Walter G. Ecton

Dr. Walter Ecton, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, researches the intersections between high school, higher education, and the workforce, and the pathways students take as they navigate those sectors. His work primarily focuses on students who take nontraditional pathways through education, with particular focus on high school students in career and technical education, students who attend community and technical colleges, and students who return to education later in life. He aims to produce research that can inform local, state, and federal policy decisions, and that shines a light on the importance of equitable access to high quality educational opportunities for all students.

Dr. Ecton’s research uses large administrative datasets and surveys at the state and federal levels to explore educational and labor market outcomes from students’ participation in education programs. He has been published in outlets including The Journal of Higher Education, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Oxford Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, AERA Open, Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, and Community College Review, and presents research regularly at the Association for Education Finance and Policy, the Association for Public Policy and Management, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the Association for Career and Technical Education Research.

A former high school social studies teacher, Ecton holds a PhD in leadership and policy studies from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. He joined the faculty at the Marsal School after serving as an assistant professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.