September 30, 2025

“I’ve spoken to some rural districts who have been experiencing enrollment decline for a decade or longer. (School closures are) not as surprising to them, but I think now we’re seeing it more widespread. It’s not just the rural districts. It’s kind of everywhere,” said Christine Dickason, a senior policy analyst with Bellwether who co-authored the school closure report. “So I think we’re going to feel that more. More folks are going to feel it hitting home.”

August 26, 2025

The higher education landscape is shifting dramatically, and it’s shifting fast. So much has happened in the first few months of the second Trump administration that it can be hard for state policymakers, school leaders, and advocates to separate the signal from the noise, let alone know how to take action in response to these changes.

August 7, 2025

“School closures are never easy,” Dickason said, but “avoiding these types of tough decisions like school closures can actually lead to less services and opportunities for students.”

January 15, 2025

Co-authored with Sharmila Mann. Although this work is not without its challenges, interviewees across states and role groups repeatedly point to five common, effective strategies that consistently support successful pathways program implementation at scale. 

March 14, 2025

Christine Dickason, a policy analyst at the education nonprofit Bellwether, uses federal data sources like the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to make policy recommendations. Losing that data would be like “if you ask your doctor to diagnose and treat a patient but you don’t let them see the patient and you don’t let them run any tests,” she said.

Co-authored with Kaitlyn Barton. The latest “report” from the Mississippi State Auditor’s office is not a well-researched policy memo with thought-out ideas for improving the state—it’s a poorly written piece of propaganda.

May 23, 2022

Tennessee's trigger law would ban abortion in virtually all circumstances, including rape and incest, except in cases where it was necessary to save the patient’s life.

April 29, 2022

Co-authored with Kaitlyn Barton. Without significant change—like pay raises, increased number of support staff, and strategies to reduce burnout—the U.S. faces a massive teacher shortage that will cripple democracy for years to come.

November 30, 2021

Co-authored with Dr. Kelly Slay. As higher education researchers, we’ve heard from family and friends who are seeking advice as their children plan their post-high school path. Here’s some tips we’ve offered.

September 19, 2020

Last year, it seemed to be the influence of the “good ol’ boys” network that landed Glenn Boyce, a paid member of the search committee, as the chancellor of the UM. Now, it’s time for State Auditor Shad White — a fellow UM alum — to throw red meat to the Republicans.

October 8, 2019

That hope was short-lived, however, as we learned last week that the IHL board abruptly ended the process and chose Glenn Boyce as the next UM Chancellor — a man who was being paid an undisclosed amount of money at the time to assist in the search process. In other words, he hired himself.

March 4, 2019

But a closer look at the ways leading global development organizations have tapped into social media to advance their causes shows that ignoring social media may mean missing out on having a greater impact. Here’s why.

August 6, 2015

Refusing to take action to strengthen our gun laws is costing thousands of American lives every year.

August 2025

This memo outlines the federal government’s historical role in higher education and how that role is expected to be affected by the Trump administration’s actions. It also outlines actions state leaders can take and strategic questions they should consider as they seek to develop, implement, and sustain policies that support the higher education system and the students it serves.

August 13, 2025

Intentional Alignment: Mapping a Path Forward for Strategic Resource Management in K-12 Districts outlines a definition of SRM, details common challenges with SRM implementation, and offers promising examples from organizations across the country that are working to support SRM in districts or deepen the field’s understanding of its key principles.

August 2025

This analysis draws on data from 9,300 districts across the country to identify and explore several leading indicators that, taken together, suggest school closures may become more frequent in the coming months and years.

May 29, 2025

Join Bellwether senior associate partner Daniela Torre Gibney, PhD, senior policy analyst Christine Dickason, PhD, and associate partner Indira Dammu, MPP, along with Elizabeth Demchak, principal of Queens International Secondary School, and Julie Sugarman, PhD, associate director for K-12 education research at the Migration Policy Institute for a conversation about how changes to federal education policy may impact English Learners’ (ELs’) educational experiences.

