More than Meets the Eye: The Effectiveness of Education Programs and Policies for Special Populations and the Teachers Who Educate The

Personal attributes such as disability, language, and nativity often require additional attention for schools to deliver an appropriate education. In this dissertation, I present three papers on the education of immigrant children, children with disabilities, and English language learners in U.S. public schools and the retention of teachers in high-poverty, urban school districts that educate many of these students.;In Chapter 2 I investigate the impact of New York State's high school exit exam policy on English language learners' academic outcomes. Using regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences methodologies I estimate the impacts of marginally failing an exit exam and tighter exam standards on the probability of dropout and college attendance for a panel of New York City high school students. I find that marginally failing an exit exam has no harmful effects for students who take the exam before the 10th grade, but increases the likelihood of dropout for those who marginally fail in later grades. Tougher exit exam standards do not cause English learners to drop out of high school but reduce their likelihood of enrolling in two-year colleges.;Chapter 3 examines the lower representation of immigrant children in special education services compared to their native peers. I combine data from two nationally representative surveys and administrative city data spanning the years 2009-2015 to investigate possible explanations for the nativity gap in special education, including the healthy immigrant effect, language and culture, and school resource constraints. I find that both nationally and in New York City the gap is significant for middle school children, larger among English learners, and smaller in schools with better test scores and professional staff. There is also some evidence that the prevalence of disabilities is lower among immigrant children.;Lastly in Chapter 4, Meryle Weinstein and I evaluate the effect of the Urban Advantage program on middle school science teacher turnover. This longstanding-collaboration between eight science-rich cultural institutions and the New York City Department of Education is designed to improve students' science achievement through classroom resources, teacher professional development, and access to cultural institutions. We take advantage of rich administrative personnel data and track the full-employment history of eleven cohorts of science teachers. Using a discrete-time survival analysis that accounts for selection into the program, we find that Urban Advantage was successful in retaining teachers in their schools and in the school district.