In this article, we demonstrate that arts integration holds unique promise and benefits for helping rural teachers to provide more equitable arts opportunities for their students. These benefits include: professional network development in the service of both curricular development for arts integration and connecting teachers who often work in…

Increasing costs and decreasing numbers of university Extension faculty have made it difficult to provide quality turfgrass short course education. In response, faculty from nine institutions collaborated to develop the Great Lakes School of Turfgrass Science. This 12-week online course provides students with unique learning experiences through a…

Out-of-school time (OST) programs can play an important role in fostering the development of literacy skills among children and youth. To investigate the variety of literacy skill-building strategies OST programs use, researchers from the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) examined the practices of 31 programs in Massachusetts. This…

There is growing interest in the ability of improvement science--the systematic study of improvement strategies to identify promising practices for addressing issues in complex systems (Improvement Science Research Network, 2016)--to spur innovation and address complex problems. In education this methodology is often implemented through…

For decades, numerous observers have agreed on the value of collaboration between K-12 and higher education--especially as these sectors work toward increasing college readiness and success. While most states maintain separate agencies for K-12 and higher education, many states have worked to foster collaboration through state P-20 councils.…

The Resource Exchange design team met in May 2013 to learn about and respond to a multifaceted collaboration between the Paramount Theatre & Visual Arts Center and Hands Across the World (HAW), a social service agency that serves the needs of new refugees and immigrants in St. Cloud, Minnesota. In recent years a significant immigrant…

Over the past two decades, community organizing has emerged as an effective force for school improvement. In the context of shrinking education funding, stubborn opportunity and achievement gaps between low-income and wealthy children and between children of color and White children, and polarizing debate on school reform, community organizing…

Twenty years ago, when the late Albert Shanker, then president of the American Federation of Teachers, endorsed the notion of innovative schools operating outside conventional district bureaucracies, his aim was to put teachers at the helm. Fast-forward two decades from Shanker's then-radical proposition and there are nearly 80 teacher-governed…

The roads of incoming information to the US higher education system about the Bologna Process are varied and numerous. They include not only the on-line and traditional trade press, but also conferences of national organisations. Whether anyone remembers much of that information, on the other hand, is an open question, as a limited survey…

A May 1994 arson fire could have ruined the school year for Minnesota's District 191 high schoolers. Decision to run split shifts at a nearby elementary school was the key to fast recovery. Thanks to quick decision making, generous community support, and the determination and hard work of teachers and administrators, the students missed only five…

Collaboration among various professional groups to enhance student learning is a very useful strategy. This article describes how one state, Minnesota, over time (1960-1990), employed collaboration among schools, universities, professional organizations, and the State Department of Education to affect student counseling practices where needed.…

A collaborative effort of Minnesota school districts and a university in transforming public education was based on dimensions of organizational transformation: systems thinking, organizational learning, leadership, and organizational culture. An overarching vision is required to give purpose and direction to organizational transformation. (SK)

When this research report was first conceived, the current economic crisis was only just on the verge of revealing its full extent. Economic crisis or no economic crisis, over the years funding for PK-12 education has been a constant struggle. While all schools continue to face difficulties, for various reasons rural schools have different and…

Minnesota's experience in involving its private colleges in coordination offers an example of one important criterion of statewide board effectiveness. (Editor/PG)