Michael Ho – Rappaport

Organization

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Program

Rappaport Public Policy Fellow

Year

2018

Rappaport Public Policy Fellows spend 10 weeks each summer serving within the highest levels of state and municipal governments in the Greater Boston Area. The program includes students from graduate and professional programs at local universities.

Graduate School
Harvard Graduate School of Education

Undergraduate School
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Mentor
Tom Keane, Rappaport Institute Advisory Board Member

Agency
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Supervisor
Carrie Conaway, Associate Commissioner for Planning, Research and Delivery Systems

Description of Fellowship
During his fellowship at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Michael Ho conducted research on the state of attendance and chronic absenteeism in the Commonwealth. He synthesized data for all 1.1 million public school students in Massachusetts to write a research brief detailing subgroup absenteeism statistics, where students were disproportionately absent, and the association of absenteeism with short and long-term academic outcomes to inform statewide education policies.