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…

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…

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)

The role to be played by higher education faculties in statewide decision making was addressed at the 1972 Minnesota Intercollegiate Faculty Conference. Conference speakers both pointed up a paucity of existing proposals for significant faculty participation and suggested that responsibility for development of such proposals lies with faculties…

Discusses joint efforts by Native American tribes and the Minnesota state legislature over the past 20 years to assure that educational services are provided to American Indian students at all levels. Highlights the case of Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, describing the college's foundation and finances. (MAB)

In this article, the author describes Neighborhood Bridges, The Children's Theatre Company's (CTC) critical literacy program that gives young people from the most impoverished and troubled neighborhoods in Minneapolis the courage and power to speak their minds both orally and through the written word in such a daunting setting. The 2003-04 school…

Describes the development of a network of 10 sites in Minnesota involving two-way interactive television systems. Discusses the instructional uses of the system, including its potential for use in community education. Outlines the efforts underway at three educational cooperatives which are using the system for instructional and administrative…

This report describes a secondary mainstreaming program in Pine County, Minnesota, which successfully used a team approach and consultation between regular and special education teachers to adapt regular content-area classes to accommodate mildly handicapped students. (Author/JDD)