A Study of Racial Fragility Among Michigan Educators

WEEK NINE Well would you look at that, it's almost March, and that means 17 days till St. Patty's Day! This week was refreshing. I didn't receive many rejections, and I finally set up my research connection with MSU! Now, I know you're on the edge of your seat waiting to see if we got anymore K-12 schools to join, or heck, any more Okemos responses...unfortunately those are both negative, but that's where MSU will pick up the pieces.  To start the week, I began by entering more of my East Lansing data, which if you haven't picked up on already, is a grind. Then I seemingly closed some ties when I sent out my first batch of "One Month Later" emails, along with a couple "Two Week Later" emails. I took from the overwhelming silence from Superintendents that it was time to move on to universities. In class, Mr. Rasmus and I brainstormed who I should contact to begin the research process with MSU and I quickly recalled that Mrs. Parkin was a scien...

WEEK EIGHT Woah WOah WOAH! It's already week 8! *confetti everywhere* This week is what I'd call a "catch-up" week. After sending boatloads of emails last week, I just needed to step back and assess the data I have acquired. In total, I have received 53 responses from East Lansing and 6 responses from Okemos. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "GOsh 53 from East Lansing, that's fantastic, but 6 from Okemos, that just blows." If you are thinking that, you're not alone. I reached out to my good ol' pal Stacey again to kindly question her if my data was sent to the entirety of the school district and she promptly told me it was. So as you can see, I am at a bit of a standstill with Okemos. As for Holland City, I reached out the Superintendent again but I got no response. Ouch. In the meantime, I spent this week entering the mega load of data from East Lansing.  And that, my readers, is what you call a painful week. I was ignored and rejected, but...

WEEK SEVEN Welcome back! Ugh, I hate basic introductions, but, I am short on time to write this blog post because I'm leaving for a weekend trip! WHOOP! So, it all started by addressing my exes. By exes I mean those schools who rejected my proposal. For the 6 six schools who responded promptly with "no", I thanked them for actually responding, and then we went our separate ways. *sigh* Now, onto the more motivating parts of my week! For starters, I began collecting more Superintendent emails to reach my goal of sending 20 proposal emails this week. I ended up sending 12 emails (Addison, Adrian, Algonac, Allegan, Allen Park, Alma, Almont, Bath, Bedford, Berrien Springs, Birch Run, and Bullock Creek) but I might have enough time to squeak in 8 more after I finishing crafting this blog post. Regardless of when I decide to send them, I will be sending them to 8 schools within close proximity of Williamston (Haslett, Dansville, etc.) to, hopefully, elicit faster responses.  Sp...

WEEK SIX What a whirlwind of a week (and weekend!). This introduction to February was filled with emails, birthday celebrations, and a painful amount of anticipation. Let's start from the top. On Monday morning my 16 research proposal emails were sent out into the great beyond to Superintendents all across Michigan. Surprisingly, one school emailed back very promptly- Okemos! The Superintendent's Assistant, Stacey Bailey, responded back with her personal interest, but said my proposal had to go through a formal approval process. Luckily for me, the paperwork I needed to fill out had an uncanny resemblance to our Williamston IRB forms. Then, on Wednesday, my research was approved! According to Ms. Bailey, my research would be sent to individual principals by Friday and from there, it's up to them to follow through with my project. Fingers triple crossed I see that response count rise above 0 next week!  By this time it was Wednesday, and that means my sister Chloe's 15th...