Dr. Susan Printy
Dr. Printy’s work with the Small Learning Communities grant is in its final year of a five-year US Department of Education grant. This grant involves 6 large Michigan high schools in partnership with the Coalition of Essential Schools.
Forthcoming: Printy, S. Hiring the superintendent: A strategic framework to guide decision-making. In Ivory, G. & Acker-Hocevar, M. (Editors). Voices from the field: Quandaries of the small district superintendency. Palgrave-MacMillan.
Dr. Amita Chudgar
Dr. Chudgar’s research asks, “How can we provide education equitably and efficiently in resource constrained environments?” That is the overarching question that motivates her current teaching, learning and research interests. She is working on three major research strands right now, all of which focus on developing countries. The first one is supported by an NAED/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. Many developing countries are replacing regular teachers with underpaid and underprepared contract-teachers. This may have important yet little-known implications for student learning. Dr. Chudgar’s research on Francophone Africa is one of the first to use multi-level and quasi-experimental analysis to identify these implications and suggest ways to mediate them. The second research project is currently focused on India, where through a series of studies she is interested in investigating the implications of school choice and privatization for equitable and efficient education production. This research agenda is closely linked with India’s recent commitment to expand school choice through the ‘Right to Education’ bill. Finally, Dr. Chudgar is working with a group of colleagues in India and the United States to collect unique school and community data to identify policy amenable covariates associated with improved learning levels. To learn more about her research please visit: https://www.msu.edu/~amitac/index.shtml
Dr. Kristy Cooper
Dr. Cooper’s research examines how school and district leaders can systematically increase student engagement and personalization in classrooms – both to enhance student learning and increase high school graduation rates. Dr. Cooper is currently developing a data-driven approach to increasing student engagement through exploratory research with high schools in Michigan and Texas.