Policy Topics

Post-secondary Access and Attainment

Evaluate programs that improve likelihood that people will apply, enroll in, and graduate from 2 and 4 year institutions

Content type
Showing 1 - 16 of 16 results
State & Hill

Data for good: Expanding college opportunity in Michigan

Dec 19, 2022
By Daniel Rivkin When the state of Michigan issued its COVID-19 stay at home order in March 2020, Youth Policy Lab (YPL) Data and Policy Fellow Ava Attari found herself in the middle of an ambitious state program. The thousands of workers who had...
Graduate in a cap and gown
News

Examining Detroit students' college pathways

May 26, 2021
Academic and non-academic barriers are preventing Detroit high school students from enrolling and succeeding in college. Detroit Students’ College Pathways and Outcomes, a policy brief released by the Youth Policy Lab (YPL) at the University of...
YPL report: Pre-COVID, more than half of Detroit students felt anxious or depressed, 1 in 4 considered suicide
In the Media

Youth Policy Lab finds metro Detroit is slipping in college readiness

Feb 3, 2021 Detroit Free Press
U-M's Youth Policy Lab (YPL) analyzed data for the Detroit Regional Chamber's "2021 State of Education" report, finding "a sober assessment of education attainment in the Detroit region." "With many key enrollment and attainment indicators trending...
Student filling in bubbles on standardized test
In the Media

Regional education report a 'call to action'

Dec 13, 2019 The Detroit News
Consider these numbers: The four-year high school graduation rate for students in the city of Detroit is 69%, compared with 83% statewide and 85% nationally.The numbers for Motor City students have dropped by 1 percentage point since 2014, despite...
Detroit Regional Chamber State of Education Report Cover
Report

NAF Students in Detroit

May 30, 2021
Youth Policy Lab at the University of Michigan requested data access and completed the analysis included in this report. The data are structured and maintained by the MERI-Michigan Education Data Center (MEDC). MEDC data is modified for analysis...
Two students studying outdoor on laptops
Report

Detroit Student's College Pathways and Outcomes

May 10, 2021
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Stacey Brockman, Sophia Chong, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Robin Tepper Jacob
This policy brief reports findings from research partnerships between the Youth Policy Lab, the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), the Detroit College Action Network (DCAN), and MDRC. We describe the...
a young African American student reading a book
Fellowship Spotlight

Fellowship Spotlight: Supporting Michigan's 60 by 30 Efforts

February 28, 2021
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Avazeh Attari
In 2019, the University of Michigan’s Youth Policy Lab placed a Data & Policy Fellow with the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) to provide LEO leadership with technical assistance and strategic support in improving its state-run...
a healthcare working looking away from her cellphone
Report

MyVoice: Youth Perspectives on Barriers to College

December 20, 2019
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Robin Tepper Jacob, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, A. Foster
While some overarching barriers to college access and success—including cost and academic preparation—are well documented in literature, the challenges individual students face are more nuanced. This policy brief uses data collected from the MyVoice...
a high school student walking between shelves in a library
Report

A Path from Access to Success: Interim Findings from the Detroit Promise Path Evaluation

April 23, 2019
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Alyssa Ratledge, Rebekah O’Donoghue, Dan Cullinan, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija (Youth Policy Lab)
Postsecondary education is widely seen as a necessity in the modern economy, yet among low- and middle-income families, college enrollment rates are dismayingly low — and graduation rates are even lower. College Promise programs, which cover local...
Title: A Path from Access to Success

NAF

November 2019 - June 2025
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Brian Jacob
NAF is an educational non-profit focused on preparing high school students for postsecondary education and/or the workforce through career exploration. It operates industry-themed learning academies within existing high school structures. These academies are comprised of courses with career-focused curricula and associated work-based learning opportunities. The Youth Policy Lab partnered with NAF to analyze the characteristics and outcomes of NAF students in Detroit to understand how students who enroll in NAF compare before, during, and after high school to students who do not...
4 students at a table with computers

Evaluating the Detroit Promise Path

January 2019 - December 2022
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Robin Tepper Jacob
The Detroit Promise Path pilot is an add-on to the Detroit Promise scholarship program that is designed to improve student outcomes by incorporating evidence-based support components. The Lab was engaged by MDRC, the primary research organization evaluating this pilot, to provide supplemental, qualitative evaluation of the impact of this...
3 people talking at what looks like a university

Winning Futures

September 2018 - June 2021
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Robin Tepper Jacob, Stacey Brockman
Winning Futures operates school-based workforce prep mentoring programs in Metro-Detroit high schools and launched a new four-year experiential learning Workforce Prep Model pilot in Fall 2018. The Lab evaluated the program’s impact on a variety of student outcomes such as grades, school attendance, high school graduation, post-secondary enrollment, sense of self efficacy, and goal-setting...
Students and teacher in Workforce Prep Model pilot

Detroit Regional Chamber Strategic Data Partnership

January 2020
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Catherine Asher, Elizabeth Reosti
As a part of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s economic development strategy, several programs are focused on improving post-secondary degree and credential attainment. These programs include: Detroit Drives Degrees, the Detroit Promise, and the Detroit College Access Network. The Youth Policy Lab serves as the strategic data partner to the Chamber, supporting its vision of improving the talent pipeline in southeast Michigan region by increasing postsecondary access and...
Detroit Campus Martius