Fall 2016 1 NEWS INTERDISCIPLINARY • NONPARTISAN • POLICY RELEVANT Summer 2017 • Vol. 38, No. 1 IPR Welcomes New Director Expanding the Economist Schanzenbach brings research, policy expertise Northwestern- Evanston Education R. Alswang R. Research Alliance New funding propels research-practice partnership Evanston’s educational research-practice partnership will expand thanks to $1 million in combined support from the Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. The partnership, which brings together Evanston schools, their administrators, and Northwestern University researchers from IPR and the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP), Incoming IPR Director Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach leads a Hamilton event in Washington, D.C. seeks to improve the lives of Evanston Northwestern University has appointed D.C.-based Brookings Institution, where she students through the implementation of prominent economist Diane Whitmore was also a senior fellow in economic studies. practical research findings. Schanzenbach, who is Margaret Walker As IPR’s seventh director, Schanzenbach will Alexander Professor, as IPR director, effective The “Northwestern-Evanston Education succeed David Figlio, who will become dean of September 1. Research Alliance” will assure a continuous the University’s School of Education and cycle of research, feedback, policy implications, An IPR fellow whose research examines Social Policy. He has served as IPR’s director and ongoing study that will create more issues related to education and child poverty, since September 2012 and is Orrington Lunt opportunities for refining practical, on-the- Schanzenbach joined Northwestern in 2010 Professor of Education and Social Policy and and is a faculty member in the department of of Economics. During his tenure, Figlio ground policies and further research. human development and social policy with a oversaw many important changes, including The initiative strengthens the reciprocal courtesy appointment in the department of structural enhancements and new relationship between Northwestern and economics. For the past two years, she was on collaborations with other Northwestern Evanston’s two school districts—Evanston/ leave as director of The Hamilton Project, a schools and with external partners. He will Skokie School District 65, which serves pre-K research group within the Washington, continue to contribute as an IPR fellow. through eighth grade, and Evanston (Continued on page 12) (Continued on page 20) IN THIS ISSUE A ‘Democratic Faculty Spotlight: NEW: IPR Policy Imperative’? Onnie Rogers Research Briefs Political science Psychologist Research shows workshop sparks studies stereotypes benefits of SNAP, questions of and youth identity increased school democracy (p. 18) development (p. 9) spending (pp. 22–25) ipr.northwestern.edu 2 INSIDE THIS ISSUE IPR RESEARCH NOTES IPR RESEARCH NOTES ....................................... 2–5 FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS Earthquake Faults: Smarter Than We Think Seema Jayachandran.....................................6 Greg Miller .....................................................7 A team of Northwestern University Claudia Haase ................................................8 researchers now have an answer to a vexing Onnie Rogers..................................................9 age-old question: Why do earthquakes sometimes come in clusters? FACULTY OPINION Courtesy of S. Stein S. of Courtesy Morton Schapiro: The ‘Dehumanities’...........10 The research team has developed a new Jonathan Guryan: Chicago Gun Violence ......11 computer model and discovered that earthquake faults are smarter—in the sense of PUBLICATIONS, RESEARCH NEWS, AND EVENTS having better memory—than seismologists IPR Faculty Receive Major Awards ...............13 have long assumed. Recent Working Papers and Books ........14–17 A Moment of ‘Democratic Imperative’? ........18 “If it’s been a long time since a large Seth Stein Dissecting the Political Landscape ..............19 earthquake, then, even after another quake happens, the fault’s ‘memory’ sometimes isn’t for which earthquake-resistant buildings IPR Policy Research Briefs .....................22–25 wiped out, so there’s still a good chance of should be designed. ‘Alienated, Aggrieved, Distrustful’ ................26 having another,” said geophysicist and IPR Living on Less than $2 a Day ........................27 However, Leah Salditch, a graduate student associate Seth Stein, the study’s senior author. Recent Faculty Recognition .........................29 in Stein’s research group, explained, “Long 2017 Employee of the Year ...........................30 “As a result, a cluster of earthquakes occurs,” histories of earthquakes on faults sometimes show clusters of earthquakes