CTREE 2026

June 15, 2026

Another year, another CTREE in the books! This time around, we presented new research on undergraduate course assistants (CAs) at Cornell. Based on two years of data, we have found big positive effects on learning of students AND the CAs themselves. At the conference we learned that lots of other folks in economics are experimenting with similar programs and are similarly excited about the impact! These included a team from York (McKeown, Ahmad, Buckley and Hutton) and a team from Bristol (Papadopoulou and Chondrogianni) who presented in our session. These kinds of programs that induce students to work together face-to-face will only become more important as students rely more and more on AI for tutoring.

McKee also co-presented new work on a set of student survey questions that measure several dimensions of potential disadvantage that researchers can use in internationally comparable education research. Malte Ring (Tuebingen) and Jana Sadeh (Southampton) have been incredible collaborators on this work, and we can’t wait to see the research it enables.

A third project we contributed to was the EENE evaluation of the use of team contracts in group projects. This is the first EENE experiment, and it was great to share these preliminary results. Hartman, Dey, Dowell, Eremionkhale, and Ersoy did a fantastic joint presentation.

And then there were all the awesome presentations we learned from! Just to name a few: Peter Felten talked about the importance of relationships with and among students in his opening keynote. Adam Patterson presented an AI tool that identifies the skills employers are looking for in economics majors. And Joe Price gave an inspiring talk about making undergraduate students core members of his research team.

And finally, it has to be said that the first CTREE in Las Vegas was … unique? In between sessions, folks were attending conferences at the Sphere, checking out the fountain show at the Bellagio, and even hitting the slot machines. George and I saw Penn & Teller in the conference hotel, played KISS mini-golf, and made a side trip to the Metal Blade Records museum. As fun as it was, I won’t mind going back to a “normal” venue next year.