My research examines how education policy shapes the path from school to work, and how the benefits of that path are distributed by income, race, gender, and disability. I combine causal research designs with large administrative datasets and long-running partnerships with state agencies to produce evidence that is credible to researchers and usable by the people who run school systems. Selected publications are below; the full list is in my CV and on Google Scholar.
• Brunner, E., Dougherty, S.M., & Ross, S. (2023). The Effects of Career and Technical Education: Evidence from the Connecticut Technical High School System. Review of Economics and Statistics.
• Yoon, Y. & Dougherty, S.M. (2026). Does Expanding Access to High Quality Technical Education Induce Participation and Improve Outcomes? Economics of Education Review.
• Dougherty, S.M. (2018). The Effect of Career and Technical Education on Human Capital Accumulation: Causal Evidence from Massachusetts. Education Finance and Policy.
• Dougherty, S.M. & Smith, M.M. (2024). At What Cost? Is Career and Technical Education Worth the Investment? Education Finance and Policy.
• Ecton, W.G. & Dougherty, S.M. (2023). Heterogeneity in High School Career & Technical Education Outcomes. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
• Childs, J., Dougherty, S.M., & Kistler, H. (2024). Can Career Academies Work as a School Turnaround Strategy? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
• Carruthers, C., Dougherty, S., Goldring, T., Kreisman, D., Theobald, R., Urban, C., & Villero, J. (2026). Who Takes High-Earning CTE Pathways? Southern Economic Journal.
• Kistler, H.C. & Dougherty, S.M. (2026). Technical Education: Boys and Men. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
• Brunner, E.J., Dougherty, S.M., & Ross, S.L. (2025). Do Career & Technical Education High Schools Improve Transition Outcomes for Students with Disabilities? Educational Researcher.
• Dougherty, S.M., Grindal, T., & Hehir, T. (2018). The Impact of Career and Technical Education on Students with Disabilities. Journal of Disability Policy Studies.
• Kistler, H., Dougherty, S.M., & Woods, S.C. (2024). Teacher Exit and Educational Opportunity: Lessons from Career & Technical Education. Educational Researcher.
• Kraft, M.A., Brunner, E.J., Dougherty, S.M., & Schwegman, D. (2020). Teacher Accountability Reforms and the Supply and Quality of New Teachers. Journal of Public Economics.
• Chen, B., Dougherty, S.M., Goldhaber, D., Holden, K., & Theobald, R. (2023). CTE Teacher Licensure and Long-Term Student Outcomes. Education Finance and Policy.
• Gao, W. & Dougherty, S.M. (2026). Sector, Religious Affiliation, and the Risk of Closure Among Postsecondary Institutions. Research in Higher Education.
• Dougherty, S.M., Miller, A., & Yoon, Y. Charter School Expansion, Catholic School Enrollment & the Equity Implications of School Choice. Revise & resubmit, Education Finance and Policy.
• Dougherty, S., Goodman, J., Hill, D., Litke, E., & Page, L.C. (2017). Objective Course Placement and College Readiness: Evidence from Targeted Middle School Math Acceleration. Economics of Education Review.
• Montrosse-Moorhead, B., Dougherty, S.M., La Salle, T.P., Weiner, J.M., & Dostal, H.M. (2019). The Overall and Differential Effects of a Targeted Prekindergarten Program: Evidence from Connecticut. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
• Kraft, M.A. & Dougherty, S.M. (2013). The Effect of Teacher-Family Communication on Student Engagement: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
• Russell, L.C., Jabbari, J., Mei, X., Jimenez, F., & Dougherty, S.M. (2026). Are Work-Based Professional Skills Associated with Postsecondary Entrance and Persistence? Novel Evidence from the Cristo Rey Network. EdWorkingPaper 26-1419.
• Brunner, E., Dougherty, S.M., & Ross, S. Industry Choice and Within-Industry Earnings Effects. HCEO Working Paper 2022-025.