with relatively Combating Bias in Medical Schools .............31 he said. “Earthquake clusters imply that short times between them, separated by Early Environments, Adult Health ..........31–32 faults have a long-term memory.” longer times without earthquakes. For The model shows that clusters can occur on example, during clusters on the San Andreas, faults with long-term memory, so that even big earthquakes happened only about 50 after a big earthquake happens, the chance of years apart, while the clusters are separated another earthquake can stay high. The memory by several hundred years. Clusters also have Director comes from the fact that the earthquake did not David Figlio been found on the Cascadia fault system release all the strain that built up on the fault Associate Director off the coast of Oregon, Washington, and over time, so some strain remains after a big James Druckman British Columbia, and along the Dead Sea earthquake and can cause another. Executive Committee fault in Israel.” Anthony Chen, Edith Chen, Jonathan Guryan, Christopher Kuzawa, Thomas McDade, Rachel “This isn’t surprising,” said IPR statistician Davis Mersey, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, These results could be important for Bruce Spencer, who co-authored the study. Bruce Spencer, and Celeste Watkins-Hayes forecasting when future earthquakes will “Many systems’ behavior depends on their Newsletter Staff happen, said IPR graduate research assistant history over a long time. For example, your risk Editor: Patricia Reese Edward Brooks, an author of the study. of spraining an ankle depends not just on the Assistant Editors: Evelyn Asch, Sara Schumacher, and Katie Scovic last sprain you had, but also on previous ones.” “When you’re trying to figure out a team’s Newsletter Design: Jeanine Shimer chances of winning a ball game, you don’t Seismologists have usually assumed that the Layouts: Katie Scovic want to look just at what happened in the last timing of the next big earthquake on a fault Institute for Policy Research game between those teams,” Brooks said. depends on the time since the last one Northwestern University “Looking back over earlier games also can be 2040 Sheridan Rd. happened. In other words, a fault has only Evanston, IL 60208-4100 helpful. We should learn how to do a similar short-term memory—it only “remembers” the www.ipr.northwestern.edu thing for earthquakes.” [email protected] last earthquake and has “forgotten” all the @ipratnu previous ones. © 2017 Northwestern University. All rights reserved. Seth Stein is William Deering Professor of Geological This assumption goes into forecasting when Sciences and an IPR associate. Bruce Spencer is For mailing list updates and corrections, future earthquakes will happen, and then into please email [email protected]. professor of statistics and an IPR fellow. Edward hazard maps that predict the level of shaking Brooks is an IPR graduate research assistant. ipr.northwestern.edu IPR Research Notes Summer 2017 3 A Two-Generation Approach to Reducing Poverty Pairing early childhood education for After a year, 61 percent of participants attained low-income children with career training for a career certificate and 49 percent of program Ziv J. their parents has the potential to break the parents were employed in the healthcare cycle of poverty, according to IPR researchers. sector, compared with 3 and 31 percent, respectively, in the comparison group. The Two-Generation Research Initiative, led by IPR developmental psychologist Lindsay “By combining the two and embedding career Chase-Lansdale and IPR research associate training, postsecondary classes, and support professor Teresa Eckrich Sommer, is studying services for the parents within the Head Start CareerAdvance®, a model two-generation program, the two-generation approach Lindsay Chase-Lansdale program in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. capitalizes on the parents’ dedication to their children,” Chase-Lansdale said. One year into the study, the researchers report “These educational benefits to parents and promising early evidence that targeting both Pairing the programs also has benefits children from disadvantaged households may parents and children with education for children. Head Start attendance was compound over generations and help families interventions increases success rates for both. 3 percentage points higher for children become more upwardly mobile and promote in the program, and chronic absenteeism economic self-sufficiency,” Sommer added. The researchers are tracking three indicators— was 17 percentage points lower. parents’ education and employment, parents’ Lindsay Chase-Lansdale is Frances Willard psychological well-being, and children’s “What’s truly impressive about these findings Professor, an IPR fellow, and Associate