The Educational Opportunity Project

About: The Educational Opportunity Project (EOP) at Stanford University uses a range of data on educational conditions, contexts, and outcomes to help scholars, policy makers, educators, and the general public learn about the landscape of educational opportunity and academic achievement in the US. The EOP houses four main initiatives: 1. The Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA): SEDA is a 15-year national database of academic performance based on 500+ million 3-8th grade math and reading and language arts test scores from the 2008-2019 school years. We hope that researchers, practitioners, and policy makers will utilize SEDA to generate evidence about what policies and practices are most effective at increasing educational opportunity. 2. The Early Childhood Opportunity Project (ECO): the ECO team is collecting data on early childhood educational opportunities and kindergarten readiness in communities in 15 states. 3. EOP NYSED Equity Indicators Project: We are partnering with the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to construct a series of equity indicators using longitudinal teacher, student, and staff level data. These indicators will help us better understand the landscape of educational equity across NY state and inform system-level changes to improve equitable access to educational opportunity. 4. The Segregation Index (run by Professor reardon and Professor Ann Owens (USC/UCLA)), which is constructing data archives on residential and school segregation from 1967-2025 and a data set of housing and school policies. Together we use these to study the factors that lead to more or less segregation.

Research Tasks: The EOP RA will be responsible for assisting on current projects that include the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), the Early Childhood Opportunity Project, the EOP NYSED Equity Indicators Project, and/or work on the Segregation Index project. The RA will learn skills in assembling complex data sets useful for studying educational opportunity and social and educational policy analysis; the RA will learn statistical measurement and analysis skills relating to the measurement and analysis of segregation, equality of educational opportunity, and educational outcomes. The RA may also have the opportunity to research and prepare a report on their own topic of interest related to the work of the EOP – including work on patterns of kindergarten readiness, segregation, and educational outcomes. Conducting online background research on relevant topics and writing literature reviews; collecting, cleaning, and organizing data for preliminary analyses; producing memos and data reports for various projects; collaborating with EOP research staff, partners, and other RAs; outreach (via email, phone, and conference calls) to stakeholders; supporting the promotion of the EOP's work through social media and the EOP website.