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Admissions

We are not currently accepting applications for the EPI Fellows Program.  Please check back next winter 2027.

The Education Policy Initiative (EPI) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy is offering an EPI Fellows program to students interested in learning to evaluate educational policies and practices spanning early childhood to the labor market. The program builds on the University of Michigan's strengths in education policy and social sciences. It also contributes to the University's emphasis on interdisciplinary research and programs that make critical contributions to society.

We are actively seeking U-M doctoral students with diverse backgrounds and life experiences who are interested in using data, quantitative, and qualitative methods and tools to answer questions related to education policy. Doctoral students across the social sciences at U-M are welcome to apply. The program seeks to build a community of fellows that honors and learns from the unique experiences and perspectives brought by each of its students. The EPI Fellows program builds from the strengths of our IES Predoctoral Fellows program. 

Eligibility

Students must be enrolled full-time in a U-M doctoral program in the social sciences. Renewal of funding in subsequent years is conditional on meeting annual training program requirements.

Selection Criteria

The main criteria for selection is a passion for education policy and an interest in learning the methods of policy evaluation. Admissions decisions will be based on the candidates' demonstrated interest in the content of the training program, academic performance, and faculty recommendations. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to attend CIERS to evaluate their personal interest in the training program and, if interested, demonstrate this interest to program staff. While successful candidates generally have a basic familiarity with statistics and data analysis, prospective fellows need not already be experts; the purpose of the fellowship is to train students in these skills. A fellowship committee will review applications and select the fellows.

Offers of fellowships will typically be made in the spring of candidates' first or second year of doctoral studies. Students typically enter the training program in their second or third year of doctoral studies. This fellowship is open to both U.S. citizens and international students.

Benefits

Fellows supported by the program receive a small annual research allowance to support their research, conference attendance, or professional development in their first year of $1,000.  Funding may continue beyond the first year but is not guaranteed. Fellows will receive mentorship, hone their presentation skills, participate in community-building events, attend writing retreats, and connect with EPI alumni to grow their networks.

Graduates of the IES Predoctoral Fellowship program have gone on to successful careers in academia and other research organizations; some now serve in leadership positions within local and state education agencies. We expect the same will be the case for our EPI Fellows.

Courses

Required coursework will provide formal training in quantitative methods and contextual knowledge about education policy, institutions and practice. Students will select courses based on their research interests and in consultation with the program director; many courses will satisfy both degree and training program requirements. The sequence of required courses includes:

Two courses in Quantitative Methods required:
Two (2) courses in statistics beyond the introductory level.

One course in Causal Inference in Education Policy Research:
Education 712 / Public Policy 712 - Causal Inference in Education Policy Research I: ​Preschool, ​Elementary and Secondary​
Education 714 / Public Policy 713 - Causal Inference in Education Policy Research II: Postsecondary​

​These causal inference courses introduce students to education research that employs causal methods, and provides institutional, historical and theoretical context for the questions addressed in this research. Each course will focus, not just on identifying average causal effects, but also on determining the mechanisms by which effects were obtained, measuring intervention fidelity, and detecting heterogeneity in treatment effects. Economics students can choose either 712 or 713. Students from other disciplines should take 712, though exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For all students, we recommend taking both courses.

One course in Education Policy, Institutions or Practice

EPI Fellows: Course Pathways for Economics PhD Students
EPI Fellows: Course Pathways for Education PhD Students
EPI Fellows: Course Pathways for Sociology PhD Students

For more information, please email [email protected]. Please contact us with questions about your interest in the program, fit with your current studies, and other opportunities to get involved.

Summary

The Education Policy Initiative (EPI) seeks candidates interested in deepening their knowledge of rigorous, applied quantitative and mixed-methods education policy research for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship. EPI will hire up to two postdoctoral fellows to begin as soon as possible, in winter 2026.

