William Carbonaro

Professor and Department Chair; Assistant Director, Center for Research on Educational Opportunities; Faculty Fellow, Institute for Educational Initiatives

Research Interests

Sociology of Education, Social Stratification, Research Methods and Statistics

Subfields

Quantitative Methods, Sociology of Education, Stratification and Inequality

Profile

William Carbonaro is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Carbonaro's research covers two main areas: (1) how unequal learning opportunities both within and between schools affect student outcomes, and (2) how education and cognitive skills are linked with economic rewards in the labor market. Professor Carbonaro's recent work examines how schools affect student learning. In contrast with prior studies, his findings show that students who attend the same schools have very similar growth rates, which suggests that schools matter greatly for student outcomes. In a new project, he is examining how school segregation affects race-ethnic inequalities in math course-taking patterns and ability grouping in middle school. Professor Carbonaro serves on the editorial boards of several highly regarded journals such as the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Sociology of Education, and the American Education Research Journal.