Michael Gottfried (l) and Jacob Kirksey (r) in Mexico City for the 2018 APPAM Conference
Michael Gottfried, associate professor in the Department of Education at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School and Jacob Kirksey, doctoral student at the GGSE—along with co-author Ethan Hutt from the University of Maryland—presented the paper “Sustainable Education Goals? Examining a State-Based Education Initiative for Digital Learning” at the 2018 Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) international conference in Mexico City. The paper was part of the session Engagement, Education and Metropolitan Development and explored whether the UCs are preparing new general education teachers to work with students with learning disabilities. The California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN), a multi-University of California campus consortium centered at the Gevirtz School that responds to the pressing need for research on policy and practice linked to teacher education, funded this research.
The theme for the 2018 APPAM International Conference was Public Policy for Sustainable Metropolitan Development. APPAM is dedicated to improving public policy and management by fostering excellence in research, analysis, and education.
Michael Gottfried’s research focuses on absenteeism, schooling context, and STEM with an interest in disabilities running through all of these areas. He has served as PI on grants focusing on schooling context and outcomes specifically for elementary school students (NSF, AERA/NSF, NIH/NICHD R03, Foundation for Child Development, Stuart Foundation, Spencer Foundation). He has published work in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Teachers College Record, Education Finance and Policy, American Journal of Education, Elementary School Journal, among others. In 2016, he released a co-edited book on educational policy with Harvard Education Press. Gotffried is on the Editorial Board of American Educational Research Journal and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. He holds a PhD and MA in Applied Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics from Stanford University.
Jacob Kirksey is a PhD candidate in the Department of Education and a graduate research fellow with the National Science Foundation. Drawing from various perspectives and interdisciplinary frameworks in educational policy, Kirksey’s research examines unintended consequences in educational policy and focuses on frequently forgotten student populations (e.g. students with special needs). Trained as an economist, he primarily uses quasi-experimental methods with large, secondary datasets. As an instructor, Kirksey seeks to expand the way in which practitioners and policymakers use and interpret data in their decision-making.
Ethan Hutt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership in the School of Education at the University of Maryland College Park. He is interested in the historical relationship between schools, the law, and education policy. In particular, his research examines the way in which the law has defined the purpose, organization, and success of public education in America through the creation of standards and the use of quantification. Hutt was the second speaker in the Gevirtz School’s Policy Goes to School lecture series in January 2017.