Elizabeth Dayton

Liza Dayton

Elizabeth (Liza) Dayton was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stanford School of Education and Center for Education Policy Analysis. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University (2012), following a B.A. in psychology from Stanford (2003), M.A. in sociology from Stanford (2004), and M.A. in sociology from Johns Hopkins (2009). Her dissertation, supported by an American Educational Research Association grant, demonstrated that supportive family relationships statistically promote first-generation college-going, protect against downward educational mobility, and perpetuate educational success from one generation to the next. Dayton has also examined the potential for intergenerational educational mobility among the children of adults returning to community college, and how switching school and neighborhood contexts via housing and school voucher programs affects youth outcomes. She has performed extensive classroom observations with the Baltimore Education Research Consortium. Dayton’s research interests lie in three overlapping areas: intergenerational educational mobility; the value of noncognitive skills (such as attitudes and effort) for education and career; and the role of families in shaping children’s noncognitive skills and educational and occupational trajectories.