A single gift can make a difference, and gifts to the Ford School yield impressive returns.
The Annenberg Professorship, established to honor the life and legacy of President Ford, enabled the Ford School to attract and retain Brian Jacob, a rising superstar in education policy. He then recruited another star, colleague Susan Dynarski. Together, they've made the Ford School a national powerhouse in education policy.
Last year, Jacob and Dynarski launched the Education Policy Initiative, which now also includes four postdoctoral fellows, four professional staff members, and nearly two dozen student researchers.
They've raised more than $9 million in external funding to produce and disseminate rigorous, policy-relevant research in education policy.
Have charter schools improved student performance, college entry, and completion? How effective is the growing reliance on online education for K-12 students? Can we design a smarter structure for repayment of federal student loans? How can schools screen out potentially ineffective teachers before they're hired? How can we boost degree completion rates and post-graduation wages for low-income students?
With deep expertise and a passion for directly engaging with decision-makers, Jacob and Dynarski lead a team poised to deliver groundbreaking answers to some of education's most challenging questions.