Youth Policy Lab

News

Ford School researchers to study Michigan’s education governance

May 1, 2024

In partnership with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), a team of researchers from the Ford School will conduct a study into how Michigan’s education governance system can be improved for the benefit of public school students.“An effective...

Ford School researchers to study Michigan’s education governance

News

School enrollment during COVID-19: U-M study reveals racial disparities

Feb 21, 2024

Student enrollment in districts that provided in-person schooling in fall 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic showed a greater decline among nonwhite students than white students.But in districts that offered virtual learning, the opposite was true,...

School enrollment during COVID-19: U-M study reveals racial disparities

News

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life

Aug 2, 2023

What are the dynamics of inequity in labor markets? How do we determine appropriate categories for people in a multicultural society? How is the U.S. approach to ethnicity and nationality different from what they are doing in Europe? These were...

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life

News

Ford School welcomes PPIA 2023 cohort

Jun 19, 2023

The 2023 Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) has welcomed 23 students from 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This year’s cohort will spend seven weeks taking classes, participating in...

News

Ford School welcomes local and state elected officials to boost collaborative work

Feb 16, 2023

Elected officials from local, county, and state government came to the Ford School to hear about the potential for collaborations with their offices and the School’s faculty, research centers, and students. Fifteen members of the Michigan State...

Ford School welcomes local and state elected officials to boost collaborative work

Publication

Groundbreaking data from College and Beyond II help researchers examine diverse college experiences

Jan 10, 2023

Researchers have known for decades that attending college is associated with wide-ranging benefits to individuals and society. What is not entirely clear are the mechanisms that connect these beneficial outcomes with the undergraduate experience....

Groundbreaking data from College and Beyond II help researchers examine diverse college experiences

State & Hill

COVID-19 and education: A tough time for all

Dec 19, 2022

Ford School education researchers look for answers By Shaun Manning From early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally altered public education in the United States. Many schools introduced remote learning for at least part of the 2020-2021...

COVID-19 and education: A tough time for all

News

Tompkins-Stange weighs in on no-strings-attached donations

Dec 5, 2022

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is changing the world of education philanthropy by giving no-strings-attached, multimillion-dollar donations to schools. Megan Tompkins-Stange, associate professor of public policy, analyzed the donations, and the...

Disrupting traditional philanthropic power dynamics in a Detroit early learning community partnership

News

Jacob breaks down increasing importance of school board elections

Oct 23, 2022

With midterms quickly approaching, school board races are getting increasing attention. Brian Jacob, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy, explained to WWMT Channel 3. “School boards I think even before COVID had started being more...

Jacob's study on teacher loan forgiveness cited in Chalkbeat

State & Hill

Discourse: Ford School faculty in the news, spring 2022

May 31, 2022

“(Putin) has already violated every international treaty, including the U.N. charter, by invading. This has international implications, not just European implications. Now, the question of what we do and how we do it, with regards to sanctions or...

Discourse: Ford School faculty in the news, spring 2022

In the Media

Jacob weighs in on chronic absenteeism

Feb 27, 2022 Chillicothe Gazette

Across the country, schools are struggling with chronic absenteeism. Brian Jacob, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy, weighed in on the issue. "Even before we figure out if we should improve the curriculum, at the basic level you...

In the Media

Jacob discusses chronic absenteeism fueled by pandemic

Feb 20, 2022 The Columbus Dispatch

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the nation are struggling with rising absenteeism rates. Brian Jacob, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy, weighed in on the issue. "There was a once-in-a-century global public...

State & Hill

Building strength

Jun 10, 2021

With new leading-edge research and faces at the school, the Ford School builds depth in two key policy areas. Energy and the environment Economics, political science, psychology, and community engagement are at the roots of the Ford School’s...

News

Examining Detroit students' college pathways

May 26, 2021

Academic and non-academic barriers are preventing Detroit high school students from enrolling and succeeding in college. Detroit Students’ College Pathways and Outcomes, a policy brief released by the Youth Policy Lab (YPL) at the University of...

Examining Detroit students' college pathways

Publication

Career and technical education offers pathways for students with disabilities in Michigan

May 13, 2021

Career and Technical Education (CTE) could offer one way of bolstering educational attainment among and providing valuable job skills to students with disabilities (SWD). A new release by the Youth Policy Lab at the Ford School looks at CTE...

Career and technical education offers pathways for students with disabilities in Michigan

News

Jacob and Dynarski ranked among top U.S. education policy influencers

Jan 11, 2021

Education Week released their 11th annual RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings—the top 200 university-based scholars who shape education practice and policy. Ford School professors Brian Jacob and Susan M. Dynarski were two of the four...

