Safe, stable, and affordable housing is important for families and has positive impacts on children's health, development, and school performance. Housing in childhood can also shape future economic well-being by diminishing cognitive capacity and adaptability. Environmental contaminants from unsafe housing, like lead and mold exposure, are…

School choice advocates argue that choice policies increase access to desirable schools by breaking the link between residence and school placement. However, a growing body of research suggests that the distance from home to school actually influences school choice decisions. In this study, we examine the relationship between residential…

Families' abilities to participate in public school choice programs may be constrained by residential and school location. We provide some of the first evidence of the role that residential mobility and commute time to school in entry into and exit from inter-district and charter school choice. Using a unique panel of student enrollment and…

We estimate the effects on workforce and location outcomes of the Kalamazoo Promise, a generous, place-based college scholarship. Drawing upon administrative unemployment insurance wage records merged with individual-level education data, we identify Promise effects by comparing eligible to ineligible graduates before and after the Promise's…

Objective: To identify factors independently associated with program participation and knowledge of campus processes to address sexual assault and harassment complaints. Participants: 1,182 undergraduates who completed the University of Michigan's 2015 campus climate survey on topics of sexual assault and harassment (67% response rate). Methods:…

Although there exists a large body of literature concerning the impacts of school choice policies, few studies focus on the choices of rural students. Using a unique dataset that includes administrative records, geocoded addresses, and commute times for Michigan public school students over 6 years, I describe who participates in interdistrict…

The current study emerged from the need to address student behavior issues in town-gown communities and the practical need to know more about off-campus students as central actors in these behaviors. Off-campus students have long been labeled as commuter students because of limited recognition of the known diversity within the commuter population…

This paper considers the determinants of student participation in Michigan's large inter-district open enrollment system, known as Schools of Choice (SoC). Employing a rich dataset from the Michigan Department of Education, we examine the population of public school students in resident and non-resident school districts between the 2005-06 and…

This study addressed two questions: (a) Do different forms of campus racial diversity contribute uniquely to students' learning and educational experiences when they are simultaneously tested utilizing multilevel modeling? (b) Does a campus where students take greater advantage of those diversity opportunities have independent positive effects on…

Are most charter schools more racially segregated than traditional public schools (TPS)? How do local circumstances affect the degree to which charter schools are more racially segregated or diverse than TPSs? As the charter school movement in Michigan and nationwide gains popularity, these questions have become important policy issues. In order…

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…

There is a strong need to study youth after-school programs. How do Michigan parents of youth view after-school programs? Do they enroll their children in after-school programs? Who is more likely to participate in after-school programs? What types of after-school programs exist in Michigan? Using data from the State of State Survey (SOSS), the…

Grounded in integrated and excerpt style (Emerson, et al., 1995), this article chronicles Mr. Lehrer, an English teacher who provides his students access to standard and nonstandard writing conventions. Student writing samples and discursive practices illustrate enhanced awareness of distinctions between nonstandard language (African American…

Focusing on the role of residential preferences and lifecycle migration patterns in the rural population growth rate, this article concludes that it is partly attributable to an increase in rural preferences among youth, changes in preferences of previous rural-to-urban migrants, and immigration of persons with no previous residence in rural…

Potential funding sources for criminal justice education programs are listed and information on supplemental source materials and a brief outline of grant writing considerations are included. Sections on general foundation grants, state restricted grants, and government grants are provided. Included under state restricted grants are Alabama,…