Promise programs are discussed as a policy movement that began with the 2005 launch of the Kalamazoo Promise. Since then, programs bearing the Promise label or sharing similar features have spread across the higher educational landscape, appearing in most states and across postsecondary sectors. Simultaneously, scholarly literature discussing…

This report examines the competency-based education (CBE) efforts of the 21 Jumpstart participants and their varied journeys in developing CBE programs: the unique decisions they have made around their developing programs; the challenges that have delayed some programs or prevented others from moving to implementation; and lessons from these…

Student veterans have been attending college in greater numbers since the passing of the Post/9-11 GI Bill. Although similar to other nontraditional students, student veterans face unique transition challenges that can affect their pursuit of higher education. Many student veterans could benefit from dedicated programs to help them succeed in…

Since its establishment through the Smith-Lever Act, the Cooperative Extension Service has sought to use non-formal education programs centered on community needs to provide research-based information. However, the onset of the information age has transformed the way knowledge is shared and as a result altered the way people access information.…

As early-career Extension educators challenged by societal, structural, agricultural, and fiscal trends, we designed a multiyear educational program to support the diverse needs of emerging specialty crop producers in northwest Michigan. This article presents outcomes of that program. We explore how Extension professionals can develop impactful…

This resource is part of a series of reports about challenges facing statewide science assessments and innovative solutions states are enacting to meet those challenges. Deciding to implement a system of assessments is a critical step toward ensuring that all students are getting the high-quality science education they need--but it is also…

The push for accountability in public schooling has extended to the measurement of teacher performance, accelerated by federal efforts through Race to the Top. Currently, a large number of states and districts across the country are computing measures of teacher performance based on the standardized test scores of their students and using them in…

Grand Rapids is the first United Nations University (UNU) Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on education for sustainable development (ESD) in the United States. It builds on the region's long history and deep foundation in research, planning and problem solving to build a sustainable future. This article explores the concept of RCEs as social…

Peer educators have a critical role to play in the delivery of a wide variety of important programs on college campuses. Nowhere is this more evident than in learning assistance programs. These programs, typically housed in a learning center or learning assistance office, include tutoring and mentoring and often take the form of individual and…

In 1993, the Michigan legislature passed a bill that allowed school districts to adopt early elementary school program initiatives. These initiatives established nongraded, continuous progress programs for grades 1 through 4. An overview of how the state coordinator helped school districts implement this multiage, nongraded model is presented in…

The needs assessment model developed in the Lansing School District has the advantages of encouraging decentralized educational decision-making at the building level including program budgeting and personnel assignments, of providing a system for community input, and of providing a commonality of student goals and objectives between all buildings.…

The Flint (Michigan) Community Schools developed a four-phase School Improvement process model. In Phase 1 (Commitment), school district and administrative support were obtained and pilot schools were selected (one elementary and one middle school). The principals of these schools and one teacher representative from each received training in…

With the aim of developing a better basis for industrial education curricula as part of career education, 12 cluster plans found in the recent literature are described in the first half of the document. Each description indicates target population, grade level, and the career clusters included, to suggest the plan's comprehensiveness and its…

A BROAD STUDY WAS CONDUCTED OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL PROCEDURES AND COSTS OF THE NEWER MEDIA PREPARED FOR COURSE INSTRUCTION AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY. DETAILS OF THE STUDY WERE PRESENTED IN TWO SEMINAR PAPERS THAT WERE PRESENTED AS DISSEMINATION REPORTS IN 1965 AT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION IN CHICAGO,…

This group of reports constitutes the first series of observations designed to document the experiences of six state agencies (Delaware, Oregon, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi) which are developing model program evaluation/management support units that will affect the development and implementation of policy in federal/state…