Publications

Using data from 82 classroom observations conducted in a large urban school district, we explore how kindergartners spend their time in general and across schools serving children from lower and higher income households. Consistent with prior...

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...

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...

The Maternal Infant Health Unit within MDHHS has knowledgeable and experienced staff who have administered the MIHP program for a combined 45 years and have an additional 30 years in MIHP experience outside of the Department. Their expertise allows...

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...

This past year has been tumultuous to say the least. Not a single person on this planet was untouched by the coronavirus, including both our team and our partners. We have had our lives and work upended in 2020, and yet, in spite of all the...

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...

This article reports findings from a one-year evaluation of a kindergarten math enrichment program. A randomized design was used to assess the impact of High 5s on children’s math skills, attitudes towards math, language ability, and executive...

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...

A substantial number of randomized trials of educational interventions that have been conducted over the past two decades have produced null results, with either no impact or an unreliable estimate of impact on student achievement or other outcomes...

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...

Approaches to and public perceptions of juvenile justice in the United States have long been mutable. Recent shifts in the field include efforts to raise the age for youth who are tried as juveniles and increased opposition to lifesentences for...

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...

We describe the findings from a randomized evaluation of a one-year kindergarten math enrichment program, the High 5s program. The program was designed to provide small-group math enrichment in a fun, club-like format to children who had received...

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...

This report presents findings from a unique partnership between the University of Michigan and the State that allowed us to match the universe of child maltreatment records in Michigan with educational data on all public school children in the...