Taylor Odle
Taylor Odle (he/him) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work focuses on the causes and consequences of inequality in college access and success—from students' early college aspirations through their transitions to the workforce. As an applied quantitative policy scholar, Taylor's work leverages causal inference and data science techniques to study how school and community contexts contribute to gaps in access by income, race, and place and to evaluate whether information, targeted supports, and public policies can equalize economic and social opportunity for traditionally underserved populations. Much of this work focuses on college admissions practices, financial aid, and advising and is done in close partnership with institutions, states, and educational organizations. He is a faculty affiliate in Data Science, the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Institute for Diversity Science, and the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Sciences and teaches courses in the economics of education, higher education policy, and cost-effectiveness/benefit-cost analysis.
Taylor's work has secured or contributed to over $10 million in competitive awards and contracts and has been published in leading peer-reviewed outlets, including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, The Journal of Higher Education, and Research in Higher Education. These works have also been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hill, Forbes, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and others. Taylor is a member of the editorial boards of The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and the American Journal of Evaluation. He received the 2023 Raymond Vernon Memorial Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management.
Taylor is a former Summer Fellow with the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, and his dissertation, Three Essays in Economics, Education Policy, and Inequality, was supported by an AERA-NSF Dissertation Grant and won the 2023 American Educational Research Association (Division J) Outstanding Dissertation Award.
Taylor holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, an A.M. in statistics from The Wharton School, a M.Ed. in higher education from Vanderbilt University, and a B.A. in organizational behavior from the University of Tennessee. He previously led fiscal policy and research activities for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, apprenticed at MDRC and the National Student Clearinghouse, and interned with the College Board and U.S. Senate.