Free and open to the public. Panelists: Moderator: Jeffrey D. Padden, President of Public Policy Associates, Inc. Patricia L. Caruso, Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, 2003-present; Peter Luke, Lansing correspondent for Booth Newspapers; John Proos, State Representative (R-St.
ABSTRACT: Politicians tend to underestimate and to undervalue societal benefits that come far in the future, and this is particularly problematic with schools. Even though the economic benefits of improving growth through better schools far exceed the benefits from short run macro policies, the latter receives much more attention. In this talk, the returns to improved schools are described, and these returns are related to a variety of possible school reform policies. Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
In 2004, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm charged the Lieutenant Governor's Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth with identifying strategies to improve postsecondary attainment and completion in Michigan.
Reception to follow. Immigration is increasingly changing the composition of the American population. From 1970 to 2003, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population increased from less than 5% to more than 12%. Though this dramatic increase has occurred disproportionately in a few regions, the effects of immigration are increasingly felt across the country. Alongside this rapid increase, debate regarding the effects of immigration has also ramped up.
School of Social Work, Educational Conference Center, Room 1840.
1080 S. University Street, Ann Arbor 48109
Mary Jo Bane is the Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management and Academic Dean, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is also the Chair of the Management, Leadership, and Decision Sciences (MLD) and Leadership at the Kennedy School. Prior to that she was Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This panel discussion will present a number of different approaches to urban food retail in the city of Detroit, including: a program that touches on the conventional grocery industry; a program to develop grocery sector entrepreneurs; a new model for community grocery stores; and alternative formats/vehicles for urban residents to get fresh food. Moderator: Larissa Larsen, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, the University of Michigan Panelists: Fresh Food Access Initiative
Sheldon H. Danziger Professor Danziger is the Henry J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Research Professor at the Population Studies Center. His research focuses on social welfare policies and on the effects of economic, demographic, and public policy changes on trends in poverty and inequality.
More low-income families now need assistance on how to find financial vehicles that will allow them to more effectively manage debt, savings and their financial lives. A recently released book edited by Rebecca M. Blank and Michael S. Barr, Insufficient Funds: Savings, Assets, Credit, and Banking among Low-Income Households (Russell Sage Press, 2009) discusses the problems and suggests how to bring more low-income families into the formal financial sector by offering them better financial service products.
Abstract In developing countries, rising incomes, increased demand for more skilled labor, and government investments of considerable resources on building and equipping schools and paying teachers have contributed to some global convergence in enrollment rates and completed years of schooling but substantial education gaps persist, such as between rural and urban households and also between males and females, in some settings. To address these gaps, some governments have introduced school vouchers or cash transfers programs that are targeted to disadvantaged children.
Dallas BurtrawDallas Burtraw is Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that conducts independent research - rooted primarily in economics and other social sciences - on environmental, energy, and natural resource issues.
Abstract Current and former Corrections Department leaders will discuss changes in Michigan's crime and corrections policies and how they have affected the state's prison population over time. PanelistsPatricia L.
David Deming will present his study of the implementation of an open enrollment public school choice plan in Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district (CMS) in 2002. Students were guaranteed admission to their home school but could apply to as many as 3 other public schools in the district. Where demand for slots exceeded supply, assignment was determined by randomized lottery. Deming finds significant benefits of school choice for students who come from neighborhoods that are assigned to very low performing schools.
Abstract As a new administration takes the reins of the federal education research enterprise, the former director of federal education research, evaluation, and statistics will reflect on his experience in leading a research agency within the Bush administration that maintained its independence and integrity, and will offer his thoughts on what must be done to strengthen education research further so as to provide practitioners and policymakers with the knowledge to improve education outcomes substantially.
STPP 2009 Winter Lecture Series Tania SimoncelliScience Advisor, American Civil Liberties Union Commentator: Eve Brensike Primus, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School Co-Sponsored by the University of Michigan Life Sciences and Society Program 4:00-5:30pm in the Betty Ford Classroom (1110 Weill Hall) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Reception and booksigning to follow. Kristin Seefeldt, a Research Investigator at the Ford School and Assistant Director of the National Poverty Center, will speak from her new book, published December, 2008 by the W.E.
Marian Wright Edelman speaks from her new book, The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation, which she wrote as a call to action for all Americans to address the urgent needs of our country's youth.
Dr. Pianta is Dean of the Curry School of Education, as well as the Novartis Professor of Education and Director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia. A former special education teacher, Dr. Pianta's research focuses on investigating the effects of schooling on children's social and academic outcomes and on improving school and classroom experiences through teachers' professional development. He has been involved in developing observational assessments of classrooms and observationally-based systems for professional development. Dr.
David Marash has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast journalism. Most recently, he anchored news from Washington for the global news channel, Al Jazeera English and he served for 16 years as the chief international correspondent for ABC News Nightline. In the ever-expanding world of global communication, there are lots of 'new media' like internet and mobile phone links for the transmission of text, voice and pictures, and literally a world of new players guiding the still dominant 'mainstream media,' but for all that, content still matters.
Abstract: Teacher Preparation and Student Achievement: This research project describes the recent changes in the routes into teaching in New York City. It assesses the effects of these changes on the distribution of teachers across schools and the academic achievement of students. It then looks more closely at the preparation of teachers in the district and estimates the effects of characteristics of this preparation on teachers' value-added to student achievement in their first two years of teaching.
Abstract: The challenges facing K-12 public education systems in Michigan and throughout the U.S. are formidable, and seem to grow more complex by the day. Issues related to globalization, federal oversight through the No Child Left Behind law, unfunded state mandates, aging infrastructure, and many more, are putting pressure on K-12 public school systems even while calls to improve student achievement and public education accountability grow from all quarters.
Abstract: Community colleges today enroll over one-half of all college students nationwide or nearly 12 million students. And yet, fewer than 40% of those who start at a public two-year college earn any type of degree within six years. Even among those students who intend to complete a degree, only about one-third do so within six years.
Abstract: Accountability programs, including the one implemented by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, operate under the assumption that schools are inefficient -- that is, that schools can provide higher quality education without investing additional resources. These programs seek to make schools more efficient by using incentives. The state of North Carolina currently operates two independent incentive systems for public schools.
Ambassador James F. Collins, Senior Associate and Director, Russian and Eurasian Program; Diplomat in Residence at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Ambassador Collins is an expert on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Before joining the Carnegie Endowment in 2007, he served as Senior Advisor at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., a public law firm and policy practice group. James Collins was the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 1997 to 2001.
Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. The war in Iraq and the fight against Al-Qaeda have posed major challenges to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the foundation for the global movement for human rights. Increasingly, to many critics the war on terror has become a war on human rights, providing cover and sanction for repressive governments around the world, undermining human rights globally and compromising US national security.
Shobita Parthasarathy is Assistant Professor and Codirector of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Professor Parthasarathy will be speaking from her forthcoming book, to be published by MIT press in April, 2007.
Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Lecture Series
Catherine Bertini's career spans public service at international, national, state, and local levels and includes private sector leadership and university teaching.
