Coaches are trusted advisors, information conduits, sounding boards, and advocates who facilitate institutional change. This report summarizes findings from the first five years of the Student Success Center Network's Coaching Program, focusing particularly on the most recent phase that engaged directly with Centers in four states (California,…

This historical study chronicles the creation, development, and termination of the Midwestern Conference on School Vocal and Instrumental Music, hosted by the University of Michigan between 1946 and 2005. Beginning as a band music reading session led by William Revelli in 1936, the conference developed into a premier professional workshop by the…

Mentoring undergraduate students in research is both rewarding and challenging. In this paper we present how we established a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in the mathematical sciences at Michigan State University. A goal of our REU is to include students who are at an early stage of their study of mathematics. We…

College Promise programs--initiatives designed to guarantee tuition and fees for eligible students--have swept across the country, unlocking the opportunity of higher education for students in more than 200 communities across 44 states, including 16 statewide programs that have passed through legislation or executive orders. These forward-thinking…

A capstone experience, as an exit degree requirement, allows Master of Public Administration (MPA) students to build quasi-experimental practices by applying learned knowledge and skills throughout their curriculum in the United States. Accredited MPA programs have implemented their capstone courses differently to achieve required standards. Small…

This is the third paper on the topic of outcomes-based funding written by Dennis Jones for Complete College America. The first paper, "Performance Funding: From Idea to Action" (ED535356), proposed a set of design and implementation principles to help states develop and implement their own outcomes-based funding models. The second paper,…

This program profile describes how teachers and administrators have collaborated in the design and implementation of a number of linguistic, cultural, and transmodal pedagogical and curricular initiatives. Strategies that writing teachers can implement to best meet the needs of multilingual students across a range of institutional contexts are…

In 2010 Michigan State University launched the first hybrid doctoral program in Educational Technology. This 5-year program blends face-to-face and online components to engage experienced, working education professionals in doctoral study. In this paper, we describe the design and evolution of the program as well as the response from students. We…

As the price of a public college education has risen at well above the rate of inflation for decades, college affordability has become a key concern in public policy discussions. At the same time, recent high school graduates from lower-income and middle-income families are nearly 20 percentage points less likely to enroll in college the following…

Ten years ago, community college presidents' most valued datum was the number of students enrolled, which drove the colleges' funding. Providing access to higher education for the millions of students without the time, money, or academic preparation to attend a traditional four-year college was (as it always had been) their top priority. Today, a…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) involves the processes through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.…

While school choice may be one of the most polarizing issues in education today, a new volume of research papers makes the case that innovations aimed at giving families more say in where their children go to school can be whatever their architects make of them. Programs such as magnet schools, charters, tuition tax credits, or open-enrollment…

The Division of Student Affairs at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor engaged in an iterative strategic process to create and implement a set of long-range goals. This strategic journey continues to evolve, uniting a guiding framework of strategic planning steps, a reflective process with an assessment component within each step, and a group…

This bulletin reports results from an evaluation of six sites of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets (SK/SS) program, which applies a comprehensive, collaborative approach to the child maltreatment field. The bulletin provides insights into collaboration building, systems reform, service options, and other strategies. Among the findings were that the SK/SS…

Describes the Head Start Classroom of the Future project, which is being introduced into inner-city centers in Grand Rapids, Michigan; a classroom for children of Hispanic migrant farmworkers in Holland, Michigan; and a classroom for Native American children at the Isleta Pueblo Head Start near Albuquerque, New Mexico. (BB)