Describes Michigan's effort to create a state language arts curriculum in the context of systemic reform, discussing the overlapping of various stakeholders with the state and other collectives that emerged. Although Michigan's educational system remains loosely linked, democratic, and contentious, the language arts effort heightened mutual…

The Michigan English Language Arts Framework (MELAF) offers an illustrative case of top-down and bottom-up confluences in curriculum policymaking. In several distinct ways, state policy met local initiatives to create dynamic partnerships to spread change. State systematic reformers looked to the grass roots for ideas and percolating initiatives.…