Fatih Unlu is the director of the Labor, Workforce Development, and Postsecondary Education Program and a senior economist at the RAND Corporation. He has sixteen years of experience conducting rigorous evaluations of education and workforce development programs and interventions. His portfolio includes evaluations of programs that aim to increase students' and adult learners' access to and success in postsecondary and career technical education including early college high schools, dual credit pathways, career coaching, programs addressing college students' basic needs, mentoring interventions that aim to improve student persistence in college, and a coaching program that supports high school seniors in their transition to college. He contributed to evaluations of education programs such as alternative principal and teacher preparation programs, the Federal Reading First program, interventions that aim to improve academic language proficiency of English learners, an early reading curriculum, early math interventions, and extended learning time initiatives enacted in New York City and Massachusetts.
Unlu has substantial expertise in designing and conducting systematic evidence reviews and is a certified What Works Clearinghouse reviewer. He has presented and written on a wide array of research methodology topics. He is a coeditor of the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness and has published in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, AERA Open, American Journal of Evaluation, Peabody Journal of Education, and Journal of Research in Mathematics Education. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.
Selected Publications
Unlu, F., Lauen, D., Fuller, S. C., Berglund, T., and Estera E. , "Can Quasi-Experimental Evaluations that Rely on State Longitudinal Data Systems Replicate Experimental Results: Findings from a Within-Study Comparison. ," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 40, 2021
Edmunds, J.A., Unlu, F., Furey, J., Glennie, E., & Arshavsky, N., "What happens when you combine high school and college? The impact of the early college model on postsecondary performance and completion.," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 42(2), 2020
Westine, C., Unlu, F., Taylor, Spybrook, J., Zhang, Q., and Anderson, B., "Design Parameters for Impact Evaluations of Science and Mathematics Interventions Involving Teacher Outcomes," Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 13(4), 2020
Edmunds, J. A., Unlu, F., Glennie, E., Bernstein, L., Fesler, L., Furey, J., & Arshavsky, N. , "Smoothing the transition to postsecondary education: The impact of the early college model.," Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2017, 42(2), 2017
Unlu, F., Bozzi, L., Layzer, C., Smith, A., Price, C., and Hurtig, R. "Linking Implementation Fidelity to Outcomes in an RCT.," in G. Roberts (Ed.), S. Vaughn (Ed.), N. Beretvas (Ed.), and V. Wong (Ed.), Treatment Fidelity in Studies of Educational Intervention., Abingdon: Rutledge., 2017
Porter, K., Reardon, S. F., Unlu, F., Bloom, H. S., and Robinson-Cimpian, J.P. , "Estimating Causal Effects of Education Interventions Using a Two-Rating Regression Discontinuity Design: Lessons from a Simulation Study and an Application. ," Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2017.
Unlu, F. "Civic Engagement and Education," in Brewer, D.J. & Picus, L.O. ed. , Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance, SAGE, 2014
Reardon, S.F., Unlu, F., Zhu, P., & Bloom, H. , "Bias and Bias Correction in Multi-Site Instrumental Variables Analysis of Heterogeneous Mediator Effects," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 2014.
