Detentions and suspensions disproportionately affect children from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, specifically Black children and children of lower socioeconomic status. These disparities in school discipline are addressed in a cognitive flexibility approach to professional learning through a privately funded district improvement…

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…

The Ann Arbor Languages Partnership (A2LP) between Ann Arbor Public Schools and the University of Michigan's School of Education recruits Spanish-speaking undergraduates from many academic majors to teach Spanish in the district's 3rd and 4th grade classrooms during the academic year. The partnership allows the district to offer students a world…

Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) researchers visited 38 public high schools around the United States in 2007 and 2008 with the goal of validating and operationalizing a definition of college readiness. Schools in the sample were selected because they were demonstrating success at enabling more students from underrepresented groups to…

To facilitate resource sharing, a union list of serials held by libraries in Oakland County, Michigan, was compiled. A steering committee representing the special, academic, and public libraries in the county planned the project. Special arrangements were made to eliminate such barriers to special library participation as: lack of staff for…

Changing the school environment to enhance student motivation and achievement is described in this paper, which focuses on broad structural change within the school. Current motivation theory is applied at the school level for lasting school reform. A collaborative project among university researchers, school leaders, and school staff in one…

Educational collaboratives are organizations in which educational administrators, university and college faculty, classroom teachers, intermediate district staff, and graduate and undergraduate students share energy, expertise, time, and other resources to plan and implement joint programs of preservice and inservice education, action research,…

In the spring of 1987, several coaches at a forensic tournament expressed concern over a general lack of "safe debate" competition for novices. The coaches agreed that the solution was mutual support among themselves and a supportive environment which placed new debaters on an equal footing. That same spring, three colleges took part in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether college athletes perceived that their exposure to racial diversity from within intercollegiate athletics was an important part of their education. Two NCAA Division I and one NCAA Division II institution in Michigan were surveyed, with 188 athletes participating. Athletes were asked to respond…

A study examined the general nature of the teamwork and beliefs of four "activists" (elementary school teachers in southwestern Michigan who were selected on the basis of their joint efforts to influence county-wide writing curriculum). Data included interviews, field notes, and documents gathered during the set-up and running of a Young…

Proposed in the Michigan legislature is the establishment of a new institution to be known as Wolverine State College: an institution without a campus or principal location. The proposed legislation articulates three distinct state policy objectives: (1) Under the umbrella of a single institution, the development of a meaningful alternative for…

An 18-member Collaborative of Michigan educational organizations and agencies was formed in October 1994. The Collaborative was committed to systemic reform that included inclusive relationships, challenging ideas, and changed practice to ensure better teaching and learning for all students. The Collaborative made the assumption that it would take…

The AccessMichigan Electronic Community Health Information Initiative (AMECHII) is a response to a recommendation of the Michigan Information Technology Commission Report recommending improved access to high-quality health care information for all Michigan stakeholders. This project is multi-type, including public, general academic, academic…

A cooperative program in Benton Harbor, Michigan, joins schools, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and a university to address local work force issues and needs identified by area employers and to place program graduates in jobs with a livable wage in an area of high unemployment and crime. The program consists of two major instructional…

Relations between colleges/college governing boards and statewide coordinating boards, and alternatives to coordination, are considered. The history of statewide coordinating boards is briefly sketched, and it is suggested that current conditions and trends require both state and institutional responses. Among the issues are declining enrollments…