David N Lang
davidnlang.bsky.social
David N Lang
@davidnlang.bsky.social
Economist and computational social scientist
Views do not represent those of my employer
Come check out my talk tomorrow and learn about the impact of age verification laws on user search behavior
@stanfordcyber.bsky.social #TSRconf

osf.io/4cjpw_v2/dow...
September 25, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
We’re taking the first step towards our Query Builder project📊 🗣️After launching in April, users shared interest in accessing the data powering Student Pathways beyond the preset visualizations. We’re meeting your needs by providing an accessible format to dive into the data now! bit.ly/C2C-datasets
September 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
📊Who is C2C for?

Whether you’re a student, educator, researcher, advocate, a policymaker – we invite you to learn more about how C2C’s tools and resources can help you improve outcomes for Californians! c2c.ca.gov
September 12, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
🔍Why is C2C needed?

Through C2C:
✅Student and families can make informed decisions about their future goals.
✅State leaders can access info to support policy decisions. 👇
September 12, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
👋The California Cradle-to-Career Data System is officially on @bsky.app!

💭About us: We’re California’s official source for info on education and workforce outcomes. c2c.ca.gov 👇
September 12, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
You've heard of the many analysts projects, right?

Scholars give the same dataset/question to a bunch of researchers & they still get different answers.

Why is that?

Data cleaning!

This is consistent with Gelman's "garden of forking paths." Small coding decisions often drive results.
May 5, 2025 at 2:13 PM
If you are a macroeconomist, I would say lock in your estimates of the output gap now and potential gdp now. I believe this is going to be the most important question in macroeconomic policy for next 12 months.
May 4, 2025 at 5:09 AM
Reposted by David N Lang
Trump's tariffs are a massive tax that YOU will pay.

That means higher prices and serious pain for families and small businesses across our country.

Repost if you agree Republicans need to join Democrats and vote to END the chaos & REVERSE these reckless tariffs.
April 10, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
We are hiring an education researcher to join the @capolicylab.bsky.social and @berkeleycshe.bsky.social teams. You'll work on projects using administrative data relating to California higher education. Here's more information: capolicylab.org/careers/rese...
April 9, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
Gutting research and science hurts Americans.
April 5, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
Want to help save research using NCES restricted-use data? Here is a gdrive with actions, background, and context from my colleague sean reardon (sharing with permission):
1) actions
2) background
3) list of data files: drive.google.com/drive/folder...
March 18, 2025 at 4:33 PM
If you or your students are affected by the recent guidance on NCES data usage, please review www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/minorit... this link and share your experience with the committee and your congressional representatives.
Murray, DeLauro, Baldwin Demand Detailed Answers on Trump Admin’s Sweeping Mass Firings at Department of Education | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
www.appropriations.senate.gov
March 18, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Very useful thread. This also a helpful reminder for folks who are working with coarse statistical tables and historical documents as well.
If you have research dependent on these data here is my suggestion
1/N

Big picture:

Create a dataset of cell means (cells must be big enough to pass disclosure)

- load these cell means into many, many tables & put through review

-These cell means can then be used in OLS - which runs on means
Research with restricted-use data is more precise, powerful, and relevant. Faculty and staff will be working through the weekend to answer important research questions before we no longer can. This is not normal, necessary, or efficient.
March 15, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Reposted by David N Lang
If you have research dependent on these data here is my suggestion
1/N

Big picture:

Create a dataset of cell means (cells must be big enough to pass disclosure)

- load these cell means into many, many tables & put through review

-These cell means can then be used in OLS - which runs on means
Research with restricted-use data is more precise, powerful, and relevant. Faculty and staff will be working through the weekend to answer important research questions before we no longer can. This is not normal, necessary, or efficient.
AERA has just learned that all restricted-use NCES data licenses will be cancelled, possibly as early as March 20. We urgently request that all AERA members and others in the research community with restricted-use licenses take these two actions: www.aera.net/Research-Pol...
March 15, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Reposted by David N Lang
AERA has just learned that all restricted-use NCES data licenses will be cancelled, possibly as early as March 20. We urgently request that all AERA members and others in the research community with restricted-use licenses take these two actions: www.aera.net/Research-Pol...
March 14, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
Simulation studies are common in psychometrics. We are trying to make them more relevant to practice by increasing their connection to empirical data. Feedback welcome!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
March 12, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Thanks for helpful comments from @robbwiller.bsky.social @jrothst.bsky.social @nickhuntington12.bsky.social and many others
Do age-verification laws for online adult content work? Based on Google search data, not really.

New WP from me and & co-authors up now on OSF: osf.io/z83ev
March 11, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by David N Lang
Hey, I am guest-editing an issue on student loans.

RE: collapse of Academic Twitter, we're extending the call for abstracts til March 31st.

If you have #Qualitative work on #studentloans, submit!

Requote and share widely.

#AcademicSky #EduSky #HigherEd

ojed.org/hepe/announc...

*Link works now
March 5, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Very excited to be a part of this and cautiously optimistic I might be the first person to cite it.
After a long wait, the working paper for the Many-Economists Project: The Sources of Researcher Variation in Economics. We had 146 teams perform the same research three times, each time with less freedom. What source of freedom leads to different choices and results? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The Sources of Researcher Variation in Economics
We use a rigorous three-stage many-analysts design to assess how different researcher decisions—specifically data cleaning, research design, and the interpretat
papers.ssrn.com
February 27, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by David N Lang
Do you need educational and psychological item response data to do your research? The IRW has 600 item response datasets (more coming!), distributed in a standardized format and ready for analysis.
December 10, 2024 at 5:39 PM