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...
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...
Jul 28, 2020"Why the move to online instruction won’t reduce college costs" article
"As COVID-19 swept across the country in March, colleges shuttered and millions of students and instructors were propelled into a world of distance education." (read...
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...
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...
Research has shown that in an economic downturn, students often shift to studying more career-oriented subjects like health sciences or engineering. The 2008 recession confirmed this trend: after remaining stable for the previous decade, from 2008...
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...
Brian Jacob on the promise, and limitations, of "next generation" teaching technologies
In "Can technology help promote equality of educational opportunities?" Brian Jacob and coauthors, including Ford School alumna Susanna Loeb (MPP '94), explore...
“A New Measure of College Quality to Study the Effects of College Sector and Peers on Degree Attainment,” a journal article by Jonathan Smith and Kevin Stange, has been published in the fall 2016 edition of Education Finance and...
“Investing in Schools: Capital Spending, Facility Conditions, and Student Achievement” a journal article by Paco Martorell, Kevin Stange, and Isaac McFarlin, has been published in the August 2016 edition of the Journal of Public...
Research shows that recent high school grads who attend a four-year college are 50 percent more likely to earn a bachelor’s within six years than those starting at community colleges. In a new NBER Working Paper, Kevin Stange and Jonathan Smith of...
Governor Scott Walker’s (R-WI) proposed cuts to the University of Wisconsin system are the largest the system has ever faced, according to UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank in the recent Inside Higher Ed article, "Deep Cuts in Wisconsin," by Ry...
The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Education Policy Initiative will be hosting a Policy Talk about the profound effects of COVID-19 on the state of education in Michigan.
Libby Nelson moderates panelists Ajita Talwalker Menon, Kevin Stange, and Susan Dynarski in a discussion about a policy change proposal that could increase low-income student access/attainment in higher education.
Causal Inference in Education Research Seminar (CIERS)
About CIERS The objective of the Causal Inference in Education Research Seminar (CIERS) is to engage students and faculty from across the university in conversations around education research using various research methodologies. This seminar provides a space for doctoral students and faculty from the School of Education, Ford School of Public Policy, and the Departments of Economics, Sociology, Statistics, and Political Science to discuss current research and receive feedback on works-in-progress.
We document the skill content of college majors as perceived by employers and expressed in the near universe of U.S. online job ads. Social and organizational skills are general in that they are sought by employers of almost all college majors,...
The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. Using student-level administrative data from Michigan and...
The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. Using student-level administrative data from Michigan and...
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...
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...
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...
Instructors are a chief input into the higher education production process, yet we know very little about their role in promoting student success. This is in contrast to elementary and secondary schooling, for which ample evidence suggests teacher...
Students starting at a two-year college are much less likely to graduate with a college degree than similar students who start at a four-year college but the sources of this attainment gap are largely unexplained. In this paper we simultaneously...
Public investments in repairs, modernization, and construction of schools cost billions. However, little is known about the nature of school facility investments, whether it actually changes the physical condition of public schools, and the...
This paper examines the effect of marginal price on students’ educational investments using rich administrative data on students at Michigan public universities. Marginal price refers to the amount colleges charge for each additional credit taken in...
In the face of declining state support, many universities have introduced differential pricing by undergraduate program as an alternative to across-the-board tuition increases. This practice aligns price more closely with instructional costs and...
This paper investigates whether demand-side market pressure explains colleges' decisions to provide consumption amenities to their students. We estimate a discrete choice model of college demand using micro data from the high school classes of 1992...
Education provides both investment and consumption benefits; the former being realized after schooling is completed but the latter accruing only while schooling is actually taking place. In this paper, we quantify the importance of consumption value...
