Kenneth A. Shores
Associate Professor of Education University of Delaware
- Newark DE
Kenneth Shores studies how school funding and education policies shape students’ opportunities and contribute to educational inequality.
Media
Social
Biography
A central focus of his work is school funding. He studies how states allocate resources to school districts and how funding reforms change those allocations. His research also examines what happens to school spending and student achievement when economic downturns put pressure on public budgets.
Shores studies educational inequality beyond funding. His work examines racial disparities in special education identification and school discipline. He also investigates how measures of student performance, including test scores and high school grades, inform judgments about students and schools.
Before becoming a researcher, Shores taught elementary and middle school on the Navajo Nation and middle school in Ecuador. He earned his Ph.D. in education policy analysis from Stanford University and has served as an evaluation scientist at the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.
Areas of Expertise
Media Appearances
New Bill Would Give Delaware Schools Right to Small Annual Tax Hikes Without Referendum
Spotlight Delaware online
2026-05-21
Quoted on property-tax disparities and school funding equity
Sold a Story, Episode 14, The Cuts
APM Reports radio
2025-08-21
Extended audio interview with Emily Hanford about your experience at IES and federal education research cuts.
Experts Express Concern Over Delaware's New Proposed Education Funding Model Ahead of Final Vote
Delaware Public Media print
2025-05-29
Shores discusses the limitations of Delaware's proposed funding model and argues for allocating educational resources according to student needs.
How Kindergarten Redshirting Is Changing
Education Week online
2024-10-23
Coverage of Delaware kindergarten redshirting research. The article references the study without naming you individually.
Could Delaware Spend $1B More Annually on Schools? A Panel May Decide
Spotlight Delaware print
2024-07-10
Shores discusses Delaware's school funding system and the need for reforms addressing student needs and differences in local fiscal capacity.
Cellphone Pouches to be Piloted at Schools Across Delaware
Spotlight Delaware online
2024-07-03
Quoted as a University of Delaware education-policy scholar on whether removing cellphone distractions could improve student engagement and test results.
How Is Delaware Faring on Modernizing School Funding?
Bay to Bay News / Delaware State News print
2024-06-03
In this authored opinion piece, Shores evaluates Delaware's school funding system and makes the case for reforms that improve educational equity.
What's Next for Education Funding Reform in Delaware
Delaware Public Media radio
2024-03-29
Coverage of Shores's legislative testimony places Delaware's proposed school funding reforms in the context of changes adopted by other states.
$190B Later, Reason to Worry Relief Funds Won’t Curb COVID’s Academic Crisis
The 74 online
2023-07-18
Quoted on the limitations of federal COVID-era education relief spending and the missed opportunity to evaluate which interventions improved student recovery.
Math Scores Fell in Nearly Every State, and Reading Dipped on National Exam
The New York Times print
2022-10-24
Coverage of national achievement declines cites research by Shores and Matthew Steinberg on the adequacy of federal pandemic education funding.
$700B: That’s How Much It Will Cost to Fix Pandemic Learning Loss, Study Says
The 74 online
2022-10-11
Covered his research with Matthew Steinberg estimating the scale and cost of addressing pandemic-related learning loss, including disparities in federal aid distribution.
Learning More
The New York Times print
2022-05-02
David Leonhardt cites research by Shores and Christopher Candelaria on the effects of state education finance reforms.
The Next Educational Equity Battleground: Little-Noticed ESSA Provision to Allow Parents to See Whether Districts Fund Schools Fairly
The 74 online
2018-02-25
Quoted on within-district school spending disparities, resource equity and the limitations of available school-finance data.
Articles
Assessment Design and Course Grades: Evidence from Linked College Syllabi and Grade Records
Brown Digital RepositoryCory Koedel, Hannah Putman, Kenneth Shores
2026-10-21
Examines how the design of college course assessments relates to students’ final grades, using linked course syllabi and grade records.
Beyond School Police Officers: Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Exposure to a Fuller Range of School Security Personnel
Educational Evaluation and Policy AnalysisIsmael Gavilán Muñoz, Kenneth Shores, Ericka S. Weathers, S. Colby Woods
2026-09-04
Analyzes racial and ethnic disparities in U.S. high school students’ exposure to law enforcement officers and school security guards, using federal civil rights data from 2017–18 and 2020–21.
Title I and IDEA as Complementary Federal Responses: Distinguishing Opportunity-Mediated and Opportunity-Independent Underachievement
Brown Digital RepositoryKenneth Shores, João M. Souto-Maior
2026-04-05
Examines how Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act may provide complementary federal responses to different forms of student underachievement.
The Geography of Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps
American Journal of SociologySean F. Reardon, Demetra Kalogrides, Kenneth Shores
2019-01-01
Measures racial and ethnic achievement gaps across hundreds of U.S. metropolitan areas and thousands of school districts, using roughly 200 million standardized math and English language arts test results from 2009 to 2013. It finds that gaps vary substantially by location.
Court-Ordered Finance Reforms in the Adequacy Era: Heterogeneous Causal Effects and Sensitivity
Education Finance and PolicyChristopher Candelaria, Kenneth Shores
2017-06-13
Evaluates how court-ordered school finance reforms enacted from 1989 to 2010 affected per-pupil revenues and graduation rates, accounting for differences among treated and comparison groups. The analysis reports especially large effects for students in the highest-poverty quartile.
Patterns of Literacy among U.S. Students
The Future of ChildrenSean F. Reardon, Rachel A. Valentino, Kenneth Shores
2012-09-01
Reviews national and international literacy assessments to describe reading skills among U.S. students. It shows that conclusions about how well students read depend on the literacy skills being measured, including basic reading processes.
Research Focus
Educational inequality
Racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in educational outcomes
Shores studies differences in student achievement, discipline, classification systems and access to educational resources across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups.
School finance and resource distribution
How education funding systems shape opportunity
His research examines school finance reforms, federal and state funding systems, spending inequality and the effects of fiscal policy on schools serving disadvantaged students.
Assessment and education policy
Using evidence to evaluate educational systems and policies
Shores investigates assessment systems, achievement gaps and policy responses to economic disruption, with an emphasis on descriptive evidence and causal inference.
Education
Stanford University
Ph.D.
Education policy analysis
2016
University of Rhode Island
B.S.
Economics
2003
