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School district consolidation enjoys a unique status among strategies to reduce education costs. It promises to cut spending, without lowering service quality, by improving the efficiency of service delivery. In contrast to strategies aimed at lowering employee salaries or benefits--which are hard to avoid when cutting spending in any labor intensive service--consolidation's savings are often presented as essentially free, with no obvious losers. School district consolidation is not new. Indeed Michigan (and the United States) experienced a great wave of school consolidation after World War II. In fact, the number of school districts fell by about 85 percent between 1940 and 1970; the pace of consolidation has since slowed considerably. In this paper, the author offers some observations intended to inform the discussion of school consolidation in Michigan. He will start by reviewing the very limited evidence on the magnitude of potential consolidation savings in Michigan. Next, he will suggest factors that policymakers ought to consider when assessing whether consolidation is appropriate. He will argue that, while there are untapped consolidation savings, the magnitude of those savings is surely smaller than commonly imagined and some are concentrated in unexpected places. Finally, he will turn from economic to political considerations and ask who should decide where consolidation takes place. (Contains 16 footnotes.) [For its related report, "Reaction to "Observations on School District and Service Consolidation in Michigan. Working Paper #17". Working Paper #18," see ED537162.]

Across campus, laptops and other mobile devices, such as iPads and smartphones, are appearing in greater numbers in the classroom. In a CTools survey of 1,415 U-M students conducted in Winter 2010, over 50% of respondents reported bringing their laptops to class at least once per week (USE Lab, Digital Media Commons, 2010). Many faculty see this trend as an opportunity for more innovative teaching, and they are exploring ways to leverage this technology to increase student engagement during lecture. However, other faculty worry about potential distractions that mobile devices could introduce into their classrooms. This Occasional Paper presents the results of a CRLT research study that examined student perceptions of how laptops affect attentiveness, engagement, and learning, and the authors suggest guidelines for using laptops and other mobile devices effectively in the classroom. This paper discusses how laptops can be an effective tool for promoting student learning if faculty plan carefully for how and when they will ask students to use their laptops, rather than simply allowing students to bring them to class.

Michigan's Local Government and School District Accountability Act of 2011 empowers the governor to appoint emergency managers (EMs) in financially-troubled school districts. EMs assume all powers of the superintendent and school board. They can reshape academic programs, nullify labor contracts, and open and close schools. This paper analyzes the law's political origins and early implementation. Relative to prevailing accountability mechanisms applicable to all school districts, in what respects are EM districts are more accountable, and in what respects are they less accountable? Our analysis reveals that although the law concentrates control over school operations, it weakens most standard dimensions of district accountability. (Contains 15 footnotes. Work for this article was supported in part by the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University.)

This paper uses the charter-school legislation of three states-Arizona, California, and Michigan--as a lens to understand the policy values embodied in school--choice reforms. It questions the prevailing rubrics of the Center for Education Reform and the American Federation of Teachers. Briefly stated, the former ranks laws as either "strong" or "weak," and the latter identifies laws as either "good" or "bad." This paper examines the legislation in light of an alternative framework. Specifically, it considers how the laws incorporate choice, productive efficiency, equity, and social cohesion. It also considers what policy tools-such as finance, information, and regulation-are provided in the legislation to achieve these values. The paper finds this framework more comprehensive than current normative frameworks that pervade charter-school research. Although the paper emphasizes the need for continued research at the local charter-school level to understand the connection between legislation and implementation, this framework enables observers to move beyond value-laden descriptors of charter-school laws. Further development of this framework will combine an analysis of political values in the laws with a look at the political context of education reform in each state, as well as implementation of the laws at the local charter-school level. (Contains 42 references.) (Author/WFA)

The rapid proliferation of technology can have profound effects on the evolution of teaching, learning, scholarship, and governance in higher education (Katz, 2008). However, instructors report that simply "keeping up" with new instructional technologies, let alone integrating them productively into one's teaching, can be a significant challenge (Sorcinelli, Austin, Eddy, & Beach, 2006; Zhu, Kaplan, & Dershimer, 2011). This Occasional Paper describes how instructors at the University of Michigan are currently using online collaboration tools (hereafter OCTs) in a variety of disciplines and teaching contexts to enhance student engagement and course management. Based on these cases and faculty interviews, the authors also outline recommendations for implementing OCTs effectively and efficiently in teaching.

