This dissertation combines three essays on the industrial organization of education markets. While these markets share many features with other sectors of the economy, industry-specific frictions may modify the way in which the market equilibrium is determined in education. These three essays study how particular frictions interact with consumers' decisions and the strategic behavior of firms. The first chapter develops a framework to study school competition under a distinct feature of education, which I call social interactions. The second and third chapters consider the role of information frictions in school choice. Chapter 2 focuses on the equilibrium effects of information interventions. Chapter 3 micro-funds the information frictions and provides a framework for identification. Chapter 1, Competition Under Social Interactions and the Design of Education Policies, studies families' preferences for peers in the school and the implications of those preferences for the distribution of academic outcomes. I develop an equilibrium model of school competition and student sorting under social interactions. In the model, families differ by human capital and income. Academic achievement depends on own characteristics, school productivity, and the characteristics of the peers. Geographic differentiation gives schools local market power to increase prices and decrease quality in the absence of close substitutes. On top of that, social interactions generate interdependencies in demand that add a new dimension for school differentiation. This modifies school incentives through two channels: increased differentiation strengthens market power for some schools (direct channel) and incentivizes a screening strategy that exploits heterogeneous responses to prices and quality to intensify that differentiation (strategic channel). To study the empirical importance of these mechanisms, I estimate the model using administrative microdata from Peru. I address endogeneity of prices, quality, and peers by combining a regression discontinuity in the assignment of a scholarship with instruments that exploit the timing and local variation of a generous teacher payment reform and shocks to student sorting generated by a teachers' strike. I find that social interactions have sizable effects, increasing the income gap in academic achievement by 30 percentage points. I use the predictions of the model to analyze the effects of counterfactual education policies in equilibrium. I then decompose the mechanisms to provide guidance on how to design education policies that improve the distribution of outcomes. Chapter 2, Approximating the Equilibrium Effects of Informed School Choice, joint with Francisco Gallego and Christopher Neilson, studies the potential small and large scale effects of a policy designed to produce more informed consumers in the market for primary education. We develop and test a personalized information provision intervention that targets families of public Pre-K students entering elementary schools in Chile. Using a randomized control trial, we find that the intervention shifts parents' choices toward schools with higher average test scores, higher value added, higher prices, and schools that tend to be further from their homes. Tracking students with administrative data, we find that student academic achievement on test scores was approximately 0.2 standard deviations higher among treated families five years after the intervention. To quantitatively gauge how average treatment effects might vary in a scaled up version of this policy, we embed the randomized control trial within a structural model of school choice and competition where price and quality are chosen endogenously and schools face capacity constraints. We use the estimated model of demand and supply to simulate policy effects under different assumptions about equilibrium constraints. In counterfactual simulations, we find that capacity constraints play an important role mitigating the policy effect but in several scenarios, the supply-side response increases quality, which contributes to an overall positive average treatment effect. Finally, we show how the estimated model can inform the design of a large scale experiment such that reduced form estimates can capture equilibrium effects and spillovers. Chapter 3, Information Frictions and School Choice: Evidence from a Quality Disclosure Policy studies the role that information frictions can play in school choice. We exploit the design of an information policy implemented in Chile, under which each household received a map with the location of every school in its municipality and a coded signal for their relative quality measured by their performance in the national standardized test. We exploit the discontinuities in the assignment of the schools and find that parents significantly respond to the information disclosed, providing evidence of information frictions. We then propose a structural model that allows us to distinguish between two types of frictions: inaccurate beliefs about school quality and restricted consideration sets. Our structural model of school choice explicitly considers these frictions and exploits the variation generated by the policy. We distinguish between two types of them. The first one is related to the idea that parents have inaccurate believes on school quality. The second one is related to heterogeneity in search costs that may lead parents to rationally restrict the sets of schools they put attention to, and ignore alternatives which could have been better than their first choice among the alternatives they considered. We provide a detailed description of the model and a sketch on how to estimate it. Finally, we discuss the dynamic implications of information disclosure policies under market incentives. We propose a reputation model in which school owners have reputation concerns. The model suggests that low-powered incentives may be more desirable when gaming -the second type of effort- exists: high-powered incentives have the benefit of inducing more productive effort, but also more gaming. This implies that the regulator should take into account the fact that providing schools with high-powered incentives for increasing good effort also has the shadow cost of increasing gaming.

