LearnmoreMN Blog

It’s time to get serious about the skills gap

By Jonathan Blake, May guest blogger

All over Minnesota, parents and students are making one of the most important decisions of a lifetime: where to send that student to college. Everywhere you look, news stories are focusing on the dual issues of college affordability and student debt. Next to buying a house, it’s likely the biggest financial decision a family will make. As such, it is important that parents and students consider some hard facts about what the future holds for recent college graduates.

A recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found “the outstanding student loan balance now stands at about $870 billion, surpassing the total credit card balance [in America] ($693 billion) and the total auto loan balance ($730 billion).” Minnesota is unfortunately helping to lead the way. According to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, the state is ranked fifth in the country for student debt.

College affordability and student debt should not be viewed in a vacuum. One of the most important things we can do to help alleviate the student debt burden is to equip graduates with the skills and experience they need to build successful careers. In this area, there is plenty of room for improvement.

One issue that should be addressed on the state and national level is the growing skills gap. According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics there are currently as many as 3.5 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. because many companies can’t find qualified candidates. Here in Minnesota, according the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, if qualified applicants were suddenly found for such open positions, the unemployment rate would drop by 2%. Such an impressive drop in the state unemployment rate should impress policymakers and cause higher ed administrators to take notice, especially during this prolonged economic recession.

The skills gap problem is worsened by the impending retirement of the baby boom generation. A Pew Research Center report indicates that 10,000 baby boomers will reach age 65 every day for the next 20 years. Whether the younger generation is prepared to replace these workers is up for debate. According to a recent survey of HR professionals by AARP, more than half said their older workers had “stronger writing grammar and spelling skills.”

This is not an argument for or against any specific type of educational pursuit. Rather, my intent is to show the necessity for higher education institutions to make adjustments amongst students and educators to ensure that the current and future workforce is prepared to fill the job requirements that a modern economy demands. If Minnesota is to retain its status for providing a highly trained workforce, changes must be made now to ensure that we remain up to that task.

College readiness: The foundation of Minnesota’s future

By Robert Jones, April guest blogger

Nearly 34 years ago I arrived in Minnesota as a 26-year-old newly minted Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. As the son of a Georgia sharecropper and a product of both a segregated public school system and the Civil Rights Movement that brought about its demise, I had traversed a road less traveled by African-Americans in general and males in particular. I had not only finished high school, but also had obtained an undergraduate and two advanced degrees in science-based disciplines and landed a dream job as an assistant professor of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota. I chose Minnesota not only for its professional fit, but also for the quality of its public schools — reflecting my desire for my five-year-old son to have better educational opportunities than I had experienced.

Much has changed over the last three decades, not all of it positive. Readers of this blog undoubtedly know that Minnesota has slipped from being a model of excellence in public education to being a state where the academic achievement gap looms largest. The gap cannot be explained by the high performance of our white students. In fact, in many cases students of color in Minnesota score below students of color in other states. On the 2009 national NAEP exam, for example, African-American fourth graders in Texas and Georgia scored higher in reading than their counterparts in Minnesota. Minnesota’s Hispanic students also performed significantly below Hispanic students in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

More than 58 years after the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education decision, and in view of all the economic and intellectual resources available in Minnesota, we should all be profoundly troubled by our state’s shameful results.

The social, economic, and moral consequences of the achievement gap should alarm every Minnesotan. The future of our communities and our state depends on ensuring our children are prepared for and successful in some form of postsecondary education. A recent study anticipates that by 2018 — the year today’s sixth graders graduate from high school — at least 70% of jobs in Minnesota will require some postsecondary education. To make sure today’s sixth graders have a bright future, by 2018 we will need to significantly increase the number of students graduating from our community, technical and four-year colleges.

Reaching this goal will be impossible if we do not find a way to close our state’s achievement gap. According to Minnesota’s state demographer, the percentage of residents in the Twin Cities region who are Latino, black, and Asian is expected to increase from 23% to approximately 35% in 2035. The white population in the Twin Cities, in contrast, is not expected to grow after 2015. If nothing changes, we are headed for an increasingly racially, economically, and educationally segregated community. And to quote author James Baldwin, “These are our children and we will either benefit or suffer from what they become.”

