Dr. Kevin Gee is a Professor in the School of Education
(School Organization & Educational Policy emphasis area) and
Director of the School Policy, Research,
and Action (SPARC) Center. He is also a Faculty Research
Affiliate with the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research.
He is currently a 2020-25 Chancellor’s Fellow. He
was a recipient of the 2015 National Academy of
Education (NAEd)/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, a 2014 Young
Scholars Program (YSP) award from the Foundation for Child
Development (FCD) and a 2015-6 UC Davis Hellman
Fellowship.
His primary research agenda focuses on the nexus between health
and education. He examines the role that schooling systems can
play in influencing the health and well-being of children. In
addition, he investigates how school policies and programs
can help promote the well-being and educational outcomes of
children who face a broad array of adverse conditions and
experiences including school bullying, food insecurity, and abuse
and neglect. Dr. Gee also has expertise in conducting
large-scale evaluations of educational policies and programs
using experimental and quasi-experimental designs. His
research appears in Teachers College Record, Journal of
Adolescent Health, American Journal of
Evaluation, Journal of Adolescence and
the International Journal of Educational Development. His
work has also been featured in The New York
Times, Scientific
American, Reuters and Education Week.
Dr. Gee hails from California and received his undergraduate
degree from UC Berkeley and his Master’s degree from UC San
Diego. He received his doctorate in Quantitative Policy Analysis
in Education from Harvard University in 2010. From 2010-2012 he
held a faculty appointment as Lecturer in Public Policy at Brown
University and in 2012 he received the Outstanding Professor
Award from the Brown University Undergraduate Council of
Students.
The potential ramifications of food insecurity for the development of children with disabilities are often overlooked in broader policy discussions, despite the fact that such ramifications are likely more significant for these children. In a recent study, I investigated how food insecurity relates to the behavioral outcomes of young school-aged children with disabilities across the first two years of their elementary education. Overall, I found that household food insecurity was related to a significant decline in children’s attentional focus.
I investigated the maltreatment profiles of child welfare–involved children in special education, examining how those profiles influenced their internalizing and externalizing behaviors. I analyzed data on a sample of 290 children representing approximately 233,000 children involved in the child welfare system and in special education. In doing so, I applied a range of measures, including the poverty level, mental health and marital status of caregivers.
Parents struggling with food insecurity can experience heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. These pressures may negatively affect their parenting, which may in turn affect the behavior of their children. In this study, we investigated the parenting aggravation levels of parents who experienced food insecurity in the aftermath of the Great Recession. We also explored the extent to which such aggravation may be responsible for the link between food insecurity and children’s behaviors.
Truancy in California is a pervasive problem that
disproportionately impacts children in high-poverty schools. Our
study examined how school safety and connectedness relate to
truancy in California’s high-poverty middle and high schools.[1]
We found that children who perceive their schools to be unsafe
and feared being in fights were more likely to skip school.[2]
Students who reported that they were more closely connected to
their schools, particularly students who reported having a
teacher or adult who cared about them, were more likely to
attend. School-wide initiatives enhancing both school safety and
connectedness may lead to improved school attendance at
California’s most disadvantaged schools.
