Assistant Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
337 Education Building
1310 S Sixth St (mail code 708)
Champaign (UIUC Campus Mail), IL 61820
MA, Science and Math Education, University of California, Berkeley
BA, Philosophy/Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley
MA, Economics, University of Southern California
PhD, Urban Education Policy, University of Southern California
Distinguished Research and Practice Fellow <em>National Education Finance Academy (2023) </em>
Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students <em>University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (x8 2020-2023)</em>
Journal of Education Finance Article of the Year <em>National Education Finance Academy (2020)</em>
Emerging Education Policy Scholar <em>Thomas B. Fordham Institute (2019)</em>
New Scholar Grant <em>Association for Education Finance and Policy (2018)</em>
David L. Clark Scholar <em>University Council for Educational Administration (2018)</em>
Rossier/Graduate School Ph.D. Fellow <em>University of Southern California (2015-2019)</em>
Teaching Effectiveness Award <em>University of California, Berkeley (2009)</em>
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor <em>University of California, Berkeley (2009)</em>
California Flanders Fellow <em>University of California, Berkeley (2007-2009)</em>
Distinction in General Scholarship <em>University of California, Berkeley (2004)</em>
I am an assistant professor of education policy, organization, and leadership in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I use quantitative methods to study school finance, school choice, resource allocation in schools, and teacher quality. In addition to writing policy briefs and reports for policymakers and practitioners, I have published my research in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including Review of Public Personnel Administration, Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of Education Finance, American Educational Research Journal, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
I completed a PhD in urban education policy and a MA in economics at the University of Southern California. Prior to enrolling at USC I earned a MA in science and math education and BAs in philosophy and molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley and taught middle school science in Oakland and Los Angeles, California.
Bruno, P. (2023). Pandemic-Era School Staff Shortages: Evidence from Unfilled Position Data in Illinois.
Bruno, P., & Polikoff, M. (2023). The effect of computer science course-taking on science outcomes in Chicago Public Schools. The Learning Partnership. link >
Bruno, P. (2023). Unions, Monitoring, and Deferred Compensation: Evidence From California School Districts. Review of Public Personnel Administration. Advance online publication.
Isenegger, K., George, K. L., Bruno, P., & Lewis, C. M. (2023). Goal-Congruity Theory Predicts Students' Sense of Belonging in Computing Across Racial/Ethnic Groups. In SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 1069–1075) link >
Saffar Perez, M., & Bruno, P. (2023). Analyzing the Effects of CTE Grant Funding on CS Course Offerings and Enrollment in California. In SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 46-52). (SIGCSE 2023 - Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education; Vol. 1). link >
Bruno, P., & Lewis, C. M. (2022). Computer Science Trends and Trade-offs in California High Schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 58(3), 386-418.
Bruno, P. (2022, Aug 8). Figuring Out When to Panic About “Teacher Shortages”: How journalism could clarify stories about teacher hiring problems. The Education Next Blog.
Bruno, P., Saffar Perez, M., & Lewis, C. M. (2022). Four Practical Challenges for High School Computer Science. Policy Analysis for California Education.
Bruno, P. (2022). Weighted Student Funding and the Incentives of Charter Schools. In T. Downes, & K. M. Killeen (Eds.), Recent Advancements in Education Finance and Policy (pp. 209-238). (Research in Education Fiscal Policy and Practice). Information Age Publishing Inc..
Bruno, P. (2022). What We Know About the Impacts of Charter Schools on District School Finances. In C. Kiracofe, M. Hirth, & T. Hutton (Eds.), Charter School Funding Considerations (pp. 115-145). (Conducting Research in Education Finance: Methods, Measurement, and Policy Perspectives). Information Age Publishing Inc..
Mann, B. A., & Bruno, P. (2022). The effects of charter school enrollment losses and tuition reimbursements on school districts: Lifting boats or sinking them? Educational Policy, 36(5), 1078-1107. link >
Nguyen, T., Lam, C., & Bruno, P. (2022). Is there a national teacher shortage? A systematic examination of reports of teacher shortages in the United States. (EdWorkingPaper: 22-631). Annenberg Institute at Brown University.
