Social context

Publication

Michelmore and Pilkauskas find EITC boosts employment, with decreasing impact as children age

Oct 4, 2021

Existing research has largely overlooked the variation in maternal employment effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) depending on the age of their children. In a new study, Katherine Michelmore and Natasha Pilkauskas, both associate...

Who’s caring for the kids? The Earned Income Tax Credit and child care arrangements

Publication

Michigan’s HAIL scholarship program meaningfully changes students’ college trajectory, report shows

May 19, 2021

Research for years has shown that low-income students face unique barriers to applying to colleges, let alone being able to afford tuition and living costs. To address the concern that not enough high-achieving, low-income students were applying to...

Michigan’s HAIL scholarship program meaningfully changes students’ college trajectory, report shows

News

Parthasarathy on the dangers of facial recognition technology in schools

Jan 29, 2021 Los Angeles Times

As facial recognition technology has become more commonplace in law enforcement, some schools have considered implementing facial recognition technology on their respective campuses. However, after public backlash over privacy concerns, many...

Parthasarathy on the dangers of facial recognition technology in schools

News

Applications for financial aid lagging among Michigan low-income students

Aug 9, 2020

The economic hardship for low-income families caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have another casualty: high school seniors accessing financial aid to attend college. Applications for federal and state financial aid for college are a leading...

Stange and co-authors study cost differences across fields of study at colleges and universities

News

Dynarski addresses remote learning inequities

May 20, 2020

“The pandemic has revealed enormous inequalities in homes, in schools, in families. So the technological challenges are large, and they are very much connected to a family's financial resources,” according to Ford School professor Susan Dynarski,...

Susan Dynarski: University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor Lecture

News

U-M faculty members Dynarski, Shaefer named Carnegie Fellows

May 12, 2020 "U-M faculty members Dynarski, Shaefer named Carnegie Fellows" article

University of Michigan faculty members Susan Dynarski and H. Luke Shaefer have been chosen from hundreds of nominees as part of the prestigious Carnegie Fellows program. (read...

Susan Dynarski sitting on the steps of a building

News

Online learning out of reach for millions of students

May 1, 2020

UNESCO, the United Nations’ education agency, released data on April 21 revealing that half of all children currently out of school due to stay-at-home orders do not have access to a computer, and forty percent do not have access to the internet....

News

Ball, Cohen, Duke, Dynarski, and Jacob on 2020 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Ranking list

Jan 8, 2020 "Ball, Cohen, Duke, Dynarski, and Jacob on 2020 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Ra…

American Enterprise Institute director of education policy studies and Education Week blogger Frederick M. Hess released his 2020 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Ranking. This list spotlights the top 200 education scholars who move ideas from academic...

News

Mike Widerspan was appointed ED of Iowa College Aid

Dec 18, 2019 "Mike Widerspan as ED of Iowa College Aid" page

The Iowa College Aid Board of Commissioners has selected Dr. Mark Wiederspan as the agency’s new Executive Director. Current Executive Director Karen Misjak will retire January 24 after 15 years at the agency and more than 30 years in the field of...

A block M on the ground on University of Michigan's campus

News

Dynarski’s work on school day SAT testing cited in Inside Higher Ed analysis of the 2019 test results

Nov 8, 2019

Sue Dynarski’s research is cited in a recent Inside Higher Ed analysis of an initiative that expanded access to the SAT for low-income, first-generation, and minority students. 2019 marked the highest number of SAT test-takers to date: 2.2...

News

Dynarski named one of inaugural Distinguished Diversity & Social Transformation Professors

Sep 19, 2019

On Thursday, September 19, Ford School Professor Susan Dynarski was named one of nine inaugural recipients of the University of Michigan Distinguished Diversity & Social Transformation Professorship. The designation was recently created to...

Dynarski named one of inaugural Distinguished Diversity & Social Transformation Professors

State & Hill

HAILed it - Tuition-free promise attracts low-income students to U-M

Apr 5, 2019

A research study that centered around a large maize-and-blue-striped envelope caught the attention of more than just the students it sought to target. The work launched a larger initiative at the University of Michigan and is being lauded as...

HAILed it - Tuition-free promise attracts low-income students to U-M

News

Dynarski calls the legacy admission bump 'unconscionable'

Oct 30, 2018

As universities hone their admissions processes to reflect fairness and build a diverse student body, legacy students still have an advantage, warns Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. Susan Dynarski, Ford School professor, agrees. “Legacy...

HAILed it: Tuition-free promise effectively recruits low-income students to U-M

News

Professor Susan Dynarski’s research confirms the basis for radical educational innovation

Sep 28, 2018

In the most poverty-stricken school district in San Antonio, the work of Syracuse University’s Katherine Michelmore and Ford professor Susan Dynarski is helping to reshape educational reform. In an effort to bolster college-readiness, increase...

Professor Susan Dynarski’s research confirms the basis for radical educational innovation

EPI Policy briefs

Public School Funding, School Quality, and Adult Crime

July 14, 2022

Jason Baron, Joshua Hyman, Brittany Vasquez

Given the large costs of crime to society, there is substantial policy interest in identifying effective crime-prevention strategies. Many studies have focused on the effects of increasing the size of the police force and on the effects of tougher...

EPI Policy briefs

Understanding the Psychosocial Effects of the Flint Water Crisis on School-Age Children in Michigan

May 19, 2022

Sam Trejo, Gloria Yeomans-Maldonado, Brian Jacob, Samuel Owusu

In early 2016, the Flint Water Crisis captured national attention; major news outlets reported that the city’s tap water had been contaminated with lead since April of 2014. While Flint residents alerted officials about the changes to their drinking...

