education policy

Publication

Making the grade: Targeted help, not being held back, offers leg up to students struggling with reading

Jun 26, 2025

Policies calling for holding children back a grade in elementary school to improve their reading skills are widespread—if unpopular—across the United States. However, the benefits to students appear to come from the support services put in place...

Photo of a young child, held in the lap of an a guardian or teacher, reading a book

News

Youth Policy Lab welcomes Morehouse and Spelman students to 2025 ASPIRE summer program

Jun 2, 2025

The Youth Policy Lab (YPL) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Institute for Social Research is proud to announce the 2025 Applied Social Policy Internship and Research Experience (ASPIRE) cohort. This summer, Spelman students...

L-R Ke'Zhiah Chapman, Chloe Fite, Angelica Pierce, Brooklynn Vesey,Tyler Mathieu

News

State data initiatives inform education policy amid federal withdrawal

May 30, 2025

As the federal government appears poised to pull back on collecting and disseminating educational data, it’s increasingly critical that information collected and maintained by states and local districts is available to inform policy, according to a...

Photo of Kevin Stange giving a policy talk.

News

Career and tech education is booming, Brian Jacob says research can make it more effective

May 27, 2025

As popularity for career and technical education (CTE) programs increases, education economist Brian Jacob and YPL Project Manager Lynn Meissner make a case for robust data collection and research to understand their long-term impact on students....

News

What is the secret to better reading outcomes?

May 26, 2025 Education Week

Education Week recently highlighted Christina Weiland and Brian Jacob's evaluation of Michigan’s “Read by Third Grade” Law....

News

New gift to support early childhood education policy research

May 14, 2025

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan will establish the Martha Darling and Gilbert Omenn Research Fund for Early Childhood Education with a generous $500,000 commitment from Martha A. Darling and Gilbert S. Omenn....

News

"We can do better than this" – Weiland Kohn lecture on closing early education gaps

Apr 20, 2025

Christina Weiland, co-director of the Education Policy Initiative and professor at the Ford School, delivered her inaugural lecture as the Karl and Martha Kohn Professor of Social Policy. Weiland, who is also a professor at the Marsal Family School...

In the Media

Owen-Smith describes transactional relationship between government and universities

Apr 16, 2025 Associated Press

“The government gets to basically treat a generally decentralized national system of universities as a pay-as-you-go resource to get problems solved,” the Ford School's Jason Owen-Smith told the Associated Press. Owen-Smith discussed ways that the...

Publication

Yang finds unintended consequences of an early education program in the Philippines

Apr 3, 2025

A major policy change in early education in the Philippines led to an unexpected drop in test scores and academic achievement—revealing the challenges that even well-intentioned reforms can have and the importance of wisely investing in the first...

News

Federal funding supports critical education research at the University of Michigan

Mar 21, 2025

A new brief from the Ford School's Education Policy Initiative and Youth Policy Lab shows the impact of federally funded education research. The policy-relevant research is developed in partnership with local and state agencies, practitioners, and...

Photo of young children and their teachers in a classroom. By Yan Krukov

News

Brian Jacob on thoughtful cell phone restrictions in schools

Mar 21, 2025

Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s call for new cell phone restrictions in schools led Michigan legislators to reintroduce House Bill 4141. In a new opinion piece for Bridge Michigan, Ford School Professor Brian Jacob and Justin E Heinze, associate...

News

Weiland: COVID-19, 5 years on: Lingering impacts and pandemic preparedness

Mar 11, 2025

March 11 marked five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The Ford School's Christina Weiland discusses continued effects in education, business and society. Weiland is co-director of the Education Policy...

In the Media

No easy answer to tech use in classrooms - Jacob

Jan 22, 2025 The Wall Street Journal

"I just don’t think we know yet" says Brian Jacob, Ford School professor, on the effectiveness of technology use in classrooms. As screen time has increased in classrooms research still shows mixed results on student...

In the Media

Jacob questions efficiency in the use of tech in classrooms

Jan 22, 2025 The Wall Street Journal

The Ford School's Brian Jacob recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal regarding his 2023 research survey on the use of technology in classrooms. Jacob's survey was conducted among 1,000 educators and showed technology is used for completing...

Publication

College tuition aid program delivers high marks for value but strives to reach more who qualify

Jan 15, 2025

One of Michigan's largest financial aid programs offers great promise in boosting college affordability as well as the number of college graduates—with room to reach many more who qualify for...

Photo of college students in a hallway, with focus on a student seated on a bench against the wall, holding a coffee and looking at their coffee.

