Intercollegiate athletics play a major and highly visible role in both higher education and the broader world of sports entertainment. A significant component of the entertainment derived from college athletic contests is related to the atmosphere promoted, both formally and informally, amid and around athletic events. The current study was…

This article describes the experiences of one Minnesota middle school that implemented a year-long integrated STEM program with the cooperation of graduate student fellows from a local university. The authors, two of whom were among the graduate students involved in the project, describe their impressions of the program, share some lessons they…

Public expectations are rising, and budgets are falling for many public services, including the Cooperative Extension System (CES). Economists suggest specialization of CES educators is one means of handling this dilemma. This article examines changes in the opportunities perceived by Minnesota educators of moving from a cluster-county form of…

Every year 1.3 million U.S. high school students drop out of school with one quarter of female students failing to graduate on time. Female dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, to earn less when they are employed, to become pregnant before the age of 20, to become obese, to smoke, and to drink more heavily than their male counterparts. This…

The authors tell about their heterogeneous 91 person research and evaluation unit at an operating foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota. They focus on evaluation for program improvement, one of several purposes of studies they work on. The three authors write from their different manager positions within the unit. Included are the context of the…

A nonprofit outdoor adventure organization and a nonprofit advocacy organization for persons with disabilities and their families collaborated to develop a comprehensive, inclusive, outdoor recreation program for families. Ten Minnesota families having one or more children with a disability participated in Project FIT (Families Integrating…

Research has confirmed short- and long-term positive effects of quality youth development programs. Despite the evidence of the positive outcomes of youth programs, policies supporting these programs are inadequate due in part to limited public understanding about the developmental process and the role of quality youth development programs during…

This document presents the evaluation plan and the evaluation activities and findings for the project described in VT 020 441 available in this issue. This project was designed to be an exemplary project using an environmental focus to establish career education in a Minnesota school district. Evaluation activities are divided into the components…

This study explored the experiences of faculty and staff at a Minnesota technical college involved in a statewide initiative to develop innovative models for providing equal opportunities to students with disabilities. The findings suggest meaningful change tended to occur when those involved saw themselves as authors of change rather than its…

The Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Project (MTYMP) aimed to accelerate the mathematics learning of extremely talented junior high school pupils in special fast-paced classes outside of the regular school program. During the 1976-77 school year, 65 pupils from Duluth, St. Paul, and Minneapolis, Minnesota earned credit in Algebra I and II.…