Heather Rose
Associate Professor
Office hours: By appointment. Room 125 SOEB.
Research Interests
Economics of education; Education Policy and Governance; Quantitative methods; School finance
Education
- Ph.D., Economics, University of California, San Diego, June 2001.
- M.A., Economics, University of California, San Diego, March 1997.
- B.A., Economics, University of California, Berkeley, December 1993.
- Education Abroad Program, Universite de Pau et des Pays de L’Adour, France, 1991-1992.
Publications
Working Papers
- “School Staffing and Student Poverty in California: A Decade through the Great Recession and School Finance Reform” (with Margaret Weston)
Journal Articles
- “High School Choice and Expected College Belonging.” (2024). Heather Rose, Danielle Huddlestun*, Jacob Hibel, Susan E. Ebeler, and Kali Trzesniewski, Journal of School Choice, 18(3): 308-333. Winner of the 2024 Patrick Wolf International School Choice and Reform Conference Best Paper Prize.
- “The Impact of Large Revenue Infusions on Teacher Salaries in High-Poverty Districts.” (2023). Dylan Hawksworth-Lutzow* and Heather Rose, Journal of Education Finance, 49(2): 222-244. Supplemental Appendix.
- “Student-Teacher Ethnoracial Matching at Charter and Traditional Public Schools.” (2023). Audrey Boochever* and Heather Rose, Journal of School Choice, 17(3): 324-351. Winner of the 2023 Patrick Wolf International School Choice and Reform Conference Best Paper Prize.
- “School District Revenue and Student Poverty in California: A Decade through the Great Recession and School Finance Reform,” Journal of Education Finance, Winter 2022, 47(2): 296-323. Supplemental Appendix.
- “Prosperity or Hardship: Equity-Driven Education Funding in the Era of COVID-19” (with Patti F. Herrera), UC Davis Center for Poverty Research Policy Brief, 8(10), 2020.
- “Serving the Underserved? Student Characteristics and Staffing Patterns in California Charter Schools,” (with Sherrie Reed), Journal of School Choice, 2020, 14(2):190-227.
- “Lessons in charter school accountability: evidence from California” (with Sherrie Reed), Journal of School Choice, 2018, 12(3):355-381.
- “Charter School Spending and Saving in California” (with Sherrie Reed), Journal of School Choice, August 2015, 9(3):407-445.
- “Moving Toward a Coherent School Finance System,” Leadership, 2013, 42(5):12-15.
- “California’s School Finance Reforms Target More Funding to Poor Students” (with Margaret Weston), UC Davis Center for Poverty Research Policy Brief, 2(2), 2013.
- “School Board Politics, School District Size, and the Bargaining Power of Teachers’ Unions” (with Jon Sonstelie), Journal of Urban Economics, 2010, 67(3):438-450.
- “An Analysis of Professional Judgments” (with Jon Sonstelie), Education Finance and Policy, 2008, 3(2):151-164.
- “Do Test Score Gains Explain Labor Market Outcomes?” Economics of Education Review, August 2006, 25(4): 430-446.
- “The Effect of Affirmative Action Programs: Evidence from the University of California at San Diego,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Fall 2005, 27(3): 263-289.
- “Has Curriculum Closed the Test Score Gap in Math?” Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy, May 2004, 4(1): Article 12.
- “The Effect of High School Courses on Earnings” (with Julian Betts), Review of Economics and Statistics, May 2004, 86(2): 497-513.
Note: Access to journal links will depend on your institution’s agreements with journals.
Books/Reports
- California School District Revenue and Student Poverty: Moving Toward a Weighted Pupil Funding Formula (with Margaret Weston), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, February 2013.
- Financing California’s Public Schools: Toward a Weighted Student Formula,” in David Plank, ed., Getting Down to Facts: Five Years Later, Policy Analysis for California Education, Stanford, California, May 2012.
- Funding Formulas for California Schools IV: An Analysis of Governor Brown’s Weighted Pupil Funding Formula, May Budget Revision (with Jon Sonstelie and Margaret Weston), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, May 2012.
- Funding Formulas for California Schools III: An Analysis of Governor Brown’s Weighted Pupil Funding Formula, (with Jon Sonstelie and Margaret Weston), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, May 2012.
