Degrees and Certifications

Ph.D., Educational Policy, Michigan State University, 2013
M.S., Teaching, Adolescent Education, Pace University, 2006
B.A., English and Women’s Studies, University of Georgia, 2004

Responsibilities

 Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Administrative & Organizational Studies

Biography

Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Ph.D., is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and the Leonard Kaplan Endowed Profesor in Wayne State University’s College of Education. Lenhoff began her career as a New York City public school teacher, and she led the research and policy division of the non-profit The Education Trust-Midwest for four years. Her research focuses on education policy implementation and access to equitable educational opportunities, with a focus on how collaborative research with practitioners and community members can facilitate systemic improvement. Her recent research has examined district and school infrastructure to support school improvement; the effects of school choice policy on equitable opportunities for students; and the causes and consequences of student absenteeism. She is the faculty director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research (Detroit PEER), a research-practice partnership with Detroit schools and community-based organizations working to equitably improve student attendance and engagement in Detroit.

More on Detroit PEER can be found here.

You can view Dr. Lenhoff's CV here. 

Area of Expertise

Education policy implementation and equity; continuous improvement; school choice and charter schools; school accountability

Featured publications

COVID-19, online learning, and absenteeism in Detroit

Lenhoff, S. W., & Singer, J. (2024). COVID-19, online learning, and absenteeism in Detroit. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk.

Keywords

COVID-19
Attendance
Absenteeism

How much school students attend is a powerful indicator of their well-being and a strong predictor of their future success in school. Prior research has documented the myriad in-school and out-of-school factors that contribute to high levels of student absenteeism, many emerging from the root causes of poverty and disengagement. The shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic likely disrupted prior barriers to attendance and may have created new ones. This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study examined student absenteeism during the 2020–2021 school year in Detroit. We used administrative data to show whether and how attendance patterns changed, and we linked family survey and interview data to explain those patterns. We found that 70% of students were chronically absent, with 40% of parents reporting that computer problems contributed to absenteeism. While measures of socioeconomic disadvantage and computer/internet issues were associated with lower attendance and higher probability of chronic absenteeism, reported levels of hardship during the pandemic were not. Despite significant investment in technology, the district’s strategies for engaging students were not sufficient in overcoming economic hardships and the new challenges of online learning.
 

Promoting ecological approaches to educational issues: Evidence from a partnership around chronic absenteeism in Detroit

Lenhoff, S. W., & Singer, J. (2022). Promoting ecological approaches to educational issues: Evidence from a partnership around chronic absenteeism in Detroit. Peabody Journal of Education.

Keywords

Ecological systems
Educational policy
Research partnerships

Many problems that we conceptualize as “educational” have multiple causes that cut across students’ ecosystems. Yet, most education reforms are targeted narrowly at schools, educators, and students. Supporting educators and community leaders in conceptualizing educational problems from an ecological perspective and designing policies in alignment with that conceptualization is critical to improving student outcomes. This study documents the macro-, meso-, and micro-level institutional conditions that shaped how educators and community leaders conceived of the problem of absenteeism in response to research framed ecologically. Our findings highlight the challenges researchers may have in influencing ecosystemic policy solutions, but they also provide insight into potential pathways for doing so through research partnerships.

Advancing an ecological approach to chronic absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Singer, J., Pogodzinski, B., Lenhoff, S. W., & Cook, W. (2021). Advancing an ecological approach to chronic absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit. Teachers College Record, 123(4).

Keywords

Absenteeism
Urban education
Social policy

Chronic absenteeism has received increased attention from educational leaders and policy makers, in part because of the association between attendance and important student outcomes. Student attendance is influenced by a range of student-, school-, and community-level characteristics, suggesting that a comprehensive and multilayered approach to addressing chronic absenteeism is warranted, particularly in high-poverty urban districts. Given the complexity of factors associated with chronic absenteeism, we draw from ecological systems theory to study absenteeism in Detroit, which has the highest rate of chronic absence of major cities in the country. Student-, neighborhood-, and school-level factors were significant predictors of chronic absenteeism in Detroit. Students were more likely to be chronically absent if they were economically disadvantaged, received special education services, moved schools or residences during the year, lived in neighborhoods with more crime and residential blight, and went to schools with more economically disadvantaged students and less stable student populations. Macro-level factors were also significantly correlated with citywide rates of absenteeism.

Unregulated open enrollment and inequitable access to schools of choice

Lenhoff, S. W. (2020). Unregulated open enrollment and inequitable access to schools of choice. Peabody Journal of Education, 95(3), 248–271. 

