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Education

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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...

Ford School alum Ryan Etzcorn talks about his Fulbright experience

Feb 21, 2019

For the 14th straight year, the University of Michigan tops the list of public university recipients of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. Awarded according to the applicants academic merit and leadership potential, the scholarships fund the...

News

Op-eds draw upon Dynarski's reserach

Feb 18, 2019

The Ford School’s Susan Dynarski has a long history of being an ardent advocate for policies aimed at improving the financial aid process in the U.S. In two recent op-eds, the authors turned to Dynarski’s research on making college a more...

Professor Kevin Stange breaks down the cost of college education

Feb 15, 2019

As obtaining a college degree becomes more expensive, and student debt climbs over $1 trillion, questions often wonder as to where all the money goes. Such curiosity spikes even more as tuition increases year after year. To assuage such...

News

Barry Rabe and Sarah Mills of the Ford School part of team that receives 2019 Catalyst Grant

Jan 25, 2019

Barry Rabe and Sarah Mills of the Ford School constitute the policy arm of the new multidisciplinary project for advancing new sustainability-focused policies that promote renewable energy proposals. Along with Tony Reames of the School for...

More harm than good? Professor Brian Jacob criticizes the continued turnover of accountability systems for Michigan schools

Jan 18, 2019

During the waning days of 2018, a lame-duck session of the Michigan legislature voted to implement a new letter-grade apparatus for evaluating Michigan school performance. The implementation of a new accountability system may cause more headaches...

News

It’s HAILing coverage for Susan Dynarski and team

Dec 21, 2018

Last week, Susan Dynarski, Ford School professor, and her fellow researchers released a new research study titled “Closing the Gap: The Effect of a Targeted, Tuition-Free Promise on College Choices of High-Achieving, Low-Income Students.” Since...

News

HAILed it: Tuition-free promise effectively recruits low-income students to U-M

Dec 12, 2018

ANN ARBOR—High-achieving, low-income students who received personalized commitment of financial aid are more than twice as likely to apply, be admitted to and enroll in a top-tier university, according to a new University of Michigan...

New research unearths the discrepancies of higher ed costs

Dec 6, 2018

Not all degrees are of equal cost in the world of higher education. That is what Kevin Stange’s, assistant professor at the Ford School, new research paper reveals, as reported in Inside Higher Ed. “Why Teaching Engineering Costs More Than Teaching...

News

Professor Susan Dynarski sees a bright future for Ford School's role in new UM-MSU educative partnership

Nov 30, 2018

Earlier this week, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University announced a new partnership in which Michigan’s two premiere public universities will work alongside the state’s Department of Education to figure out what is and is not...

News

New collaboration supports education research between U-M, MSU and state of Michigan

Nov 28, 2018

The launch of a new research collaboration and a data center at the University of Michigan marks the start of a unique collaboration between U-M, Michigan State University, the Michigan Department of Education and the Center for Educational...

Photo of a posterboard of MERI partners in the foreground; with kickoff event attendees networking in the background

CLOSUP associate director Tom Ivacko examines Michigan's post-midterm political environment

Nov 16, 2018

In light of Republicans maintaining control of Michigan’s legislature, Gretchen Whitmer’s gubernatorial victory last week has many wondering if the newly-elected government will be able to reach bipartisan compromises or if the parties will entrench...

Informing local leaders about fiscal health and economic development image

Owen-Smith's new book highlights technological recombination at universities

Nov 16, 2018

Despite the immense technological innovation and proliferation of recent years, research reveals that new concepts and applications are often the product of derivations and enhancements of existing patents. Recombination—Ford professor Jason...

Dynarski calls the legacy admission bump 'unconscionable'

Oct 30, 2018

As universities hone their admissions processes to reflect fairness and build a diverse student body, legacy students still have an advantage, warns Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. Susan Dynarski, Ford School professor, agrees. “Legacy...

Ford School's Molly Kleinman joins Ann Arbor Transportation Commission

Oct 19, 2018

Molly Kleinman, the Ford School’s Program Manager of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, is the most recent addition to the 11-member Ann Arbor Transportation Commission (AATC). The diverse group of commision members advise the city...

Professor Susan Dynarski’s research confirms the basis for radical educational innovation

Sep 28, 2018

In the most poverty-stricken school district in San Antonio, the work of Syracuse University’s Katherine Michelmore and Ford professor Susan Dynarski is helping to reshape educational reform. In an effort to bolster college-readiness, increase...

News

Professor Brian Jacob says Michigan student-teacher ratio is higher than reported estimations

Sep 28, 2018

As education in Michigan falls under ever greater scrutiny, one glaring issue seems to stand out: the state’s lopsided student-teacher ratio. One of the highest ratios in the nation, Ford School professor Brian Jacob believes the issue is even worse...

Slight improvement in Michigan education statistics not enough says Brian Jacob

Sep 21, 2018

After the release of the 2018 M-STEP (Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress) scores, the outlook on education in Michigan seems rather bleak, Jennifer Chambers reports in her August 29th, 2018 Detroit News article. Despite nominal increases...

Students publish 15th edition of the Michigan Journal of Public Affairs

Jul 9, 2018

In June, Ford School graduate students announced the publication of the Michigan Journal of Public Affairs, Volume 15. The journal is available online here.MJPA is the Ford School's graduate student-run journal, dedicated to publishing innovative...

Graphic with text "Michigan Journal of Public Affairs in Solidarity with Black lives"

Jacob quoted in Bridge Magazine’s report on Northern Michigan elementary school’s remarkable progress

May 4, 2018

Four years ago, Kenwood Elementary, a historically economically disadvantaged school in Cadillac, MI was ranked in the second percentile of all state schools by the Michigan Department of Education. Two years later, the school rose to the 59th...

In NYT, Susan Dynarski compares student debt on international scale

Apr 27, 2018

Susan Dynarski and Matthew Chingos of the Urban Institute devised a March Madness bracket-style tournament comparing tuition and loan systems in their April 2 article, “An international final four: which country handles student debt best?” They...

News

In new study, Raimi finds people with strongly held beliefs tend to overestimate knowledge

Apr 17, 2018

Michael Hall and Katilin Raimi have co-authored a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology: “Is belief superiority justified by superior knowledge?” The researchers find that individuals expressing belief superiority, or...

News

Jacob: Grow Detroit’s Young Talent benefits youth “long after they receive their last paycheck”

Apr 13, 2018

The administrators of Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, a youth summer employment program, always knew that the program made a difference in participants’ lives. Now, that intuition is backed up by data. Researchers at the University of Michigan,...

Prof. Brian Jacob says child abuse and neglect should be ‘central concern’ for state in new Brookings report

Apr 10, 2018

Late last month the Brookings Institution released a report by U-M professors Brian Jacob and Joseph Ryan. The assessment was the result of a partnership between the University and the State of Michigan, detailing the prevalence of abuse and...

On “Here and Now,” Dynarski talks student loan debt and solutions

Mar 1, 2018

Susan Dynarski was interviewed by Jeremy Hobson of NPR’s Here and Now for the February 27 segment: “Has student loan debt reached a crisis point?”For a “substantial minority” of student loan borrowers, Dynarksi tells Hobson, “there is a crisis.” She...

Dynarski argues for universal SAT/ACT testing in her latest Brookings report

Feb 27, 2018

In her latest piece for the Brookings Institution, Susan Dynarski writes on the benefits of providing universal SAT and ACT testing, arguing their usefulness towards detecting academically talented students who typically “fall off the path to...