EPI is composed of researchers interested in understanding and evaluating education policies at the local, state, and national level. This fellowship position will train the postdoctoral fellow to use quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate outcomes and disseminate lessons learned about early childhood curriculum implementation. Fellows should be interested in applied research, implementation science, creating policymaker-focused deliverables (along with academic articles), working with district and state partners, and leading the quantitative analysis in collaboration with scholars at EPI, UM, and other highly respected institutions.

Fellows will receive close mentorship from professor Christina Weiland and will have the opportunity to learn from cross-disciplinary faculty at EPI, with co-mentorship from Sarah Cohodes for the West Virginia project. The fellows will also have the opportunity to work with state and district partners in Mississippi and Arkansas, among others. Fellowships will include working with experts such as Michelle Maier from MDRC, the communications firm Advocacy & Communications Solutions, and pre-k curriculum expert Melissa Luc. Moreover, the University of Michigan (UM) is home to a dynamic community of researchers, with ample opportunity for professional development—via participation in seminars and trainings, as well as through exposure to high-profile speakers.

Fellows will work across the following early childhood projects with exact roles dependent on candidate experience and expertise:

The first project builds upon a broader Gates Foundation-funded project to generate stories of effective curriculum implementation. Fellows will support research funded by the Overdeck Family Foundation to better understand variation in curriculum implementation and links between fidelity of implementation and gains in student outcomes. The postdoc will serve as the quantitative analysis lead on this project. Responsibilities may include: supporting collection of fidelity data, leading processing and analysis of all quantitative data including fidelity data, CLASS, and child outcome and covariates data, writing of reports and academic articles, and supporting other project deliverables such as policy briefs and conference presentations.

A second body of work is in Arkansas, supporting the state's use of HQIM in early childhood. The state is currently working to adapt and pilot the Boston Public School's Focus on Pre-K curricula, with the goal of offering it as an option for other programs in the state in the future. Postdocs will provide general project support including: supporting curriculum revisions, gathering, analyzing, and summarizing feedback from the pilot, supporting curriculum iteration after the pilot, and contributing to reports and written project deliverables.

The third project the fellows will support is a quasi-experimental study to understand the impact of school closures in West Virginia. In recent years, West Virginia has seen a wave of school closures, and our team at the University of Michigan has been tracking these closures, participating in local non-partisan policy meetings, and connecting with local universities tracking vacant schools across the state. The next step is to collect policy-relevant research to understand predictors of closure and the impact of these closures. For this project, fellows will lead quantitative analysis. Responsibilities may include: assembling public data on school closures, applying for student-level data and completing the UM IRB process, contributing to the analysis on predictors of closures, fitting difference-in-difference models, and co-leading write-ups of findings.

EPI strives to foster an inclusive work environment that is home to scholars with a wide range of backgrounds and research interests. We do so by bringing in a diverse set of speakers who do research directly on inequality in education, encouraging trainings and collaborations across campus, surveying community members about our seminar culture, and self-evaluating ways to make our research⁠—from start to finish⁠—more equitable. We are interested in recruiting applicants with diverse backgrounds and life experiences and from a diverse pool of academic disciplines and PhD institutions.

This is a 1-2 year fellowship beginning in the winter of 2026/2027 with competitive salary and benefits plus funds for related travel. Renewal of the position in the 2nd year is contingent on strong performance and continued project funding in the first year. EPI strongly prefers to hire a candidate who is willing to work from U-M's Ann Arbor campus; hybrid situations may be considered for exceptional remote candidates, particularly those who live in a partner state.

Qualifications

Applicants must have completed their PhD in a relevant social science discipline prior to December 31, 2026, have an interest in researching education and receiving further training in quantitative methods, and have academic research experience in public policy, implementation science, education, quantitative methodology, qualitative methods, or other similar fields. The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity employer.

Application Process and Deadline

We will accept applications submitted online. The application can be found here. Complete applications include a 2-3 page statement of interest, writing sample (job market paper or recent publication authored / co-authored by the applicant), CV, and the names of three references (we will contact finalists for letters of recommendations). We will begin reviewing applications on November 6th, 2026 and the tentative deadline for submitting an application is November 20th, 2026. Anticipated start date is approximately January 2027.