Jacob and Dynarski ranked among top U.S. education policy influencers

State & Hill

Faculty Findings - Spring 2020

May 22, 2020

Robin Jacob on closing early childhood achievement gaps The first five years of a child’s life are considered the most critical for development. But for too many children from low-income households, learning opportunities in those...

News

Report finds gaps in access to career, technical ed programs

Feb 5, 2020

A new University of Michigan report detailing access to career and technical education programs in Michigan has found that while CTE courses are popular among high school students, there’s a gap in access to them. CTE courses prepare students to...

Report finds gaps in access to career, technical ed programs

News

Brian Jacob honored as a Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor

Apr 23, 2019

Brian Jacob, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy at the Ford School, Co-Director of the Education Policy Initiative (EPI) and Youth Policy Lab (YPL), and faculty director of the Ford School’s joint-doctoral program, was named as a...

Brian Jacob honored as a Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor

News

More harm than good? Professor Brian Jacob criticizes the continued turnover of accountability systems for Michigan schools

Jan 18, 2019

During the waning days of 2018, a lame-duck session of the Michigan legislature voted to implement a new letter-grade apparatus for evaluating Michigan school performance. The implementation of a new accountability system may cause more headaches...

More harm than good? Professor Brian Jacob criticizes the continued turnover of accountability systems for Michigan schools

News

Professor Brian Jacob says Michigan student-teacher ratio is higher than reported estimations

Sep 28, 2018

As education in Michigan falls under ever greater scrutiny, one glaring issue seems to stand out: the state’s lopsided student-teacher ratio. One of the highest ratios in the nation, Ford School professor Brian Jacob believes the issue is even worse...

News

Slight improvement in Michigan education statistics not enough says Brian Jacob

Sep 21, 2018

After the release of the 2018 M-STEP (Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress) scores, the outlook on education in Michigan seems rather bleak, Jennifer Chambers reports in her August 29th, 2018 Detroit News article. Despite nominal increases...

News

Jacob in Brookings: Causes, consequences, and potential solutions for chronic absenteeism

Jul 31, 2017

In a July 27 “Evidence Speaks” column for the Brookings Institution, Brian Jacob and Kelly Lovett discuss “Chronic absenteeism: An old problem in search of new answers.”During the 2013-14 academic year, the authors report that 14 percent of students...

Jacob in Brookings: Causes, consequences, and potential solutions for chronic absenteeism

News

Pilkauskas wins fellowship to study maternal employment and school readiness

Jul 26, 2017

Natasha Pilkauskas has been awarded a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to further her research on maternal employment characteristics and child wellbeing.Pilkauskas is among 30 scholars, selected from a pool...

Pilkauskas wins fellowship to study maternal employment and school readiness

News

In New York Times, Dynarski makes the case for universal college admission testing

Jul 14, 2017

In the New York Times, Susan Dynarski lays out the case for states to offer free, and universal, college admission testing.“A child born into a high-income family is six times as likely to earn a college degree as one who is poor,” writes Dynarski,...

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

News

Education Policy Initiative wins funding for postdoctoral fellowships in education sciences

Jun 29, 2017

Scholars from the Ford School's Education Policy Initiative (EPI) and the University of Michigan's School of Education have received a $712,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to continue the University’s postdoctoral training...

News

In New York Times, Susan Dynarski welcomes FAFSA changes, urges more reforms

Sep 16, 2016

Susan Dynarski, a longtime advocate for simplifying the FAFSA (the financial aid application students and their families must submit for college), welcomes new changes and suggests future reforms in this Sunday's New York Times “Economic...

News

In Brookings, Dynarski advocates for expansion of charter school quota in Massachusetts

Sep 15, 2016

In some urban areas of Massachusetts, a statewide cap on charter schools restricts any additional charter seats. Susan Dynarski and Sarah Cohodes tackle this issue in “Massachusetts charter cap holds back disadvantaged students,” the latest Evidence...

Susan Dynarski on Michigan Radio's "Stateside": Ways to fix America’s student loan mess

News

Don’t miss Dynarski’s “74” interview on data-driven education policies and practices

Sep 2, 2016

Susan Dynarski was interviewed by The 74, a non-profit news site (named after the 74 million American children under the age of 18) that covers pressing topics in domestic education.The interview, conducted by senior staff writer Matt Barnum, covers...

News

Brian Jacob on student test scores—how they’re assembled and why that matters

Aug 16, 2016

In “Student test scores: How the sausage is made and why you should care,” Brian Jacob describes how student ability is measured; how various test makers analyze and report student performance; and why this matters for policymakers and practitioners...