College of Education and Health Professions

Robert M. Costrell is Professor of Education Reform and Economics and holds the Endowed Chair in Education Accountability at the University of Arkansas. His current research topics include teacher pension policy, fiscal impact of school choice, and methodologies for school funding estimation. He is also an expert in standards-based reform.

Professor Costrell has both an academic and policy-making background. His academic career has featured seminal publications on the economic theory of educational standards, income distribution and testing, and teacher pensions, as well as school finance litigation. These have appeared in American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and Education Finance and Policy, as well as general interest publications, such as Brookings Papers on Education Policy and Education Next.

From 1999 to 2006, Dr. Costrell served in major policy roles for three governors of Massachusetts, including policy research director and chief economist. He worked closely with the administration as accountability reforms, based on exit exams, went into effect. As education advisor to Governor Mitt Romney, he helped develop the governor's comprehensive education reform proposal of 2005, and he led the reforms of the state's district and charter funding formulas. In 2003, Dr. Costrell's extensive expert testimony in Massachusetts' school finance case (Hancock v. Driscoll) proved critical to the successful defense of that state's education reform program. He represented the administration on the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (2001-03) and the Massachusetts School Building Authority (2005-06).

Dr. Costrell has served on the U.S. Department of Education's Advisory Council on Education Statistics, appointed by Secretary Paige (2001-02) and the National Technical Advisory Council for NCLB (2008-09), appointed by Secretary Spellings.

Professor Costrell joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in August 2006, and is the founding graduate director of the Ph.D. program in Education Policy. Professor Costrell taught economics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, from 1978 to 2000. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1978 and his B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1972.

Personal Information:

Publications/Presentations:

Janet S. Hansen, Michael J. Podgursky, and Robert M. Costrell."Teacher Retirement Systems: Research Findings." National Center on Performance Incentives, Research Brief, July 2009.

Costrell, Robert M. and Michael Podgursky. "Peaks, Cliffs, and Valleys: The Peculiar Incentives in Teacher Retirement Systems and Their Consequences for School Staffing." Education Finance and Policy, Spring 2009.

Costrell, Robert M. "The Fiscal Impact of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: 2009 Update." School Choice Demonstration Project Milwaukee Evaluation Report #7, March 2009.

Costrell, Robert M. "Who Gains, Who Loses? The Fiscal Impact of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program." Education Next, Winter 2009.

Costrell, Robert M., Eric Hanushek and Susanna Loeb. "What Do Cost Functions Tell Us About the Cost of an Adequate Education?" Peabody Journal of Education, April 2008.

Costrell, Robert M. "The Fiscal Impact of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, 1993-2008," School Choice Demonstration Project Milwaukee Evaluation Report #2, February 2008.

Costrell, Robert M. and Michael Podgursky. 2008. "Peaks, Cliffs, and Valleys." Education Next, Winter.

Costrell, Robert M. and Michael J. Podgursky. 2007. "Golden Peaks and Perilous Cliffs: Rethinking Ohio's Teacher Pension System." Thomas B. Fordham Institute, June.

Costrell, Robert M. and Michael J. Podgursky. 2007. "Efficiency and Equity in the Time Pattern of Teacher Pension Benefits: An Analysis of Four State Systems.” The Urban Institute: Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER), Working Paper #6.

Costrell, Robert M. 2007."The Winning Defense in Massachusetts," in School Money Trials: The Legal Pursuit of Education Adequacy, eds. Martin R. West and Paul E. Peterson, pp. 278-304. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press.

Costrell, Robert M. and Glenn C. Loury. "Distribution of Ability and Earnings in a Hierarchical Job Assignment Model." Journal of Political Economy, December 2004.

Costrell, Robert M."A Simple Model of Educational Standards." American Economic Review, September 1994.