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
For as much as we know about the economic benefits of a college degree, California policymakers and educators have little information about the college destinations of high school graduates. To fill this information gap, we assembled a unique data…
Public education in California is a study in contrasts. By many measures, schools are improving and students are doing better. But look deeper and there are significant differences in educational opportunities and, therefore, outcomes based on race…
Promising Practices From the Field
Collaboration between K–12 public school districts and higher education, as well as between education institutions, workforce groups, and community organizations, has the potential to improve college and labor market outcomes for individual students…
Across California, K–12 public school districts, institutions of higher education, economic development groups, and community organizations are collaborating to improve the educational and labor market outcomes of students. These collaborative…