early childhood education

Sam Owusu

Policy Fellow, MiLEAP

Sam Owusu (He/Him) is a Data & Policy Fellow at the Youth Policy Lab. He is embedded in the Office of Early Childhood located within the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential (MiLEAP). Originally from Chicago, IL, Sam h...

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 po...

Federal funding supports critical education research at the University of Michigan

News

Math games: High 5s program brings the 'math out of play'

Apr 11, 2022

TAYLOR—While groups of first graders work in clusters at pods around the classroom, four children face their teacher at a U-shaped desk, backs straight and eyes alert as she deals cards to each of them. They're playing "Chocolate Chip Count," a ...

Math games: High 5s program brings the 'math out of play'

State & Hill

Building strength

Jun 10, 2021

With new leading-edge research and faces at the school, the Ford School builds depth in two key policy areas. Energy and the environmentEconomics, political science, psychology, and community engagement are at the roots of the Ford School’s interdisc...

Journal Article

The Effects of Early Childhood Science Educational Interventions on Children’s Science Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of Classroom-Based Studies

July 25, 2025

Kathleen Lynch, Catherine Asher, Amelia Gotwals, John Settlage

The importance of providing children with more robust opportunities to access high-quality science instruction is a widely recognized challenge. Unfortunately, science instruction is often neglected in the earliest school grades, meaning that many yo...

an elementary aged child in science class

Journal Article

Counterfactual Differences and Variations in the Impacts of a District-Run Universal Pre-K Program

June 9, 2025

Catherine Asher

This study investigates how the impact of district-provided pre-K programs on kindergarten readiness outcomes can depend on the counterfactual availability of early childhood education, using data from a large school district in Georgia. Students in ...

Meta-Analysis of Early Science Interventions

July 2022 - June 2025

Catherine Asher

With support from the National Science Foundation, the Youth Policy Lab is partnering with colleagues at the University of Connecticut and Michigan State University to conduct a meta-analysis of Early Science Interventions over the past twenty years. This research will provide information about the features of science interventions that are most effective at improving teacher and student learning for young students.

Teachers and young students exploring science