As Duncomb and Yinger (2001) have stated, "School consolidation represents the most dramatic change in education governance and management in the United States in the twentieth century. Over 100,000 school districts have been eliminated through consolidation since 1938, a drop of almost 90 percent (NCES 1999, Table 90). This longstanding trend continues throughout the country, largely because consolidation is widely regarded as a way for school districts to cut costs" (p. 1). The study described in the present paper applies Duncomb and Yinger's methods to Michigan data, looking as possible to financial consequences of consolidation of school districts at the county level. Research data sets for 10 counties in Michigan are used to estimate cost-saving effects of consolidation, as in the Duncombe and Yinger study. It appears that significant savings can be achieved in consolidating school districts at the county level. The coordination of services also produces cost savings for the districts assuming participation in a county level (ISD) coordination of services. These findings are consistent with other research studies in New York and Indiana. However, consolidation studies conducted in Arizona and New Jersey indicated that the fiscal savings hoped for did not materialize to the extent expected. Overall, consolidation seems to make fiscal sense, particularly in rural and small districts. The coordination of services seems more palatable to Michigan communities and also produces significant reduction in cost of services such as transportation and operation. The results of this study should be of interest to state and local elected officials, to state education agency staff, and to public school administrators. The Future of School Districts Consolidation in Michigan is provided in an addendum. (Contains 1 footnote.) [This study was funded by the Booth Newspapers of Michigan.]

Using data linked across generations in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I estimate the relationship between exposure to volatile income during childhood and a set of socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood. The empirical framework is an augmented intergenerational income mobility model that includes controls for income volatility. I measure income volatility at the family level in two ways. First, instability as measured by squared deviations around a family-specific mean, and then as percent changes of 25 percent or more. Volatility enters the model both separately and interacted with income level. I find that family income instability during childhood has a small, positive association with high school dropout--one which appears driven by volatility among children from lower income households. Evidence suggests that volatility exposure generally has a minimal impact on intergenerational outcomes relative to permanent income.

This design experiment addresses the question: How can second-grade students from low-SES schools attain the same levels of achievement as students from high-SES schools on standards-based social studies and content area literacy assessments? Students from two high-SES school districts were assessed in order to establish target levels of achievement. Two project-based units focused on state standards in economics; civics and government; public discourse, decision making, and citizen involvement; and content area literacy were developed and implemented successively in four classrooms in low-SES school districts. Achievement of students in the low-SES districts was then compared to that of students in high-SES districts. Results show no statistically significant differences: following instruction, there was no SES achievement gap on these standards-based assessments. We describe the unit plans and strategies that the teachers used to implement these plans, and we discuss implications of the study for future research and practice. Appended are: (1) Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations, Social Studies; (2) Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations, English/Language Arts; and (3) Projects. (Contains 2 tables and 2 footnotes.)

There is widespread concern that administration consumes too much of the educational dollar in traditional public schools, diverting needed resources from classroom instruction and hampering efforts to improve student outcomes. By contrast, charter schools are predicted to have leaner administration and allocate resources more intensively to instruction. This study analyzes resource allocation in charter and district schools in Michigan, where charter and tradition public schools receive approximately the same operational funding. Holding constant other determinants of school resource allocation, we find that compared to traditional public schools, charter schools on average spend nearly $800 more per pupil per year on administration and $1100 less on instruction. (Contains 5 tables and 6 footnotes.)

While promoting postsecondary credential completion is a national priority intended to help graduates secure good jobs, the value of credentials in the labor market from the perspective of employers is not well understood. Specifically, more attention is needed to understand how credentials align with employer needs. Through in-depth interviews with managers responsible for hiring information technology technicians, we examined their perceptions of associate and bachelor's degree holders in two contrasting labor markets: Detroit and Seattle. The study led to several key findings. First, across the two labor markets, employers expected some common qualities in both associate and bachelor's degree holders, including technical skills and knowledge, thinking skills, communication skills, and discipline. Second, while they expected some positive qualities in associate degree holders that were distinctive to this credential, many hiring managers also expected negative characteristics, such as a lack of academic ability, initiative, or skill. However, while both associate and bachelor's degrees provided relevant information about potential workers, employers did not expect the credentials to provide information about certain key qualities they sought in workers, including competency in customer service and teamwork, and personal interest in technology. Some of the qualities that employers expected in associate degree holders were linked to their local labor markets and their perceptions of the local community colleges. This study provides suggestions on how an understanding of the specific qualities employers expect in credential holders and of the role of the local labor market can help colleges better engage with employers and fine-tune their programs to more effectively meet students' and employer's needs. Descriptions of the Qualities Expected in Credential Holders and Sought in Information Technology Technicians are appended. (Contains 4 tables and 4 footnotes.)

