Loved working on this Chalkboard piece with a rockstar Ph.D. student @isabelmcmullen.bsky.social and @brookings.edu! We discuss insights from our new working paper on what pre-college advising programs actually move college-going at scale and explore some important design features. Check it out! 👇

🚨 Getting state ‘free college’ right: Design choices that matter In a new report, @isabelmcmullen.bsky.social and I highlight what we know about state free college and suggest how policymakers can update programs for a changing higher education landscape: www.brookings.edu/articles/get...

Getting state 'free college' right: Design choices that matter | Brookings

Katharine Meyer and Isabel McMullen assess state "free college" designs, showing how simple, generous aid boosts completion.

brookings.edu

🚨New data alert! I published data from my working paper on university governing boards on the Harvard Dataverse. This is the 2023 wave of data, but I'm working with a team of RAs on many more years. Let me know if you use the data! Data: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/... Paper: edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1212

Portraying Governance: Demographic Misalignment in University Board Representation

Higher education governing boards are important bodies with far-reaching powers over the institutions they oversee. Yet little is known about individual board members, how the composition of boards va...

edworkingpapers.com

In a new Brookings piece, I wrote about how the US Department of Education has turned civil rights enforcement into a tool to promote segregation and discrimination. www.brookings.edu/articles/how...

How the US Department of Education has turned civil rights enforcement into a discriminatory tool | Brookings

brookings.edu

📢 #EdWorkingPapers: @taylorodle.bsky.social & @isabelmcmullen.bsky.social evaluate Advise TN’s expansion across 33 communities and find the program increased college enrollment by 6%. 📄 Read more: edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1371

Excellent explainer and even-toned reminder from @katharinemeyer.bsky.social about the potential harms to student borrowers that can arise from both policy AND runaway narratives that social media enables www.brookings.edu/articles/def...

Defining professional programs: Why evidence and clarity matter in ED’s rulemaking | Brookings

Katharine Meyer discusses recent changes to student loan caps and clarifies misconceptions on the borrowing limits established by OBBBA.

brookings.edu

Helpful report for situating boards within broader inter/national trends of partisan control of higher ed. I increasingly think we need focus on reforms that fall between letting boards oversee themselves and those that rise to state constitutional amendment www.americanprogress.org/article/how-...

How University Governing Boards Can Protect the Independence of Colleges and Universities

Shifting toward merit-based selection of public university board members can better protect academic freedom than politically appointed boards, which have increasingly exerted influence over state col...

americanprogress.org

Attending #2025APPAM? Check out IRP scholar @isabelmcmullen.bsky.social of the Dept of Poli Sci at the UW-Madison, presenting this paper: “Exploring the Mechanisms and Direct Impact of College Access Advising: The Case of AdviseTN.” Th 11/13, 3:30-5pm, Hyatt Regency Seattle, 5th Flr, Rm: 505

A new analysis by the Upjohn Institute finds that the Rx Kids program delivers measurable economic benefits to families and the broader local economy in Flint, Michigan. Read the full report www.upjohn.org/research-hig...

🍎🦡 I'm recruiting a PhD student in Ed Policy (fall '26) at @uwmadison.bsky.social! Come work with me on college access, admissions, & fin aid in our top-ranked, fully-funded program. I’m especially excited for this student to immediately join our direct admissions RCT team.

Good morning, Badgers. Welcome to the Fall 2025 semester. We wish you a successful start to your academic year. Let’s begin.

An @afm-union.bsky.social and @sagaftra.org gal. An NFLPA guy. We love a union love story. Congrats Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce!

This piece pulls together a lot of recent examples of board-driven actions in higher ed, and rightfully points out that when boards become politicized, they are then subject to those politics at all levels of government: apnews.com/article/harv...

