Building stronger relationships between families and schools is increasingly identified as a way to address many vexing issues--teacher shortages, chronic absenteeism, lingering academic and social-emotional effects of COVID-19, and perceived divisions between parents and educators. Because policies and practices around family engagement vary…

Awareness of executive functioning and its relevance to both occupational participation and special education is expanding. This study describes how school-based occupational therapists address executive functioning in practice and determined if this differs from traditional areas. Fourteen occupational therapists from four districts in Michigan…

This quasi-experimental study evaluated middle- and high-school science teachers' implementation of three-dimensional (3D) instruction as defined by the "Next Generation Science Standards." Teachers participated in a long-term professional development (PD) program designed to increase their use of inquiry-based science instruction. We…

Using a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) model of education, an English composition instructor designed an honors section of first-year composition to evaluate current best practices in the field of teaching writing to STEM undergraduates. The students, all first-year engineering majors, conducted guided research on best…

In this article, the authors share how a team of librarians used the ADDIE instructional design model to incorporate best practices in teaching and learning into an online, four-credit information literacy course. In this redesign process, the Association of American Colleges and Universities' high-impact practices and e-learning best practices…

Post-school outcomes are poor for youth with disabilities, in general, but even more discouraging for certain subpopulations of individuals with disabilities, particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. The authors discuss structural inequalities in public schools which potentially contribute to the poorer…

This paper examines primarily the courses in the accounting major and a portion of the business core of the best thirty accounting programs in the United States as identified by the Accounting Degree Review. A thorough examination of each school's web site has been conducted to gather current (2014) information concerning the requirements for a…

Academic libraries are well lauded for offering supportive spaces for students' self-directed study, and significant resources are dedicated to librarian instruction in the classroom. What many academic libraries lack, however, is a middle ground, a routine way for students to help one another using best practices in peer-to-peer learning theory.…

This program profile demonstrates how the first-year writing program at Oakland University has engaged contingent faculty in research, assessment, and program development over the years, employing evidence-based practices to improve individual classroom instruction and to redesign the entire first-year curriculum. The authors describe their…

While the editors of "Across the Disciplines" were working at the Michigan State University (MSU) Writing Center in 2011, they began focusing on the issues of graduate writing support through their involvement with the graduate writing groups hosted through the MSU Writing Center, conducting research on the benefits of such groups. When…

A successful digital conversion for classrooms, districts, and states is not determined by the technology, but by how technology enables teaching and learning. The purpose of our multisite case study was to document digital instructional strategies teachers use to enhance and transform student learning, and align that use with learning research.…

This article describes the use of standards to guide the reform of a struggling high school in Grant Michigan. The author describes the challenges and obstacles that the school was facing, and admits that school reform was difficult. Turnaround seemed impossible, but it held the promise of something larger than life: successful students who become…

Developing character, ethical values, social responsibility, and productive citizenship is identified in the mission of many colleges and universities. However, accomplishing and measuring such growth in students is often questionable. This article describes Northern Michigan University's Student Leader Fellowship Program, discusses development…

Recent research reveals that janitorial services account for nearly 30 percent of facility budgets, which translates into billions of dollars annually. With janitorial services consuming such a large share of budgets, other industry findings are alarming. Most cleaning systems: 1) have no quantifiable standards; 2) are based solely on appearance;…

Oakland University (OU) Libraries undertook an assessment of how to leverage its resources to make online tutorials more focused on users' needs. A multi-part assessment process reconsidered Web tutorials offerings through the lenses of faculty and staff feedback, literature review, and an analysis of other universities' online tutorial offerings.…