Academic Transitions

INITIATIVE OVERVIEW 

Michigan Partnership for Academic Transitions (MI-PAT) is a multi-year collaboration between Michigan College Access Network (MCAN), the Michigan Center for Student Success (MCSS), and the Michigan Community College Association (MCCA). MI-PAT aims to close racial equity gaps and significantly increase the number of first-year community college students who complete a gateway math course (a credit-bearing math course in one of the three pathways identified in the Michigan Transfer Agreement).

The initiative will join the creative energies of high schools and colleges so they can work together to remove barriers and support student success. This will be achieved through redesign of developmental education and improved academic transitions in three key areas: readiness, placement, and remediation. Funding for this innovative partnership is provided by The Kresge Foundation.

The deadline to apply for the 2020-2021 cohort of this partnership has passed. Reach out to Autumn Kearney for information about the next cohort.

LEARNING TEAMS

Early in this initiative, MCAN and MCCA will bring together “learning teams.” Each team will be composed of community college and high school partners, whose campuses will serve as demonstration sites. Learning teams will use the updated 2020 Core Principles for Transforming Remediation, which will serve as the framework to design and implement projects that improve academic transitions, described below. 

SUPPORT AND COMMITMENTS 
 The network of learning teams will receive support from MCAN and the MCSS. This includes grant funding, broad design parameters, and access to technical assistance and national experts who work on high-impact practices associated with improved academic transitions and gateway course completion. In return, teams will commit to working toward specific improvements that are consistent with the core aims of the initiative. In addition, teams will engage in knowledge development and the sharing of lessons learned through the partnership.  

Each learning team project will focus on closing racial equity gaps with respect to increasing access to, and success in, gateway math courses. Project examples include: 

  • A senior-level transition course for high school students who are not yet college-ready at the end of their junior year that prepares them for gateway college math;
  • Math course placement reform (e.g. grade-point average, multiple measures) aimed at increasing access to gateway math for more students; and
  • Enhancements in pedagogy (active and experiential learning) or student advising (integrated or holistic supports) that accompany structural changes (multiple measures placement, co-requisite courses), aimed at increasing gateway course success in math.

YEAR ONE TIMELINE 

 Proposed* timeline is as follows  

2020

August-September: Exploratory conversations  
Oct. 30: Application deadline 
Nov. 16: Award notification 
Dec. 1: Program start date 

2021

Nov. 20, 2021: Program end date 
Dec. 30, 2021: Final report and financials due 

*Timeline will be adjusted based on interest form feedback. 

QUESTIONS?

Contact Autumn Kearney, Strategy Manager for High School Innovation.

Academic Transitions

Contact

Autumn Kearney
517-316-1713

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