Todd Pugatch
toddpugatch.bsky.social
Todd Pugatch
@toddpugatch.bsky.social

education and development economist at University at Buffalo @ubuffalo.bsky.social, dad, Red Sox fan

Education 55%
Economics 13%

The @aefpweb.bsky.social EdDev group meets F Feb 13, 11am EST. Presenters:

@isaacahimbisibwe.bsky.social: "Academic Outcomes of a Gender Quota Policy in University STEM Programs"
@roohgulzari.bsky.social: "Improving Parental Engagement in Foundational Learning"

Join us! Contact me for Zoom link.

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

The EdDev Community Group will meet on February 13 at 11 AM ET. Isaac Ahimbisibwe & Roohullah Gulzari present work in progress. Join the EdDev Community Group today aefpweb.org/communit...

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

How much teachers are teaching is a serious constraint to student learning. www.cgdev.org/blog/beyond-... Breeding & Bruns on teacher time on task at @cgdev.org
As a PhD student, I was told that "seniors" are always really busy, though I speculated, I really wasn't sure how this materialized. I'm not yet SSJ3 Senior, just like baby-senior, but one way it materializes is "Death by 1000 cuts" ⬇️

Thanks, will take a look!

I don’t see how large increases in variance necessarily equates to low achievers losing out. How did low-achievers perform in absolute terms? Can you link to the paper?

Fair. The first step in these programs is assessment, followed by sorting into levels, followed by an intervention specific to student levels, so it looks a lot like tracking! But I agree, in most cases, the implementation differs from what we refer to as tracking in the US.

Varies, but often it's remedial sessions outside school hours. Within school hours, it's often adding a tracked structure to an open study period. Tracking during regular class time is rarer.

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

Interesting that this is the case for the US. In LMICs, one form of tracking--Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL)---has lots of high-quality evidence of effectiveness. www.povertyactionlab.org/policy-insig...
Tailoring instruction to students’ learning levels to increase learning
In classrooms around the world, many students are not learning at grade level and struggle to catch up. Dedicating a portion of instruction time to tailoring instruction to the learning levels of stud...
www.povertyactionlab.org

👀"Public education expenditure per school-age individual in Sub-Saharan Africa is about 3% of the level observed in Europe and North America in 2025"
This is a really great paper and database. Impressive and important work

by Bharti and colleagues. Data: whce.world/data/

Paper: amory-gethin.fr/files/pdf/Bh...

Forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

My heart breaks for the children who get no justice in this world.

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

This is a really great paper and database. Impressive and important work

by Bharti and colleagues. Data: whce.world/data/

Paper: amory-gethin.fr/files/pdf/Bh...

Forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

📣📣 Calling all mentors! We’re opening applications for mentors who are excited to support our scholars. If that sounds like you, we’d love to receive your application here: forms.gle/FnoxE2D3qfG3...
For BA and MA students from low- and middle-income countries: My course “Global Policy Analysis” will again be open to a select number of remote students via Zoom.

Course starts on Feb 17th, application deadline is Feb 10th.

More information and application form here: forms.gle/GGNyai3eG3pw...
Global Policy Analysis 2026: Remote Student Application
This economics course has two primary objectives: First, it provides students with a solid overview of what we know about key topics of global development, such as the trends in poverty around the wor...
forms.gle
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst

Directed by Thom Zimny
Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro
Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Lyric Video)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be

This is 🔥
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Mariana Mazzucato, Stephen M. Walt , and 181 more

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Join the Policymakers & Practitioners Community Group TODAY at 1 PM ET for an engaging forum on evidence-based literacy instruction. Register today: aefpweb.org/ev_calen...

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Wait @besttrousers.bsky.social @socio-steve.bsky.social out of all the accusations of people secretly working for George Soros, Scott Bessent actually *did*?

It’s not wrong

ha, amateurs

Fantastic resource! Adding it to my development econ class this semester
cc: @ainesmccarthy.bsky.social

it's Bastiat's broken windows fallacy applied to foreign policy: break windows, fix them, then claim you're making progress by fixing windows
There is such huge opportunity cost to each Trump tantrum. So many people with critical jobs have lost another week when they could have been doing something useful.

Yeah this seems to be the heart of the problem. I figured there would be more alignment that loss of $ is bad for all parties.

Just entered the classroom across the hall to save a math instructor colleague from a malfunctioning doc cam. Not all heroes wear capes, amirite?