The Education Policy Initiative at CLOSUP
Summary
NOTE: EPI was launched as a research initiative at CLOSUP in 2007 but is now operating as a stand-alone initiative within the Ford School. For current information on EPI, see the current EPI website. Otherwise, information regarding EPI on CLOSUP's website is for archival purposes only, intended to document EPI's startup phase when it was housed within CLOSUP.
Summary: Under the leadership of former CLOSUP Director Brian Jacob, in the Fall of 2007 CLOSUP launched the Education Policy Initiative (EPI), a program of coordinated activities designed to bring the latest academic knowledge to issues of education policy. Through a combination of research projects, events, and publications, EPI at CLOSUP sought to identify and evaluate promising educational interventions and to inform educators and policymakers about new research findings.
EPI Events: Seminars and Conferences
Events were a core component of EPI at CLOSUP, including research conferences and the EPI Seminar Series which was launched in the Fall of 2007. Leading researchers on education policy issues from across the nation presented their work in public seminars at Weill Hall. Past events can be found on the main CLOSUP events page.
Note: future EPI events are now listed on the current EPI website: www.edpolicy.umich.edu.
EPI Research Projects
Research activities were the foundation of the Education Policy Initiative at CLOSUP, beginning with two projects launched in Fall 2008: first, a program evaluation of Operation ABC, a United Way for Southeastern Michigan mentoring program in the Detroit Metro area to help struggling readers in kindgergarten through second grade; and second, an evaluation of teacher effectiveness in the public school system of a large southern U.S. city. Later, EPI helped launch the Michigan Consortium for Education Research, a major research initiative with partners at Michigan State University and the State of Michigan, as described below.
Michigan Consortium for Education Research
In the fall of 2010 EPI at CLOSUP announced the launch of the Michigan Consortium for Education Research (MCER), a partnership between the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), Michigan State University (MSU), and the University of Michigan (UM). The goal of MCER is to engage key stakeholders and experts in high quality education research for the benefit of public education in Michigan and nationwide. The consortium seeks to answer contemporary education policy questions. MCER provides research-based evidence to policymakers and administrators in Michigan and informs national policy initiatives for improving education.
The MCER partners launched an ambitious study of the impact of the Michigan Merit Curriculum and the Michigan Promise Scholarship. This 5-year project was funded by a $5.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. For more information, see the project press release or a more in-depth project description.
Michigan Charter School Research Project
The Michigan Charter School Research Project was launched at EPI during it's initial phase at CLOSUP. For the latest information, see the project overview on the current EPI website: www.edpolicy.umich.edu/research/charter-schools.