Mimi Engel photo 2022
Associate Professor
Research & Evaluation Methodology
Mimi.Engel@Colorado.edu
303-735-7164

Institude of Behavioral Science, Room 363
麻豆影院
249 UCB
麻豆影院, CO 80309

Mimi Engel is an associate professor and Program Chair of听the Research and Evaluation Methodology (REM) program in the CU 麻豆影院 School of Education.听

Through her research Dr. Engel aims to contribute to our understanding of how policies and programs affect children鈥檚 developmental outcomes and opportunities to learn. Her interest in studying how schools and other contexts influence students is informed by her training in human development and social policy and social work. Spanning several areas including 1) p-12 teachers (policies that affect public school teachers and teacher labor markets, particularly in large urban districts), and 2) early childhood education (kindergarten, P-3 alignment, mathematics teaching and learning), and contextual influences on children, the central aim of her research is to provide new information about contexts, policies, programs, and administrative factors that have the potential to improve students鈥� school-related outcomes, particularly among students from marginalized groups.

Dr. Engel uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to conduct program evaluations and analyses investigating issues in education policy. She has conducted a number of studies in the Chicago Public Schools and worked at the Consortium on Chicago School Research. She also utilizes large-scale national databases in her research. Her publications include peer-reviewed articles in听Educational Researcher,听American Educational Research Journal,听Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, the听Journal of Education Finance and Policy,听Developmental Psychology, and听Educational Administration Quarterly, among others.

Education

PhD Human Development and Social Policy, School of Education, Northwestern University, 2008

AM Social Work, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, 1998

BA History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993听

Teachers: Dr. Engel is currently working with Denver Public Schools through a Research-Practice Partnership focused on the District's teacher workforce and teacher policies with the aim of improving teacher retention and student outcomes. This work is generously funded by a William T Grant Foundation Institutional Challenge Grant, an Institute of Education Sciences(IES) RPP grant, and support from CU 麻豆影院 and the School of Education.

Early Childhood Education: Dr. Engel is analyzing data and publishing results from a 3 year study that involved extensive classroom observations in P-3 classes in New York City. This work is generously funded by the Heising Simons Foundation.

Teacher Workforce Collaborative, a Research-Practice Partnership

翱惫别谤惫颈别飞:听Professors Allison Atteberry and Mimi Engel from the CU 麻豆影院 School of Education are in the early stages of forming a long-term, research-practice partnership (RPP) with the Denver Public School District (DPS), called the Teacher Workforce Collaborative (TWC).听听TWC connects CU professors with DPS鈥� Talent Management team. The focus of the RPP is closing Denver鈥檚 large and persistent achievement gaps. The mechanism for doing so鈥攕trengthening the District鈥檚 teacher workforce鈥攊s the focus of the Partnership.听

惭辞迟颈惫补迟颈辞苍:听Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic achievement gaps in DPS are among the largest in the United States. Hispanic-White and Black-White gaps are 2 to 3 times larger than average gaps nationally and are at the 97th percentile of all U.S. districts. The sheer magnitude of this problem necessitates that TWC focus on strategies that have the greatest potential for moving the needle. Research consistently shows that teachers are the number one in-school malleable factor for improving student outcomes. However, research also documents troubling inequalities in access to effective teaching among schools within districts. Non-White and low-income students also typically attend schools with less experienced teachers and higher teacher turnover rates. The connection between the teacher work force and youth inequality therefore arises due to reduced access to effective teachers in schools serving students from historically marginalized populations.

础肠迟颈惫颈迟颈别蝉:听The TWC Core Team, comprised of researchers at both institutions, comes together on a bimonthly basis to craft and pursue a Joint Research Agenda related to understanding and strengthening DPS鈥� policies to recruit, place, develop, and retain the strongest teachers for the students who need them most. We produce internal policy documents for our DPS Partners, and we publish relevant findings in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, we develop junior researchers鈥� skills to conduct high-quality, place-based research.听

Dr. Engel is currently teaching EDUC 8230, a core course in the School of Education doctoral programs that provides an introduction to statistics and quantitative analysis. She regularly teaches a course in program evaluation, as well as courses in both introductory (i.e., basic statistics, linear regression) and more advanced (experimental and quasi-experimental methods) statistics.

Engel M, Jacob R, Claessens A, Erickson A. (2021) 听Educational Researcher,听50(6):401-415.听

Engel, M., Claessens, A., Watts, T.W., Stone, S.I. (2016). Socioeconomic Inequality at School Entry: A Cross-Cohort Comparison of Families and Schools. Children and Youth Services Review. 71, 227-232.

Engel, M., Claessens, A., Watts, T.W., & Farkas, G. (2016). Mathematics Content Coverage and Student Learning in Kindergarten. Educational Researcher. 45(5), 293-300.

Engel, M., Jacob, B., & *Curran, F.C. (2014) New Evidence on Teacher Labor Supply. American Educational Research Journal, 51(1), 36-72.

Engel, M., Claessens, A., & Finch, M.A. (2013). Teaching students what they already know? The (Mis)Alignment between mathematics instructional content and student knowledge in kindergarten. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 35(2), 157-178.

Engel, M. (2013). Problematic Preferences? A Mixed Method Examination of What Principals Look for when Hiring Teachers. Educational Administration Quarterly, 49(1), 52-91.听