Walter G. Ecton is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Education Policy Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. His research lies at the intersections between high school, higher education, and the workforce, and the pathways students take as they navigate those sectors. His work primarily focuses on students who take nontraditional pathways through education, with particular focuses on high school students in career and technical education, students who attend community college, and students who return to education later in life.

Professor Ecton’s research uses large administrative datasets at the state and federal levels to explore educational and labor market outcomes from students’ participation in education programs. He has been published in AERA Open, The Journal of Higher Education, Oxford Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, and Community College Review, and presents research regularly at the Association for Education Finance and Policy, the Association for Public Policy and Management, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the Association for Career and Technical Education Research.