunch to all students, regardless of income, on academic performance in New York City middle schools. Using a difference‐in‐differences design and unique longitudinal, student‐level data, we derive credibly causal estimates of the impacts of “Universal Free Meals” (UFM) on test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics, and participation in school lunch. We find UFM increases…
Age of entry and the high school performance of immigrant youth
Disentangling the racial test score gap
We examine the size and distribution of the gap in test scores across races within New York City public schools and the factors that explain these gaps. While gaps are partially explained by differences in student characteristics, such as poverty, differences in schools attended are also important. At the same time, substantial within‐school gaps remain and are only partly explained by differences in academic preparation across students from diff…
Why Don't Housing Choice Voucher Recipients Live Near Better Schools? Insights from Big Data
Housing choice vouchers provide low‐income households with additional income to spend on rental housing in the private market. The assistance vouchers provide is substantial, offering the potential to dramatically expand the neighborhoods—and associated public schools—that low‐income households can reach. However, existing research on the program suggests that housing choice voucher holders live in neighborhoods with schools that are no better th…
Do Housing Vouchers Improve Academic Performance? Evidence from New York City
The Housing Choice Voucher program is currently the largest federally funded housing assistance program. Although the program aims to provide housing assistance, it also could affect children's educational outcomes by stabilizing their families, enabling them to move to better homes, neighborhoods, and schools, and increasing their disposable incomes. Using data from New York City, the nation's largest school district, we examine whether—and to w…
Do small schools improve performance in large, urban districts? Causal evidence from New York City
The Effect of Immigrant Communities on Foreign-Born Student Achievement
This paper explores the effect of the human capital characteristics of co-ethnic immigrant communities on foreign-born students’ math achievement. We use data on New York City public school foreign-born students from 39 countries merged with census data on the characteristics of the immigrant household heads in the city from each nation of origin and estimate regressions of student achievement on co-ethnic immigrant community characteristics, con…
The Effect of Breakfast in the Classroom on Obesity and Academic Performance
Participation in the federally subsidized school breakfast program often falls well below its lunchtime counterpart. To increase take-up, many districts have implemented Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC), offering breakfast directly to students at the start of the school day. Beyond increasing participation, advocates claim BIC improves academic performance, attendance, and engagement. Others caution BIC has deleterious effects on child weight. We…
Is neighbourhood destiny? Exploring the link between neighbourhood mobility and student outcomes
The notion that children from ‘good’ neighbourhoods are destined for success while those from ‘bad’ neighbourhoods are destined for failure has considerable popular appeal. Residential location is strongly linked to school quality, access to educated adults, exposure to violence, etc. There is, however, surprisingly little evidence on the link between the neighbourhood in which a child begins school and later schooling outcomes. Understanding ear…
Immigrant and Native-Born Differences in School Stability and Special Education
Using the literature on achievement differences as a framework and motivation, along with data on New York City students, we examine nativity differences in students' rates of attendance, school mobility, school system exit, and special education participation. The results indicate that, holding demographic and school characteristics constant, foreign-born have higher attendance rates and lower rates of participation in special education than nat…
The academic effects of chronic exposure to neighbourhood violence
This paper estimates the causal effect of repeated exposure to violent crime on test scores in New York City. We use two empirical strategies; value-added models linking student performance on standardised exams to violent crimes on students’ residential block, and a regression discontinuity approach that identifies the acute effect of additional crime exposure within a one-week window. Exposure to violent crime reduces academic performance. Valu…
Public Schools, Public Housing
In the United States, public housing developments are predominantly located in neighborhoods with low median incomes, high rates of poverty and disproportionate concentrations of minorities. While research consistently shows that public housing developments are located in economically and socially disadvantaged neighborhoods, we know little about the characteristics of the schools serving students living in public housing. In this paper, we exami…
Riding the Yellow School Bus
While the yellow school bus is emblematic of American education, there is variation in bus service across the country. Millions of students rely on the bus, making transportation an essential part of a student’s educational experience. Thus, equity in transportation access is a key component of educational equity. Using national district-level data and New York City student-level data, we examine equity in transportation finance and bus provision…
School Climate and the Impact of Neighborhood Crime on Test Scores
Does school climate ameliorate or exacerbate the impact of neighborhood violent crime on test scores? Using administrative data from the New York City Department of Education and the New York City Police Department, we find that exposure to violence in the residential neighborhood and an unsafe climate at school lead to substantial test score losses in English language arts (ELA). Middle school students exposed to neighborhood violent crime befor…
School Finance Court Cases and Disparate Racial Impact
Although analyses of state school finance systems rarely focus on the distribution of funds to students of different races, the advent of racial discrimination as an issue in school finance court cases may change that situation. In this article, we describe the background, analyses, and results of plaintiffs’ testimony regarding racial discrimination in Campaign for Fiscal Equity Inc. v. State of New York. Plaintiffs employed multiple regression …