Bruno, P., & Lewis, C. M. (Accepted/In press). Equity in high school computer science: Beyond access. Policy Futures in Education.
Bruno, P. (2021). OPEB Accounting and Teacher Diversity. Journal of Education Human Resources, 39(2), 214-238. link >
Bruno, P., & Goldhaber, D. (2021). Reflections on What Pandemic-Related State Test Waiver Requests Suggest About the Priorities for the Use of Tests. (CALDER Policy Brief; No. 26-0721). National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research.
Bruno, P., & Goldhaber, D. (2021). What pandemic-related test waiver requests suggest about states’ testing priorities. Phi Delta Kappan, 103(3), 48-53. link >
Dhaliwal, T. K., & Bruno, P. (2021). The Rural/Nonrural Divide? K–12 District Spending and Implications of Equity-Based School Funding. AERA Open, 7(1), 1-21. link >
Marianno, B. D., Bruno, P., & Strunk, K. O. (2021). The Effect of Teachers’ Union Contracts on School District Efficiency: Longitudinal Evidence From California. SAGE Open, 11(1). link >
Bruno, P., Rabovsky, S. J., & Strunk, K. O. (2020). Taking Their First Steps: The Distribution of New Teachers in School and Classroom Contexts and Implications for Teacher Effectiveness. American Educational Research Journal, 57(4), 1688-1729. link >
Bruno, P. (2020). Teacher Screening and Hiring: Lessons from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, Michigan State University.
Bruno, P. (2019). A Tough Assignment. Educational Leadership, 77(1), 72-76.
Bruno, P. (2019). Charter competition and district finances: Evidence from California. Journal of Education Finance, 44(4), 361-384.
Bruno, P., & Strunk, K. O. (2019). Making the Cut: The Effectiveness of Teacher Screening and Hiring in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 41(4), 426-460. link >
Bruno, P. (2019, May 6). School districts must do more to manage costs of health benefits. EdSource.
Bruno, P. (2019). The Challenges of Health and Welfare Benefit Costs for California Districts. Policy Analysis for California Education.
Lewis, C., Bruno, P., Raygoza, J., & Wang, J. (2019). Alignment of goals and perceptions of computing predicts students’ sense of belonging in computing. In ICER 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (pp. 11-19). (ICER 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research). Association for Computing Machinery. link >
Bruno, P. (2018). District Dollars 2: California School District Finances, 2004-5 through 2016-17. Getting Down to Facts II.
Imazeki, J., Bruno, P., Levin, J., Brodziak de los Reyes, I., & Atchison, D. (2018). Working Toward K-12 Funding Adequacy: California's Current Policies and Funding Levels. Getting Down to Facts II.
Johnson, RC., Bruno, P., & Tanner, S. (2018). Effects of the Local Control Funding Formula on Revenues, Expenditures, and Student Outcomes. Getting Down to Facts II.
Strunk, K. O., Marsh, J., & Bruno, P. (2017). An Effective Teacher for Every Student: Developing a Research Agenda to Further Policy Change. Policy Analysis for California Education.
Bruno, P. (2016, Feb 29). Overregulation Theory isn’t enough to explain negative voucher effects. The Brookings Institution’s Brown Center Chalkboard.
Bruno, P. (2015, Jul 20). The importance of the teacher supply to education reform. The Brookings Institution’s Brown Center Chalkboard.