- “A Portrait of Underrepresented Minorities at the University of California 1994-2008” (with Tongshan Chang), in Eric Grodsky and Michal Kurlaender, eds., Equal Opportunity in Higher Education: The Past and Future of California’s Proposition 209, Harvard Education Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2010.
- Pathways for School Finance in California, (with Jon Sonstelie and Margaret Weston), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, November 2010. [Link]
- California School Finance Revenue Manual, (with Margaret Weston and Jon Sonstelie), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, June 2009. [Link]
- Funding Formulas for California Schools II: An Analysis of a Proposal by the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence, (with Ria Sengupta, Jon Sonstelie, and Ray Reinhard), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, July 2008. [Link]
- Funding Formulas for California Schools: Simulations and Supporting Data, (with Ria Sengupta, Jon Sonstelie, and Ray Reinhard), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, January 2008. [Link]
- Teacher Compensation and Local Labor Market Conditions in California: Implications for School Funding, (with Ria Sengupta), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, March 2007. [Link]
- School Resources and Academic Standards in California: Lessons from the Schoolhouse, (with Jon Sonstelie and Ray Reinhard), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, January 2006. [Link]
- School Budgets and Student Achievement in California: The Principal’s Perspective, (with Jon Sonstelie and Peter Richardson), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2004. [Link]
- High Expectations, Modest Means: The Challenge Facing California’s Public Schools, (with Jon Sonstelie, Ray Reinhard, and Sharmaine Heng), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2003. [Link]
- Math Matters: The Links Between High School Curriculum, College Graduation, and Earnings, (with Julian Betts), Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2001. [Link]
- “The Concept of Adequacy and School Finance”, in Jon Sonstelie and Peter Richardson, eds, School Finance and California’s Master Plan for Education, Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2001. [Link]
Professional Experience
- Associate Professor, School of Education, University of California, Davis, 2011 – Present.
- Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of California, Davis, 2008 – 2011.
- Adjunct Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California, 2008 – Present.
- Research Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California, 2000 – 2007.
Courses Taught at UC Davis
- ARE 142: Personal Finance (Undergraduate)
- EDU 204A: Quantitative Methods in Educational Research: Analysis of Correlation and Regression
- EDU 229: Education Finance Policy
- EDU 284B: Formulating and Influencing Policy – CANDEL (Ed.D)
- EDU 285A: Educational Finance, Human Resources, and Law: Human and Financial Assets: Allocations and Budgets
- EDU 292: Advanced Quantitative Methods in Program Evaluation and Policy Analysis (Ph.D.
Charter School Spending and Saving in California
Sherrie Reed, education PhD candidate and director of research at New Tech Network, won Best Paper by a junior researcher at the International Conference on School Choice in January 2015 for “Charter School Spending and Saving in California.”
Schools with fewer needy students decry California funding change
LA Times - June 17, 2013
An article in the LA Times on the recently approved new funding formula for schools references a study Associate Professor Heather Rose wrote for the Public Policy Institute of California this spring. In it they quote Rose.
“‘There’s a lot of uncertainty. Nobody really knows’ how much money it will take to boost needy students, she added.”
Moving Toward a Coherent School Finance System
Article by Heather Rose in Leadership - May/June 2013
UC Davis School of Education Associate Professor Heather Rose has written an article mapping out the principals for a rational school finance system in California. In the article, she describes how Governor Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula meet many of the principals outlined and juxtaposes the new proposal against California’s current system. The article appears in the May/June 2013 issue of Leadership, a magazine published by the Association of California School Administrators. Access the magazine online here. Rose’s article appears on pp. 12-15.
Study Compliments and Questions Brown’s Funding Formula
John Fenserwald - EdSource- February 2013
Heather Rose, associate professor in the UC Davis School of Education and Margaret Weston, a PhD student in the School and a PPIC research fellow, wrote an analysis of Gov. Jerry Brown’s recently announced plan for school finance reform. The analysis was done under the auspices of the Public Policy Institute of California.
California School District Revenue and Student Poverty: Moving Toward a Weighted Pupil Funding Formula
Published by the Public-Policy Institute of California (PPIC), February 2013