Steven Hemelt

Steven Hemelt joined the politics faculty in 2009 after earning a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Shortly after arriving at Cornell, Hemelt learned that he had won a national award from the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) for his thesis “Essays in Education Policy: Accountability, Achievement, and Access.”

What is the focus of your research?
My work is largely in the area of applied economics. I am interested in the effects of accountability on student and school performance, the influence of teachers on student outcomes, the role of instructional time in learning, and the usefulness of education in the labor market.

What were the main findings in your thesis?
My doctoral research examined three different topics in education economics and policy -- two related to K-12 issues and one in higher education. The first looked at the effects of school-level sanctions leveraged under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on student performance. Second, I sought to expand what we know about the effects of teacher absences on student performance and their relationship to racial/ethnic achievement gaps at the high school level. Finally, the third essay investigated whether, and to what extent, students respond differently (in terms of enrollment decisions) to particularly large year-to-year changes in tuition at public four-year colleges and universities.

What are your goals for teaching public policy?
When I think about teaching different classes in public policy, one underlying goal that I have for my students is to help them develop an analytical approach to evaluating public policies: Did a policy achieve its intended goals? Why or why not? What were the consequences (both intended and unintended) of a given policy? I also want students to be critical consumers of policy research and to better understand the role policy analysis can play in shaping public debates about important social issues in meaningful ways.

What courses do you especially look forward to offering?
I'm excited about developing cross-listed courses with the department of economics in different topical applied areas. I'm also interested in learning more about social and environmental policy. To that end, I'll be team-teaching the introductory environmental studies course next year. It will be a learning experience for me, and I look forward to applying the concepts and paradigms of public policy to a new area of focus.

I am really looking forward to teaching the upper level topics course on education policy in the U.S., since the content of this course is my academic wheelhouse, as well as the methods course for policy analysis. I want to help equip politics students with relevant and accessible statistical analysis skills, which they can then go apply to policy issues that interest them in real-world settings.

Any plans for experiential learning opportunities?
I look forward to getting students involved in research: in class, during summer months, and/or as part of symposia projects. I also look forward to helping students become more engaged in the public policy professional community through conference attendance, collaborative research, and/or off-campus courses.