At the University of Minnesota, we are deeply concerned about these trends and are committed to leveraging resources and partnering with K–12 schools and educators to prepare students for success in college — and not just at U of M campuses. Our Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC) is collaborating with the Northside Achievement Zone and other organizations on literacy and school readiness initiatives that could be models for all economically challenged urban communities. Our College of Education and Human Development is redesigning its teacher preparation program as faculty members advance research aimed at eliminating the gap and improving outcomes for all students.

In my office, the College Readiness Consortium reaches out to schools statewide through Ramp-Up to Readiness™, a school-wide guidance program that helps students master the knowledge, skills, and habits they need to succeed in college — whether at our institution, a MNSCU college, or a private campus.

Many school success and college readiness efforts are going on in schools, colleges, faith communities, and nonprofit organizations across the state, especially in the Twin Cities. A recent assessment identified more than 500 initiatives now working to close the achievement gap. The pressing question is, why hasn’t the work of a multitude of well-intentioned people succeeded in eliminating the achievement gap? And how can we leverage our work to achieve the results our children and our state so desperately need?

I believe the answer is that in the Twin Cites we are “program rich but systems poor.” I also would suggest that a comprehensive framework developed in Cincinnati called Strive may in large measure provide the solution — and will explain why in my next post.

How do we stop a workforce shortage?

By Kathy Schmidlkofer, March guest blogger

My last blog post challenged you to be an ambassador for our higher education system. But we need to do more. Our world-class workforce is one of our best regional assets, but threats to this status are certainly looming. Our region is currently experiencing a skills mismatch between our talent and the needs of our employers. This national trend is expected to continue. The big question is how do we turn this situation around so we have the right workforce prepared for the jobs of the future? I work for an organization trying to drive jobs and capital investment to our region so my sincere hope is that we can maintain the competitive advantage our workforce gives us.

The challenge of the future is two-fold in our region. We have a significant disparity in educational attainment between whites and our ethnic minority communities. In addition, while post-secondary institutions in the state are producing many graduates, they are not meeting private-sector demand in high-growth STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math). Aligning degrees with needed skills will be critical to promoting individual success and economic growth. Site selectors tell us that the number one criterion for companies looking to place jobs is the availability, talent, and skill level of the workforce so, to maintain the economic vitality of this region, we cannot afford to ignore this workforce shortage.

Key demographic trends are disturbing given the need for a more educated workforce. The recent Compass report by the Wilder Foundation said the state’s population is getting older, more diverse, has a widening income gap, and educational disparities that start early and continue.

While more than four of five white, non-Hispanic high school students in Minnesota graduate on time, just over half of students of color do, according to the report. However, in an encouraging sign, the graduation rate for students of color has risen more than 10 percentage points since 2003.

Education levels will have a direct impact on the economic health of our region’s residents. Unemployment rates go down as educational attainment rises. As the demand for highly skilled workers has increased so has the wage premium of higher education. In 1975, bachelor’s degree holders earned 57% more than high school graduates. In 2007, they earned 83% more.

Employers need to play a key role in communicating their future needs to the higher education establishment. This is especially true of fields where they expect growth as well as the need for broader skill sets. Jobs today are demanding a more flexible skillset: Employers report that communication, reading comprehension, critical thinking, and ability to learn are key skills they seek in employees. As workforce needs change, perhaps employers also will be challenged to consider filtering students differently. Rather than filtering by the prestige of a graduate’s academic institution and specific degree, employers may need to review how they assess a candidate’s specific skills such as the ability to communicate, problem solving, leadership, and critical reasoning skills.

Educators already are aware of the challenges ahead and are working toward solutions. At GREATER MSP, our Partnership Advisory Council has made turning around the workforce shortage a priority and its members are working with MnSCU and other education organizations and businesses throughout the region to address and solve the mismatch.

