SCOPE Brown Bag Seminar Series - The Causal Effects of Cultural Relevance: Evidence from an Ethnic Studies Curriculum presented by Thomas S. Dee

SCOPE's Brown Bag Seminar Series for March will feature Thomas S. Dee who will discuss his research on culturally relevant pedagogy. Extensive literature stresses the promise of instructional practices and content aligned with minority students’ experiences. Ethnic studies courses provide an example of such “culturally relevant pedagogy” (CRP). Despite theoretical support, quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of these courses is limited. Researchers estimated the causal effects of an ethnic studies curriculum based on the fact that several schools assigned students with eighth-grade GPAs below a threshold to take the course. Assignment to this course increased ninth-grade attendance by 21 percentage points, GPA by 1.4 grade points, and credits earned by 23. These surprisingly large effects suggest that CRP, when implemented in a high-fidelity context, can provide effective support to at-risk students.

Thomas S. Dee, is a Professor and the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. He is also the Director of the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) and is a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). His research focuses on the application of quasi-experimental and experimental methods that provide rigorous quantitative evidence and inform contemporary policy debates in education. Thanks to our sponsors for the 2016–17 SCOPE Brown Bag Seminar Series:

• The Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
• The John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities
• The Stanford Graduate School of Education