June 23, 2025
Rohen Shah, PhD'25

The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy has named Rohen Shah, PhD’25, as one of twenty recipients of its highly competitive 2024–2025 research grants. Shah will begin a faculty position as a lecturer in the Department of Economics at Yale University in Fall 2025.

“Rohen has brought extraordinary creativity and discipline to his work at the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab,” Ariel Kalil, the Daniel Levin Professor at co-director of the BIP Lab. “His research reflects the very best of what collaborative, policy-relevant science can achieve, using scalable interventions to improve outcomes for children and families. We’re thrilled to see his work recognized and look forward to the impact he’ll continue to have in the field.”

Shah received the award for his dissertation, “When the Student Becomes the Master: A Field Experiment on Learning by Teaching.” Shah’s most recent research evaluates a large-scale randomized controlled trial involving more than 2,500 middle and high school students across the United States. The study, part of the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab at the Harris School of Public Policy, finds that students who were randomly assigned to create weekly video explanations of math problems not only improved their math skills but also demonstrated stronger ability to generalize their learning, offering compelling evidence for “learning by teaching” as an effective educational strategy.

“While AI tools can make it easy for students to disengage, this project instead leverages technology to actively engage students,” Shah said. “I am grateful to the Horowitz Foundation for supporting this work.”

Beyond academia, Shah is the Director of Research at Breakout Learning, and previously co-founded DiagKNOWstics Learning, an Ed Tech company focused on personalized learning tools. He has also worked as a high school teacher and created educational music videos through the nonprofit SKULE.org.

Shah earned his PhD from the University of Chicago and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. His broader research interests include behavioral and labor economics, parental engagement in education, and the role of technology in learning.

The Horowitz Foundation’s grants support policy-relevant research in the social sciences. Of the more than 500 applicants this year, only twenty scholars were selected.

For more information about the Horowitz Foundation and the full list of awardees, visit www.horowitz-foundation.org.