Speakers at 2017-18's first Policy Goes to School event: Dr. Daniel Klasik and Dr. Jason Taylor
UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education announces the second “Policy Goes to School” lecture series. The talks – all free and open to the public – will examine areas where current academic research sheds light on policy dilemmas in education. This year’s policy lecture series will explore Issues in Higher Education. The lecture series, hosted by Michael Gottfried and the Department of Education, will be held on Friday, November 17 from 12 pm - 1 pm in the Dean’s Boardroom in the Education Building.
Dr. Daniel Klasik will be presenting his paper “Not Everyone Wants to Go to Stanford: Geographic Variation in Where Students Apply to College.” In his presentation, Dr. Klasik will share his work using social network analysis and data on where students apply to college to describe how student's preferences for where they consider enrolling in college varies based on where in the country the live, suggesting that a one-size-fits-all approach may not work for scholars and policy makers looking to give students advice on where to enroll in college.
Dr. Jason Taylor will be presenting his paper “Delivering the Promise: Assessing the Salt Lake Community College Promise Program.” The SLCC Promise program is a last-dollar free college program launched in 2016, and this presentation will share preliminary outcomes of its effect on student success.
Daniel Klasik earned his Ph.D. in Education Policy and M.A. in Economics at Stanford University. He completed his postdoctoral work with the Maryland Equity Project at the College of Education at the University of Maryland. His research uses a wide variety of quantitative methods to study student pathways into and through postsecondary education. His ongoing research topics span how students make decisions about whether and where to attend college; how students’ college decision-making process shapes later college and life outcomes; and the effect of affirmative action and other admissions policies on campus diversity.
Jason L. Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah. He received his Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a research specialization in evaluation methods and concentration in public policy. His broad research interests are at the intersection of community college and higher education policy and educational and social inequality. Dr. Taylor has conducted and led several quantitative and mixed methods studies related to college readiness, developmental education, college affordability, adult pathways to college, dual credit/enrollment and early college experiences, transfer policy and reverse transfer, LGBTQ students, career and technical education, and educational access and equity. The goal of his research is to examine and better understand how public policies impact underserved students’ access to, transition through, and success in community colleges and institutions of higher education to contribute to both theory and practice.