Our Work
Publications
Use the filters below to view our work by our various research areas.
October 2025
Over the past 10 years, many U.S. states have implemented mandatory paid family leave policies to help address the lack of such policy on the national level. In this post, we examine how paid family leave enrollment among parents in the U.S. has changed. We use data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation […]
October 2025
The United States, with its growing elderly population, is experiencing a significant demographic shift. This trend is evident in New Jersey, which faces rapid population aging and increasing healthcare expenditures. This in turn highlights the critical need to ensure high-quality long-term care, with nursing homes playing a central role. New Jersey relies on nursing homes […]
October 2025
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) provides access to the largest source of financial aid to pay for a 2- or 4- year college or vocational school. Students who complete it are more likely to enroll in and persist through college (Debaun, 2019; McKinney & Novak, 2013; Novak & McKinney, 2011). However, financial […]
September 2025
As part of our ongoing evaluation of the certificate program developed by Rutgers University’s Center for Research on Ending Violence in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF), we are excited to share recent progress. Over the past several weeks, our research team has conducted a series of in-depth interviews with […]
September 2025
Traffic safety is a critical concern in New Jersey where annual traffic crashes typically exceed 200,000, according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), with many of them resulting in non-fatal injuries that have lifelong impacts on victims. Currently, this data is not easily accessible. Researchers, advocates, and the public have an interest in […]
September 2025
Over our next five blog posts, we will highlight selected preliminary findings from our work surveying members of the New Jersey public on their support across different areas of sentencing reform in the state. The first area concerns the public’s support for the creation of a new mitigating sentencing factor for defendants who are survivors […]
September 2025
On Wednesday, September 1, 2021, heavy rain from Tropical Storm Ida caused the Elizabeth River in New Jersey to overflow its banks. Elizabeth’s largest source of low-income housing, the Oakwood Plaza Apartment complex, adjacent to the river, was flooded with up to ten feet of water, trapping many residents in their ground-floor apartments. Four people […]
September 2025
In the face of escalating climate instability, eroding soil, and economic precarity, the integration of regenerative practices into agricultural systems is emerging as a vital model for ensuring agriculture’s continued viability. Thanks to financial support from the New Jersey State Policy Lab and a collaboration with the Organic and Regenerative Farming Board of New Jersey, […]
September 2025
Paid family leave is an essential social policy that provides families with economic security while bonding with a new child. The United States has no federal policy on paid leave, providing only certain eligible employees up to 12 weeks unpaid, job-protected leave for family and medical reasons. For many workers, unpaid leave is a financially untenable […]
September 2025
From 2016 through 2022, all teacher education candidates in New Jersey were required by statute to complete a specific performance assessment, the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA), in order to gain certification. edTPA is a complex performance assessment that requires candidates to share lesson plans, a video from the classroom they teach, and the assessments […]
August 2025
Breast cancer is widely known as a disease that affects thousands of women within the United States and is the second leading cause of death due to cancer in New Jersey (Department of Health, 2020). Current research discovered that it disproportionately affects Black women, making them 40% more likely to die to due to breast […]
August 2025
For many immigrants in New Jersey, the challenge of accessing medical care is twofold: for some, health insurance is out of reach entirely; for others, having coverage does not guarantee they can afford care, find a provider, or get to an appointment. In the U.S., about 47 million immigrants (14% of the total population) live […]