In severing the link between residential address and school assignment, school choice policies have the potential to decrease school segregation and increase educational equity. Yet this promise is undermined when school choice creates greater opportunity for those who are already privileged while limiting access to students from historically marginalized groups. This study combines data from a new survey of local open enrollment policies in Metro Detroit, student-level administrative records, and geographic data to critically analyze the local discretion provided in Michigan’s interdistrict school choice policy in relation to the goals of access to schools of choice, desegregation, and educational equity. I found that local school districts implement provisions of state policy in ways that restrict access to Black and economically disadvantaged students while creating pathways of opportunity for others. Districts are incentivized to implement these restrictions because of the inequities built into the state school funding formula and the racialized geography of Metro Detroit that is mechanized in district and county boundaries to restrict access. This study has implications for the regulation of local school choice markets and the role they play in increasing equitable public school opportunities.

The potential for continuous improvement to maximize the policy-relevance of research partnerships

Lenhoff, S. W., Singer, J., & Pogodzinski, B. (2020). The potential for continuous improvement to maximize the policy-relevance of research partnerships. In A. M. Urick, D. E. DeMatthews, & T. G. Ford (Eds.), Maximizing the policy-relevance of research for school improvement (pp. 189–216). Information Age Publishing.

This chapter addresses Lupton and Hayes’s (2018) call for educational researchers “to develop our own pedagogical dispositions and strategies towards policymaking” (p. 203) by considering the opportunities offered by improvement science and research partnerships. Both improvement science and research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are increasingly popular approaches to improving practices within schools, and a growing body of research demonstrates their potential to improve educational outcomes (see Bryk et al., 2015; Coburn & Penuel, 2016). Little research has investigated how these approaches might be beneficial in improving the quality and influence of research itself. By turning these approaches inward, can researchers use the principles of improvement science and RPPs to maximize the policy-relevance of school improvement research? This chapter addresses this question in three parts. First, We review the literature on improvement science and RPPs, and we consider how their core principles align with the interests of researchers seeking to produce policy-relevant work. Then, we analyze the key opportunities and challenges of enacting these principles by reflecting on our own research partnership grounded in improvement science. We conclude with important lessons for researchers who seek to influence policy through partnerships and suggest directions for future research and applications of improvement science in policy-focused research teams.

The potential for multi-site literacy interventions to reduce summer slide among low-performing students

Lenhoff, S. W., Somers, C., Tenelshof, B., & Bender, T. (2020). The potential for multi-site literacy interventions to reduce summer slide among low-performing students. Children and Youth Services Review, 110, 1–8. 

Despite the evidence that summer learning loss or “slide” can have devastating cumulative effects on student performance in school, there are few examples of system-wide interventions that can prevent summer learning loss at scale in urban contexts with high rates of low-performing students. This study reports on the first year of a city-wide effort to reduce summer literacy loss in Detroit, Michigan, through a multi-site collaboration between the city Parks and Recreation Department, the local public school district, and several unique program providers. Results from this pilot study suggest that short-duration, high-intensity tutoring may help to prevent learning loss in literacy among a population with high rates of socio-economic disadvantage and low initial performance, regardless of specific program methodologies. This study has implications for other large cities seeking to prevent summer slide by building on existing municipal and district infrastructure

Publications

 

Courses taught by Sarah Winchell Lenhoff

Spring-Summer Term 2024 (future)

• EPS8180 - Research Seminar

Winter Term 2024 (current)

• EPS8180 - Research Seminar

Fall Term 2023

• EPS8180 - Research Seminar
• EDA7730 - Intersectional Issues in Educational Leadership

Spring-Summer Term 2022

• EPS8180 - Research Seminar

Winter Term 2022

• EPS8180 - Research Seminar

Recent university news spotlights

• Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of the Detroit PEER, featured on Wisconsin Public Radio, “Wisconsin truancy bill”
• Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of the Detroit PEER, featured on KSCW (Wichita,KS), “Addressing chronic absenteeism”
• Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of the Detroit PEER, featured on Indiana Public Radio, “Indiana lawmakers want early intervention for student truancy, shift away from courts”
• Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of the Detroit PEER, quoted in The Manchester Mirror, “How school of choice affects Manchester and other small district”
• In Michigan, 1 in 4 kids go to school outside district, as choice expands
• School choice here to stay in Michigan: See how it impacts your district
• Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of the Detroit PEER, quoted in Chalkbeat Detroit, “How Detroit community groups are helping schools chip away at chronic absenteeism”
• Why ADHD is under diagnosed in adult women -- and what you can do about it
• How Michigan schools are trying to attract 1,000 or more new bus drivers
• Chronic housing instability poses educational risk for Detroit students

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