Sami Kitmitto

Principal Researcher

Sami Kitmitto is an economist and quantitative analyst specializing in quasi-experimental and experimental methods for research and evaluation in the areas of education and the workforce. He is currently deputy project director on the NAEP Validity Studies project for the U.S. Department of Education (ED), a principal investigator on an evaluation of youth workforce programs for San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth and their Families, and a principal investigator on an evaluation of changes to California’s CalWORKs program for the California Department of Social Services.

Dr. Kitmitto has worked on numerous education and workforce projects including as principal investigator for a randomized trial for the Education Endowment Foundation (UK), project director for the National Evaluation of Magnet Schools for ED, project director for an evaluation of the federal Impact Aid program for ED, and as a senior analyst on the California Comprehensive Center for the California Department of Education. He also authored a chapter on California’s paid family leave program for the book Time off with Baby: The Case for Paid Care Leave. Dr. Kitmitto earned his doctorate in Economics with a multi-disciplinary emphasis in Economy, Justice, and Society from the University of California, Davis.

Expertise
Education
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Davis; B.A., Economics, Trinity College

Contact Sami Kitmitto

+1.202.403.5000
Related Work
BARR Model image card

Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) I3 Scale-Up Evaluation

18 Aug 2022
Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) is a comprehensive, strength-based approach to education that aims to boost achievement for all students by improving a school’s effectiveness at building relationships, leveraging real-time student data, and capitalizing on the strengths of each student. Since 2013, AIR has led two consecutive evaluations of the ...

Comparison of NAEP Assessments With Current-Generation State Assessments

15 Nov 2020
NAEP conducts assessments and publishes reports on student achievement in a number of subject areas—including mathematics, reading, writing, and science, among others—that are widely used by federal, state, and local policymakers, educators, researchers, and the public. These studies use the judgments of expert panelists to compare 2017 NAEP assessment items ...

The Relative Returns to Credit- and Non-Credit-Bearing Credentials

01 Oct 2020
This analysis used 20 years of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 panel using an individual fixed-effects regression strategy to estimate the returns to noncredit-bearing credential and licensure pathways compared with credit-bearing credential and associate degree programs. Our findings show that credit-bearing credentials yield an approximately equal likelihood to ...

Millions More People Were Jobless Due to COVID-19 Than Indicated by Official Statistics

13 May 2020
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that 23 million Americans were unemployed as of April 2020. While these numbers may seem shocking, the official count may exclude up to 8 million more who lost jobs or stopped looking for work between February and April. This brief examines those numbers.

NAEP Validity Studies Panel Responses to the Re-analysis of TUDA Mathematics Scores

30 Oct 2019
When the 2017 NAEP Mathematics TUDA (Trial Urban District Assessment) results were reported and it appeared that student performance trends on the NAEP were not similar to student performance trends on the state assessments that were aligned to college and career ready standards, a reanalysis study was designed to explore ...

Developing New Indices to Measure Digital Technology Access and Familiarity

28 Oct 2018
As NAEP transitions from a paper-based to a digitally based assessment, the question arises: Are all children are ready for the transition—and would any of them would be disadvantaged by it? To investigate these issues, AIR developed a new set of survey items related to digital technology for the 2015 ...

Using the National Assessment of Educational Progress as an Indicator for College and Career Preparedness

07 Oct 2015
For the last several years, the National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics have been exploring how the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Nation’s Report Card, can be used to assess the college and career readiness of America’s high school students. Researchers at AIR ...

Black Male Achievement Lowest in Schools with Highest Levels of Black Students

24 Sep 2015
The persistent achievement gap between Black and White students has frustrated educators, parents, and policymakers for decades. In this blog post, Sami Kitmitto and George Bohrnstedt discuss a recent AIR study for the National Center for Education Statistics that highlights the potentially detrimental effect of school segregation. ...
black and white students taking a test

School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap

24 Sep 2015
With recent concerns about the growing resegregation of schools, this analysis sheds light on the relationship between the Black-White achievement gap and the demographic makeup of schools. Accounting for factors such as socioeconomic status and other characteristics, the analysis finds that black student scores were lower, and achievement gaps wider, ...

What Happens When Schools Become Magnet Schools? A Longitudinal Study of Diversity and Achievement

27 May 2015
Magnet schools are best known for offering unique programs or curricula to attract students from outside a school’s neighborhood; many started off as neighborhood public schools but converted with the goals of increasing student diversity and achievement. A nine-year AIR study of 21 magnet schools found that while there was ...

Evaluation of SB 1041 Reforms to California’s CalWORKs Program

The California Budget Act of 2012 included significant reforms to California’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program known as CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids). AIR is partnering with the RAND Corporation to evaluate whether or not the reforms are achieving their objectives and if there are any ...

NAEP Validity Studies (NVS) Panel

AIR formed the NAEP Validity Studies Panel in 1995 under contract with the National Center for Education Statistics. The panel provides a technical review of NAEP plans and products and identifies technical concerns and promising techniques worthy of further study and research.