Three studies were conducted to better inform how instructional design of educational programming for children impacts learning. In these studies, we focused on how unplugged debugging activities, which require correction of coding errors, affect skills related to computational thinking and personal attributes of children. Study 1 observed debugging performance across varying degrees of embodiment (full and low) with a control group. To identify and rectify coding errors, children in the full embodiment group walked on a floor maze whereas low embodiment group manipulated a paper character using their fingers. Study 2 examined the effects of different degrees of embodiment when combined with either coding or narrative based language on computational thinking and self-efficacy. Children fixed coding errors on a worksheet using coding language or narratives, then performed their revised code using full or low embodiment. Study 3 explored whether congruent or incongruent hand gestures incorporated with either direct or surrogate embodiment enhanced children’s graphic and text programming, self-efficacy, and persistence. In the congruent gesture group, participants placed coding blocks in the same direction that the programming character moves whereas incongruent gesture placed coding blocks in a linear fashion. Direct embodiment is where the participant uses their finger to move a character whereas surrogate embodiment is where the researcher is controlled by the participant through verbal commands. The results on computational thinking skills were: 1) Children performed better in debugging and problem solving using low embodiment; 2) Programming efficiency increased with the use of coding language; 3) Higher performance on graphic programming was found with incongruent gesture while transfer from graphic to text programming improved with surrogate embodiment. In personal attributes: 1) Significant interaction effect was found between hand gesture and embodiment on self-efficacy; 2) Higher persistence was exhibited from direct embodiment. These findings between embodiment and development of computational thinking skills and personal attributes may be utilized in the unplugged learning environment. This is particularly relevant in supporting students to acquire basic computational thinking skills where relevant technology resources are not available.

This qualitative case study examined principals' perceptions regarding stress and burnout, investigated perspectives regarding ways to alleviate chronic stress, and analyzed the extent to which future role expectations are related to chronic stress and feelings of burnout. Perceptions of eight elementary principals in large, suburban school districts who experienced similar professional preparation prior to receiving their first principalship were analyzed. Participants, identified through criterion sampling, completed a demographic survey and then participated in a one-on-one interview with the researcher. Once data were collected, interviews were transcribed and analyzed to determine categories and themes. Findings revealed that participants struggle with significant stress in six specified domains: school type, students, parents and community, staff, district personnel, and other. Half of participants perceive that their stress will rise during the next five to ten years. Thirty-eight percent predicted that job stress will decline in the coming years, though they do not believe that identified stress factors will decrease. Instead, they believe that factors such as experience will help them to deal more effectively with the same challenges. Furthermore, 63% of participants do not plan to remain in their current principalship until retirement. All participants reported current personal stress-management strategies that fall into the categories of work-home balance or healthy habits. In campus-specific strategies, 63% focused on staff morale-building opportunities. Finally, 38% of participants did not feel that their district provides strategies that assist in the management of principalship stress.

"One of these methods is the use of industrial arts at the elementary level. Its outstanding contribution is in the providing of experiences and activities which contribute toward clarifying, expanding, enriching and speeding the learning process. Industrial arts activities assist the elementary school to accomplish its goals by: 1. Developing adequate meanings by reducing abstraction and enriching the curriculum. 2. Establishing learning readiness and motivating learning. 3. Acquainting children with their cultural heritage. 4. Teaching fundamental skills. 5. Providing for individual differences and socializing experiences. 6. Developing desirable personality traits"--Introduction. / "January, 1959." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Marian W. Black, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-74).

