Promising Practices

Since the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) was founded in 1999 member districts have been asked to describe what their schools are learning about improving the academic achievement of students of color. An important part of the mission of MSAN is to disseminate results of Network activities among MSAN districts and the larger educational community. In order to fulfill this mission the Research Practitioner Council (RPC) has collected a series of "promising practices" that highlight programs, policies, and practices in MSAN districts that have shown evidence to increase the achievement level of students of color, particularly African-American and Latino/a students.

The first Promising Practice highlighted by the RPC is the Multi-Age/Multicultural Program in Farmington, MI. In February of 2007, MSAN completed a peer review of the Multi-Age/Multi-Cultural Program which designed to specifically meet the needs of newcomer students, that is, non-English-speaking students new to the US. The peer review process what established to help the RPC identify programs from member districts that have demonstrated sustained success in addressing the achievement needs of minority students. Programs submitted for review must have been in existence for at least three years and have evaluation data, including outcome data with multiple data points. The review process included a paper review of the submitted information, followed by a site visit by a review team made up of members of the MSAN Research Practitioner Council. The complete MSAN Peer-Review Team Report of the Farmington Multi-Age/Multicultural Program is available as well as a detailed description of the program, which includes outcome data with multiple data points.