Participants and Setting
The school district involved in this study was a major urban school district located in Southeastern Michigan. It is the largest school district in the State serving nearly 66,000 students (mostly African American) throughout a major city area (Dawsey 2011). The district has a long history of challenging issues including shrinking population of students, financial instability, school closings, and a low high school graduation rate. When the present study was launched in 2008, it was reported that the high school graduation rate was 24.9 % in the district, worst in the nation among the largest school districts in that particular year (Mrozowski 2008).