Knowing that this workforce shortage could get worse without substantive action, I turn the question to you: What else should be done?

Our best and brightest: A major regional draw

by Kathy Schmidlkofer, March guest blogger

This is my challenge to you: Be an ambassador for our region’s higher education system.

As part of an organization that is working to drive job growth and capital investment in the Greater MSP 13-county metro area, one of my key messages to potential employers is that our skilled workforce is one of our greatest assets.

Site selectors tell us that the number one criterion for companies looking to place jobs is the availability, talent, and skill level of the workforce. Our region consistently ranks as one of the best-educated, most productive workforces in the country.

Greater MSP’s world-class workforce is thanks in large part to our higher education system, which falls into four main groups. Here are some interesting facts about them that should make you proud.

• The University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus has been listed as a “Public Ivy” in The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities for offering an education comparable to those of the Ivy League schools.
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU), provide workforce training to 125,000 students annually through partnerships with employers.
• Private colleges such as Augsburg College and Hamline University offer a world-class liberal arts education with an approach that prepares students to deal with complexity, diversity, and change.
• Private for-profit schools such as Cappella, Rasmussen, and Walden, are based in Greater MSP and offer traditional and online learning environments with a global reach.

Higher education spending by all of these institutions totals more than $7 billion a year. As the demand for higher education increases, that investment already has gone a long way toward our region’s reputation. The Daily Beast calls the region “one of America’s top brainpower cities,” based on its intellectual environment and percentage of residents with college degrees. The state ranks sixth in the nation for the percentage of our population with an associate degree or higher, with MnSCU campuses granting the most degrees. Private colleges have produced notable leaders such as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who graduated from Macalester College, and Timothy Flynn, a University of St. Thomas graduate, who recently retired as global chairman of KPMG International.

Besides educating future workers, these academic institutions and their research and development focus provide our region with additional economic benefits. As an example, inventions at the University of Minnesota brought nearly $390 million to the state in the past five years and its alumni have founded 10,000 companies in the state. The importance of these institutions to private enterprise cannot be understated.

Our region offers an all-encompassing array of higher education alternatives but too few people here talk up our leading edge. Let us all be ambassadors for our outstanding higher education establishment. Please join me in spreading the word about a valuable resource that distinguishes our region amidst intense global competition.

More information about GREATER MSP

Separate but equally important?

By Dale A. Blyth, Ph.D., February guest blogger

In my earlier post this month I spoke of the necessity of equal learning opportunities in not only the formal but also the informal and non-formal learning approaches available to young people beyond the classroom. For more on that inequality theme you might want to read recent blogs by John Kuhn.

But today I want to ask whether all three types of learning opportunities are separate and equally important? Do the inequities in these informal and non-formal learning opportunities really matter? Briefly consider results from four studies:

• One found 75% of Nobel-prize winning scientists (PDF, 23 KB) first got excited and engaged in science in informal and non-formal ways — not in the classroom.
• Another estimates that over 25% of the achievement gap in 9th grade test scores can be explained by differences in learning opportunities before they started school (inequality in early childhood learning opportunities) while almost half can be explained by difference due to summer learning loss (PDF, 328 KB) (inequalities in informal and non-formal learning opportunities over the summer from first to sixth grade). The gap actually closed during the school year.
• Another study that beeped youth at different times during the day and asked whether they were concentrating and motivated (two important conditions for learning) found that youth in schools were concentrating slightly more but not very motivated, youth with friends were highly motivated but not concentrating, and only youth in non-formal learning opportunities were both concentrating and more motivated.
• Finally, when elementary and middle school youth who are typically on the wrong side of the achievement gap became engaged in quality non-formal afterschool learning opportunities, over two years their math achievement scores improved more than three times as much as seen in a study that lowered student teacher ratios in math classes.

Each approach to learning adds to both the learning process and its outcomes.

We often think about formal educational opportunities as the “engine” of learning — and rightly so. But what research shows us is that we need a car not just an engine if learning is to go anywhere.

Perhaps if we recognized that informal learning opportunities provide the structure that learning needs for an engine to deliver its power we would invest more in it.

