COVID-19

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

2021 Child Tax Credit reduced hardship for families in poverty, had no significant impact on employment

Oct 5, 2022

New research from the University of Michigan focuses on the effect of the 2021 Child Tax Credit on families living in poverty, noting that the monthly payments reduced certain types of hardship and had little to no impact on parents’ employment...

2021 Child Tax Credit reduced hardship for families in poverty, had no significant impact on employment

In the Media

Stange comments on decreased enrollment rates

Mar 14, 2022 Bridge Michigan

Public school districts saw a drop in enrollment during the pandemic, with parents moving their students to private schools with COVID-19 rules parents were happier with. Enrollment rates are staying steady, a sign that those parents have decided to...

Stange examines data bias caused by college graduates' out-of-state migration

News

Pandemic effects on education in Michigan could endure - for better and worse

Feb 23, 2022

After all of the disruption in Michigan schools since the COVID-19 pandemic began – establishing remote learning curricula and the technical infrastructure needed to maintain it, lack of socialization among students, conflicts between school boards,...

Pandemic effects on education in Michigan could endure - for better and worse

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...

Jacob's study on teacher loan forgiveness cited in Chalkbeat

In the Media

EPI paper cited on COVID crisis in education

Jan 31, 2022 Washington Post

The Washington Post reported on the "crisis of epic proportions" being faced by public education across areas of absenteeism, enrollment, teacher shortages, and other issues, many brought on by the adjustments needed for remote learning caused by...

Overcoming data collection challenges in ECE research

News

2021: A year of public policy

Dec 16, 2021

The Ford School of Public Policy is a top-ranked public policy school dedicated to preparing diverse leaders to take on society’s most pressing challenges and make transformational discoveries through cutting-edge research. Experts from the Ford...

State & Hill

Partnerships in focus: Learning and research collaborations that create better public policy

Dec 13, 2021

By Rebecca Cohen (MPP ‘09) Two-directional learning helps small businesses and students thrive Lily Hamburger (MBA ’16) supports economic mobility for entrepreneurs as the senior director of the pandemic-born Detroit Means Business, a coalition...

Partnerships in focus: Learning and research collaborations that create better public policy

News

Lawmakers seek out U-M faculty for expertise on various topics

Dec 1, 2021

Federal lawmakers continue to seek out University of Michigan faculty members to lend their expertise and knowledge to help inform federal policy. In the last year, 13 U-M faculty members and researchers testified at 14 congressional hearings...

News

Musaddiq details driving factors of school enrollment drops

Oct 7, 2021

Ford School postdoctoral fellow Tareena Musaddiq explains findings from a recent Education Policy Initiative working paper about the pandemic's effects on school enrollment and its consequences in The Conversation. Musaddiq writes that the large...

Musaddiq details driving factors of school enrollment drops

In the Media

Public school pandemic choices have long-term funding implications, says Stange

Oct 5, 2021 The Detroit News

With school districts divided over whether to mandate masks for students or have in-person classes, parents are forced to make tough decisions. Some are pulling their students from public schools, a decision that Kevin Stange, associate professor of...

Publication

EPI study offers deeper dive into demand for educational choices, implications for schools during pandemic

Sep 9, 2021

As school districts consider their options in light of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, a study by the Education Policy Initiative shows they need to be flexible in offering both in-person and virtual options or risk losing more enrollees. The...

EPI study offers deeper dive into demand for educational choices, implications for schools during pandemic

In the Media

Weiland provides context for kindergarten enrollment numbers

Aug 20, 2021 MLive

With the delta variant on the rise, educators are worried about getting kindergartners in the classroom yet again. Christina Weiland, associate professor of education, explained why kindergarten enrollment shrunk last year, and the variant might...

Investment in Pre-K can expand access, increase pay - Weiland

News

Weiland explains hurdles for early childhood education

Aug 13, 2021

As the new school year begins, many early childhood educators are wondering what the year will look like. Christina Weiland, associate professor of education and faculty co-director of the Education Policy Initiative, explained to WXYZ the obstacles...

Weiland explains hurdles for early childhood education

News

Michigan Minds podcast: Weiland on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted young students' learning

Aug 11, 2021

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted younger students’ learning experiences? In this episode of Michigan Minds, Christina Weiland, Ed.D., associate professor at the School of Education and by courtesy at the Ford School of Public Policy, dives...

