ABSTRACT
The case study presented in this volume does not take place in a school for a privileged elite, nor does it take place in a severely underfunded inner-city school whose building is in disrepair. The Holt Public Schools serve a 32-square-mile district with approximately 21,000 people located just south of Michigan’s capital city in Ingham County. The district includes Holt, the village of Dimondale, most of Delhi Township, and small sections of southern Lansing. While the district has become increasingly suburban and is now home to some policymakers from Lansing and some Michigan State University faculty, it is still partly rural. While the district is becoming increasingly affluent, it is not one of the more affluent local districts. For example, the State Equalized Value of homes in the district usually ranks in the bottom quarter of the 12 districts in Ingham County. In the year 2000, 13 percent of students in the district were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (see www.ses.standardandpoors.com).
