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State & Hill

Discourse: Faculty in the news from the Spring 2020 issue of State & Hill

May 22, 2020

“The government needs to make sure the hardest-hit families have enough income to keep food on their tables...in a rapidly unfolding crisis, the type of aid that’s offered may matter at least as much as the quantity.” Betsey Stevenson and Justin...

State & Hill

Faculty Findings - Spring 2020

May 22, 2020

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...

State & Hill

Toward a brighter future

May 22, 2020

New gift from Joan and Sanford Weill supports education and employment initiatives By David Pratt Longtime friends of the Ford School Joan and Sanford Weill have made a generous new investment in the school's work with a gift of $5...

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

Two Ford School faculty awarded the prestigious Carnegie Fellowship

May 12, 2020

Two faculty members at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy have been chosen from hundreds of nominees as part of the prestigious Carnegie Fellows program. Professors Susan Dynarski and H. Luke Shaefer are among only...

News

Making up for lost time for millions of children, U.S. education needs a major rescue effort

May 8, 2020

For most students, the school year ended in March, according to a New York Times commentary by Ford School professor Susan Dynarski. She outlines both the education lost for American students from school closures and what will need to be done to...

The economic downturn may lead to a change in college major choices

May 5, 2020

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...

Online learning out of reach for millions of students

May 1, 2020

UNESCO, the United Nations’ education agency, released data on April 21 revealing that half of all children currently out of school due to stay-at-home orders do not have access to a computer, and forty percent do not have access to the internet....

Youth Policy Lab releases Resource Guide for Nonprofits Seeking Public Assistance

Apr 23, 2020

April 23 press release from Youth Policy Lab: A new Michigan Resource Guide for Nonprofits Seeking COVID-19 FEMA Public Assistance provides timely information for Michigan nonprofits providing emergency response services as a result of...

Former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough visits the Ford School

Feb 28, 2020

On February 26, the Ford School welcomed Denis McDonough, former White House Chief of Staff for President Obama for an armchair conversation on “New Frontiers: Labor, Immigration and Foreign Policy,” with John Ciorciari, associate professor at the...

Annual DC career trip fosters connections between students and alumni

Feb 11, 2020

On February 6 and 7, 2020, the Ford School held its annual DC career trip with record student attendance (55 graduate students) and alumni participation (140). A Ford School tradition, this year’s Washington, DC experience provided students with...

Report finds gaps in access to career, technical ed programs

Feb 5, 2020

A new University of Michigan report detailing access to career and technical education programs in Michigan has found that while CTE courses are popular among high school students, there’s a gap in access to them.CTE courses prepare students to work...

People operating machines in a training environment

Christina Cross (PhD ‘19) says in NYT op-ed that resource accessibility is the root cause of educational disparities

Dec 13, 2019

In an attempt to prevent educational disparities attributed to the effects of single-parent households, millions of federal and state dollars are poured into marriage promotion initiatives. But in a December 9 New York Times op-ed, sociologist...

New BA minor opens policy education to more U-M students

Dec 10, 2019

Starting fall 2020, the Ford School will offer University of Michigan undergraduates a 16-credit minor in public policy. The minor will have a competitive application process that will go live in April 2020. The school expects to enroll around...

News

Dynarski’s work on school day SAT testing cited in Inside Higher Ed analysis of the 2019 test results

Nov 8, 2019

Sue Dynarski’s research is cited in a recent Inside Higher Ed analysis of an initiative that expanded access to the SAT for low-income, first-generation, and minority students. 2019 marked the highest number of SAT test-takers to date: 2.2...

News

Dynarski named one of inaugural Distinguished Diversity & Social Transformation Professors

Sep 19, 2019

On Thursday, September 19, Ford School Professor Susan Dynarski was named one of nine inaugural recipients of the University of Michigan Distinguished Diversity & Social Transformation Professorship. The designation was recently created to...