Perhaps if we recognized that non-formal opportunities put wheels on learning that allows it to go, we would think more about the ways communities, including schools, support youth programs, camps, and other community learning opportunities beyond the classroom.

And, perhaps most importantly, if we recognized that a young person’s engagement and passion for learning provides the very fuel needed to drive learning anywhere, we would pay more attention and allocate more resources to understanding, assessing and improving how youth become engaged youth in their own learning in all these approaches.

Just like for effective transportation, we need a complete vehicle and road system to get anywhere. Learning requires more working “parts” than just an engine — no matter how powerful — that play separate but equally important roles in moving learning along. These parts need to come together in comprehensive systems as a recent report on supporting youth success (PDF, 1.9 MB) notes.

One final point on the “separate and equally important” idea — it also applies to what we must measure and monitor for success. Just as one cannot keep a car working and moving forward by only assessing the odometer that tells you how far it has gone (like achievement tests do for learning), if we want to close gaps in learning outcomes, we must find separate but important measures that tells us how our learning vehicle is working and how far it is getting in its journey.

While this must include assessing the effectiveness of the formal engine of schooling, it also includes monitoring the support from the people in our youths’ lives to make sure the appropriate lubrication is there and the “pressure” is there for performance. It includes a fuel gauge that monitors whether the young person is on empty or full of a passion for learning. It might mean assessing our communities to ensure they have multiple on ramps to learning through a systematic approach to informal and non-formal community learning opportunities.

Perhaps in the end it is important to simply recognize that a successful learning journey takes more than good schools. It takes many separate but equally important parts that come together effectively and interesting places to go. Perhaps as John Kuhn argues in the blogs noted earlier that it is time to recognize poverty and its effects on learning are not inevitable. Isn’t it time for policy “mechanics” to recognize that it requires more than tuning up schools to close the learning opportunities gap.

Can our youth succeed with unequal learning opportunities?

By Dale A. Blyth, Ph.D., February guest blogger

The idea of equal educational opportunities in America has been a driving force for a long time. From the Brown vs. Board of Education decision that separate schools are inherently unequal — to a variety of present day efforts to improve schools, we continue to believe educational opportunities are the key to a better future. Education still benefits from its image as the great equalizer even if schools are decreasingly seen as delivering on that goal.

Today these efforts more often are denoted by the poor result — the achievement gap — than by the cry for equal opportunity. And unfortunately Minnesota is a leader in almost all the wrong ways in this area with the second worst achievement gap in the nation. It is not just that our white students do better but that our minority students do worse.

What would happen if we shifted back to a social justice approach that emphasized the importance of equal opportunities — but with an important twist. What if we called for equality in LEARNING opportunities?

Why shift from “education” to “learning” language? Because our society has shifted to a 24/7 array of learning opportunities related to technology, media and fundamental changes in our economy and way of life. In the report A New Day For Learning there is a call to rethink the learning day as well as the time and places where learning occurs. We must begin to shift from an emphasis on education as formal schooling only and learners only as students. Instead we need to recognize that learning takes place in many ways, at many different times, and in many different places. We need to move from only caring about the equality of opportunities for students in school and begin to think about equalizing opportunities for children and youth as active engaged learners in families, schools, programs and communities.

Youth as engaged learners with equal access to an array of learning opportunities should become our driving goal. Youth certainly need opportunities to become engaged in school as students focused on learning content and skills. But they also need opportunities to become engaged in informal settings with parents, mentors, peers and community members in learning about new places and ideas such as visiting museums or engaged in community service. And just as important, and perhaps an area where we can make more systematic progress, are opportunities to become engaged in non-formal settings such as youth programs where youth choose what they want to learn and can develop a sense of mastery, belonging and confidence that they are important actors in their own learning and that what they do matters.

Perhaps dramatically increasing the percentage of youth at age 14 who are constructively engaged in their own learning through multiple learning opportunities is just as important a goal as reading by third grade.