This paper examines school choice reforms in one key state, within the broader context of public education and privatization. Choice advocates describe the public nature of charter schools in terms of access, funding, choice, and effects. Critics see charter schools as precursors to more market-based reforms such as vouchers. In reviewing the strategies and agendas of Michigan choice proponents, this analysis distinguishes between two competing views of "public" education. While institutionalists focus on organizational arrangements such as ownership, processes, and governance, instrumentalists point to the service that agencies provide in imparting academic skills as part of a mass education system. In this case, policymakers promoting the reforms embraced the instrumentalist approach in advancing charter schools as an initial step toward a voucher-style system. They attacked state provision, portraying charters as apolitical alternatives that blur popularly held public-private distinctions in reconfiguring the concept of public schooling to include any agency serving an academic mission. This analysis concludes by discussing the implications of this instrumentalist view, noting that schools are not privatized in form, but in essence. The purposes driving education are "commodified" as private goods for those pursuing education services, albeit in a nominally public system. (Contains 132 references.) (Author/RT)

The U.S. Department of Education recently held a competition for grants to support states in their efforts to build longitudinal data systems to track and analyze student and school performance. The Value-Added Research Center (VARC) at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, proposed a Tri-State Partnership in collaboration with the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Fourteen states were funded, with the Tri-State Partnership proposal the only multi-state effort to win approval. This paper outlines the initial design and work plan of the partnership. It also presents several of the design concerns related to complex system development for educational improvement. (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper is a report on a study of the effect of charter schools on both students attending them and students in neighboring public schools in Michigan. Using school-level data from Michigan's standardized testing program, the study compared changes in tests scores between charter and public school students. The data included annual math and reading tests for 4th- and 7th-graders, science and writing tests for 5th- and 8th-graders, and a high school proficiency exam for 11th-graders. The paper begins by evaluating the effects of Michigan charter schools on students attending them. The results suggest that charter schools did not have strong effects on the academic achievement of students attending them. The paper then looks at the effects of Michigan charter schools on neighboring public schools. The study used exogenous variation created by Michigan's charter law to identify the effects. The results suggest that charter schools have had little or no effect on test scores in neighboring public schools. (Contains 9 tables of analyzed data and 19 references.) (Author/WFA)

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. Using longitudinal student-level administrative data from Michigan and nationally representative data from the Census Household Pulse Survey, we show how the pandemic affected families' choices of school sector. We document four central facts. First, public school enrollment declined noticeably in fall 2020, with about 3 percent of Michigan students and 10 percent of kindergartners using other options. Second, most of this was driven by homeschooling rates jumping substantially, driven largely by families with children in elementary school. Third, homeschooling increased more where schools provided in-person instruction while private schooling increased more where instruction was remote, suggesting heterogeneity in parental concerns about children's physical health and instructional quality. Fourth, kindergarten declines were highest among low income and Black families while declines in other grades were highest among higher income and White families, highlighting important heterogeneity by students' existing attachment to public schools. Our results shed light on how families make schooling decisions and imply potential longer-run disruptions to public schools in the form of decreased enrollment and funding, changed composition of the student body, and increased size of the next kindergarten cohort.

