Ford School News

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Publication

'From STEM to earn': High school programs aimed at diversifying the field drive gains in college, salaries

Jun 4, 2026

High school students participating in pipeline programs aimed at increasing diversity in STEM fields are more likely to enroll in—and graduate from—elite colleges with a related degree. Further, such improvements raised their predicted earnings by an...

'From STEM to earn': High school programs aimed at diversifying the field drive gains in college, salaries

News

Tool tracking school closures puts data in hands of affected communities, informs work to find solutions

May 27, 2026

EXPERT Q&A West Virginia has been hit with a wave of school closures and consolidations. For Christina Weiland, an education and public policy professor at the University of Michigan who also co-directs the Education Policy Initiative, the matter is ...

Tool tracking school closures puts data in hands of affected communities, informs work to find solutions

News

Hausman, Michelmore, and Pilkauskas promoted to full professors

May 22, 2026

On May 21, the Regents of the University of Michigan approved promotions for Catherine Hausman, Katherine Michelmore, and Natasha Pilkauskas. All three were promoted to professor of public policy, with tenure, at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public P...

Hausman, Michelmore, and Pilkauskas promoted to full professors

In the Media

Jacob: "No Child Left Behind" did improve test scores

May 16, 2026 The New York Times

The law, though, was deeply unpopular with many educators and parents. Critics said it put an outsize focus on testing, pushing schools to teach to the test and spend less time on other important subjects, like the arts or social studies. In 2015, Co...

Jacob: "No Child Left Behind" did improve test scores

State & Hill

"This research is not partisan"

May 7, 2026

With federal education data fading, Michigan's democratized approach empowers researchers and policymakers to drive evidence-based improvements in educationWhat are the long-term returns on public schooling? Does transitional kindergarten lead to bet...

News

Ford School marks 45 years as a PPIA host site, welcomes 2026 Junior Summer Institute cohort

Mar 20, 2026

This summer, the Ford School welcomes 18 undergraduate students from 10 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico for the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI). Chosen through a highly competitive n...

Ford School marks 45 years as a PPIA host site, welcomes 2026 Junior Summer Institute cohort

News

EPI Predoctoral Fellow Jordy Berne wins Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award

Mar 20, 2026

Education Policy Initiative (EPI) Predoctoral Fellow alum, Jordy Berne (PhD ‘25), was recognized by the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) with the 2026 Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award for his research on Michigan's thir...

EPI Predoctoral Fellow Jordy Berne wins Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award

News

U-M-led study focuses on how schools successfully launch high-quality early learning curricula

Mar 10, 2026

EXPERT Q&A The best plans for improving early education do little good if they never find their way into classrooms. It might seem obvious, but high-quality early learning curricula are rarely used in public preschools. This is partially because ther...

U-M-led study focuses on how schools successfully launch high-quality early learning curricula

News

First-of-its-kind national educator survey reveals both promise and peril in school cell phone policies

Feb 27, 2026

Teachers report more face-to-face interaction as bell-to-bell bans spread, but laptops emerge as next challenge. Over 68,000 teachers surveyed to date; data collection to continue through end of school year. New findings from the first national study...

First-of-its-kind national educator survey reveals both promise and peril in school cell phone policies

In the Media

Weiland explains the benefits of kindergarten

Feb 26, 2026 EdSurge

"Any time a group of kids are being underserved, it's not good for the kid or family," Christina Weiland, a professor of education and public policy at the University of Michigan, says.

Kindergarten explains the benefits of kindergarten

In the Media

Charter schools are becoming more popular - Cohodes

Feb 22, 2026 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A unique coalition has historically supported charter schools, Cohodes said: Republicans who back school choice efforts and Democrats largely from urban areas who argue schools have failed to support students of color and those from low-income famili...

Charter schools are becoming more popular - Cohodes

News

Michigan governor signs classroom cell phone ban: U-M experts available to comment

Feb 11, 2026

EXPERT ADVISORY University of Michigan experts are available to discuss a new policy that will ban cell phone use in Michigan's K-12 classrooms. Brian Jacob is a professor of education policy and economics at the Ford School of Public Policy, as well...

Jacob comments on competing screen policies for students

Publication

Should schools lower the chronic absenteeism threshold? New EPI research suggests they should

Feb 6, 2026

New evidence from the Ford School's Education Policy Initiative (EPI) shows absenteeism may hurt student's academics long before it is considered a chronic pattern. These findings, published in a January working paper, were recently featured in Educa...

Should schools lower the chronic absenteeism threshold? New EPI research suggests they should

Publication

Jacob and Weiland raise concerns about potential bias in traditional retention studies

Jan 30, 2026

Across the U.S., policies that require children to repeat a grade in elementary school—known as retention policies—have become a popular approach to improve reading proficiency. As of 2025, 18 states have enacted or are set to implement third-grade r...

Jacob and Weiland raise concerns about potential bias in traditional retention studies

In the Media

Jacob comments on competing screen policies for students

Jan 28, 2026 EdSurge

Brian Jacob, the co-director of University of Michigan's Youth Policy Lab, believes the two initiatives can co-exist, as they address two separate ideas. One expresses enthusiasm for applying AI for educational purposes, while the other centers fear ...