We must find ways to shift the debate from a narrow focus on equal educational opportunities through schools designed to close a test score gap, toward the far larger problems of inequality in access to quality LEARNING opportunities — opportunities that are a mix of informal, non-formal and formal. Such a debate must come to recognize and address the inequalities in access to and the value of engagement in summer, afterschool and the variety of community learning opportunities beyond the classroom. It is these inequalities that are both a major cause of the achievement gap as well as a major source of young people’s disengagement from the learning process.

It is this OPPORTUNITY GAP that we must close from cradle to career if we are to not only close the achievement gap but support success for all youth in college, work, citizenship and life.

Postsecondary participation, graduation and degree attainment: asking the right questions

By Lesley Lydell, January guest blogger

Are too many people going to college? This was the provocative topic of a recent live debate between entrepreneurs, pundits and academic leaders. While ultimately valuing the breadth of educational options available to students, the debate highlighted the decision to pursue a postsecondary degree amid rising costs and uncertain employment prospects for graduates.

At the same time, many employers, academic organizations and political leaders have issued calls for increased numbers of individuals who have earned a postsecondary degree. Increasing educational attainment nationally was a prominent part of President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative, which set a national goal of 60% of adults age 25-64 having an associate degree or higher by 2020, as well as a key goal for the Lumina Foundation, a major supporter of educational initiatives, and Complete College America, a national initiative started in 2009. A common aspect of these initiatives has been to encourage college participation for recent high school graduates but also to encourage adults and those already in the workforce to pursue and complete a postsecondary credential.

Data in the revised edition of Minnesota Measures: 2011 Report on Higher Education Performance illustrate an overall increase in students’ participation in postsecondary education and graduation rates, as well as broader postsecondary attainment rates in the overall population.

Increasing participation of high school graduates and older students

• For all Minnesota high school graduates, the number who go on to college increased in 2010 to 71% enrolling in college within a year of their high school graduation. Of the 71% of high school graduates who go directly on to college, nearly three-quarters chose a postsecondary institution in Minnesota.
• Most Minnesota undergraduates in fall 2010 were age 24 and younger and attended full-time at a four-year institution, although the largest increase in undergraduate enrollment during the past decade has been at Minnesota two-year institutions among students age 20 and older.
• At both two-year and four-year institutions, students between 25 and 34 had the greatest increases in enrollment over the past decade: a 117% enrollment increase at two-year institutions in the state and a 19% increase at four-year institutions.

High population attainment and increasing graduation rates
Minnesota ranks highly among states in educational attainment rates, which measure in broad terms through U.S. Census data the education level of the population, whether or not they graduated from a Minnesota institution. Attainment rates do not include postsecondary credentials below an associate degree, and Minnesota postsecondary institutions award nearly as many certificates as associate degrees. Some key findings:

• Postsecondary attainment has increased substantially over the past 40 years, with the percentage of bachelor’s degree recipients nearly tripling since 1970 in Minnesota.
• For the traditional working-age population of 18-64 year olds, 41% of Minnesotans have an associate degree or higher, ranking sixth-highest in attainment nationwide.
• Among younger age groups, 49% of Minnesotans age 25-34 and 35-44 have an associate degree or higher, ranking third- and second-highest, respectively, nationwide.
• Sizeable gaps exist, however, in postsecondary attainment between racial and ethnic population groups over age 25, with only Asian (50%) and white Minnesotans (42%) exceeding the state average (41%) and the national average (38%).

Although Minnesota attracts many graduates from other states to live and work, increases in graduation rates at Minnesota institutions have also contributed to the increase in postsecondary attainment rates:

• In 2010, 40% of undergraduates earned their degree within four years and 61% graduated within six years, representing five and three percent increases, respectively, since 2005.
• The number of academic awards earned across all levels annually by Minnesota postsecondary students has been increasing over the past decade, ranging from a 146% increase in master’s degrees awarded to a 15% increase in certificates.

Minnesota overall has high rates of postsecondary participation, graduation, degree attainment, and granting of academic awards from doctorates to certificates. Exploring how we can ensure that all students are prepared and have the opportunity to succeed in postsecondary education may yield the most productive discussions. What are the important questions we should be asking about postsecondary attainment at the local level, in Minnesota, and nationally?

