News and Events

Dr. Julie Maurer, OERC Lead Research Manager, will present her poster "Effective self-directed learning activities for master’s in Public Administration policy simulation and modeling curriculum." at the 2022 International System Dynamics Society Conference

July 18-20

This presentation overviews how grounding instructional design strategies in andrigological principals can result in engaging and accessible self-directed learning activities effective for teaching system dynamics to adults. Effectively teaching system dynamics as a policy modeling tool to master’s students in public administration presents myriad challenges – particularly when delivered remotely in an online environment. One such challenge is building efficacy for learners from diverse non-technical disciplines pursuing careers in public administration. This case study of developing a public policy simulation and modeling course using instructional strategies anchored in the six key principals of androgogy. We examine the use of a model building project as a practical way to consider individual learners contexts, motivations and other unique characteristics. This inclusive approach may be useful for others who are developing curricula to teach applied system dynamics to adults.

Visit the 2022 International System Dynamics Society Conference web page

Dr. Tian Lou, OERC Research Scientist, recently presented her work at the Labor Market Information Institute’s Annual Conference.

In the panel, From Unemployment to Reemployment: Tracking UI Claimants, Dr. Lou presented her research results examining Ohio’s Unemployment Insurance data to inform on real-time employment trends and shared her methodology so others can recreate in their state.

View Dr. Lou’s presentation

Visit the LMI Conference web page

COVID-19: Cross-Agency Data and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many changes to the education and workforce sectors, as well as the way in which state agencies collect data on these sectors. These changes have uncovered new questions about readiness and challenges for collection and research, as well as ways to improve inequities and provide assistance to individuals in need.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences highlighted how the Ohio Education Research Center and its state agency partners responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by conducting cross-agency research using the Ohio Longitudinal Data Archive.

Read the SLDS Issue Brief.

National Convening: Jobs Data for Evidence-Based Policy

March 3 – 5, 2021

Join leaders from across the country, representing state and federal governments, as well as philanthropic foundations and professional associations, for a dynamic two-day convening celebrating success and mapping a strategy to grow data access, stewardship, and analysis for evidence-based policymaking.

Read more here.

Dr. Josh Hawley, Director of the Ohio Education Research Center, was awarded a Fulbright ASEAN Research Program Award

The Ohio State University’s Office of International Affairs recently announced that Dr. Josh Hawley, Director of the Ohio Education Research Center, was awarded a Fulbright ASEAN Research Program Award to Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam during January – May 2021 to research approaches to labor market planning for technical and vocational education. His proposed study will examine labor market data systems and their use by the education systems in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and will lay the groundwork for a new model of how data can be used in educational planning.

Read the announcement here.

Citizen Brown - Race, Democracy, and Inequality in the St. Louis Suburbs by Colin Gordon, University of Iowa

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, ignited nationwide protests and brought widespread attention police brutality and institutional racism. But Ferguson was no aberration. As Colin Gordon shows in his book “Citizen Brown: Race, Democracy, and Inequality in the St. Louis Suburbs,” the events in Ferguson exposed not only the deep racism of the local police department but also the ways in which decades of public policy effectively segregated people and curtailed citizenship not just in Ferguson but across the St. Louis suburbs. protect but as sources of revenue was only the most immediate example.

Colin Gordon writes on the history of American public policy and political economy. He is the author of “Citizen Brown: Race, Democracy, and Inequality in the St. Louis Suburbs” (Chicago, 2019). He is a senior research consultant at the Iowa Policy Project, for which he has written or co-written reports on health coverage, economic development, and wages and working conditions. Colin Gordon received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990.

You can download the flyer here.

Register for the event here or scan the QR code below.

General Information

March 23, 2020

5 - 6:30 p.m.

Policy Forum

Page Hall

Dinner provided

Now available: Webinar about the Applied Data Analytics for Public Policy Training Program at OSU

The OERC an informational webinar about the Coleridge Initiative’s upcoming Applied Data Analytics training program for public policy on January 14, 2020. If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here and view the slides here.

The webinar provides an overview of the structure and content of the class and help you decide if it is the right opportunity for you to grow your analytical skills.

About the program

The Coleridge Initiative is pleased to announce an upcoming training program in Applied Data Analytics for Public Policy (https://coleridgeinitiative.org/training). The program trains policy analysts and researchers how to apply big data tools to real world micro data on a secure computing platform. The textbook is the successful “Big Data and Social Science: A Practical Guide to Methods and Tools”, edited by three of the instructors.

Participants learn an array of analytical techniques, including SQL and Python, data management, record linkage, text analysis, visualization, machine learning, visualization and privacy and confidentiality. Please follow the links below for more information on the two upcoming programs.

Learn more about the training program here.

