Daniel Litwok, Ph.D.

Dr. Daniel Litwok is an economist with over a decade of experience studying career pathways, workforce development initiatives, postsecondary education programs, and K-12 education initiatives. His expertise is in evaluation design, research methods, and data analysis, and he frequently applies these skills to large, complex experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations. Clients have included a variety of U.S. federal agencies: the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) at the Department of Education (ED), the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

Litwok currently serves as principal investigator for two evaluations funded by Education Innovation and Research grants (ED). He also provides evaluation technical assistance to five evaluations of teenage pregnancy prevention programs funded by HHS’s Personal Responsibility Education Program, guiding them to conduct high-quality experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations. He regularly serves as a technical quality reviewer for Abt projects including projects that study workforce development, K-12 and postsecondary education, justice-involved populations, and housing and homelessness.

Litwok has served as principal investigator for the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) COVID-Cohort Impact Study, an experimental evaluation of a healthcare career pathways program sponsored by HHS. He was also the co-principal investigator of DOL’s Sectoral Strategies and Employer Engagement Portfolio Services, which aimed to generate evidence on effective strategies for engaging employers in workforce development. He has authored dozens of federal reports and scholarly articles and frequently participates in conferences targeting researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Expertise

• Career pathways and workforce development
• K-12 and postsecondary education
• Impact evaluation design
• Quantitative analysis
• Dissemination of technical results

Key Projects

• Health Profession Opportunity Grants 1.0 (HHS)
• Health Profession Opportunity Grants 2.0 (HHS)
• Sectoral Strategies and Employer Engagement Portfolio Services (DOL)
• Site Selection When Participation is Voluntary: Improving the External Validity of Randomized Trials (IES)
• Refining and Expanding HEROES: A Literacy Intervention for Young Students with Individualized Education Plans (ED)

Publications

• Litwok, D., Peck, L. R., & Hedberg, E. C. (2026). Designing studies to detect impacts on earnings. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
• Litwok, D., Brown, K., Rodgers, E., & D’Agostino, J. (2025). Improving outcomes for struggling readers: Evidence from a randomized trial of HEROES. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. 
• Peck, L. R., & Litwok, D. (2025). Preregistration in evaluation: Lessons about preregistration of outcomes and analytic protocols from a national job training program evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation 2024(184): 47-55.
• Litwok, D., Peck, L. R., & Walton, D. (2023). How do the impacts of healthcare training vary with credential length? Evidence from the Health Profession Opportunity Grants Program. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness 16(2): 246-270.
• Deza, M., & Litwok, D. (2016). Do nighttime driving restrictions reduce criminal participation among teenagers? Evidence from Graduated Driver Licensing. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 35(2): 306-332.

Certification

• What Works Clearinghouse Group Design Standards (Version 5.0)