people

Helen F. Ladd

Edgar T. Thompson Distinguished Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Economics
CCFP Faculty Fellow

Helen F. Ladd is the Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies and professor of economics at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Most of her current research focuses on education policy. She is particularly interested in various aspects school accountability, education finance, teacher labor markets, and school choice.

She has written numerous articles and books on charter schools and other forms of choice in North Carolina, self-governing schools and parental choice in both New Zealand and the Netherlands, market based reforms in urban school districts, voucher programs, and school reform in post-Apartheid South Africa. In addition, with colleagues at Duke University she has written extensively about school segregation, teacher labor markets, and teacher quality.

Education:

• PhD Harvard University - 1974
• MSc with distinction London School of Economics - 1968
• B.A. Wellesley College - 1967

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. H.F. Ladd (2012). Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence, Presidential address to the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. (Forthcoming). [PDF]


2. H.F. Ladd and Edward B. Fiske eds. (2008). Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy.. Routledge.  (Official handbook of the American Education Finance Association..)


3. H.F. Ladd, Charles T. Clotfelter and Jacob L. Vigdor (2011). Teacher Mobility, School Segregation, and Pay-Based Policies to Level the Playing Field. Education, Finance and Policy, 6(3).


4. H.F. Ladd, Charles T. Clotfelter, Jacob Vigdor (2010). Teacher Credentials and Student Achievement in High School: A Cross Subject Analysis with Fixed Effects. Journal of Human Resources. (45 (3), 655-681.).


5. H.F. Ladd with Robert Bifulco (Winter 2007). School choice, racial segregation, and test-score gaps: Evidence from North Carolina's charter school program. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 26(1), 31-56.

1. League of Women Voters in Orange County on Accountability, 2008
2. Seminar presentation black white test score gap at Davidson, 2008
3. Presentation of CALDER related research annual research meeting of the Institute of Education Sciences, 2007
4. Presentation of research on high poverty schools and the distribution of teachers at the Harvard Achievement Gap Initiative Conference, 2007
5. Various presentations and discussions with the media related to chapter with Francisco Riviera-Batiz on education policy in Puerto Rico and San Juan, 2007

Curriculum Vitae