May 2025

This memo outlines the historical role of the federal government in the education of English learners and how that role is expected to be affected by the Trump administration’s actions. It then outlines actions state leaders can take as well as strategic questions they should consider as they seek to develop, implement, and sustain policies that support English learners.

December 12, 2024

Dollars and Degrees: Perspectives From the Field is an ongoing series of discussions with leaders from states where higher education finance policy reform recently occurred or is happening now to answer these questions and more. By talking with leaders involved in reform efforts, advocates and policymakers elsewhere can learn promising practices from the challenges and successes their states faced.

August 27, 2024

Dollars and Degrees: Perspectives From the Field is an ongoing series of discussions with leaders from states where higher education finance policy reform recently occurred or is happening now to answer these questions and more. By talking with leaders involved in reform efforts, advocates and policymakers elsewhere can learn promising practices from the challenges and successes their states faced.

July 11, 2024

Dollars and Degrees: Perspectives From the Field is an ongoing series of discussions with leaders from states where higher education finance policy reform recently occurred or is happening now to answer these questions and more.

July 10, 2024

Dollars and Degrees: Perspectives From the Field is an ongoing series of discussions with leaders from states where higher education finance policy reform recently occurred or is happening now to answer these questions and more.

March 19, 2024

In honor of Women’s History Month, I connected with a few leaders who are shaping the future of education across the country, each in their own unique way. I asked them to reflect about their current career path, the role mentorship plays in their professional journey, and what they’re currently reading.

April 10, 2025

Navigating Declining Enrollment: A Toolkit for California District Leaders to Design Stronger Schools and Systems aims to help district leaders approach budget realignment strategically. It offers practical resources and research-based guidance on redesigning school systems to improve student learning in a resource-constrained environment. 

November 2017

Contributor. Report on the estimated 2017 revenue gains to state and local governments based on actual and estimated sales data for remote sellers.

June 13, 2023

Coauthored with Cara DeLoach. While campus food pantries are growing increasingly popular as an intervention aimed at improving student retention, little work has examined what it takes to start and maintain these resources on the ground. We leverage data from 17 interviews with pantry leaders, and social media posts and internal documents, to describe the creation and institutionalization of the Grove Grocery at the University of Mississippi.

April 25, 2023

Coauthored with Heinrich, C. & Smith, M. As college promise programs proliferate across the country, supplemental promise programs are emerging to fill gaps in services and resources critical for student success, particularly for students with greater economic needs. This mixed-methods study examines the implementation and efficacy of two such programs in Tennessee, Nashville GRAD and Knox Promise, which are distinct in their approaches to providing financial and advising supports to community college students.

August 26, 2020

Coauthored with Loss, C., Hinz, S., Ryan, C. The US higher education system, existing as it does at the intersection of state/society relations, is a fascinating site to study American history. The citations included in this article are intended to provide a point of embarkation for further inquiry. They have been selected because they offer a thematic overview of the history of American higher education intended to provoke additional reading and investigation.

February 28. 2017

This paper explores how various philosophers contribute to the discussion of the racial integration of public schools.

Paper presented at the 2023 annual meeting of the Sociology of Education Association conference in Pacific Grove, California.

Co-presenters: Dr. Kelly Slay & Amanda Addison

Paper presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Association for Education Finance and Policy in Denver, Colorado.

Co-presenters: Dr. Kelly Slay & Amanda Addison

Roundtable session presented at the 2021 annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Co-presenters: Drs. Kelly Slay and Tangela Blakely-Reavis

Roundtable session presented at the 2021 annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Co-presenters: Dr. Carolyn Heinrich and Mary Smith

Paper presented at the 2021 annual meeting of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (remote).

Paper presented at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (remote).

Co-presenter: Cara DeLoach

Paper presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (remote).

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