Isaac M. Opper

Economist; Affiliate Faculty, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D. in economics, Stanford University; M.A. in economics, Stanford University; B.A. in economics and mathematics, Colby College

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

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Overview

Isaac M. Opper is an applied microeconomist who does work primarily on the economics of education, health economics, labor economics, and personnel economics. Much of his research relates to the measurement of teacher quality, including a paper published in the American Economic Review which shows that the positive impact that teachers have on their students spills over to affect their students’ future peers. Other work includes an impact evaluation of the New York City Community School Initiative cited by congressional testimony by Secretary Cardona and a paper forthcoming at the Journal of Labor Economics which shows that there are large peer effects in a job training program and that these peer effects impact the optimal assignment of individuals to the treatment. His work has been reported about in leading newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Opper is a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School faculty. He graduated with a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

Research Focus

Selected Publications

Isaac M. Opper, "Does Helping John Help Sue? Evidence of Spillovers in Education," American Economic Review, 109(3), 2019

Johnston, William R., John Engberg, Isaac M. Opper, Lisa Sontag-Padilla, and Lea Xenakis, Illustrating the Promise of Community Schools: An Assessment of the Impact of the New York City Community Schools Initiative, RAND Corporation (RR-3245), 2020

Matthew Baird, John Engberg, and Isaac M. Opper, "Optimal Allocation of Seats in the Presence of Peer Effects: Evidence from a Job Training Program," Journal of Labor Economics, 2023 (forthcoming)

Publications

Journal Article
Buprenorphine Treatment Episode Duration, Dosage, and Concurrent Prescribing of Benzodiazepines and Opioid Analgesics: The Effects of Medicaid Prior Authorization Policies
Researchers used Medicaid claims during the period 2006–2013 to investigate the relationship between buprenorphine prior authorization requirements and changes in treatment in the years following policy implementation.
Dec 8, 2022
Draft
From LATE to ATE: A Bayesian Approach
Develops a Bayesian model that produces a posterior distribution of the marginal treatment effect function.
Nov 16, 2022
Report
The Impact and Implementation of the Chicago Collaborative Teacher Professional Development Program
The authors evaluated the Leading Educators Chicago Collaborative, a teacher professional development program aligned to Common Core State Standards, examining the program's implementation and its impact on student achievement.
Jul 6, 2022
Report
Guidance on When to Estimate a Future Price Factor: Development of Criteria and Thresholds
A future price forecast can help the Federal Emergency Management Agency and communities seeking its Public Assistance estimate construction costs. Researchers created a framework for determining when such a forecast could be useful.
Jun 20, 2022
Report
Forecasting Public Recovery Expenditures' Effect on Construction Prices and the Demand for Construction Labor
Researchers developed cost-estimating tools and estimated future construction costs for Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane María. This report documents their approach, data, findings, and recommendations.
Jun 17, 2022
Research Brief
Future Price Forecasting in the Wake of Large-Scale Disasters: The Case of Puerto Rico After Hurricane María
Large-scale disaster recovery projects in isolated areas likely require unique future price forecasting. This brief describes an occupational analysis and model to estimate the effects of recovery on the price of labor, materials, and equipment.
Jun 17, 2022
Journal Article
Optimal Allocation of Seats in the Presence of Peer Effects: Evidence from a Job Training Program
We model optimal treatment assignment in programs with a limited number of seats and study how the presence of peer effects impact the optimal allocation rule and us data from an RCT to show there are peer effects in the job training context.
Mar 29, 2022
Draft
Using Machine Learning Techniques to Improving Average Treatment Effect Estimates in Small-Scale Randomized Controlled Trials
Develops a sufficient condition which ensures that the inclusion of covariates does not induce small-sample bias in the effect estimates when analyzing results of randomized controlled trials.
Nov 3, 2020
Report
Illustrating the Promise of Community Schools: An Assessment of the Impact of the New York City Community Schools Initiative
This report presents the impact of the New York Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) through the 2017--2018 school year by assessing the effects along seven outcome domains based on student- and school-level characteristics.
Jan 28, 2020
Research Brief
What Is the Impact of the New York City Community Schools Initiative?
In this brief, authors present the impact of the New York Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) through the 2017–2018 school year by assessing the effects along seven outcome domains based on student- and school-level characteristics.
Jan 28, 2020
Report
Teachers' Broad Impact: Understanding How Teachers Influence Students They Do Not Teach
The author discusses the potential ways that teachers can affect students whom they do not teach and how research suggests that a teacher's indirect reach could account for a large proportion of his or her overall contribution to student learning.
Dec 4, 2019
Report
Teachers Matter: Understanding Teachers' Impact on Student Achievement
The author articulates how research suggests that teachers are important to student achievement and how statistical methods can provide valuable but imprecise estimates of teacher effectiveness.
Dec 4, 2019
Report
Value-Added Modeling 101: Using Student Test Scores to Help Measure Teaching Effectiveness
The author discusses the use of value-added models (VAMs) to estimate teacher contribution to student progress, account for students' prior characteristics, and enable relative judgments, as well as the limitations of VAMs.
Dec 4, 2019
Research Brief
How Teacher Effectiveness Spills Over into Other Classrooms
RAND study has shown that, by increasing the ability of their own students, effective teachers also increase the ability of their students' future peers -- a significant effect that current "value added" teacher ratings system do not account for.
May 28, 2019
Draft
Assessing the Short-term Impact of the New York City Renewal Schools Program
Estimates short-term impacts of the New York City Renewal Schools Program based on the first two full years of program implementation.
Apr 5, 2019
Journal Article
Does Helping John Help Sue? Evidence of Spillovers in Education
This paper studies the indirect effect of teachers on their students' future peers and shows that these spillover effects are a large fraction of teachers total value.
Apr 3, 2019
Report
Preparing School Leaders for Success: Evaluation of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program, 2012–2017
This report analyzes whether schools and students led by graduates of New Leaders‘ Aspiring Principals program outperformed comparison schools and students in the same district.
Feb 25, 2019
Research Brief
Considerations for Implementing the TNTP Core Rubric
RAND researchers assessed whether the TNTP Core Teaching Rubric produces scores that are representative of teachers' overall instructional practices and whether raters' content expertise influences scores on TNTP Core.
Nov 7, 2018
Report
Validation Study of the TNTP Core Teaching Rubric
RAND researchers assess whether the TNTP Core Teaching Rubric produces scores that are representative of teachers' overall instructional practices and whether raters' content expertise influences scores on TNTP Core.
Nov 7, 2018