Marissa Elena Thompson
Ph.D. Candidate
Sociology and Education & Education Policy
Stanford University
marissathompson [at] stanford [dot] edu
Center for Education Policy Analysis
Stanford University
520 Galvez Mall, CERAS Building
ABOUT ME
Welcome! My name is Marissa Thompson and I am a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and Education and Education Policy at Stanford University. My research focuses on the causes and consequences of racial and socioeconomic inequality, with an emphasis on understanding the role of education in shaping disparate outcomes over the life-course.
In one line of my research, I study how higher education institutions function as drivers of social reproduction and how institutional policy changes affect student outcomes. Specifically, I study how factors such as early STEM grades and students’ self-efficacies affect college and labor market outcomes, and how these experiences contribute to later inequality by race, family income, and parental education. In a separate but related line of research, I study the mechanisms underlying disparities in educational opportunity, including school segregation, early achievement gaps, and students’ social contexts. This work includes a comprehensive assessment of the mechanisms underlying the Black gender gap in educational attainment and mobility. In addition, I am a member of both the Educational Opportunity Project, where I examine changing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps in the K-12 public school system, and the Pathways Lab, where I study how postsecondary students choose their majors and the implications of these choices.
Methodologically, I employ descriptive and quasi-experimental quantitative methods using large national datasets, administrative data, survey data, and novel survey experiments. My work has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and the Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science and Engineering. Previously, I earned an M.A. in Sociology from Stanford in 2019 and a B.S.E. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. In addition to research on education and social policy, I’m excited about running, podcasts, and Big Ten football.
PUBLICATIONS
2021
Marissa E. Thompson. "Grade Expectations: The role of first-year grades in predicting the pursuit of STEM majors for first- and continuing-generation students". The Journal of Higher Education. [Link]
2021
Sorathan Chaturapruek, Tobias Dalberg, Marissa E. Thompson, Sonia Giebel, Monique H. Harrison, Ramesh Johari, Mitchell L. Stevens, and René Kizilcec. "Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale". AERA Open. [Link]
2020
Adina Sterling, Marissa E. Thompson, Shiya Wang, Abisola Kusimo, Shannon Gilmartin, and Sheri Sheppard. "The Confidence Gap Predicts the Gender Pay Gap Among STEM Graduates". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). [Link]
2019
Shannon K. Gilmartin, Marissa E. Thompson, Emily Morton, Helen Chen, Anne Colby, and Sheri D. Sheppard. "Entrepreneurial Intent of Engineering and Business Undergraduate Students". Journal of Engineering Education. [Link]
2016
Ki Jun Yu, Duygu Kuzum, Suk Won Hwang, Bong Hoon Kim, Halvor Juul, Nam Heon Kim, Sang Min Won, Ken Chiang, Michael Trumpis, Andrew G. Richardson, Huanyu Cheng, Hui Fang, Marissa E. Thompson, Hank Bink, Delia Talos, Kyung Jin Seo, Hee Nam Lee, Seung Kyun Kang, Jae Hwan Kim, Jung Yup Lee, Younggang Huang, Frances E. Jensen, Marc A. Dichter, Timothy H. Lucas, Jonathan Viventi, Brian Litt, and John A. Rogers. "Bioresorbable silicon electronics for transient spatiotemporal mapping of electrical activity from the cerebral cortex". Nature Materials. [Link]
Working Papers
2021
Kaylee T. Matheny*, Marissa E. Thompson*, Carrie Townley Flores*, and Sean F. Reardon. "Uneven Progress: Recent Trends in Academic Performance Among U.S. School Districts". [Link]
Works in Progress
Marissa E. Thompson. "Examining the Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment".
Marissa E. Thompson* and Sam Trejo*. "The Effect of Information on Parental Preferences Regarding School Segregation: Evidence from a Survey Experiment".
Marissa E. Thompson, Tobias Dalberg, and Elizabeth Bruch. "Curricular Blind Spots: How Course Consideration Varies Across Undergraduate Students".
Marissa E. Thompson. "The Effect of School District Secession on Achievement Gaps and School Finance".
* denotes equal authorship
CURRICULUM VITAE
Expected 2021
Doctor of Philosophy
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Sociology and Education & Education Policy
Certificate in Quantitative Policy Analysis
2019
Master of Arts
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Sociology
2016
Bachelor of Science & Engineering
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Certificate in French Language
Magna Cum Laude
EDUCATION
TEACHING
Winter 2019
Teaching Assistant
EDUC 400B
Statistical Analysis in Education: Regression
Professor Eric Bettinger
Winter 2021
Teaching Assistant
EDUC 400B
Statistical Analysis in Education: Regression
Professor Eric Bettinger