The outreach provided by the Office of K-12 Outreach extends beyond the formal structures of conferences, institutes, programs and grants.  K-12 Outreach staff members also play important roles in disseminating the results of ongoing research in ways that build the capacity of policymakers at the school, district, state and even national levels to make more informed decisions about education policies and practices.

Data Services Unit

The Data Services Unit in the Office of K-12 Outreach, established in July 2003, provides a number of programs and services that help educators find and understand how to use data to improve educational outcomes for students. Through the programs and workshops offered by the Data Services Unit, educators learn to use a variety of data sources, including the Single Record Student Database, Census of Population and Housing, MEAP scores and other data sources to collect relevant information that can assist in decision making for school improvement planning and action, teaching and learning, curriculum and professional development, resources for implementing Grade Level Content Expectations, accreditation, school bond issues, writing grant proposals and communicating with constituencies.

The Data Services Unit provides one- and two-day hands-on workshops at MSU and also provides on-site training where the program can be tailored to individual school and district needs. To see a schedule of workshop[s offered at MSU, see the Data Service Unit web site.

Last year the unit provided services to 20 local and intermediate school districts and made numerous presentations at conferences, to school boards and other organizations concerned with the welfare of children, clearly representing the College of Education and K-12 Outreach’s commitment to linking the research of the university with the needs of Michigan’s educators.  In addition, the Data Services Unit regularly gathers and develops resource materials for College of Education grant projects and faculty members upon request, and responds to numerous phone questions from a variety of people regarding locating and using available data.

For more information, visit the Data Services Unit website

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Education Alliance of Michigan

The Education Alliance of Michigan is a coalition of the leading education associations representing teachers, administrators, boards of education, parents, business, charter schools, nonpublic schools and higher education. Members (executive directors) meet monthly to work cooperatively to address current education issues and take a leadership role in policy debates and initiatives.

As a member of the Alliance, Dr. Barbara Markle, Director of the Office of K-12 Outreach, represents the K-12/higher education connection. Barbara Markle provides connections to the resources of the College of Education and The Education Policy Center at MSU, and working with Alliance members participates in shaping policy initiatives. The major focus of the work of the Alliance over the past year has been on state and local school funding deficits, high school reform, implementing Michigan’s new Grade-Level Content Expectations and grade-level MEAP tests, and school infrastructure needs, and most recently, Internationalizing Michigan K-12 Education.

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Outreach for the Education Policy Center

K-12 Outreach works cooperatively with the Co-Directors of The Education Policy Center at Michigan State University Professors Sharif Shakrani and William Schmidt to research and publish policy papers on current critical issues in education, make contacts with state and national policymakers and to plan, facilitate and present at state and national policy related forums sponsored by the Policy Center and K-12 Outreach.

Visit the Education Policy Center at http://www.epc.msu.edu/.

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Recent Past Projects

In Partnership with the Michigan Department of Education: ASSIST- Advocating Strong Standards-based Induction Support for Teachers

ASSIST Website: http://assist.educ.msu.edu 

ASSIST was a three-year grant awarded to the College of Education in November 2003 to develop high quality mentoring and induction resources, tools and professional development that support the development of highly qualified teacher leaders in Michigan who can have a significant impact on student achievement. Co-directed by Dr. Barbara Markle, Assistant Dean and Director of the Office for K-12 Outreach, and Dr. Randi Stanulis, Associate Chair and Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, this project utilized the expertise of many of the College’s faculty and graduate students.

A unique feature of this project is the high level of practitioner input into the development of the tools and resources, including direct involvement of a cadre of Michigan K-12 teachers and administrators who have worked side-by-side with faculty from the start of the project, and project partners including all of the statewide teacher and principals’ associations, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.

The tools, resources and professional development for teacher induction and mentoring are web-based and available to all Michigan teachers and administrators. Training to use the tools began in January 2005 in a series of major ASSIST conferences and mentor teacher and administrator training institutes.  The ASSIST research-based framework and professional tools for on-the-job learning represent best practice in instructional leadership and effective classroom practice.

The ASSIST website, which contains over 1000 practical tools and resources organized around seven critical areas of teaching and best leadership practices remains freely available through Michigan State University at http://assist.educ.msu.edu. A free electronic newsletter which focuses on a different theme each month connects directly to tools and resources on the ASSIST site.  Past issues have focused on professional competencies including, continuous assessment of student learning, creating a supportive environment and forming relationships with students, planning instruction, culturally responsive teaching, effective class discussions, and more.

 

The Office of K-12 Outreach is directly responsible for creating the ABCS alliance, a broad coalition of education stakeholders, to work on and support the Coaches Institute initiative. ABCS includes both statewide teacher unions, both principal associations, the state’s superintendent, school board and parent associations, and a leading urban school district. It recruited outstanding MSU and UM faculty and outside consultants with exceptional expertise, supervised the production of the curriculum materials, including special web-based curricular and communication support, and arranged for the core faculty and coaches training sessions in four sites around Michigan (Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo and Lansing).

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