EPI Working papers

Public School Funding, School Quality, & Adult Crime

March 1, 2022

Jason Baron, Joshua Hyman, Brittany Vasquez

This paper asks whether improving the quality of public schools can be an effective long-run crime-prevention strategy in the U.S. Specifically, we examine the effect of school quality improvements early in children's lives on the likelihood that...

Other reports

Historic Crisis, Historic Opportunity: Using Evidence to Mitigate the Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis on Young Children and Early Care and Education Programs

June 1, 2021

Christina Weiland, Erica Greenberg, Daphna Bassok, Anna Markowitz, Paola Guerrero Rosada, Grace Luetmer, Rachel Abenavoli, Celia Gomez, Anna Johnson, Brenda Jones-Harden, Michelle Maier, Meghan McCormick, Pamela Morris, Milagros Nores, Deborah Phillips, Catherine Snow

The COVID-19 crisis has brought unprecedented challenges to the high-quality early care and education (ECE) experiences that are essential for young children to thrive. Throughout the pandemic, early childhood policymakers had to quickly make...

EPI Policy briefs

Increasing Economic Diversity at a Flagship University

April 1, 2021

Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Susan Dynarski, Katherine Michelmore, Nicole Wagner Lam, Stephanie Owen

Research shows that low-income students face unique barriers to applying to colleges. The HAIL (High Achieving Involved Leader) study at the University of Michigan (U-M) explored whether providing an early, four-year guarantee of free tuition and...

EPI Policy briefs

Effects of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education Centers

March 1, 2021

Christina Weiland, Paola Guerrero Rosada, Anne Taylor, Louisa Penfold, Catherine Snow, Jason Sachs, Meghan McCormick

This brief is part of an ongoing study that is tracking implementation of the Boston Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) expansion, including effects of the COVID-19 crisis on UPK community-based centers. We use administrative and interview data to...

Parent walking two children to school with masks on

EPI Policy briefs

Applications for Financial Aid Lagging Among Low-Income Students

August 1, 2020

Sabrina Solanki, Kevin Stange, Orlando Sanchez Zavala, Catherine Brown

Applications for federal and state financial aid for college are a leading indicator of how many students will enroll in and complete a college degree. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Tuition Incentive Program (TIP), a...

EPI Policy briefs

Findings on Boston Prekindergarten Through Early Elementary School

October 1, 2019

Christina Weiland, Anna Shapiro, Rebecca Unterman, Hirokazu Yoshikawa

This brief summarizes findings from the Sustaining the Boost project, an Institute of Education Sciences-funded study of the Boston Public Schools prekindergarten program. We extended what is known about the program in four different recent...

EPI Working papers

Closing the Gap: The Effect of a Targeted, Tuition-Free Promise on College Choices of High Achieving, Low-Income Students

December 1, 2018

Susan Dynarski, Katherine Michelmore, Stephanie Owen, CJ Labissi

Low-income students, even those with strong academic credentials, are unlikely to attend a highly selective college. With a field experiment, we test an intervention to increase enrollment of low-income students at the highly selective University of...

The University of Michigan's Hail Scholarship

EPI Working papers

Nudges, College Enrollment, and College Persistence: Evidence from a Statewide Experiment in Michigan

May 1, 2018

Joshua Hyman

I conduct a statewide experiment in Michigan with nearly 50,000 high-achieving high school seniors. Treated students are mailed a letter encouraging them to consider college and providing them with the web address of a college information website. I...

EPI Working papers

Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth

September 1, 2017

Daniel Kreisman, Kevin Stange

Vocational education is a large part of the high school curriculum, yet we have little understanding of what drives vocational enrollment or whether these courses help or harm early careers. To address this we develop a framework for curriculum...

Student completing a metalworking project

EPI Working papers

Price Regulation, Price Discrimination, and Equality of Opportunity in Higher Education: Evidence from Texas

December 1, 2016

Kevin Stange, Rodney Andrews

This paper assesses the importance of price regulation and price discrimination to low-income students' access to opportunities in public higher education. Following a policy change in the state of Texas that shifted tuition-setting authority away...

EPI Working papers

Can Technology Help Promote Equality of Educational Opportunities?

October 1, 2016

Brian Jacob, Dan Berger, Cassandra Hart, Susanna Loeb

This chapter assesses the potential for several prominent technological innovations to promote equality of educational opportunities. We review the history of technological innovations in education and describe several prominent innovations,...

Two students collaborating on a computer assignment

EPI Policy briefs

Class Size in Michigan: Investigating the Risk of Being in Very Large Classes

September 1, 2016

Brian Jacob, Susan Dynarski, CJ Libassi, Rene Crespin

The number of students in a classroom has long concerned parents, teachers, and policymakers. This aspect of a student’s educational experience has always seemed to be an important marker of school quality, and a long line of research has confirmed...

Student paying attention to teacher in class

EPI Policy briefs

The Gap within the Gap: Finding A Better Measure of Student Disadvantage

August 1, 2016

Susan Dynarski, Katherine Michelmore

Gaps in educational achievement between high- and low-income children are growing. Administrative datasets maintained by states and districts lack information about income but do indicate whether a student is eligible for subsidized school meals. We...

Student walking down a hallway at school

EPI Working papers

The Measurement of Student Ability in Modern Assessment Systems

May 1, 2016

Brian Jacob, Jesse Rothstein

Economists often use test scores to measure a student’s performance or an adult’s human capital. These scores reflect non-trivial decisions about how to measure and scale student achievement, with important implications for secondary analyses. For...