Despite the importance of teachers, the preparation programs intended to train them and provide them with the foundational skills they need to grow into high-quality educators vary in format, curriculum offered, quality, and more. Alternative teacher certification programs that are run outside of institutions of higher education (IHE) are an…

Educational Service Agencies (ESAs) across the United States have historically provided programs and services to local districts in an effort to increase educational achievement for students and the efficiency of local schools. Intermediate School Districts (ISDs), Michigan's unique brand of ESA, are no different. They are there to serve the needs…

Two schools in Michigan received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement their improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Phoenix Elementary-Middle School; and (2) Arthur Hill High School. The experiences of these…

The major purpose of this descriptive report is to provide an overview of the structure, capacity, and roles of educational service agencies (ESAs) across five states--Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin--in the Great Lakes region, within the context of the broader statewide systems of support for educational improvement and progress.…

Educational Service Agencies (ESA's) are public education agencies that provide specialized programs and services to a group of school districts in a specified geographical region and to the state department of education. Most states have encouraged the development of ESA's that have either evolved out of county districts or have been created to…

Describes how elementary educators in Michigan have integrated the concept of literacy centers into a comprehensive assessment system designed to drive literacy instruction in the classroom. The Michigan Literacy Language Profile is the state's effort to closely align a wide range of literacy assessments with meaningful and purposeful literacy…

Reviews history of concept of regional educational media centers (REMCs), which are intended to establish ways to provide media and educational technologies for local schools. Highlights include development of Michigan's REMCs and services covered in the "Rules and Regulations Governing Michigan's Regional Educational Media Centers."…

This report includes several contributions concerned with the PACE program of the Elementary Secondary Education Act, Title III. One editorial reviews five previous studies of PACE and another is devoted to the need for "process evaluation" of Title III projects. Also included are descriptions of three PACE projects, in Los Angeles,…

The final report of 3 years activity in the Area Learning Center of Kent Intermediate School District in Michigan presents its proposed design and objectives, operations, statistics on referrals, and an overall evaluation of its programs. Included are discussions of interdisciplinary approaches to educational diagnosis, prescriptive educational…

This paper describes the activities of the Michigan Department of Education and local districts in establishing a statewide plan for using microcomputers in education. Components of the plan include the design of a computer literacy grant program known as TIME (Technology in Michigan Education); the establishment and funding of a statewide network…