"Learning should be an adventure. It is the joyous outcome of a favourable school environment. When the curriculum fits the child and the child develops a natural relationship with the curriculum, when the instruction is astute and the guidance wise, the child learns. The curriculum, broadly interpreted, includes the materials, equipment and experience which adequately meet the physical, mental, social and emotional needs of children of a particular stage of development. Obviously, unlimited opportunities and a setting must be provided for creative experiences under the wise guidance of the teacher. In order to further this program, the following aims must be considered in planning the curriculum: 1. To give the child a feeling of security and freedom from fear in his relationships of school. 2. To provide experiences which will gradually broaden his small world and give it more meaning. 3. To help him rely more and more on himself and on his own judgment in areas where he can take full responsibility. 4. To guide him in forming solid friendships with his contemporaries. 5. To help him enjoy creative work and to know that his own expression of what he sees and feels is of greater value than anything he could imitate. 6. To create the kind of democratic atmosphere in which he feels free to express his agreements and disagreements with adults and other children, and in which he can understand that rules grow out of living together, both in the classroom and in the school as a whole. 7. To help him gain a sense of his value in the group. 8. To provide the guidance and facilities necessary for him to develop skills, appropriate to this age--manual, rhythmic and language"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "July, 1947." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of the Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts under Plan II." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-44).

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between Turkish preservice early childhood teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their mentor teachers’ mentoring. The study also examined related factors including the mentor teachers’ modeling, the feedback provided by the mentor teachers, the amount of time mentor teachers devoted to teaching science, and the amount of time spent teaching science by the preservice teachers. Participating in the study was a sample of 96 Turkish preservice early childhood teachers and their mentor teachers (N=41). The data were collected at two Turkish universities during the time when the preservice teachers were completing their teaching practicum or field-experience. The Pre-Service Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) was administered to the preservice teachers to measure their self-efficacy beliefs. A related instrument (STEBI-A) was also administered to the mentor teachers to measure their self-efficacy beliefs. As the preservice teachers were participating in their practical teaching experiences in kindergarten classes in Turkish public schools they completed the Science Experiences Time Tracker Record. This instrument was designed to measure the amount of time spent on science teaching and observing activities by the preservice teachers and mentors. At the conclusion of the field experiences the preservice teachers were administered the Mentoring for Effective Science Teaching (MEST) instrument. This instrument was designed to measure the preservice teachers’ perceptions of their mentoring teachers’ mentoring activities, including modeling and feedback. Correlational analyses were used to measure the relationship between the preservice and mentor teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. Correlational analyses were also used to measure the relationships between the preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and the amount of time they spent teaching science, the amount of time they spent observing science teaching, and their mentor teachers’ modeling and feedback. There was a statistically significant correlation between the mentor and preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. There was also a statistically significant correlation between the time spent teaching science and the preservice teachers’ self-efficacy. Also, correlated with the preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs were the measures of mentor teachers’ modeling and feedback. The correlations uncovered in this study suggest that if preservice teachers have an opportunity to see the outcomes of their teaching, and receive constructive feedback from their mentor teachers, they will probably have more confidence in their teaching, and thereby increase their self-efficacy beliefs. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2016. / November 7, 2016. / MENTORING, PRESERVICE EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS, SCIENCE TEACHING, SELF EFFICACY BELIEFS, TEACHING PRACTICA / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ming Cui, University Representative; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Lindsey Dennis, Committee Member.

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Teachers have long struggled to be recognized as professionals and to achieve autonomy. Key obstacles that influenced their perception of powerlessness, such as professional isolation of teaching staff, low teacher participation in decision making, and systems of supervision irrelevant to instructional improvement, were even scrutinized in national reports. The criteria suggested for the selection of a teacher supervision training model was based on a sound theory of education supported by research. It provided teachers the latitude for decision making that was congruous with the professional treatment of inservice teachers and that was acceptable to teachers receiving supervision. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of peer clinical supervision on teacher empowerment. The participants were 21 urban elementary school teachers located in southeast Washington, D.C. They along with their principal volunteered to be trained in clinical supervision using an adaptation of Cogan and Goldhammer's Five-Step Clinical Supervision Model. Pre- and post program questionnaires, a perceptual inventory, interviews and field notes were used to report the study's findings. The study concluded that training in peer clinical supervision had a positive impact on teacher empowerment when the results were associated with the six Empowerment Indicators: (1) increased receptivity toward supervision, (2) increased receptivity toward change, (3) decreased feelings of isolation, (4) increased evidence of collegiality, (5) increased participation in the decision-making process at the building level, and (6) increased peer classroom observations. Appendices present an outline of the training model used for this study with sample instruments.