This paper explores the fatherhood experiences of young Chicanos from the perspective of a social insider, from the same ethnic background and neighborhood. This vantage point places the issue of teenage fatherhood for Chicanos within the context of contemporary urban culture as well as within the structural challenges that many minority and poor youth face in our shifting economy. The study draws on a conceptual framework called "generative fathering" or "fatherwork"--the work that most men do to meet the needs of their children and the next generation. Extensive, in-depth interviews were carried out with seven Chicano teen fathers, or Chicanos who had fathered children in their teens, who were known to be actively involved with their children, as well as with a few teen mothers, other family members, and youth advocates knowledgeable about the issues. Four major themes emerged during interviews: (1) masculinity and fathering in spite of the bad example of one's own father; (2) taking responsibility for one's obligations, and the ways that sense of responsibility was conveyed to young men by strong mothers and grandmothers; (3) competing interests between families and children; and (4) creative strategies of exploiting local resources to provide for families ("hustling"). (Contains 67 references.) (SV)

This document represents the first of two volumes presented in "Study of the Impact of the Statewide Systemic Initiatives Program" (Norman L. Webb and Iris R. Weiss). In an effort to evaluate the impact of the Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSIs) on student achievement and the lessons that could be learned from the National Science Foundation's effort to reform mathematics and science education on a statewide basis, research studies identified the technical strategies, the political strategies, and the interactions with funders that were critical factors in the attempt to effect significant change in student learning over large populations. Documents were received on 21 of the 26 SSIs. More intensive data were collected via telephone interviews of key personnel in seven of these states and during site visits in six other states. Among a number of lessons learned were the following: It was vital to incorporate enough flexibility within the design so that information produced by research, evaluation, and monitoring could be effectively used (technical lesson); the creation of partnerships with policy organizations significantly advanced policy work (political lesson); and, SSI leaders and funders needed to develop a shared, in-depth understanding of the reform strategies as these fit the local context (interaction with funders). The following are appended: (1) SRI International Evaluation Reports; (2) Abt Associates Inc. Monitoring Reports; (3) Coding Scheme: Chronology and Components; (4) Coding Scheme: Strategic Planning, Decision-Making, and Thinking; (5) Coding Scheme: Key Challenges; (6) Interview Protocol for Telephone Interviews and Site Visits; (7) Case Report: Arkansas Statewide Systemic Initiative; (8) Case Report: Maine Statewide Systemic Initiative; (9) Case Report: Michigan Statewide Systemic Initiative; (10) Case Report: Nebraska Statewide Systemic Initiative; (11) Case Report: Puerto Rico Statewide Systemic Initiative; and (12) Case Report: Vermont Statewide Systemic Initiative. [For Volume II of this report, see ED497577.]

The United States Supreme Judicial Court is currently deliberating the University of Michigan Affirmative Action lawsuits involving three white students who claim they were discriminated against because of race-conscious admissions policies. Organizations, such as the Center for Individual Rights, which sponsored the Michigan plaintiffs, and the Center for Equal Opportunity, have spearheaded drives to evaluate affirmative action programs in light of equal protection under the law. Viewed in this light, these policies appear to be unfair to white candidates. Examined more closely, concerns about equitability are missing from arguments about fairness. NERCHE's Multicultural Affairs Think Tank members discussed the changed environment brought about by these lawsuits and its implications for colleges and universities.

Early awareness strategies, from outreach campaigns to cohort-based learning groups to scholarships, are a group of efforts that help middle school students stay on the path to college and understand how to fund their education. These strategies become part of early awareness programs, which seek to put students on a college-going path by recruiting them in fifth through eighth grades. Such programs introduce many low-income and first-generation students to college and career opportunities they might not otherwise know are available. These programs provide much-needed aid and assistance to many low-income and first-generation students. They communicate with students and inform them that despite their socioeconomic status, they have the option to reach just as high, or even beyond, their higher-income peers. This brief outlines strategies that best promote early awareness in financial aid for middle-grade students, highlights a few examples of successful programs, and provides an overview of recommendations for implementation. This paper is divided into sections outlining four early awareness strategies: (1) children's savings account programs; (2) place-based Promise programs; (3) early commitment scholarships; and (4) informational campaigns. The National College Access Network (NCAN) does not recommend any one strategy over another, but instead discusses the most equitable way to implement each one. [Lisa King Consulting, LLC contributed to the writing of this report.]