Are public housing projects good for kids after all
Is public housing bad for children? The net effect of moving into public housing on children's academic outcomes is theoretically ambiguous and likely to depend on changes to neighborhood and school characteristics. Drawing on detailed individual‐level longitudinal data on New York City public school students, we exploit plausibly random variation in the precise timing of entry into public housing to estimate credibly causal effects of public hou…
Relationship between retail food outlets near public schools and adolescent obesity in New York City
Is Special Education Improving? Case Evidence From New York City
In this study, we assess changes in the education of students with disabilities (SWDs) in the nation’s largest school district, New York City (NYC), over the decade 2005–2015. Specifically, we examine progress toward the twin legislative goals of both the federal Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) and NYC district goals of (a) including SWDs in general education settings and (b) improving their academic performance. We find that the…
Do Top Dogs Rule in Middle School? Evidence on Bullying, Safety, and Belonging
Recent research finds that grade span affects academic achievement but only speculates about the mechanisms. In this study, we examine one commonly cited mechanism, the top dog/bottom dog phenomenon, which states that students at the top of a grade span (“top dogs”) have better experiences than those at the bottom (“bottom dogs”). Using an instrumental variables strategy introduced in Rockoff and Lockwood (2010) and a longitudinal data set contai…
Does Small High School Reform Lift Urban Districts? Evidence From New York City
Research finds that small high schools deliver better outcomes than large high schools for urban students. An important outstanding question is whether this better performance is gained at the expense of losses elsewhere: Does small school reform lift the whole district? We explore New York City’s small high school reform in which hundreds of new small high schools were built in less than a decade. We use rich individual student data on four coho…
Public Infrastructure, Private Input Demand, and Economic Performance in New England Manufacturing
The economic performance impacts of public infrastructure investment involve the input-specific effects of such investment. The authors explore these impacts by evaluating input substitution patterns in New England manufacturing. Using a cost-based methodology, they find that public capital expenditures provide short-run cost-saving benefits that exceed the associated investment costs due to substitutability between public capital and private inp…
School Finance Court Cases and Disparate Racial Impact
Although analyses of state school finance systems rarely focus on the distribution of funds to students of different races, the advent of racial discrimination as an issue in school finance court cases may change that situation. In this article, we describe the background, analyses, and results of plaintiffs’ testimony regarding racial discrimination in Campaign for Fiscal Equity Inc. v. State of New York. Plaintiffs employed multiple regression …
The external effects of place-based subsidized housing
Disentangling the racial test score gap
We examine the size and distribution of the gap in test scores across races within New York City public schools and the factors that explain these gaps. While gaps are partially explained by differences in student characteristics, such as poverty, differences in schools attended are also important. At the same time, substantial within‐school gaps remain and are only partly explained by differences in academic preparation across students from diff…
School Efficiency and Student Subgroups
State and federal accountability reforms are putting considerable pressure on schools to increase the achievement of historically low-performing groups of students and to close test score gaps. In this article, we exploit the differences among the large number of elementary schools in New York City to examine how much schools vary in the efficiency of the education they provide to subgroups. In addition, we examine the extent to which observable …
Does federally subsidized rental housing depress neighborhood property values
Few communities welcome federally subsidized rental housing, with one of the most commonly voiced fears being reductions in property values. Yet there is little empirical evidence that subsidized housing depresses neighborhood property values. This paper estimates and compares the neighborhood impacts of a broad range of federally subsidized rental housing programs, using rich data for New York City and a difference‐in‐difference specification of…
Immigrant and Native-Born Differences in School Stability and Special Education
Using the literature on achievement differences as a framework and motivation, along with data on New York City students, we examine nativity differences in students' rates of attendance, school mobility, school system exit, and special education participation. The results indicate that, holding demographic and school characteristics constant, foreign-born have higher attendance rates and lower rates of participation in special education than nat…
Age of entry and the high school performance of immigrant youth
Public Schools, Public Housing
In the United States, public housing developments are predominantly located in neighborhoods with low median incomes, high rates of poverty and disproportionate concentrations of minorities. While research consistently shows that public housing developments are located in economically and socially disadvantaged neighborhoods, we know little about the characteristics of the schools serving students living in public housing. In this paper, we exami…
The Effect of Immigrant Communities on Foreign-Born Student Achievement
This paper explores the effect of the human capital characteristics of co-ethnic immigrant communities on foreign-born students’ math achievement. We use data on New York City public school foreign-born students from 39 countries merged with census data on the characteristics of the immigrant household heads in the city from each nation of origin and estimate regressions of student achievement on co-ethnic immigrant community characteristics, con…
Do small schools improve performance in large, urban districts? Causal evidence from New York City
High Stakes in the Classroom, High Stakes on the Street
