Target: Faculty are actively engaged as a community of learners regarding the conceptual framework(s) and scholarship of the classroom.  They develop relationships, programs, and projects with colleagues in P-12 schools and faculty in other units of the institution to develop and refine knowledge bases, conduct research, make presentations, publish materials, and improve the quality of education for all students.

   One of the long-standing strengths of the professional education faculty of EMU is an interest and participation in collaborative activities with P-12 personnel.  The COE Office of Collaborative Education (OCE) was created to serve as a contact point for P-12 practitioners who wanted to link to professional education faculty members and to assist professional education faculty members in making links to P-12 constituencies.  In addition, the OCE coordinates matters across collaborations and maintains records of activities undertaken. 

   Several major collaborative activities are operated directly by the OCE.  These include the award-winning, long-standing Collaborative School Improvement Program (C-SIP).  Over the past several decades, the dozens of C-SIP projects have involved numerous faculty members from three EMU colleges, along with hundreds of P-12 personnel.  The OCE also coordinates the work of three "consociate school" partnerships.  Farmington High School (Farmington), Estabrook Elementary School (Ypsilanti), and East Middle School (Ypsilanti) provide numerous opportunities for professional education faculty members from multiple colleges to work with P-12 colleagues in mutually beneficial ways.

   The Systemic Change Initiative, the Supporting Beginning Mathematics and Science Teachers project, the Transition to Teaching project in the Flint area, and international education activities are other projects operated directly through the OCE.  Each of these brings EMU professional education faculty members and P-12 personnel together in creative ways.

   The recently concluded, decade-long experience of being the "university partner" for the Comer Project (Comer Schools and Family Initiative) in Detroit, with financial sponsorship from The Skillman Foundation, brought together a large number of faculty members from all four departments in the College of Education, the Department of Nursing, and the Department of Social Work.  In addition, faculty members from other universities were invited to participate.  Hundreds of EMU students and many dozens of Detroit teachers, professional support personnel, and administrators were involved as well.

   The Teacher Quality project, part of a Renaissance Group eleven-institution consortium, has brought together local-area P-12 partners, the business community, students, and numerous faculty members from both Education and Arts and Sciences.

   Numerous other collaborative activities are currently in place or have occurred in recent times, sometimes supported by external funds and sometimes just through individual faculty interests.  Examples of the collaborative activities engaged in by members of the faculty of the College of Education may be seen by a click here.

   Many of the collaborative activities result in one or more publications or  presentations.  Recent publications  and  presentations of the faculty of the College of Education indicate a number of such outcomes, sometimes jointly written/presented by COE faculty members and P-12 personnel.