A School Administrator’s Journey through an EdD program in the Midst of a Global Pandemic

This braided essay weaves together the reflective journey of a school administrator traversing through a doctoral program during the initial stages of the COVID 19 pandemic while considering her Problem of Practice in the current context of her school, local community, and global society. The ongoing challenges of a rural 3rd-5th consolidated school struggling through school improvement to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of all students are examined, while analyzing the place-based education model as it pertains to the current global pandemic and present state of education. While examining the issue of racial discipline disproportionality in the local context, this essay also addresses the potential implications upon both the local school and overall state of education by fostering a strong sense of place within and through the implementation of place-based educational practices.

Using GIS and death records to inform statewide school-based diabetes prevention interventions in Michigan

Background: One of modifiable risk factors of diabetes is unhealthy diet which is related to obesity. Individuals with childhood obesity are at higher risk of adulthood obesity. School-based diabetes prevention programs are important to reduce childhood obesity. When resources are limited, evidence-based priority need to be undertaken. However, data related to childhood obesity was not widely available, the study used diabetes-related death records as the proxy of diabetes burden. This study aimed to map and identify geographic variation of diabetes-related mortality rate by school district level in Michigan to be used for policy-relevant information.Design and Methods: This study used death records in Michigan. Diabetes-related mortality rate and years potential life lost (YPLL) was calculated at the school district level. Spatial autocorrelation local Moran’s I and geographically weighted regression were used to evaluate spatial pattern of age-adjusted diabetes-related mortality rate by school districts.Results: The age-adjusted diabetes-related mortality rate ranged from 17.0 (95% CI, 8.6-25.5) to 171.3 (95% CI, 135.9-206.7) deaths per 100,000 population. The YPLL per person ranged from 0 to 19.3 years (95% CI, 15.5-23.1). High rates of diabetes-related mortality rate and YPLL clustered in East central and Southeastern region of Lower Peninsula Michigan including Flint, Kearsley, Beecher, Westwood Heights, Detroit, Ecorse, River Rouge, Taylor, Allen Park and Lincoln Consolidated school districts.Conclusions: There was variation in diabetes burden examined by diabetes-related mortality rate and YPLL at the school district level within Michigan State. The high cluster can be prioritized for the intervention programs.

Equalizing Resources vs. Retaining Black Political Power: Paradoxes of an Urban-Suburban School District Merger in Durham, North Carolina, 1958–1996

Two separate school districts—a city one and a county one—operated independently in Durham, North Carolina, until the early 1990s. The two districts merged relatively late compared to other North Carolina cities, such as Raleigh and Charlotte. In Durham, residents in both the county and city systems vehemently opposed the merger until the county commissioners ultimately bypassed a popular vote. African American advocates in the city school district, in particular, faced an impossible trade-off: city schools increasingly struggled financially because of an inequitable funding structure, but a merger would significantly threaten fair racial representation on the consolidated school board. This article explores this core tension in historical context by looking at several failed merger attempts from 1958 to 1988, as well as the 1991 merger implementation, against the backdrop of desegregation, economic transition, profound metropolitan changes, and protracted political battles in Durham.

Creating Segregation in the Era of Integration: School Consolidation and Local Control in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1965–1976

New Brunswick High School, which had been racially integrated for decades, became majority-minority (and soon, all minority) in the 1970s, after years of legal wrangling led hundreds of its students to depart for a new, nearly all-white high school in the adjacent suburb of North Brunswick. White suburbanites invoked “local control” to justify building their own high school and battled against both New Brunswick and the New Jersey Department of Education, which ostensibly supported integration and the creation of larger, consolidated school districts. Black and Latino city residents initially advocated integration but soon renounced integration and demanded “community control” over New Brunswick High. Ultimately, the New Jersey Department of Education permitted the schools in the city and the suburb to become separate, allowing segregation to prevail in the so-called “era of integration.”

Communication Gatekeeping: A Response to Mediating Conditions in American Indian and School Personnel Interactions

The findings reported in this paper indicate the need for a more robust explanation of communication failure between American Indian parents and school personnel than cultural discontinuity provides. According to the data, conditions that constrain interactions between American Indian families and educators in one consolidated school district lie within the bounds of politics, economics, and social circumstance. The conditions of distrust, racial tension, maintenance of tribal identity, dependence, and isolation inform the perceptual frame that influences the ways American Indian people interact with school personnel. Through “gatekeeping,” American Indian parents act to control the dilemma they face in American public education. Proposed solutions to problematic American Indian educational issues suggest that transformative school leaders must create inclusive learning communities in which American Indian students have opportunities to thrive.

Southwick Consolidated School

How the little town of Southwick has brought its schools together under one roof, and is transporting 270 of its 320 pupils daily with the help of school-boy patrolmen, is here described.