Report

This brief provides examples of federally funded research projects led by Education Policy Initiative and Youth Policy Lab-affiliated faculty. This research spans the full educational pipeline—from preschool to career—and has helped improve learning...

Transforming Research Into Action to Improve the Lives of Students (TRAILS) is a school-based program designed to help improve social and emotional learning (SEL) skills, student well-being, and mental health.  The TRAILS program intends to empower...

Michigan’s home-visiting programs aim to support families by promoting healthy pregnancies and providing caregivers with the tools, information, and resources needed to create a safe and nurturing environment for their child’s development. These...

In conjunction with the Maternal Infant Health Program (MIHP) Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies (HMHB) pilot program evaluation report, the University of Michigan Youth Policy Lab (YPL) has prepared this brief to share findings of an analysis of Z-codes...

This report provides a summary of overall findings from the 2022-23 DPSCD Universal Wellness Assessment (UWA) and analysis of change over time using data from previous Universal Wellness Assessments. The report also explores differences in outcomes...

Analyzing survey responses for over 1,700 individuals who participated in the HMHB pilot, we observed the following: Overall, the pilot appears to have had a positive impact on families’ self-reported social determinants of health, including food...

With funding provided through Governor Whitmer’s Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies initiative, YPL evaluates the effectiveness of a pilot program to allow MIHP provider agencies to bill for additional services and care coordination for families with high...

This report is a continuation of the Youth Policy Lab’s (YPL) examination of access to career and technical education (CTE) programming. Whereas our 2022 policy brief titled How Access to CTE Varies Across Michigan Schools and Students analyzed this...

Rates of adolescent depression and anxiety have increased over the past two decades, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related disruptions and school closures led to even higher levels of reports of mental health concerns. However,...

Since 2013, the TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students) program has delivered training, resources, and implementation support to schools and districts to provide evidence-based mental health programing for...

Despite much attention paid to the issue, educational inequality remains a consequential source of injustice in our society. For example, students of color and economically disadvantaged students are more likely to be taught by less qualified, lower...

AdviseMI advisers help students to apply for college by providing assistance with college searches, applications and essay writing, and applying for financial...

Studies have shown that math skills in early childhood are uniquely and strongly predictive of later outcomes across a range of domains and well into adulthood, including the likelihood of graduating from high school and college completion. The...

The DPSCD School Mental Health Needs Assessment was conducted with two overarching aims: 1) to more fully understand student mental health and related factors within the DPSCD community; and 2) to inform professional development (PD) opportunities...

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...

Career and Technical Education (CTE) could offer one way of bolstering educational attainment among and providing valuable job skills to students with disabilities (SWD). These programs cultivate work readiness and can help students prepare to...

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...

KRESA Superintendent David Campbell approached YPL to ask for assistance identifying CTE programs the center should offer. Specifically, Superintendent Campbell is focused on implementing programs that will prepare students to enter high-wage...

Many children who are eligible for early intervention services do not receive them. In this literature review we explore issues for health care providers, child care providers, and parents during the identification, referral, or uptake process that...

Home visiting is an evidence-based strategy to promote the health and well-being of pregnant people, new parents, and babies. The Maternal Infant Health Program (MIHP) is Michigan’s largest evidence-based statewide home visiting program for...

Recent federal legislation incentivizes states to reduce foster care placements by funding in-home prevention-focused services. However, there is little credible evidence on the effectiveness of either foster care placement or in-home prevention...

Home visiting is an evidence-based strategy to promote the health and well-being of pregnant women, new mothers, and babies. Despite a large body of evidence documenting the success of home visiting in improving health outcomes, home visiting...

In part as a result of these trends, high school career and technical education (CTE) programs have emerged as a popular strategy for improving young people’s chances of finding – and keeping – stable jobs. Taught by former industry professionals...

Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT), Detroit’s citywide summer youth employment program, serves as an introduction to the workplace for thousands of youth across Detroit every year.  By providing youth the opportunity to cultivate professional skills...

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...

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...

In recent years, policymakers have paid increasing attention to the many ways in which factors beyond school influence a child’s educational outcomes. Indeed, recent research finds that the “poverty” achievement gap—that is, the difference in...

Even as the U.S. economy has climbed out of the Great Recession, the labor force participation of low-skill workers has lagged. In many high-poverty urban areas, more than half of low-educated men have exited the labor market.1 In Detroit, 22...