The Economist published: "What Budget Cuts During the Great Recession Did to Pupils Test Scores", and one of the most noticeable effects was on class size.  It cited Faculty Fellow William Evans, chair of Notre Dame's Department of Economics and cofounder of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO),  based on his research on school layoffs. It said, "William N. Evans of Notre Dame University and his co-authors found that nearly 300,000 school personnel, mostly teachers, lost their jobs as a result of the recession."