Michal Kurlaender

Michal Kurlaender
Michal Kurlaender
Professor of Education Policy,
University of California, Davis

Michal Kurlaender is professor of education policy at the University of California, Davis. She is also a faculty director at Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). Her work focuses on inequalities in access to college and success in college; alignment of public K–12 and postsecondary systems of education; and alternative pathways to college and careers. She works closely with administrative data from all three of California’s public higher education sectors: California State University, the University of California, and California Community Colleges. She is lead researcher at Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research at UC Davis and a research affiliate with the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness at Teachers College. She received her PhD in education policy from Harvard University.

updated 2021

Publications by Michal Kurlaender
How Do Different High School Assessments Measure Up?
In 2014, the state of California implemented the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) in order to align state assessment and accountability policies with the newly adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS). At the…
This article focuses on California's efforts to improve the alignment between K–12 and postsecondary schooling through the Early Assessment Program (EAP). Implemented in 2004, EAP was designed to give high school students information about their…
Like most other universities in the country, the University of California (UC) requires that students submit scores from either the SAT or ACT exams as part of their application package. These tests have their origins in the efforts of a handful of…
Examining the Effect of the Early Assessment Program at California State University
This paper investigates how participation in the Early Assessment Program (EAP), which provides California high school juniors with information about their academic readiness for college-level work at California State University campuses, affects…