Invited talk, Current school staffing challenges in Illinois: Evidence and solutions, 2023
Invited talk, Staffing challenges and diversity in the educator workforce, 2023
Invited talk, The state of education in Illinois, 2023
Invited talk, Navigating the academic job market, 2023
Invited talk, Who Teaches High School Computer Science and Does It Matter?, 2023
Invited talk, Trends, Trade-offs, and Equity in Computer Science in California High Schools, 2022
Invited talk, Weighted Student Funding and the Incentives of Charter Schools, 2021
Invited talk, Secondary CS Equity, Policy and Administration Issues: Lessons from California, 2020
Invited talk, Current School Finance Issues in California, 2019
Invited talk, Research Perspectives on School District Fiscal Pressures, 2019
Invited talk, The Challenges of Health and Welfare Benefit Costs for California Districts, 2019
Invited talk, District Dollars 2: California School District Finances, 2004-5 through 2016-17, 2018
National Science Foundation (PI, $499,012, 2023-2026): Collaborative research: Impacts of state policy on computer science participation and teacher preparation (Nos. 2317943 & 2317944)
UIUC College of Education Public Engagement Faculty Fellowship (PI, $6,308, 2023-2024): The operations and effectiveness of teacher hiring committees
Illinois State Board of Education (Co-PI, $146,740, 2022-2024): Illinois principal recruiment
UIUC Campus Research Board Research Support Award (PI, $29,182, 2021-2024): Hiring under constraint: How school administrators perceive and respond to centralized screening by the district (No. RB22001)
UIUC College of Education COVID-19 Seed Funding (PI, $10,000, 2020-2021): Teacher hiring before, during, and after a pandemic
Google Computer Science Education Research (CS-ER) Program (Co-PI, $125,000, 2020-2021): Equitable expansion of high school CS: Trends and trade-offs between and within states (No. 93661913)
EPOL 542: Public School Finance (EdM)
EPOL 548: Human Resource Management at the School District Level (EdD)
EPOL 549: School District Financial Management (EdD)
EPOL 595: Independent Study (Action Research) (EdD)
ERAM 556: Program Evaluation
ERAM 560: Quantitative Policy Analysis (PhD)
EOL 546: Public School Finance (EOL 546) Study of financing public education systems in the United States; focuses on the social, economic, political, legal, and technical dimensions of developing school finance policy for federal, state, and local governments; relates theory and research in public school finance to administrative practice in budgeting and financial administration. Same as EPOL 542. 4 graduate hours. No professional credit.
EOL 566: School District Financial Management (EOL 566) Analysis of how public schools are managed, including the theory and managerial practices necessary to oversee the functioning of a school district; study of the integration of managerial issues with attendant conditions of school board functioning, priority and educational goal-setting, taxation, capital outlay, debt management, and contractual implementation. Emphasis placed on principles and practices relating to public school financial management, including budgeting and accounting systems. 4 graduate hours. No professional credit. Prerequisite: EOL 546 or consent of instructor.
EPOL 542: Public School Finance (EPOL 542) Study of financing public education systems in the United States; focuses on the social, economic, political, legal, and technical dimensions of developing school finance policy for federal, state, and local governments; relates theory and research in public school finance to administrative practice in budgeting and financial administration.
EPOL 548: Human Resource Management at the School District Level (EPOL 548) Principles, problems, and trends in the administration of professional public school personnel; organization of personnel; the legal framework of the personnel function; selection, evaluation and development of staff; collective bargaining, contract administration and personnel policy; and the personnel administrator's role as a catalyst for school improvement.
EPOL 549: School District Financial Management (EPOL 549) Analysis of how public schools are managed, including the theory and managerial practices necessary to oversee the functioning of a school district; study of the integration of managerial issues with attendant conditions of school board functioning, priority and educational goal-setting, taxation, capital outlay, debt management, and contractual implementation. Emphasis placed on principles and practices relating to public school financial management, including budgeting and accounting systems.
EPOL 590: Advanced Graduate Seminar (EPOL 590) Seminar in educational policy studies; sections offered in the following fields: (a) history of education; (b) philosophy of education; (c) comparative education; (d) social foundations of education; (e) philosophy of educational research; and (f) historical methods in education.
EPS 590: Advanced Graduate Seminar (EPS 590) Seminar in educational policy studies; sections offered in the following fields: (a) history of education; (b) philosophy of education; (c) comparative education; (d) social foundations of education; (e) philosophy of educational research; and (f) historical methods in education.
ERAM 560: Quantitative Policy Analysis (ERAM 560) Provides a graduate-level introduction to education policy analysis using quantitative methods. Roughly equal amounts of class time will be devoted to 1) understanding conceptual frameworks for conducting policy analysis; 2) understanding on a conceptual level the basics of quantitative methods commonly used in policy analysis; and 3) applying those frameworks and methods to the analysis of actual policies. Students will conduct an analysis of a policy issue of their choosing.