David Blazar

David Blazar is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland College Park in the Education Policy program. He also is the Faculty Director of the Maryland Equity Project, an Affiliate at the School of Public Policy, and an Affiliate at the Maryland Population Research Center. Substantively, his research examines resources that best support student outcomes and alleviate inequality, with a particular focus on teacher and teaching quality. His current research projects focus largely on questions related to educator diversity, including: Why is it that educator diversity matters for students and for schools? What are the policies and programs that are effective at diversifying the educator workforce? How can school systems ensure that educators of color have successful experiences once they enter schools and classrooms? Methodologically, he primarily examines and employs research designs that aim to support causal conclusions. His research has been published in American Education Research Journal, Economics of Education Review, Educational Researcher, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Review of Educational Research, among other publications; as well as covered in national press outlets including The Atlantic, ChalkBeat, Education Week, The Hechinger Report, and U.S. News and World Report. Dr. Blazar received the Excellence in Scholarship (Pre-Tenure) award from the University of Maryland College of Education, and the Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Education Finance and Policy. He received his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in quantitative policy analysis in education with a disciplinary focus in economics. He also holds an Ed.M. in policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in history and literature from Harvard College. Prior to graduate school, he taught high-school English Language Arts in New York City.
Working Papers
Blazar, D. Teaching, the multitask performance problem, and students’ human capital development over time.
Blazar, D. Teachers of color, culturally responsive teaching, and student outcomes: Experimental evidence from the random assignment of teachers to classes. Link
Blazar, D., Adnot, M., & Zhong, X. Incentives, task difficulty, and race: Differential responses to teacher evaluation.
Blazar, D., & Lagos, F. Professional staff diversity and student outcomes: Extending our understanding of race/ethnicity-matching effects in education. Link to presentation
Blazar, D., McNamara, D., & Blue, G. Instructional coaching personnel and program scalability. Link
Blazar, D., & Pollard, C. Challenges and tradeoffs of “good” teaching: The pursuit of multiple educational outcomes. Link
Blazar, D., & Schueler, B. Why do school districts matter? An interdisciplinary framework and empirical review. Link
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Blazar, D. & Archer, C. (2020). Teaching to support students with diverse academic needs. Educational Researcher, 49(5), 297-311. Link
Blazar, D., Heller, B., Kane, T. J., Polikoff, M., & Staiger, D. O, with Carrell, S., Goldhaber, D., Harris, D., Hitch, R., Holden, K. L., & Kurlaender, M. (2020). Curriculum reform and the Common Core: Evaluating elementary math textbooks across six U.S. states. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 39(4), 966-1019. Link
Blazar, D, & Archer, C. (2020). Teaching to support students with diverse academic needs. Educational Researcher, 49(5), 297-311. Link
Kane, T. J., Blazar, D., Gehlbach, H., Greenberg, M., Quinn, D., & Thal, D. (Online 2019). Substituting teacher-collected video for formal classroom observations: An experimental evaluation. Education Finance and Policy. Link
Blazar, D., & Kraft, M. A. (2019). Balancing rigor, replication, and relevance: A case for multiple-cohort, longitudinal experiments. AERA Open, 5(3). 1-18. Link
**Most-read in Review of Educational Research, and second most-read in all AERA journals in 2018
Other Articles
Kraft, M., & Blazar, D. (2018). Taking teacher coaching to scale: Can personalized training become standard practice? Education Next, 18(4). Link
Funding from Federal Agencies and Foundations
Co-Principal Investigator (2022-2026). “Sustaining literacy practices over time: Codifying knowledge through micro-credentialing,” Institute of Education Sciences #R305A210031 with Principal Investigator Suzanne Donovan.
Principal Investigator (2021-24). “Examining recruitment programs and pathways to diversify the teacher workforce,” Institute of Education Sciences #R305A210031 with Co-Principal Investigators Ramon Goings and Seth Gershenson.
Co-Principal Investigator (2021-23). “Education and experience: Do teacher qualifications in career-focused STEM courses make a difference?”, National Science Foundation #2101163 with Principal Investigator Michael Gottfried and Co-Principal Investigator Jay Plasman.
External Evaluator (2021-23). “UMB CURE Connections: an integral link in a Baltimore minority STEM education pipeline,” National Institutes of Health #5R25GM129875-03 with Principal Investigator Elizabeth Parker.
Internal University Grants