Research Interests

Education policy; Program evaluation; Educational stratification and equity; Access and success in postsecondary schooling; Desegregation; Economics of education;  Quantitative methods; Sociology of education

Education

• Ed.D. (2005) Harvard University Graduate School of Education
• Ed.M. (1997) Harvard University Graduate School of Education
• B.A. (1995) University of California, Santa Cruz

Select Publications

• Grodsky, E. and Kurlaender, M. (Eds.). Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
  The Past and Future of California’s Proposition 209 . Harvard Education Press, Forthcoming.
• Howell, Jessica S., Kurlaender, M., and Grodsky, E., (2010). Postsecondary Preparation and Remediation: Examining the Effect of the Early
  Assessment Program at California State University, Journal of Policy
  Analysis and Management, Vol. 29, No. 4, 726–748. (Pre-publication manuscript available for download here.)
• Graham, S. and Kurlaender, M. (forthcoming). Using Propensity Scores in Educational Research: General Principles and Practical Applications, The Journal of Educational Research.
• Reardon, S. and Kurlaender, M. (2009). Effects of the California High School Exit Exam on Student Persistence, Achievement, and Graduation, Policy Analysis for California Education Policy Brief. (Available for Download here)
• Long, B. T. and Kurlaender, M. (2009). Do Community Colleges Provide a Viable Pathway to a Baccalaureate Degree? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31 (1):30-53.
• Horn, C. & Kurlaender, M. (2009). The End of Keyes: Resegregation Trends and Achievement in Denver Public Schools. In C. Smrekar & E. Goldring (Eds.), From the Courtroom to the Classroom: The Shifting Landscape of School Desegregation, Harvard Education Press: Cambridge, MA.
• Kurlaender, M., Reardon, S., & Jackson, J. (2008). Middle School Predictors of High School Achievement in Three California School Districts. A Report Prepared for the California Dropout Research Project. (Available for Download here)
• Kurlaender, M. & Felts, E. (2008). Bakke Beyond College Access: Investigating Racial/Ethnic Differences in College Completion. In P. Marin, & C. Horn (Eds.), Realizing Bakke’s Legacy: Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity, and Access to Higher Education, Stylus.
• Kurlaender, M. and Yun, J. (2007). Measuring School Racial Composition and Student Outcomes in a Multiracial Society, American Journal of Education, (February 113): 213-242.
• Reardon, S., Yun, J. and Kurlaender, M. (2006). The Limits of Income Desegregation Policies for Achieving Racial Desegregation. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 28 (1): 49-75.
• Kurlaender, M. (2006). Choosing Community College: Factors Affecting Latino College Choice. New Directions for Community Colleges, 133: 7-19.
• Kurlaender, M. and Yun, J. (2005). Fifty Years after Brown: New Evidence of the Impact of School Racial Composition on Student Outcomes. International Journal of Educational Policy, Research and Practice, 6(1): 51-78.
• Kurlaender, M. & Flores, S. (2005). The Racial Transformation of Higher Education. In G. Orfield, P.Marin, & C. Horn (Eds.), Higher Education and the Color Line, Harvard Education Press: Cambridge, MA.
• Ma, J. and Kurlaender, M. (2005). The Future of Race-Conscious Policies in K-12 Public Schools: Support from Recent Legal Opinions and Social Science Research. In Resegregation of the American South. Orfield, G., Boger, J., Edley, C. and High, R. (Eds.), Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
• Yun, J. and Kurlaender, M. (2004). School Racial Composition and Student Educational Aspirations: A Question of Equity in a Multiracial Society. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk 9(2):143-168.

Awards and Honors

• National Academy of Education, Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2009-10
• University of California Davis,  Faculty Development Award, 2008
• Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 2004-2005
• American Educational Research Association Dissertation Fellowship, 2003-2004
• Roy Larsen Research Fellowship, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, 1999-2001

Current Activities and Service

• UC Davis Site Director, The University of California Educational Evaluation Center
• Faculty Policy Research Panel, Policy Analysis for California Education-PACE
• Program Committee, Economy, Justice & Society, Institute for Governmental Affairs, University of California-Davis
• Advisory Board, Chief Justice Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity, UC Berkeley School of Law
• California Dropout Research Project

Courses

• Research Design
• Economics of Education
• Quantitative Methods in Education Research
• Applied Data Analysis
• Education and Social Policy

Funded Research

• Ready or Not? California’s Early Assessment Program and the Transition to College. Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education—$1,800,000 (2010)
• Understanding Barriers and Examining Interventions: A Project to Study Postsecondary Access and Success Using State Administrative Data. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—$350,000 (2009)
• The Effects of Institutional Practices on Postsecondary Trajectories: Matriculation, Persistence and Time to Degree. Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education—$470,808 (2007)
• College Readiness to Degree Completion: Remedial Placement and Patterns of College Persistence. Association for Institutional Research—$30,000 (2007)
• Early Predictors of High School Dropout. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—$15,000 (2007)