A study examined barriers to employment for rural Michigan residents, especially during an economic boom. Four focus groups conducted in four nonmetropolitan growth counties in Michigan indicated that educated, skilled workers were seeking to enter the labor force or to work more hours, even though community leaders, newspapers, and job developers felt there was a shortage of local workers. The foremost factor contributing to this situation was an inadequate and seasonal demand for most goods and services produced in the counties studied. As a result, both employers and employees faced risks and uncertainties about the future. Due to lack of formal channels of finding jobs, job seekers had to rely on word-of-mouth, which is not an efficient means of finding employment. There was no public transportation system in nonmetro areas. Because workers could not find full-time jobs, they took multiple part-time jobs, and the transportation costs of driving large distances to work and day care made minimum wage jobs even less attractive than in urban areas. The high cost of licensed child and elder care centers created disincentives for taking low-paying jobs. The high collateral requirement to get loans minimized the opportunity for entrepreneurs to start home-based businesses. Discrimination based on sex, age, and disability, and the failure of schools to require computer literacy were also factors. Participants felt that local government officials could exercise more foresight in attracting certain kinds of businesses and support systems for workers. (TD)

A Michigan State University policy analysis class explored migrant education in Michigan through literature reviews and interviews with policymakers, teachers, and migrant children and their families. They identified four areas that need attention. First, people who understand the learning needs of migrant students should be recruited as teachers. Teachers who have the dispositions and ability to teach Latinos and other minority groups should be selected. Quality professional development should be available to teachers and aides instructing migrant children, and these teachers and aides should have knowledge of Spanish and English as well as pedagogies that allow self-regulated learning and critical thinking without devaluing diverse cultures. Second, family-school relationships can be strengthened through a "students as ambassador program" to facilitate teacher-parent communication. Third, technologies used in schools should be evaluated for cost-effectiveness, appropriateness for migrant students, and contributions to equitable access to quality education, higher achievement rates, and lower dropout rates. Finally, the allocation of resources should be studied to see how migrant students can gain real access to school personnel and facilities, how qualified teachers and aides can be hired and developed, how students can get technology they can use and "take with them," how to develop funding formulas that are more equitable to small rural schools, and how to deliver the most help at the elementary school level. An appendix presents two articles about educational initiatives in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. (Contains 55 references.) (TD)

This briefing paper offers information to continue the process of creating linkages among the many stakeholders interested in helping adolescents successfully move into adult work roles. An introduction discusses some broad policy issues such as creating seamlessness through reducing the confusion caused by a lack of coordination and strengthening the linkages with employers. Chapter 1 reviews current initiatives at state and federal levels to develop school-to-work (STW) projects: quality amendments to Public Act 25; School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) 1994; Goals 2000: Educate America Act; Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act; Elementary and Secondary Education Act; and Michigan's STW initiative. Chapter 2 discusses program options in STW according to their functional area: school-based, work-based, or connecting activities. Chapter 3 focuses on evaluating the new roles to be played by the involved parties under the evolving STW regime. Chapter 4 discusses the issues of accountability and access, the general program requirements for which the STWOA describes while leaving the specifics of development and integration with other programs up to the individual states. It covers access for special populations, standards, skills certificates, assessment, and funding. Chapter 5 offers suggestions for integration of STW with other efforts, STW programming, accountability, and funding. Appendixes include models for Michigan, online resources, and 62 references. (YLB)

The decision about how and when to open schools to in-person instruction has been a key question for policymakers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The instructional modality of schools has implications not only for the health and safety of students and staff, but also student learning and the degree to which parents can engage in job activities. We consider the role of instructional modality (in-person, hybrid, or remote instruction) in disease spread among the wider community. Using a variety of regression modeling strategies, we find that simple correlations show in-person modalities are correlated with increased COVID cases, but accounting for both pre-existing cases and a richer set of covariates brings estimates close to zero on average. In Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) specifications, in-person modality options are not associated with increased spread of COVID at low levels of pre-existing COVID cases but cases do increase at moderate to high pre-existing COVID rates. A bounding exercise suggests that the OLS findings for in-person modality are likely to represent an upper bound on the true relationship. These findings are robust to the inclusion of county and district fixed effects in terms of the insignificance of the findings, but the models with fixed effects are also somewhat imprecisely estimated.

