December 20, 1999

A Collaborative Effort of the Eastside Detroit Whole Schooling Cluster (Bellevue, Howe, and Hutchinson Elementary Schools), the Whole Schooling Consortium, Wayne State University, the Center for Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA), Michigan State University.

Faculty include but may not be limited to the following:

Whole Schooling Consortium & Wayne State University:
Michael Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Teacher Education. Wayne State University, 217 Education, Detroit, Michigan 48202. 313-577-1607. J_m_peterson@wayne.edu
Kathi Tarrant-Parks, Ph.D., Teacher Education, 273 Education,Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. 48202 (313) 577-0946 ktarran@coe.wayne.edu
Rich Gibson, Program Coordinator, Social Studies Education, Wayne State University, 299 Education, Detroit, Michigan 48202. 313-577-0918. rgibson@pipeline.com

Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, Michigan State University:
Susan Florio-Ruane, Ph.D. Professor, Michigan State University, College of Education, 305 Erickson Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824. Office phone #'s 517-353-3887; 313-393-3012. susanfr@pilot.msu.edu
Christopher M. Clark, Professor, Educational Psychology. _clarkcm@msu.edu
Christopher Dunbar, Professor, Educational Administration. dunbarc@pilot.msu.edu
Erickson Hall, College of Education, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Three elementary schools on the eastside of Detroit (Bellevue, Howe, and Hutchinson) are working together as a cluster to improve their schools. After meeting for almost two years, they adopted a model of "whole schooling" to provide overarching principles to guide their improvement efforts in concert with Accelerated Schools. The plan to date focuses around three key areas: (1) developing new and improved ways of learning and teaching; (2) including students with disabilities in regular classes and providing in-class support for all students as they learn; and (3) increasing and strengthening partnerships with you as parents and with community resources. Towards this end, faculty of Wayne State University and Michigan State University are working in collaboration in these three areas to provide training and technical assistance and to conduct a comprehensive and multi-faceted research and evaluation program to determine the effect of these efforts and to improve knowledge regarding the education of urban children in low income areas. Below, we describe the guiding initial research questions and approach to this research.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Research questions of interest to the Cluster and collaborating faculty come from many perspectives. These research questions provide a framework around which additional, specific parts of the program will be developed. Our research questions are:

• What are the dynamics of change and impact of school reform within the Detroit Public School system? What changes are occurring, how are these influenced by socio-political and economic dynamics within the city and state, and what is the impact on educational practice in local school?
  
• What is the nature of change in the schools in this cluster regarding their practices in (1) instruction, (2) inclusion of special education and other at risk students in general education classes with support, and (3) increasing and strengthening partnerships with parents and community resources?
  
• What changed in what schools? What were the dynamics of the change process?
  How did this process fit within the overall context of community dynamics and reform and change efforts within the school district? What were the barriers to improvement?
  
• What were the factors that strengthened change and improvement?
  
• What impact on student learning and growth occurred? What were other impacts -- on parents, community, staff?
  
• How did teachers, students, parents, and administrators understand and think about change in their schools?
  
• How can the lessons of these schools contribute to the improvement of other schools in Detroit and other school systems?

RESEARCH STRATEGIES

As part of our partnership, the Whole Schooling Consortium (WSC) and the Center for Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) will conduct research on the process of reform. We believe that this research can (1) feed back to participants in an ongoing way to inform their decisions and activities; (2) inform the wider community of educators, parents, and community members about improving education; and (3) contribute to the knowledge base for preparing teachers and administrators, framing policy for education, and increasing our understanding of teaching and learning.

Not every project will use all of the research procedures listed below, but all projects will use at least some of these procedures. We will publish observations and analysis in educational publications. Researchers involved in this collaborative effort will gather and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data to address clusters of research questions. Different researchers will take the lead in different parts of the research program. Data gathering methods will include:

1. Attend public meetings and record observations of actions and dynamics. These may include but not be limited to: school board meetings, meetings of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, site-based council meetings, meetings of the Local School Community Organization (LSCO) of schools.
2. Interview informants within the Detroit Public Schools regarding dynamics of change in the school system.
3. Reading and analysis of extant public documents regarding the Detroit Public Schools and each local school in the study.
4. Observe instruction in classrooms and to record notes.
5. Informally interact with children and teachers as questions arise which require clarification of the researcher's observations and periodically conduct more formal interviews of the teacher.
6. Copy samples of children's work and examine records of achievement, assessment, and performance of children in the school.
7. Periodically videotape, audio-tape, or photograph instructional activities within the classroom.
8. Conduct focus groups with children and parents / teachers to which you may be invited.
9. Record interactions in teacher dialogue groups, planning meetings, and other interactions with school staff, parents, and the community.
10. Survey patterns of communication among teachers in the dialogue groups
11. Collect teachers' written and/or oral stories of their own learning and its relationship to changes in their teaching and in the learning of their pupils

Different analytical procedures will be used depending upon the specific focus of a particular inquiry at a point in time. Analytical procedures will use combinations of qualitative and quantitative data analysis, case study procedures, and related procedures.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Careful procedures will be followed to assure the confidentiality of all involved in the research process. We will use procedures designed to insure that individual staff, students, parents, or community members are not identified. All records will be kept in locked files or on computers with data secured by passwords. All reports will use pseudonyms and other mechanisms designed to protect individual identity. In addition, descriptive information that could identify an individual will not be shared.