Lucrecia Santibanez

Researcher in residence at the Maison Suger | July 2025-January 2026
Lucrecia Santibanez

Lucrecia Santibañez is a Professor at UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies and and faculty co-director of UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools. She holds a Ph.D. in International and Comparative Education from Stanford University, an MA in Economics from Stanford University. She has received funding as either Principal Investigator or co-Principal Investigator by the Institutes of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank. She is currently leading a Spencer Foundation-funded study of dual-language immersion (bilingual) instruction in urban settings around issues of access and inclusion and a study of the effect of strengthening family-school partnerships through home visits on student attendance. She has been a visiting professor at Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeón Cañas (El Salvador) and Professor of Public Policy at CIDE in Mexico City. In 2025, she was named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

The project

Title: Effect of Teacher Home Visits on Student Attendance

"In the United States and many countries worldwide, chronic absenteeism skyrocketed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many schools, it remains high and threatens students’ adequate progress toward high school graduation and remedying learning losses sustained during the pandemic. Students of color, low-income students, and children of immigrant parents appear to be most affected. The causes for the rise in absenteeism are not well understood. To tackle this ongoing crisis, districts around the nation must implement strategies that have the potential to make significant dents in chronic absenteeism. One strategy that the literature has identified as being particularly promising is culturally relevant, sustainable parental engagement. Positive, culturally sustaining school-family partnerships are key to helping students become better connected to school and assisting families to address attendance barriers proactively (Chang & Balfanz, 2024; Balfanz et al., 2024). Home visits are among the best ways for schools and families to build trusting relationships. Home visits, usually done by teachers and other school staff, can contribute to decreases in chronic absenteeism (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002; Soule & Curtis, 2021; Attendance Works, 2023). High-quality partnership programs in elementary schools, such as the National Network of Partnership Schools, that clearly communicate with parents about their child’s schooling, provide opportunities for parents to engage in decision-making, and support families in helping students academically at home can boost rates of attendance (Sheldon, 2007)."

Hosting institution: Sciences Po

Selective Bibliography

  • Asson, S., Frankenberg, E., Darriet, C., Santibañez, L., Cervantes-Soon, C., and López, F. “Dual Language Immersion Programs and their Neighborhoods: Issues of Program Access and Representation within LAUSD Elementary Schools” (forthcoming) AERA Open.
  • Darriet, C. and Santibañez L. (2024) “Examining Two-Way Dual Language Program Dispersion in the Context of Neighborhood Change, Charter School Expansion, and Enrollment Decline” American Journal of Education, 131 (1), pp. 55-91.
  • Saavedra, J., Maldonado, D., Santibañez, L. and Pardo, L. O. (2022) “Premium or Penalty?  Labor Market Returns to Novice Public Sector Teachers” Journal of Human Resources. Ahead of print version published online 08/22.
  • Santibañez, L., Saavedra, J., Kattan, R.B., and Patrinos, H. (2021) “Comprehensive Private Schooling for Low-Income Children: Experimental Evidence from Mexico” International Journal of Educational Development, 87 (2021) 102494.
  • Santibañez L. and Guarino, C. (2021) “The Effects of Absenteeism on Cognitive and Social-Emotional Outcomes: Lessons for COVID-19.” Educational Researcher. 50(6), p. 392-400.
Published at 1 July 2025