Ben Backes
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brbackes.bsky.social
Ben Backes
@brbackes.bsky.social
Principal Economist, American Institutes for Research (AIR) and CALDER

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wgy9ucYAAAAJ
Reposted by Ben Backes
Heading to Seattle for #2025APPAM next week? Be sure to check out presentations from CALDER experts @roddy-theobald.bsky.social, @brbackes.bsky.social, & @cedr.bsky.social. Click here to learn more about the conference: www.appam.org/conference-e...
November 6, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Ben Backes
New CALDER working paper by @zeyuxu.bsky.social & @brbackes.bsky.social finds that in 2-year colleges in KY, HS GPA is a stronger predictor of gateway course success than test scores-- though neither has very strong predictive power alone. Read the full paper to learn more: bit.ly/4iNTibV
May 1, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Signal boosting this as we are looking for 1-2 more papers. Please get in touch if you're thinking of submitting something on teacher/school VA to APPAM!
Looking to form/join a panel at #2025APPAM with my JMP!

I estimate teacher value added on ACT scores, then look at impacts on college enrollment & college performance. Message me if you have a related paper on teacher/school VA or predictors of college enrollment/ performance!

#EconSky #EconConf
April 7, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Ben Backes
Does departmentalized instruction (DI) in elementary school actually help students better transition into middle school? Check out our new CALDER paper by @brbackes.bsky.social, James Cowan, & @cedr.bsky.social to learn about the impacts of DI on long-term achievement in MA.

👉 bit.ly/3FNAX0N
March 31, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Ben Backes
Interview w/ Doug Harris about the new @aefpweb.bsky.social Live Handbook (the Wikipedia of education research):

www.the74million.org/article/scho...
Scholar Douglas Harris Debuts New ‘Wikipedia’ of K–12 Research
As cuts threaten insights into K–12 schools, the veteran researcher is helping to build a compendium of education insights.
www.the74million.org
March 24, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Honored to have been a part of this (livehandbook.org/k-12-educati...) and so impressed with the presentation / website design of the final product!
March 12, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Ben Backes
The thing that moves the needle is cleaning everyone's data, which leads to a narrowing in the effect distribution, even as modeling choices continue to differ. This makes sense - we don't teach or discuss standardized/best data-cleaning practices. So there's big variance in how we do it.
February 25, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Ben Backes
Some thoughts in The74 (w/ Ashley, @rbnlake.bsky.social, & Andy) about the "shock and awe" at IES, the IES mission, and how we move forward more constructively.

www.the74million.org/article/mend...
Mend, Don’t End, the Institute for Education Sciences
The nation needs more education research, not an end to it. Here are five ideas for a more strategic, agile, relevant and impact-driven federal agency
www.the74million.org
February 21, 2025 at 8:08 PM