Publication

Weiland calls for investment in early childhood programs following pandemic

Jul 21, 2021

As the pandemic continues to drag on, those most affected continue to face adversity — including young children. According to a recent opinion piece authored by Christina Weiland, associate professor of education and faculty co-director of the...

Weiland calls for investment in early childhood programs following pandemic

In the Media

Historic Crisis, Historic Opportunity: New ECE Research Looks Back and Ahead

Jul 14, 2021 Early Learning Nation

Although young children are more resilient to the health effects of Covid, the global pandemic hit them with stunning force. In the face of this historic challenge, how did we do? According to a recently published synthesis of national, state and...

In the Media

Statistics show it's time to ring the alarm on early childhood education

Jul 12, 2021 The Hill

With the U.S. fully reopening, life for many Americans has begun to feel more normal than it has at any time since the COVID-19 crisis began. But for young children, families, and the early educators who serve them, the crisis is still very real....

News

Education Policy Initiative's report gains more traction

Jul 6, 2021

The Education Policy Initiative's recent report, "Historic Crisis, Historic Opportunity: Using Evidence to Mitigate the Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis on Young Children and Early care and Education Programs," has gained more traction in the media,...

News

New policy brief reviews evidence of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on young children's learning and ECE programs, highlighting inequities, and points to solutions

Jun 18, 2021

How has COVID-19 impacted young children's educational experiences and learning outcomes? How has the pandemic impacted early childhood education (ECE) programs and the ECE workforce? A new report from the Education Policy Initiative (EPI) at the...

Publication

New EPI report provides snapshot of pandemic challenges for early childhood education providers

Mar 29, 2021

Even in a steady-funded “best case” scenario, teacher turnover, decreases in enrollment, and new safety protocols strain resources and stall quality improvements. Early childhood education (ECE) centers across the country are facing unprecedented...

In the Media

Lewis: shrinking graduate pipelines, publication bottlenecks, and hope for reimagining graduate education

Feb 15, 2021 The Chronicle of Higher Education

“By the time we get to ’25 or ’26, we may look back and realize that we’ve reached a new plateau, that it [graduate student populaiton] was not as high as it was in 2010, let alone 2015,” said Earl Lewis, commenting on of the effects of the pandemic...

Lewis: shrinking graduate pipelines, publication bottlenecks, and hope for reimagining graduate education

News

The student loan system has "layers and layers of dysfunction"

Jan 6, 2021 "The student loan system has 'layers and layers of dysfunction'" podcast

As President-elect Joe Biden mulls forgiving $10,000 in student loan debt — and leading Democrats and others on his left push for more — one of our listeners wants to know: What would that do to the economy, and is it even possible for the White...

In the Media

Dynarski argues "Colleges are fueling the pandemic in a classic market failure"

Oct 8, 2020 Colleges Are Fueling the Pandemic in a Classic Market Failure

Financial pressures explain why many campuses have brought students back. But Ford School economist Susan Dynarski and Sarah Cohodes of Columbia University Teachers College say that there is a textbook solution: government...

Susan Dynarski: University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor Lecture

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

Why the move to online instruction won’t reduce college costs

Aug 7, 2020

In an essay for the Chalkboard blog at the Brookings Institution, Kevin Stange, associate professor of public policy at the Ford School, reports on analysis of the move to online teaching at colleges and universities across the U.S. He and his...

News

Dynarski: “The U.S. is reopening many of the wrong schools”

Aug 4, 2020

Ford School professor Sue Dynarski writes in a column for The New York Times that with coronavirus cases spiking in dozens of states, the prospect of anything resembling a normal school year is fading fast. Schools can’t safely reopen if infections...

News

Stange highlights the value of in-person higher education in light of the Coronavirus crisis

May 29, 2020

An article in Marketwatch on May 29 posits, “Coronavirus raises new questions about the value of higher education,” and looks at how students are changing their plans in light of an increase in online course offerings at universities. In an online...

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,...

News

The School Year Really Ended in March

May 13, 2020 "The School Year Really Ended in March" article

“Abrupt closings have stalled the learning of millions of students. U.S. education needs a rescue, an economist says, and it won’t be cheap.” (read...