Using Secondary and Administrative Data to Answer Developmental and Policy Questions

• In Event: 1-008 - Using Administrative Data to Examine Development

Abstract

Many developmental scientists have embraced the benefits of using secondary, longitudinal datasets. Fewer have turned to administrative datasets, which are more challenging to obtain and to use but which have promise for informing developmental science. In this talk, Dr. Elizabeth Gershoff will discuss the practicalities, benefits, and challenges of using secondary research data and administrative data to address research questions that can contribute both to developmental science and to policy evaluation. Dr. Gershoff will use examples from her own research, including the use of FBI crime data to determine whether state changes in school discipline policy are linked with changes in youth crime, the analysis of an entire cohort of children entering the foster care system in a large state in order to characterize the experiences of children in foster care, and the utilization of achievement tests administered to all elementary school children in a state to examine the impacts of school instability on children’s achievement trajectories.

Author

• Elizabeth Gershoff, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author