Training Program in Causal Inference in Education Policy Research at the University of Michigan

The University of Michigan's Training Program in Causal Inference in Education Policy Research was first funded by IES in 2015. The current focus of this program is to train doctoral students to design and implement research that yields causal estimates of the effects of education policies in collaborative partnerships with education agencies. The training program will primarily include faculty and students from the School of Education, the Ford School of Public Policy, and the department of economics and sociology.

Over the course of the 5-year grant, the training program will recruit 12 PhD students for 3-year fellowships and 8 PhD students for 4-year fellowships for a total of 20 fellows. All fellowships will include tuition and benefits, a stipend, and a small research fund.

Fellows in this training program will participate in an interdisciplinary core curriculum consisting of coursework in quantitative methodology, causal inference, and education policy. Fellows will also participate in ongoing research apprenticeships with faculty mentors and a year-long policy/practice apprenticeship with an education agency or policymakers. The training program also includes an ongoing interdisciplinary research colloquium on conducting education research.

The total projected costs of the training program are approximately $5.96 million. In addition to the $4.6 million grant from IES, the University of Michigan will cost-share approximately $1.36 million.