Research Interests |
Dr. Joanna Mathias is a Senior Research Associate with the Strategic Resource Allocation and Systems Planning Team at WestEd where her projects include analyses of early college and college promise programs, the effect of school finance reform in California on student achievement and the equity impacts of fiscal autonomy for schools, as well as data analysis to support community college master planning. She is an experienced policy researcher with expertise in the economics of education, education policy, and econometrics, in particular, leveraging quasiexperimental econometric methods on large institutional and administrative data sets for causal inference.
She works in partnership with state and local education agencies, advocacy groups, and with private funders to answer pressing questions on access to educational opportunities and the impacts of educational policy in various contexts. She has presented her work at the Association for Education and Finance Policy Annual Conference, and both the American and California Education Research Association Annual Conferences. She received the CERA 2021 Outstanding Paper Award for her work on access to dual enrollment. She has also published policy briefs and technical reports through UC Davis’ Wheelhouse and Stanford University’s Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). As a first-generation college student and community college alumna, Dr. Mathias is broadly interested in the role of education in intergenerational social mobility, with an emphasis on postsecondary transitions. Her recent work has focused on the college & career readiness space, particularly on access and equity in career and technical education and dual enrollment, in addition to college & career readiness in accountability systems. Dr. Mathias holds a PhD in School Organization & Education Policy from the University of California at Davis, and an MS in Economics from North Carolina State University. My dissertation work focused on Career and Technical Education in California, both descriptive analysis of the current landscape and analysis of policy developments and impacts under recent changes in state and federal legislation. My research utilizes comprehensive data on the census of California students to understand the state of CTE in California, examine stratification within CTE programs, determine the effect of CTE on postsecondary outcomes & behavior, and examine community college alignment and outcomes for K-12 CTE students. I am broadly interested in the transition from high school to postsecondary education and the early years of postsecondary studies for socioeconomically disadvantaged students. I want to understand how students from disadvantaged groups navigate higher education curriculum and institutions. Utilizing my training in econometrics, I apply quasi-experimental methods to large institutional datasets. I am specifically interested in understanding socioeconomic status and the income-achievement gap in higher education research, especially in STEM fields. I aim to examine how postsecondary institutions can improve retention and persistence for socioeconomically disadvantaged students, especially in STEM fields. |
Publications
In Preparation
Mathias, J. (2024). The New CTE Tracking? Stratification Across California’s Career and Technical Education Industry Groups
Mathias, J. (2024). Dual Enrollment: How Opportunity and Participation is Distributed across Schools
Reports
Krausen, K., Tanner, S., Caparas, R., Makkonen, R., Burr, E., & Mathias, J. (2022). Evaluation of California’s Differentiated Assistance. WestEd. Available at: https://www.wested.org/resources/evaluation-of-californias-differentiated-assistance/
Kurlaender, M., Reed, S., Grosz, M., & Mathias, J., & Hughes, K. (2021). A Foot in the Door: Growth in Participation and Equity in Dual Enrollment in California. Research Brief, Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research. Available at: https://education.ucdavis.edu/sites/main/files/wheelhouse_research_brief_vol_6_no_7_final.pdf
Reed, S., Dougherty, S. M., Kurlaender, M., & Mathias, J. (2018). A Portrait of California Career Technical Education Pathway Completers. Available at: http://gettingdowntofacts.com/publications/portrait-california-career-technical-educationpathway-completers
Mathias, J. (2024). The New CTE Tracking? Stratification Across California’s Career and Technical Education Industry Groups
Mathias, J. (2024). Dual Enrollment: How Opportunity and Participation is Distributed across Schools
Reports
Krausen, K., Tanner, S., Caparas, R., Makkonen, R., Burr, E., & Mathias, J. (2022). Evaluation of California’s Differentiated Assistance. WestEd. Available at: https://www.wested.org/resources/evaluation-of-californias-differentiated-assistance/
Kurlaender, M., Reed, S., Grosz, M., & Mathias, J., & Hughes, K. (2021). A Foot in the Door: Growth in Participation and Equity in Dual Enrollment in California. Research Brief, Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research. Available at: https://education.ucdavis.edu/sites/main/files/wheelhouse_research_brief_vol_6_no_7_final.pdf
Reed, S., Dougherty, S. M., Kurlaender, M., & Mathias, J. (2018). A Portrait of California Career Technical Education Pathway Completers. Available at: http://gettingdowntofacts.com/publications/portrait-california-career-technical-educationpathway-completers
Presentations
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Dual Enrollment – How Opportunity and Participation is Distributed across Schools, Presentation, UC Davis School of Education Graduate Student Association Speaker Series, Davis, CA (November 2021)
Dual Enrollment – How Opportunity and Participation is Distributed across Schools, Presentation, California Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA (November 2021)
Career and Technical Education Re-Branded: A New Pattern of Stratification by CTE Industry Groups, Presentation, California Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA (November 2021)
Career and Technical Education in California: Enrollment and College and Career Readiness under Common Core and Multiple Measures Accountability, UC Davis School of Education Graduate Student Association Speaker Series, Davis, CA (April 2021)
Academic Rigor in 12th Grade Course Enrollment, Presentation, California Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA (November 2018)
Dual Enrollment – How Opportunity and Participation is Distributed across Schools, Presentation, California Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA (November 2021)
Career and Technical Education Re-Branded: A New Pattern of Stratification by CTE Industry Groups, Presentation, California Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA (November 2021)
Career and Technical Education in California: Enrollment and College and Career Readiness under Common Core and Multiple Measures Accountability, UC Davis School of Education Graduate Student Association Speaker Series, Davis, CA (April 2021)
Academic Rigor in 12th Grade Course Enrollment, Presentation, California Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA (November 2018)
Awards
Outstanding Paper 2021, California Educational Research Association, Dual Enrollment: How Opportunity and Participation is Distributed Across California's Schools