Low-income students, even those with strong academic credentials, are unlikely to attend a highly selective college. With a field experiment, we test an intervention to increase enrollment of low-income students at the highly selective University of Michigan. We contact students (as well as their parents and principals) with an encouragement to apply and a promise of four years of free tuition and fees upon admission. Materials emphasize that this offer is not contingent on completing aid applications (e.g., the FAFSA or PROFILE). Treated students were more than twice as likely to apply to (67 percent vs. 26 percent) and enroll at (27 percent vs. 12 percent) the University of Michigan. There was no diversion from schools as (or more) selective as UM. The enrollment effect of 15 percentage points (pp) comprises students who would otherwise attend a less selective, four-year college (7 pp), a community college (4 pp), or no college (4 pp). Effects persist through two years of follow-up. The intervention closed by half the income gaps in college choice among Michigan's high-achieving students. We conclude that an encouragement to apply, paired with a promise of aid, when communicated to students and influential adults, can substantially close income gaps in college choices.

While previous research has documented how the Kalamazoo Promise, the most prominent and generous place-based college scholarship program, increased enrollment in Kalamazoo Public Schools, this paper qualifies and quantifies the characteristics of students who were induced to enter--or stay--in the district. In particular, it analyzes the origins and destinations, socioeconomic composition, and school-level sorting behavior associated with student flows around the time of the Promise announcement. These dimensions are more subtle than changes in the volume of students or measures of their individual success, but they are equally important to understand for communities exploring the feasibility of place-based scholarships as a local economic development tool. The findings suggest considerable economic benefits not just for the school district but for the broader metropolitan area. Tables and figures are appended.

This paper uses a regression discontinuity model to examine the effects on kindergarten entrance assessments of the Kalamazoo County Ready 4s (KC Ready 4s) program, a half-day pre-K program for four-year-olds in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. The results are based on test scores and other characteristics of up to 220 children participating in KC Ready 4s, with data coming from both 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 participants in the program. The estimates find consistently statistically significant effects of this pre-K program on improving entering kindergartners' math test scores. Some estimates also suggest marginally statistically significant effects of KC Ready 4s on vocabulary test scores. No statistically significant effects are found on letter-word identification test scores, due in part to the small available sample size, but some of the point estimates are large. The program does not appear to have large or statistically significant effects in improving children's behavioral assessments. The overall average effects of KC Ready 4s on the three academic test scores are large, at an effect size of at least 0.52. This is toward the high end of effects found in previous studies of short-term effects of pre-K programs. These estimates also are consistent with program benefits exceeding program costs.

This paper examines the effects of preschool expansion in Kalamazoo County on the county's economic development. Effects on the county's economic development are defined as effects on the employment and earnings of county residents. The estimated effects are found to be large relative to the costs. In addition to their relevance to Kalamazoo County, these simulations illustrate how the analysis presented in two previous papers (Bartik 2006, 2008) can be done for an individual county or metropolitan area. Such simulations may be of interest to other counties or metropolitan areas that are considering expansions in early childhood programs. The following tables are appended: (1) Job Creation Numbers for Four Preschool Expansions in Kalamazoo County, Each Year from 2009 to 2100; and (2) Earnings Creation Numbers in Kalamazoo County for 4 Preschool Expansions, Each Year from 2009 to 2100, in Millions of 2008 Dollars. (Contains 3 figures and 7 tables.)

One of the continuing areas of controversy surrounding higher education is affirmative action. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear "Fisher v. Texas," and their ruling may well influence universities' diversity initiatives, especially if they overturn "Grutter v. Bollinger" and rule that diversity is no longer a "compelling state interest." But what lies behind a compelling state's interest? One issue that continues to require more information is estimating and understanding the gains for those attending colleges and universities with greater diversity. Most existing studies are either based on evidence from one institution, which has issues of both selectivity and limited "treatments," or focus on selective institutions, which also face issues of selection bias from college choice behaviors. In this research we use Wave 3 of Add Health, collected in 2001-02 of those then attending college. Add Health collected the IPEDS number of each college and matched these to the racial/ethnic composition of the student body. We convert these data into an index of diversity and then ask whether attending a college/university with a more diverse student body influences a variety of outcomes at Wave 4 (2007-08), including years of schooling completed, earnings, family income, composition of friends, and probability of voting. Our results provide evidence of a positive link between attending a college with greater diversity and higher earnings and family income, but not with more schooling or the probability of voting. An appendix contains two data tables: (1) Listing Carnegie Categories and Average Unweighted ELF [ethnolinguistic fractionalization] for Each Category; and (2) Results on Income and Earnings for Those Who Attended a 4-Year Institution, Controlling for Quality of the Institution.

