Deb Hubbard

The Michigan Department of Education selected the Youth Policy Lab to conduct a study of Michigan’s current system of education governance and provide recommendations about ways to improve educational outcomes for Michigan’s students, in line with the state’s strategic goals. The study used a variety of data sources and analytical methods to review key features of education governance in Michigan, including potential school district consolidation, the allocation of authority across different levels of government, school choice, and the state’s school finance system. 

As evaluation partners for Project AWARE—a Michigan Department of Education-Michigan Department of Health and Human Services initiative on youth mental health—YPL examined a variety of efforts by state and local agency partners to better support students’ healthy development.  Youth Policy Lab worked with the Project AWARE team to design and implement a multifaceted assessment of the five-year initiative’s success in increasing mental health awareness, strengthening interagency collaboration, and streamlining service coordination in three participating communities across the state.

High 5s is a small-group math enrichment program, developed at the University of Michigan with the help of MDRC and leading early childhood math experts Doug Clements and Julie Sarama. Participation in the program closed almost a fifth of the achievement gap between low-income children and their peers. Working closely with teachers and schools in Taylor, MI, and New York City, NY, we hope to adapt, expand and then evaluate a more integrated and scalable version of the High 5s program.

Alignment of academic content for grades PreK-3 is considered important among practitioners, policymakers, and educational researchers alike. However, surprisingly little is known about the extent to which alignment across grades, even within schools or districts, actually exists. Using classroom observations and curriculum analysis, we examined the alignment of three widely used elementary math curricula across grades PreK-3. While we found that content is generally aligned across grades, instructional environments and pedagogical practices may not be. Kindergarten in particular, may be poorl...

When early high-quality math instruction is aligned across grades, it can have a positive effect on children’s math skills, attitudes toward math, and working memory. However, evidence-based pre-K learning trajectories and instructional practices are not typically integrated into the curriculum for the early elementary grades. This lack of integration can have negative results: Children may encounter the same content more than once from pre-K to kindergarten through third grade. Conversely, the math instruction they receive may not cover the areas or progression of learning that research says ...