News

Cohodes, Jacob, and Weiland make Education Week’s 2025 public influence rankings

Jan 9, 2025

Education Week has announced the annual 2025 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, which highlights scholars who made significant contributions to educational practice and policy in the past year.Three Ford School faculty members have been...

Headshots of Brian A. Jacob, Christina J. Weiland, and Sarah Cohodes

News

U-M’s Education Policy Initiative launches project to boost early learning success with new curriculum readiness measure

Jan 6, 2025

To improve early learning programs nationwide, policymakers and funders are investing in curriculum, professional development, and assessments. However, ensuring educational partners are well-prepared to deliver them remains a crucial...

News

Owen-Smith: Here’s how the US can prepare for AI impacts on labor markets

Dec 30, 2024

In an article co-authored with Brent Orrell and Suzette Kent, Ford School professor Jason Owen-Smith writes for FedScoop about the possible impacts AI and other technologies will have on US labor markets. Owen-Smith compared new technologies like AI...

News

Cohodes' research "helped define" education in 2024

Dec 22, 2024

Research conducted by the Ford School's Sarah Cohodes has been cited for "defining education in 2024." The 74 network, a non-profit education news service, highlighted Cohodes' research among 11 other studies as some of the "biggest discoveries from...

News

Sarah Cohodes testifies before New Jersey Senate

Dec 17, 2024

On December 16, 2024, Ford School Associate Professor Sarah Cohodes testified before the New Jersey Senate Higher Education Committee. She was called on to speak at a public hearing to assist lawmakers in evaluating the status of charter schools...

State & Hill

Greater than its sum: an update on the Kohn Collaborative

Dec 17, 2024

Six years ago, Harold and Carol Kohn approached the Ford School with a vision. Their goal was to help build a vibrant research community dedicated to promoting social equity and inclusion. Today, the Kohn Collaborative for Social Policy is poised to...

In the Media

Cohodes on disparate school of choice system in Michigan

Nov 22, 2024 Bridge Michigan

In Michigan, 1 in 4 K-12 students attend either a charter school or a school of choice district. Nearly all of Michigan's 532 public school districts participate in school choice. The Trump administration is shown to be an advocate for school of...

News

Spotlight on poverty and opportunity: Katherine Michelmore

Nov 15, 2024

Dr. Katherine Michelmore, associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy has been awarded the 2024 David N. Kershaw Award and Prize for her contributions as a leading scholar and educator...

Publication

Beating the odds: Students at Detroit public schools are less depressed, anxious

Nov 11, 2024

The share of 8th-12th grade students reporting depression and anxiety symptoms fell below pre-pandemic levels in 2022-23 in the Detroit Public School Community District—which is the opposite of national trends.The most substantial improvements were...

Photo of two students comparing notes, smiling.

News

Cohodes receives funding to dig deeper into charter school impact

Oct 10, 2024

With a $275,000 grant from MIT Blueprint Labs, two University of Michigan professors will tease out why some schools better prepare students for college than others.The project is led by Sarah Cohodes, associate professor at the Ford School of...

In the Media

With Michigan school bond proposals on the ballot, Jacob stresses funding challenges within districts

Oct 7, 2024 Bridge Michigan

Nearly 1 in 10 Michigan school districts have bond proposals on the ballot in the upcoming November elections. Raising awareness of the lack of funding for Michigan schools, the Ford School's Brian Jacob stated, "There is no state funding for school...

News

Stange receives federal grant to classify college courses at scale

Oct 4, 2024

Research on college course taking, and what students learn while attending college have historically been hampered by inconsistent course titles and numbers across multiple institutions. Education economist Kevin Stange and a research team from the...

News

Katherine Michelmore wins the 24th David N. Kershaw Award and Prize

Sep 25, 2024

Katherine Michelmore, associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy has been awarded the 2024 David N. Kershaw Award and Prize for her contributions as a leading scholar and educator on...

In the Media

Cohodes research on Massachusetts charter schools shows positive outcomes

Sep 16, 2024 Education Next

Research conducted by Sarah Cohodes on Massachusetts charter schools shows that "charter schools in urban areas, including Boston, do a great job boosting test scores, and the ones outside of those urban areas, tended to have no impact on test...

Publication

Jacob’s new research reveals lasting changes in K-12 education due to COVID-19 pandemic

Sep 5, 2024

By the fall of 2022, children across the country returned to what seemed like “normal” school: students and educators returned to classrooms and masks began to disappear. While schools seemed to be going back to what they were before the pandemic,...

Photo of Brian Jacob standing at the Annenberg Auditorium podium, delivering remarks at a public event