The Michigan Department of Education defines professional development as a planned and organized effort to provide teachers and other educational workers with the knowledge and skills necessary to facilitate improved student learning and performance. The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale and plan for professional development programs…

This past summer fifteen teachers from the Detroit public schools and the metro Detroit area participated in Wayne State University's first Invitational Summer Institute as part of the Wayne State Writing Project. As the director of a brand new National Writing Project site, the author was apprehensive about what she could expect from herself, the…

In 1977, Michigan's State legislature mandated and provided funding for the University of Michigan School of Education to equip prospective teachers with a multicultural philosophy of education. This article describes the resulting seminar and practicum and the positive findings of a postpracticum evaluation of teacher attitudes toward ethnic…

In 1979 the Michigan State legislature allocated $3.2 million for kindergarten through twelfth grade school staff development programs (Public Act 94, Article 9, Section 97). The emphasis in the legislation was to establish a competitive market for the purchase and utilization of resources to identify needs and provide skill development for school…

State mandates for teacher professional development and continuing education, and funding for those mandates are a high profile topic in the North Central region. Examination of specific state requirements for professional development, the relationship among professional development, teacher certification, and continued employment, and direct…

Describes a parent-involvement program for first grade in which parents helped in the classroom every Wednesday. Surveys of parents and evaluations of teacher and parent teaching styles indicated most parents attributed success to the teacher's warmth and enthusiasm. With encouragement, parents participated willingly. Conclusions relating to…

A Michigan task force examined existing and needed services for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to assist school districts in developing services and to create a systematic plan for statewide information dissemination regarding referral, assessment, identification, intervention strategies, and legal mandates.…

This document on involvement by states and higher education in adult learning is one in a series of four developed to provide a comprehensive overview of the scope of training practices relating to adult learning. It consists of two sections, each summarizing the results of extensive surveys pertaining to training programs for special adult…

Selected titles among the 39 presentations are as follows: "Historical Study of Turnover among Cooperative Extension System Directors and Administrators" (Clark et al.); "Educational Orientation and Job Satisfaction of Extension Field Staff in Michigan" (Suvedi); "Teaching Styles and Teaching Effectiveness" (Barrett);…