News

Borrowing student loans leads to higher academic performance, Dynarski explains

Sep 10, 2019

The threat of crippling debt creates hesitancy when students decide whether to borrow student loans. But recent research reveals that students who took out more student loans were less likely to default, had higher academic performance, and more...

With Grand Challenges come great responsibility, warns Weiss

Sep 3, 2019

Grand Challenges are a growing trend at public research universities, but faculty are faced with increased demands on their research efforts with these new initiatives. The quantity and structure of these larger-than-life initiatives can be...

Seefeldt offers insight on student debt trends on Michigan Radio

Jul 19, 2019

A new report shows Michigan college graduates borrow on average 42 percent more today than 10 years ago. Michigan Radio’s Kate Well and Caroline Llanes interviewed Kristin Seefeldt, professor of public policy and social work, to help interpret the...

Paul Courant named Distinguished University Professor, chooses to honor Ned Gramlich

Jul 18, 2019

On Thursday the Regents named Paul Courant, professor of public policy, as a Distinguished University Professor, effective September 1. This distinction is the University’s most prestigious professorship, which recognizes senior faculty who have...

News

Susan Dynarski explains who struggles most with student debt

Jul 11, 2019

News coverage about student debt is piling up, just like the student debt itself. But the people who are struggling the most with student debt aren’t the ones you may expect, explains Susan Dynarski, professor of public policy, in an interview with...

News

Dynarski testifies before House Subcommittee on Education and Labor

May 10, 2019

College access has been getting a lot of buzz, but getting more people to enroll in higher education is only the first step. Helping people graduate is proving a larger hurdle, something the House Committee on Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on...

Professor Brian Jacob weighs in on proposals for Grosse Pointe public schools

Apr 12, 2019

For more than a decade, enrollment in Grosse Pointe public schools has been on the decline. As a result, most school buildings are only partially filled and the school district’s coffers lose approximately $1 million a year. Faced with budgetary...

State & Hill

HAILed it - Tuition-free promise attracts low-income students to U-M

Apr 5, 2019

A research study that centered around a large maize-and-blue-striped envelope caught the attention of more than just the students it sought to target. The work launched a larger initiative at the University of Michigan and is being lauded as...

State & Hill

State & Hill 2019 Spotlight Summary

Apr 4, 2019

Policy Pitch Highlights Students’ Niche Nine returning MPP students reflected on their summer internships by sharing their experience and policy impact in the inaugural Policy Pitch Competition. Guest judges for the competition included former...

News

College admissions scandal reaffirms prevalence of privilege in higher education for Dynarski

Mar 16, 2019

Everyone on college campuses across the nation is discussing the latest admissions scandal in which wealthy prospective students received acceptance into prominent universities as a result of unfair tampering. For many, the story merely confirms...

U-M Poverty Solutions report on student absenteeism featured on Michigan Minds

Mar 15, 2019

Jennifer Erb-Downward, a Ford School researcher for U-M presidential initiative Poverty Solutions, was featured in the latest "MIchigan Minds" podcast on March 6. The interview explores a report from the reseach center about the degree, causes, and...

News

With a declining birthrate, Farley suggests it's time to reimagine policy

Mar 11, 2019

Although we may not notice in a bustling town like Ann Arbor, we are amidst a crisis—the number of births in the state of Michigan has reached its lowest point since World War II. In the last three decades, births have fallen from 153,000 in 1990 to...

Ford alum joins Governor Whitmer to revolutionize college accessibility in Michigan

Mar 7, 2019

Governor Gretchen Whitmer is determined to greatly increase the number of Michiganders in possession of post-high school degrees and she is bringing in the right personnel to do it. Starting March 11, Brandy Johnson (MPP ’07), preivously the...

Jason Owen-Smith warns of “serious risks” when universities cater to an industry

Mar 1, 2019

In his February 26, 2019 piece for The Conversation, “Amazon pullout from NYC shows the perils of partnerships between higher education and business,” Professor Jason Owen-Smith details the great sacrifices universities make not only to their...