Brian Jacob

Affiliates

Brian A. Jacob

Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy; Professor of Public Policy, Economics, and Education

Brian A. Jacob is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and professor of economics at the Ford School, and is co-director of the Youth Policy Lab. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Brian came…

Publication

Learning from lottery-based evaluations of early education programs

Apr 19, 2023

The value of Pre-K education has been widely acknowledged through decades of research. However, much of that research has come from studying older and often smaller programs than those currently being implemented across the country. To determine how...

Publication

Michigan transitional kindergarten widely available, supported by administrators and parents

Jan 26, 2023

Expanding access to high-quality early education has been a bipartisan goal of Michigan policymakers for at least a decade. New findings by the University of Michigan Education Policy Initiative provide the first systematic description of...

Michigan transitional kindergarten widely available, supported by administrators and parents

News

EPI's Weiland and Jacob, SOE's Ball and Duke, make the prestigious 2023 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings

Jan 5, 2023

Education Week has unveiled the annual 2023 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings which rate education scholars based on criteria that determines who has made the largest impact in their field over the previous year. Education Policy...

Jacob and Weiland rank in annual Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings

State & Hill

Education policy at the Ford School

Dec 19, 2022

Interdisciplinary, rigorous, and committed to real world impact and to mentoring: the Ford School has one of the strongest education policy programs in the country. How did we get there? S&H asked the scholar at the front of the class, economist...

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...

Publication

COVID-19 remote learning policy: public health or political preference?

Oct 16, 2022

A new study by Ford School professor Brian Jacob looks into whether decisions about extending virtual learning were led more by political preference or public health guidance. The working paper, Assessing School District Decision-Making: Evidence...

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...

News

Jacob in the media discussing Flint academic performance study

May 22, 2022

The recent Education Policy Initiative study about Flint, which found Math achievement for school-age children in Flint decreased and the proportion of children with special needs increased as a result of the Michigan city's water crisis during...

Publication

EPI studies Flint water crisis effects on academic outcomes

May 19, 2022

Math achievement for school-age children in Flint decreased and the proportion of children with special needs increased as a result of the Michigan city's water crisis during 2014-16, according to a new University of Michigan study. Those are the...

EPI examines education impacts of the Flint Water Crisis

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...

News

Education Policy Initiative to evaluate implementation of federal literacy grant

Feb 21, 2022

Improving literacy outcomes for children is critical to students’ academic success as well as their career and life outcomes. Michigan's Top 10 Strategic Education Plan (SEP) aims to provide focused direction to Michigan's education community in...

Education Policy Initiative to evaluate implementation of federal literacy grant

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...

News

Jacob and Weiland rank in annual Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings

Jan 10, 2022

Education Week has unveiled the 2022 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, which rank the 200 university-based scholars in the United States who did the most last year to shape educational practice and policy. Brian Jacob and Christina Weiland...

News

Transitional kindergarten in Michigan: Impacts through elementary school and predictors of a lasting boost

Sep 29, 2021

Access to early education programs have been shown for decades to improve the educational prospects for children in kindergarten and beyond. A new type of early education program widespread in Michigan and California—transitional kindergarten...

Transitional kindergarten in Michigan: Impacts through elementary school and predictors of a lasting boost

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...

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

News

Michigan Education Data Center an invaluable tool for research

Dec 1, 2020

Does waiting a year to start kindergarten lead to better academic outcomes? How does participation in summer youth employment impact high school graduation and college enrollment? What career pathways are students pursuing? Researchers from around...

Michigan Education Data Center an invaluable tool for research

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

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

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

New collaboration supports education research between U-M, MSU and state of Michigan

Nov 28, 2018

The launch of a new research collaboration and a data center at the University of Michigan marks the start of a unique collaboration between U-M, Michigan State University, the Michigan Department of Education and the Center for Educational...

New collaboration supports education research between U-M, MSU and state of Michigan

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: Grow Detroit’s Young Talent benefits youth “long after they receive their last paycheck”

Apr 13, 2018

The administrators of Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, a youth summer employment program, always knew that the program made a difference in participants’ lives. Now, that intuition is backed up by data. Researchers at the University of Michigan,...

News

In Brookings, Jacob argues for greater support systems for community college students

Feb 7, 2018

In his most recent report for the Brookings Institution, Brian Jacob highlights the many advantages of support programs for community college students, with data showing a profound impact on students receiving these interventions.Jacob’s piece,...

In Brookings, Jacob argues for greater support systems for community college students

State & Hill

Measuring higher ed performance: Kevin Stange on the numerator and denominator

Dec 15, 2017

As Kevin Stange sees it, there's a conspicuously missing link in much of the higher education decision-making process. "The higher ed sector, as a productive entity, is a huge fraction of the U.S. economy," says Stange, who was promoted to...

Measuring higher ed performance: Kevin Stange on the numerator and denominator

News

Jacob in Brookings: States need to support research on Career and Technical Education (CTE)

Nov 7, 2017

"The single best way to avoid... selection problems and determine the causal impact of a policy or program is through a randomized control trial. While such experiments can be expensive and are often logistically or politically difficult, they have...