Sarah Lenhoff

Phone

313-577-0923

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

Office Hours

Office Hours: By appointment.

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 currently co-leads a study on the educational impact of neighborhood transformation through Detroit's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in Corktown. 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. 

Office Location

369 Education

Area of Expertise

Education policy implementation and equity; student attendance and chronic absenteeism; continuous improvement; school choice and charter schools; school accountability; neighborhood context and educational opportunity; school transportation

Grants

 PI: Jabbar, H. Co-PI: Lenhoff, S. W. (09/01/24 – 08/31/26). School Diversity and Educational Outcomes: Can Researchers Measure Youth Social Networks Using Administrative Data? Urban Institute. Amount: $153,680.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W. Co-PIs: Jabbar, H., Jenkins, D., & Finnigan, K. S. (08/01/24 – 07/31/27). How do Mixed-Income Neighborhood Initiatives Reduce Educational Inequality for Low-Income Black Youth? William T. Grant Foundation. Amount: $600,000.

PI: Jabbar, H. Co-PIs: Finnigan, K., Jenkins, D., & Lenhoff, S. W. (07/01/24-06/30/25). Moving in Motown: Examining the Promise of Integrated Neighborhoods and Schools Through Detroit’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. American Institutes for Research. Amount: $442,340.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W. Co-PIs: Jabbar, H., Jenkins, D., & Finnigan, K. S. (09/01/23 – 08/31/24). Neighborhood Change and Educational Opportunity in Detroit. Kresge Foundation. Amount: $85,000.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W. (10/01/22 – 09/30/23). Housing, Transportation, and Education. Michigan Department of Education. Amount: $5,000.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W. Co-PIs: Pogodzinski, B., & Edwards, E. (10/01/2021 – 10/01/2024). Detroit Education Research Partnership. Skillman Foundation. Amount: $821,000.

PI: Gottfried, M. Co-PIs: Childs, J., & Lenhoff, S. W. (07/01/2021 – 09/30/2022). A is for Attendance: A First, National Research Conference Addressing School Absenteeism. American Education Research Association. Amount: $34,875.

PI: Cordes, S. Co-PIs: Schwartz, A. E., Lenhoff, S. W., & Cowen, J. (06/01/2021 – 12/31/2023). School Access and Transportation in a Time of COVID. Institute of Education Sciences. Amount: $228,046.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W.; Co-I: Pogodzinski, B. (09/01/20 – 09/01/21). Detroit Education Research Partnership. Skillman Foundation. Amount: $200,000.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W. (07/01/2020 – 06/30/2021). A Co-Designed Approach to Cash Assistance as an Intervention for Chronic Absenteeism in the Springwells Neighborhood of Detroit. Midwest Mobility from Poverty Network. Amount: $25,000.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W. (06/01/20 – 05/31/21). The School Choice Paradox: Educational Markets and Family Stress. Wayne State University Research Grant program. Amount: $10,000.

PI: Lenhoff, S. W.; Co-PIs: Edwards, E., Pogodzinski, B., Rose, J., Simmons, L., & Bell, C. (08/01/20 – 07/31/23). Decreasing Chronic Absenteeism, Increasing Opportunity: A School-Community-Research Partnership to Improve Policy and Practice Related to Attendance in Detroit. Spencer Foundation. Amount: $400,000.

Publications

*Denotes graduate student co-author.

Stokes, K. L.*, & Lenhoff, S. W., & Singer, J. (in press). Complicating the role of relationships in reducing student absenteeism. Children & Schools.

Lenhoff, S. W., & Singer, J. (2024). COVID-19, online learning, and absenteeism in Detroit. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2024.2304306

Mahowald, J. B.*, Lenhoff, S. W., Edwards, E. B., & Singer, J. (2023). Chronic absenteeism in the school-prison nexus. The High School Journal, 106(4), 274–288.