Applied Data Analytics Training at The Ohio State University

The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio is hosting the Winter, 2020 Coleridge Initiative Applied Data Analytics training program, sponsored by the Overdeck Family Foundation. Participants will work in teams to define and complete a project related to Transitions in Education and Workforce. The program will provide up-to-date perspective on the use of administrative data for policy analysis, and instruction on how to manage and analyze micro data according to best practices. Instructors will facilitate hands-on coding of micro data in SQL and Python for the following tasks: data management, record linkage, data visualization, and machine learning.

Lunch and Learn with the Ohio Education Research Center

The Ohio Education Research Center invites you to join fellow students, faculty and staff in the John Glenn College's LEC Training Room at noon on December 3rd to learn about a recent OERC research project.

The OERC’s Dr. Tian Lou will present, “How do apprenticeships benefit young workers? An Evaluation of Registered Apprenticeship Programs in Ohio”

Pizza and beverages will be provided (or bring your own lunch).

Walk-ins are welcome, but if you can, please register here so we can get a head-count for lunch.

Presentation Abstract: In this project, we investigate how less-educated and less-experienced workers in Ohio benefit from registered apprenticeships. We focus on 18-24-year-old males. Regression results show that compared to individuals who have similar pre-program educational backgrounds but little or no job training, apprentices have significantly higher earnings for at least nine years after program entry. Apprenticeship completion is associated with 40 percent higher earnings. Two factors may explain the impact of apprenticeship programs. First, apprentices acquire work experience during their training. Second, completers receive a nationally recognized certificate, which signals that they have high productivity to potential employers. In future research, we will examine the relative importance of training vs certificates in determining apprentices’ earnings by using a discrete choice dynamic model, in which individuals make apprenticeship participation and completion decisions based on how their decisions affect their future earnings. You can access Dr. Lou’s presentation here.

Future of Work Study

The Ohio Education and Research Center at The Ohio State University's John Glenn College of Public Affairs will begin research to identify skills needed for careers of tomorrow. Sponsored by the Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio, Smart Columbus and the United Way of Central Ohio, OERC will research future employment opportunities for central Ohio residents in industries related to intelligent transportation systems, electrification, internet of things, financial services and healthcare. It will also address the skills needed to fill those jobs, and gaps in current local training programs. Kickoff of the research program was held at SMART Columbus' office on Thursday, May 9, 2019.

“Transformative change happening in the mobility industry has the potential to help our residents get to work more reliable and affordable. It also has the potential to create more jobs in our region,” said Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther. “This research is an important component of the Smart Columbus initiative that will help us create training opportunities to give our residents the skills they need to thrive in a changing world and workforce.”

OERC has partnered with Regionomics and Essentia Strategy Group to provide additional research identifying current and future gaps between the supply of qualified workers required to meet the employment needs of area businesses.

The OERC team will consist of Josh Hawley, principal investigator; Julie Maurer, project manager; Kristin Harlow, research associate and Lina Osorio Copete, research associate. Consultants on the team are Bill LaFayette from Regionomics, Sarah Lee and Y’Nesha Schaffer both from the Essentia Strategy Group.

The Future of Work research is funded through the Smart Cities Challenge grant awarded to the City of Columbus by the Paul G. Allen Philanthropies, United Way of Central Ohio, and the Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio. Findings from the report are slated to be released in late fall.

New Research Publication

The OERC's Julie Maurer and Josh Hawley, and John Glenn College of Public Affairs alumnus, Hyungjo Hur, have a new paper — "The role of education, occupational match on job satisfaction in the behavioral and social science workforce" — published in Human Resource Development Quarterly.

Ohio's Evidence-Based Clearinghouse

The OERC collaborated with the Ohio Department of Education to develop Ohio’s Evidence-Based Clearinghouse, an online tool intended to empower Ohio’s districts with the knowledge, tools and resources that will help them identify, select and implement evidence-based strategies for improving student success.

Making the Case for Workforce Development

The OERC’s Director, Josh Hawley, was recently featured in a video, “Making the Case for Workforce Development” produced by Kansas City PBS station, KCPT as a part of its participation in the national American Graduate: Getting to Work project.

New Working Paper

The National Bureau of Economic Research recently released a new working paper by OERC collaborators, Valerie Bostwick, a post-doctoral researcher in economics at The Ohio State University, and Bruce Weinberg, a professor of economics and public administration at The Ohio State University. The paper, “Nevertheless She Persisted? Gender Peer Effects in Doctoral STEM Programs” studies the environment in STEM doctoral programs and the effect on gender differences in Ph.D. persistence and completion. The paper suggests that women's success in STEM Ph.D. programs has much to do with having female peers, especially in their first year in graduate school.

New Research Publication

The OERC’s Director, Josh Hawley, was a co-author on a recent study with, Navid Ghaffarzadefan, Ran Xu, and Richard Larson, “Symptoms versus Root Causes: A Needed Structural Shift in Academia to Help Early Careers,” that was published in BioScience, the Journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.