This article examines the effect of exposure to violent crime on students' standardized test performance among a sample of students in New York City public schools. To identify the effect of exposure to community violence on children's test scores, we compare students exposed to an incident of violent crime on their own blockface in the week prior to the exam to students exposed in the week after the exam. The results show that such exposure to v…
Does Small High School Reform Lift Urban Districts? Evidence From New York City
Research finds that small high schools deliver better outcomes than large high schools for urban students. An important outstanding question is whether this better performance is gained at the expense of losses elsewhere: Does small school reform lift the whole district? We explore New York City’s small high school reform in which hundreds of new small high schools were built in less than a decade. We use rich individual student data on four coho…
Why Don't Housing Choice Voucher Recipients Live Near Better Schools? Insights from Big Data
Housing choice vouchers provide low‐income households with additional income to spend on rental housing in the private market. The assistance vouchers provide is substantial, offering the potential to dramatically expand the neighborhoods—and associated public schools—that low‐income households can reach. However, existing research on the program suggests that housing choice voucher holders live in neighborhoods with schools that are no better th…
The Effect of Breakfast in the Classroom on Obesity and Academic Performance
Participation in the federally subsidized school breakfast program often falls well below its lunchtime counterpart. To increase take-up, many districts have implemented Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC), offering breakfast directly to students at the start of the school day. Beyond increasing participation, advocates claim BIC improves academic performance, attendance, and engagement. Others caution BIC has deleterious effects on child weight. We…
Is neighbourhood destiny? Exploring the link between neighbourhood mobility and student outcomes
The notion that children from ‘good’ neighbourhoods are destined for success while those from ‘bad’ neighbourhoods are destined for failure has considerable popular appeal. Residential location is strongly linked to school quality, access to educated adults, exposure to violence, etc. There is, however, surprisingly little evidence on the link between the neighbourhood in which a child begins school and later schooling outcomes. Understanding ear…
Do Top Dogs Rule in Middle School? Evidence on Bullying, Safety, and Belonging
Recent research finds that grade span affects academic achievement but only speculates about the mechanisms. In this study, we examine one commonly cited mechanism, the top dog/bottom dog phenomenon, which states that students at the top of a grade span (“top dogs”) have better experiences than those at the bottom (“bottom dogs”). Using an instrumental variables strategy introduced in Rockoff and Lockwood (2010) and a longitudinal data set contai…
Who Feels Included in School? Examining Feelings of Inclusion Among Students With Disabilities
The passage of landmark federal legislation in 1975 guaranteed students with disabilities (SWDs) a free appropriate public education. Over time, reauthorization of this legislation has highlighted the importance of educating SWDs in the general education environment where appropriate, and significant interaction with general education peers who are not receiving special education services (GENs) has followed. The largest U.S. school district—New …
School Climate and the Impact of Neighborhood Crime on Test Scores
Does school climate ameliorate or exacerbate the impact of neighborhood violent crime on test scores? Using administrative data from the New York City Department of Education and the New York City Police Department, we find that exposure to violence in the residential neighborhood and an unsafe climate at school lead to substantial test score losses in English language arts (ELA). Middle school students exposed to neighborhood violent crime befor…
Do Housing Vouchers Improve Academic Performance? Evidence from New York City
The Housing Choice Voucher program is currently the largest federally funded housing assistance program. Although the program aims to provide housing assistance, it also could affect children's educational outcomes by stabilizing their families, enabling them to move to better homes, neighborhoods, and schools, and increasing their disposable incomes. Using data from New York City, the nation's largest school district, we examine whether—and to w…
Let Them Eat Lunch
This paper investigates the impact of extending free school lunch to all students, regardless of income, on academic performance in New York City middle schools. Using a difference‐in‐differences design and unique longitudinal, student‐level data, we derive credibly causal estimates of the impacts of “Universal Free Meals” (UFM) on test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics, and participation in school lunch. We find UFM increases…
The Effect of Residential Mobility on Student Performance
Residential mobility is likely to have consequences for student performance, but prior empirical work is largely correlational and offers little insight into its impacts. Using rich, longitudinal data, we estimate the effects of residential mobility on the performance of New York City public school students. Using both student fixed effects and instrumental variables approaches, we find that long-distance moves have negative effects, while short-…
Does proximity to fast food cause childhood obesity? Evidence from public housing
Relationship between retail food outlets near public schools and adolescent obesity in New York City
Is Special Education Improving? Case Evidence From New York City
In this study, we assess changes in the education of students with disabilities (SWDs) in the nation’s largest school district, New York City (NYC), over the decade 2005–2015. Specifically, we examine progress toward the twin legislative goals of both the federal Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) and NYC district goals of (a) including SWDs in general education settings and (b) improving their academic performance. We find that the…
Economics (24 obras) · Psychology (22 obras) · Sociology (19 obras) · Political science (18 obras) · School Choice and Performance (18 obras) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (16 obras) · Demographic economics (15 obras) · Economic growth (15 obras) · Medicine (14 obras) · Mathematics education (13 obras)