Edwards, E. B., Singer, J., & Lenhoff, S. W. (2023). Antiblackness and attendance policy implementation: Evidence from a midwestern school district. Educational Researcher. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X221079853

Lenhoff, S. W., Singer, J.*, Stokes, K.*, Mahowald, J. B.*, & Khawaja, S.* (2022). Beyond the bus: Reconceptualizing school transportation for mobility justice. Harvard Educational Review, 92(3), 336–360. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-92.3.336

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, 97(1), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2022.2026723

Singer, J.*, & Lenhoff, S. W. (2022). Race, geography, and school choice policy: A critical analysis of Detroit students’ suburban school choices. AERA Open, 8(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211067202

Pogodzinski, B., Lenhoff, S. W., Cook, W., & Singer, J.* (2022). School transit and accessing public school in Detroit. Education and Urban Society, 54(6), 695–713. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131245211027369

Pogodzinski, B., Cook, W., Lenhoff, S. W., & Singer, J.* (2022). School climate and student mobility. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 21(4), 984–1004. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2021.1901121

Lenhoff, S. W., Singer, J.*, Pogodzinski, B., & Cook, W. (2022). Exiting Detroit for school: Inequitable choice sets and school quality. Journal of Education Policy, 37(4), 590–612. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2020.1856932

Lenhoff, S. W., Edwards, E. B., Claiborne, J.*, Singer, J.*, & French, K. R. (2022). A collaborative problem-solving approach to improving district attendance policy. Educational Policy, 36(6), 1464–1506. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904820974402

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), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812112300406

Lenhoff, S. W. (2020). Unregulated open enrollment and inequitable access to schools of choice. Peabody Journal of Education, 95(3), 248-271. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2020.1776072

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. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104806

Lenhoff, S. W., Lewis, J. M., Pogodzinski, B., & Jones, R. D.* (2019). ‘Triage, transition, and transformation’: Advocacy discourse in urban school reform. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27(32), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.4230

Pogodzinski, B., Lenhoff, S. W., & Addonizio, M. F. (2019). The relationship between open enrollment and school bond voting. Education Administration Quarterly, 23(1–2), 153–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X18809343

Lenhoff, S. W., & Pogodzinski, B. (2018). School organizational effectiveness and chronic absenteeism: Implications for accountability. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 23(1-2), 153-169. https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2018.1434656

Superfine, B. M., Umpstead, R. R., Mayrowetz, D., Lenhoff, S. W., & Pogodzinski, B. (2018). Science and politics in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Educational Policy, 32(2), 211-233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904817741545

Lenhoff, S. W., & Pogodzinski, B., Mayorwetz, D., Superfine, B., Umpstead, R. R. (2018). District stressors and teacher evaluation ratings. Journal of Educational Administration, 56(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-06-2017-0065

Pogodzinski, B., Lenhoff, S. W., & Addonizio, M. F. (2017). The push and pull of open enrollment policy in Metro Detroit. Educational Review, 70(5), 622–642. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2017.1359148.

Lenhoff, S. W., & Ulmer, J. B. (2016). Reforming for “all” or for “some”: Misalignment in the discourses of education reformers and implementers. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24(108), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.24.2273

Peurach, D. J., Lenhoff, S. W., & Glazer, J. L. (2016). Large-scale high school reform through school improvement networks: Exploring possibilities for “developmental evaluation.” Teachers College Record, 118(13), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811611801306

Peurach, D. J., Glazer, J. L., & Lenhoff, S. W. (2016). The developmental evaluation of school improvement networks. Educational Policy, 30(4), 606–648. http://doi.org/10.1177/0895904814557592

Jacobsen, R., Frankenberg, E., & Lenhoff, S. W. (2012). Diverse schools in a democratic society: New ways of understanding how school demographics affect civic and political learning. American Educational Research Journal, 49(5), 812–843. http://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211430352
 

Research Description

Affiliated Departments

• Teacher Education