In the Media

Weiland says Michigan's childcare programs can only be part of the solution

Jan 26, 2026 Crain's Detroit Business

Child care programs in Michigan, such as Tri-Share, are getting national recognition for their impact in lowering the cost of child care for American families. Programs such as Tri-Share reduce the costs of child care by splitting the bill between fa...

Weiland says Michigan's childcare programs can only be part of the solution

News

Ford School faculty among the nation's top education scholars

Jan 8, 2026

Professors Sarah Cohodes, Brian Jacob, and Christina Weiland are ranked among the top 200 university-based scholars in the U.S. who had the biggest impact on educational practice and policy last year. This is according to Education Week's 2026 RHSU E...

Ford School faculty among the nation's top education scholars

In the Media

Jacob comments on fall in public school enrollment in wealthy districts

Jan 8, 2026 The 74

Brian Jacob found that white families removed their children from public schools at much higher rates in districts that were slow to reopen for in-person instruction. Jacob said in an interview that he was "not surprised" to see that parents who had ...

Jacob comments on fall in public school enrollment in wealthy districts

State & Hill

How do you ensure every child gets a strong start?

Dec 8, 2025

Weiland's policy-driven research brings proven results to classrooms across the U.S.In the rural West Virginia holler where Professor Christina Weiland grew up, the nearest child care center was at least 45 minutes away. So, until she was old enough ...

How do you ensure every child gets a strong start?

News

Weiland fears for communities in WV facing school consolidations

Nov 30, 2025

For the Ford School's Christina Weiland, an announcement about school consolidation in West Virginia was personal. The Roane County Board of Education voted 4-1 in favor of consolidating schools that Weiland attended, Geary Elementary and Middle Scho...

Weiland fears for communities in WV facing school consolidations

Publication

How mobility of graduates complicates efforts to measure college value

Sep 26, 2025

As policymakers ramp up efforts to hold higher education accountable for the financial outcomes of their graduates, new research from Ford School professor Kevin Stange and colleagues reveals a major complicating factor: college graduates don’t alway...

How mobility of graduates complicates efforts to measure college value

News

Ford School team receives Accelerate grant from U-M Bold Challenges Initiative to advance early intervention for children with disabilities

Sep 4, 2025

A team led by Christina Weiland, Karl and Martha Kohn Professor of Social Policy and co-director of the Education Policy Initiative, and Catherine Asher, assistant research scientist at the Youth Policy Lab, has been selected for the University of Mi...

Ford School team receives Accelerate grant from U-M Bold Challenges Initiative to advance early intervention for children with disabilities

News

Brian Jacob: Michigan's education system needs structural reform now

Aug 4, 2025

After a year of studying Michigan’s K-12 education system — reviewing the academic literature, analyzing data, interviewing and surveying stakeholders, and examining state practices nationwide — one thing is clear: The current system of state-level e...

Brian Jacob: Michigan's education system needs structural reform now

News

U-M and Wayne State University collaborate to study assisting Michigan college students to achieve graduation

Jul 14, 2025

In Michigan, 18% of all community college students have completed some college but are still enrolled well beyond the expected time to a degree. Despite their substantial progress, about 36% of all “long-term persisting” students do not complete any ...

U-M and Wayne State University collaborate to study assisting Michigan college students to achieve graduation

Publication

Making the grade: Targeted help, not being held back, offers leg up to students struggling with reading

Jun 26, 2025

Policies calling for holding children back a grade in elementary school to improve their reading skills are widespread—if unpopular—across the United States. However, the benefits to students appear to come from the support services put in place once...

Making the grade: Targeted help, not being held back, offers leg up to students struggling with reading

News

State data initiatives inform education policy amid federal withdrawal

May 30, 2025

As the federal government appears poised to pull back on collecting and disseminating educational data, it’s increasingly critical that information collected and maintained by states and local districts is available to inform policy, according to a p...

State data initiatives inform education policy amid federal withdrawal

News

What is the secret to better reading outcomes?

May 26, 2025 Education Week

As states have struggled for decades to improve 3rd grade literacy on a large scale, many have enacted policies to hold struggling readers back a year. Education Week recently highlighted Christina Weiland and Brian Jacob's evaluation of Michigan’s “...

What is the secret to better reading outcomes?

News

New gift to support early childhood education policy research

May 14, 2025

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan will establish the Martha Darling and Gilbert Omenn Research Fund for Early Childhood Education with a generous $500,000 commitment from Martha A. Darling and Gilbert S. Omenn. ...

New gift to support early childhood education policy research

News

"We can do better than this" – Weiland Kohn lecture on closing early education gaps

Apr 20, 2025

Christina Weiland, co-director of the Education Policy Initiative and professor at the Ford School, delivered her inaugural lecture as the Karl and Martha Kohn Professor of Social Policy. Weiland, who is also a professor at the Marsal Family School o...

"We can do better than this" – Weiland Kohn lecture on closing early education gaps

In the Media

Stange comments on cuts to education research funding

Mar 21, 2025 Bridge Michigan

Following the recent executive order designed to dismantle the Department of Education, the Ford School's Kevin Stange spoke with Bridge Michigan about what this means for education research. Strange shared that his biggest concern is the fate of nat...

Stange comments on cuts to education research funding

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