Paul Bruno

29 Jan 2025

New from me in Education Finance & Policy: Pandemic-Era School Staff Shortages: Evidence from Unfilled Position Data in Illinois doi.org/10.1162/edfp...

ICYMI

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

Also: I've transitioned my Useful Data Resources to something hopefully a little more usable (both for people looking for data and for me, maintaining it). data.paul-bruno.com

ICYMI

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

Another update to the dashboard, after trialing for a couple of weeks: a feed of school staff shortage news coverage, the context it provides, and the additional context that might help. shortages.paul-bruno.com/news.html

Paul Bruno reposted

Also: I've transitioned my Useful Data Resources to something hopefully a little more usable (both for people looking for data and for me, maintaining it). data.paul-bruno.com

Paul Bruno reposted

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

Some updates to the School Staff Shortages and the Wider Labor Market dashboard are up now: streamlining of the landing page and the addition of a new "Further reading" page. shortages.paul-bruno.com

Also: I've transitioned my Useful Data Resources to something hopefully a little more usable (both for people looking for data and for me, maintaining it). data.paul-bruno.com

This is the resource of easy-to-access data for, e.g., grad students looking for free data to play with or for projects I use to (poorly) keep as a Google spreadsheet. That old spreadsheet redirects here now.

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

Some updates to the School Staff Shortages and the Wider Labor Market dashboard are up now: streamlining of the landing page and the addition of a new "Further reading" page. shortages.paul-bruno.com

I've been picking out the occasional story to talk about this way for a while now. So I thought, why not automate that a bit and integrate directly into the dashboard that has a lot of the context itself? And, again, I'm sort of just curious to see what AI can do.

For each story, I try to distill what we can learn from the story, what we can or can't infer, and what else would maybe help to know.

I assume somebody somewhere has already explained Liquid Death's distinction between "soda" and "soda-flavored sparkling water"?

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Diverging pathways: first-year college courses and the gender gap in STEM degree attainment academic.oup.com/sf/article/1...

Sex differences in academic achievement in US adolescents: the role of maturation and impulse control doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

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news.maryland.govMSDE Announces Historic Declines in Teacher Vacancy Rate – Maryland State Department of Education

MSDE Announces Historic Declines in Teacher Vacancy Rate news.maryland.gov/msde/msde-an... Nobody's told them about the teacher shortage crisis, smdh.

Paul Bruno reposted

9 Nov 2024

Replying to @paul-bruno.com

Again, this is one of my main problems with the "Rationalist" movement, which seems to reliably descend into contrarian identitarianism for very predictable reasons.

prez.lyGov. Pritzker Announces Illinois Public Universities Achieved Highest Enrollment Level in Over a DecadeOverall enrollment increased for the third consecutive year despite demographic change forecasts

Gov. Pritzker Announces Illinois Public Universities Achieved Highest Enrollment Level in Over a Decade prez.ly/9doe

chicagotribune.comProposed city budget includes $286M for CPS, but district’s financial outlook remains shakyMayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed city budget includes $285 million for Chicago Public Schools — only half of what the district received last year.

"Some aldermen voiced skepticism, meanwhile, that even a $520 million TIF sweep is feasible." www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/21/c...

Paul Bruno reposted

Emily Hanford

@ehanford.bsky.social

Episode 3 of Sold a Story Season 2 is out now. www.apmreports.org/episode/2026...

apmreports.orgSeason 2, Episode 3: The Forgotten Experiment

Paul Bruno reposted

14 Aug

Online postsecondary education can expand access, but its effects on student outcomes vary. In this chapter, Joshua Goodman examines research on online postsecondary education and its effects on student learning, degree completion, and access. Learn more: livehandbook.org/higher-educa...

Paul Bruno reposted

28 Aug

School capital investments can improve student outcomes, but spending varies by district. Paco Martorell and Isaac McFarlin Jr. examine how K–12 capital investments are funded and distributed and how effects vary by project and community. Learn more: livehandbook.org/k-12-educati...

Paul Bruno reposted

16 Sept

For-profit colleges play a distinct role in higher education, but research raises questions about student outcomes, debt, and reliance on federal student aid. In this chapter, Stephanie Cellini examines research on for-profit colleges. Learn more: livehandbook.org/higher-educa...

Paul Bruno reposted

Assistant principals support school operations, student affairs, and instructional management. In this chapter, Ellen Goldring, Mariesa Herrmann, Anna Moyer, and Mollie Rubin examine their roles and responsibilities. Learn more: livehandbook.org/k-12-educati...

247sports.comIllini WBB looks to 'push the envelope' in attendance growth: 'You have to have butts in the seats'Last season, Illinois had an average attendance of 5,766, the third highest in program history and the highest since the 1999-00 season

Jeremy Werner@jwerner247.bsky.social

#illini WBB's attendance has grown 366% during Shauna Green's tenure, and she's grateful for it. But the Illinois head coach is pushing for more. "Why can't we average 7,000 or 8,000? I think we can do that," Green said.

Paul Bruno reposted

Some updates to the School Staff Shortages and the Wider Labor Market dashboard are up now: streamlining of the landing page and the addition of a new "Further reading" page. shortages.paul-bruno.com

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

New, from me, a slightly experimental project I've been working on: School Staff Shortages and the Wider Labor Market shortages.paul-bruno.com A sort of dashboard trying to put common conversations about school staff shortages into more context.

chalkbeat.orgCurse or cash cow? How Chicago’s special taxing districts known as TIFs bring budget instability to the CPS budget.Candidates running for Chicago school board have different views on how to account for TIF surpluses in the district’s annual budget.