Far beyond Harvard, conservative efforts to reshape higher education are gaining steam

Far beyond Harvard University and its standoff with the Trump administration, Republican officials in several states have been pushing for changes at public universities.

apnews.com

The job market for PhDs may be terrible, but the spectrum internet person that just helped me transfer my internet ended the call by telling me I'm gonna do great things with my degree, so there's that.

In our 2024 U.S. Post-Election Reflection via @apsa.bsky.social, Rebecca Jacobsen and I preview some of our ongoing research on how partisanship and nationalization influence on-cycle local school board elections.

Local Elections, National Tides: The Role of Partisanship in School Board Elections: 2024 Post-Election Reflection Series -

Prior to the 2024 US Presidential Election, APSA’s Diversity and Inclusion Programs Department issued a call for submissions, entitled 2024 APSA Post-Election Reflections, for a PSNow blog series of political science scholars who reflect on [...]

wp.me

Morning! I did a lil analysis and turns out that, when ED employees are illegally fired and contracts are canceled, ED is unable to fulfill its congressional mandate to publish national statistics on the condition of education. Why does that matter? Well... www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

This piece picks up on a lot of important threads of board dynamics, one of which is that for publics, while there isn't the same conspicuousness as with Harvard/Columbia, the same politics are playing out, just more quietly and with less opportunity to rally against www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/u...

Republicans Trying to Control Indiana University Meet Little Resistance

nytimes.com

Governing boards are at the center of every higher ed story these days. What do we know about board governance? What does board composition look like nationwide, and how is it shaped by partisan appointments? My new working paper introduces new data to these questions: edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1212

Portraying Governance: Demographic Misalignment in University Board Representation

Higher education governing boards are important bodies with far-reaching powers over the institutions they oversee. Yet little is known about individual board members, how the composition of boards va...

edworkingpapers.com

You might as well just hold on to your convictions, since abandoning them all is clearly not a viable strategy against eroding higher ed governance

Chronicle of Higher Education@chronicle.com · last yr.

The presidential search at the U. of Florida — which ended dramatically on Tuesday with the rejection of Santa Ono, the sole finalist — drove debate about whether a traditional academic leader could be trusted to advance conservative policy goals, such as dismantling DEI efforts. chroni.cl/4khVHwW

The Upjohn Institute is looking for a research analyst to support our research on employment issues. Please share with your networks. #econsky #hiring www.upjohn.org/employment-o...

Weather is getting nice, what if 10 million people went outside at the same time

Board composition, transparency, and accountability to stakeholders matters to the future of higher ed. Inclusive boards of trustees have the intellectual dexterity and structural muscle to make insightful, valued-based decisions that serve missions in harmony with the needs of the stakeholders.

Isabel McMullen@isabelmcmullen.bsky.social · last yr.

With all of the targeting of higher ed, it's critical that we have a good understanding of who governs our institutions - I wrote this piece for Brookings to summarize what we know. I also show some new data on the politics and representativeness of public boards. www.brookings.edu/articles/und...

Playing this as my hype music before my dissertation proposal defense today

Justin Wolfers@justinwolfers.bsky.social · last yr.

"this chick who's new for me, i don't her before, but i like her." 😂

With all of the targeting of higher ed, it's critical that we have a good understanding of who governs our institutions - I wrote this piece for Brookings to summarize what we know. I also show some new data on the politics and representativeness of public boards. www.brookings.edu/articles/und...

The political stakes of who sits on university boards

Isabel McMullen shares research on the demographics of public higher education boards and how representative they are of students and faculty.

brookings.edu

My dad's sign for the #handsoff rally in my hometown of Kalamazoo where apparently a few thousand turned out!

Wisconsin is critical for any presidential candidate, and Wisconsin LOVES when a sharp, no-nonsense, hometown woman on the ballot. Just saying.

Calling results from November "overwhelming" means we need a new word to describe this massive 10 point win by Crawford. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Results 2025: Crawford vs. Schimel

Get live results and maps from the 2025 Wisconsin spring elections.

nytimes.com