In order to study whether college scholarships can be an effective tool in raising students' performance in secondary school, we use one aspect of the Kalamazoo Promise that resembles a quasi-experiment. The surprise announcement of the scholarship created a large change in expected college tuition costs that varied across different groups of students based on past enrollment decisions. This variation is arguably exogenous to unobserved student characteristics. We estimate the effects of this change by a set of "difference-in-differences" regressions where we compare the change in student outcomes in secondary school across time for different student "length of enrollment" groups. We find positive effects of the Kalamazoo Promise on Promise-eligible students large enough to be deemed important--about a 9 percent increase in the probability of earning any credits and one less suspension day per year. We also find large increases in GPA among African American students. (Contains 6 tables, 8 figures and 15 footnotes.)

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) addresses issues pertaining to prevention of placement in the child welfare system, as well as family reunification, the specific provisions of ASFA that relate to the termination of parental rights and adoption are perhaps most central to the law's overarching purpose. This paper analyzes adoptions from foster care using data from Chapin Hall's Multistate Foster Care Data Archive to understand what effect, if any, the federal law has had on the proportion of children admitted to foster care that were later adopted and on the time needed to complete those adoption. Using a cohort sequential design, we studied 13 successive entry cohorts of children admitted to foster care in seven states from 1990 to 2002. The results indicate that there was an increase in the period-specific probability of adoption that coincides with the passage of ASFA in 1998. However, we also found that the pace of adoption had remained stable in the early 1990s and started to accelerate in the mid-1990s, before ASFA was passed. This finding clarifies our understanding of ASFA in two ways. First, there was no slowdown in the average time required to complete adoptions that ASFA was originally designed to address. Second, the existence of a pre-ASFA effect suggests that ASFA may have only added to the efforts already made by the states. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

This paper considers how a state such as Michigan can increase the economic development benefits of higher education. Research evidence suggests that higher education increases local economic development principally by increasing the quality of the local workforce, and secondarily by increasing local innovative ideas. These economic development benefits of higher education can be increased by: (1) competent management of conventional economic development programs that focus on business attraction and retention; (2) policies that focus on increasing local job skills by educating the state's residents, as opposed to attracting in-migrants; (3) policies that address specific "market failures" in how higher education leads to increased workforce quality or business innovations.

This paper, one of three related documents, explains a model for school finance in Michigan. First, it analyzes where school districts get their money and how they spend it. Next, it details a financial model that identifies the factors related to staff adequacy levels, estimates the strength of those factors, offers ideas for the components of a policy regarding school funding, and estimates the impact of a possible policy alternative. The paper concludes that the model can be improved in three areas. Salary data can be refined and brought up to date. More factors contributing to staff adequacy levels can be identified. Finally, the model can be observed over time to see if it consistently predicts school district behavior. (Author/LD)

This paper, one of three related documents, examines the distributions of general revenues and instructional expenditures across school districts in Michigan. It discusses the equal yield formula for the funding of public schools and examines how the formula has accomplished its objectives. The data indicate success in reducing the effects of property tax wealth on the level of school revenues and in providing some measure of property tax relief. The second half of the paper examines the state's broad goals regarding the distribution of resources in terms of three norms: equity, equality, and excellence. This section of the paper concludes that Michigan has achieved equity in the distribution of general revenues and expenditures for nearly 92 percent of its pupils. Secondly, equality has not been achieved. Finally, to achieve a minimum level for either expenditures or staff adequacy ratios, a constitutional amendment would be necessary. (Author/LD)

What are the relationships between policy and evaluation within state departments of education? How does policy influence what is evaluated in such settings and how does evaluation inform policymaking? Directors of evaluation in six state education agencies address these issues through detailed descriptions of their operations: Gordon Ascher, Oregon; Gerald Bracey, Virginia; David L. Donovan, and Stanley A. Rumbaugh, Michigan; James H. Gold, Wisconsin; Alfred Rasp, Jr., Washington; and Paul D. Sandifer, South Carolina. An educational philosopher specializing in policy analysis, Thomas F. Green, then provides a commentary on the preceding six papers. (Author/BW)