Special taxing districts’ uncertain future looms over historic school board races www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2026... I know some people are convinced the TIFs are basically free money but this seems sub-optimal, even if you assume that the TIF funds shouldn't be used for TIF-related purposes.

chalkbeat.orgBrandon Johnson’s city budget proposal is out. It won’t help as much as the CPS CEO hoped.Chicago Public Schools has asked city government for help in covering upcoming costs linked to pensions and union contracts. The mayor’s spending levels for CPS are more than what the district has bud...

Even putting aside the fact that the city has its own financial problems, it's very confusing for everybody involved that the city and district budgets are officially separate but obviously linked in practice in ways that a lot of cities/districts avoid. bsky.app/profile/paul...

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

I take the point but when I talk to CPS people they don't consider the budgets completely distinct (even if they're formally distinct) and it's not obvious to me that they should for practical purposes, particularly at the moment. www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2024...

Some updates to the School Staff Shortages and the Wider Labor Market dashboard are up now: streamlining of the landing page and the addition of a new "Further reading" page. shortages.paul-bruno.com

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

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More substantively: a new Further Reading page highlights readings keyed to different entries in the dashboard, e.g., vacancy rates, non-teaching staff, the size of the workforce. shortages.paul-bruno.com/reading.html

Suggestions for other readings to include are welcome, though I'm also inclined to keep the total number of things to a minimum, or at least a minimum within topic area.

Some updates to the School Staff Shortages and the Wider Labor Market dashboard are up now: streamlining of the landing page and the addition of a new "Further reading" page. shortages.paul-bruno.com

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

academic.oup.comBusing to Opportunity? The Impacts of the Metco Voluntary School Desegregation Program on Urban Students of ColorAbstract. School assignment policies are a key lever for expanding access to high-performing schools and promoting racial and socioeconomic integration. Fo

Besides tweaking some of the narrative, I'd been getting bogged down in detail about some of the data sources. That detail isn't as important as its real estate on the page, was being repeated, and is not consolidated into existing tables/expandable info boxes (& the data page).

*now consolidated

Busing to Opportunity? The Impacts of the Metco Voluntary School Desegregation Program on Urban Students of Color academic.oup.com/qje/article-...

academic.oup.comWho Pays for Unions?*Abstract. If unions raise worker wages, who pays? We provide a comprehensive assessment of firm responses to increased unionization, using changes in the t

Who Pays for Unions? academic.oup.com/qje/article-...

ipmnewsroom.orgUniversity of Illinois tenured faculty restart unionization process in midst of Trump policy changes - IPM NewsroomThe Campus Faculty Association hosted a panel Tuesday focused on attacks on higher education, where organizers and heads of other unions pitched unionization as the way to fight back.

The messaging around this has been pretty muddled and less than reassuring.

Illinois Public Media@ilpublicmedia.bsky.social

“I think we need unions so that we can be in solidarity with the other folks on our campus. So that we have a seat at the table when our university is making really important decisions about how to respond to all of the things that we’ve been talking about here today.”

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There's also a literature on public sector unions I'd like to see more engagement with. I know it's thin on higher ed faculty unions specifically, as opposed to, say, K-12 teachers or police, but still. We're academics! And it's not...uh...uniformly encouraging.

docs.google.comFaculty-unionization FAQFaculty-unionization FAQ: A brief for my U colleagues Assistant Professor Aaron Sojourner Carlson School of Management University of Minnesota May 13, 2016 As University of Minnesota - Twin Cities ...

If we need more of a "seat at the table" am I going to be asked to be on *even more* committees?

Paul Bruno reposted

Aaron Sojourner

@aaronsojourner.org

Replying to @imbernomics.bsky.social

I wrote this FAQ 10 years ago when UMN faculty were thinking about organizing docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The messaging around this has been pretty muddled and less than reassuring.

Illinois Public Media@ilpublicmedia.bsky.social

e.g., 90% of what I've been pitched is about salary, and it's not clear where (or who else on campus) that money is supposed to come from.

apmreports.orgSeason 2, Episode 1: It’s Not Just Reading

Hey it starts in Champaign www.apmreports.org/episode/2026...

Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

Oh wow they're gonna do Project Follow Through aren't they.//Sold a Story 2: What Happened to Teaching youtu.be/4YDq-AB_d2c?...

youtu.beSold a Story 2: What Happened to TeachingYouTube video by Sold a Story

www.espn.com/womens-colle...

stereogum.comBig Thief Launch Live Archive With 10 Concert RecordingsOver the past decade Big Thief have emerged as one of the indie bands that carries itself most like a classic rock/jam band. Not only does each successive album have its own distinct character, they s...

Cool but if I can't download it I'm not going to listen to it, realistically.

Stereogum@stereogum.com

Big Thief have launched their official live archive with a collection of 10 full concert recordings

Maybe everybody else knew Cunk was joining the MCU?

chalkbeat.orgWhat key groups say about whether Illinois should opt into new federal education tax creditsTeachers unions say Gov. JB Pritzker would hurt public school funding if he opted into the Trump-backed program. But the private school community believes the families they work with deserve more help...

It's very hard to find reasons for Pritzker not to opt in that aren't just political/coalitional. www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2026...

Paul Bruno reposted

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Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com

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Paul Bruno@paul-bruno.com