Preparing for and entering postsecondary education

By Lesley Lydell, January guest blogger

As in many other states, Minnesota postsecondary education faces an array of challenges, from decreased funding and rising costs to rapidly expanding worlds of knowledge transmission, the changing demands of the “knowledge economy,” and an uncertain employment world for graduates. Within these challenges, one central concern we focus on in my office is whether students participate in postsecondary education and what helps them succeed, both during their education and beyond. Although students increasingly enter postsecondary education at various times throughout their lives, the transition of recent high school graduates into postsecondary education offers one lens on how educational systems can collaborate to serve students.

In the revised edition of Minnesota Measures: 2011 Report on Higher Education Performance, data on students’ preparation for and entrance into postsecondary education illustrate positive trends but also point to ongoing challenges.

Growing Participation

Postsecondary Preparation: Minnesota high school students overall have strong participation and achievement in challenging academic courses and assessments. Minnesota students received the highest scores in the nation on a standardized college entrance exam, and increasing numbers of students are participating in college-level courses through Advanced Placement courses, Postsecondary Enrollment Options, and other programs. The number of students participating in Postsecondary Enrollment Options programs has more than doubled since 2000, and the number of students taking Advanced Placement exams rose 8% between 2009-10 and 2010-11.

High School to Postsecondary Transition: Compared to the national average, Minnesota high school students have a high four-year graduation rate at 76% for 2010. Minnesota also has a higher-than-average percentage of high school graduates who go on to enroll in a postsecondary institution within a year of their graduation.

Unlike in states with a high percentage of high school graduates who enroll in a postsecondary institution but also a higher rate of students who drop out of high school before graduation, a larger proportion of Minnesotans stay in high school, graduate, and enter directly into higher education. For all Minnesota high school graduates, the number going on to college has increased by 15% between 1996 and 2010 to 71% of recent graduates enrolling in college. There have also been sizeable increases in the numbers of recent Minnesota high school graduates of color enrolled at a Minnesota postsecondary institution, with a 49% increase in enrollment between 2004 and 2010.

Achievement Differences

• Although all groups of students had higher graduation rates in 2010 over the previous year, with a 1% increase in high school graduation rates for white students and a three percent increase for students of color, the four-year graduation rate for students of color was 30 percentage points lower than the rate for white students.
• State-level proficiency exam scores in 2011 for 10th and 11th grade students indicated achievement differences for students from low-income backgrounds and some students of color, with approximately three-quarters of students from low-income backgrounds and American Indian, Hispanic, and African-American students not fully meeting grade-level standards in math.
• College readiness benchmarks on the ACT college entrance exam indicated just over one-third of Minnesota’s ACT test-takers for 2010-11 scored as academically prepared to succeed in higher education. Although there has been some improvement in ACT benchmark scores since 2007, Minnesota students of color overall scored as less prepared than the state average.
• The percentage of Advanced Placement exams that received scores eligible for college credit (scores 3-5) increased at a higher rate between 2010 and 2011 for Minnesota test-takers of color than the state and national average increases, with the largest increase in higher-scoring exams taken by Hispanic test-takers. Overall, however, the percentage of exams taken by American Indian, African-American/Black, and Hispanic test-takers receiving a score eligible for college credit was below the state average of 65% of all exams taken.

Although there are positive trends in improving preparation for and participation in postsecondary education for all students, there are areas for added focus and collaboration as we work to better serve students and smooth the transitions between high school, postsecondary, and the workforce.

What are the most promising strategies you’re aware of in improving students’ postsecondary preparation and participation — locally, nationally, internationally?

It takes a village

By Sarah Dixon, December guest blogger

Two weeks ago I shared a model called Response to Intervention (RTI) as a way to eliminate what educators sometimes call a "wait to fail" culture. This culture, where students take one high-stakes test each year to determine their progress, often leaves students too far behind to catch up. RTI uses constant monitoring, instead of that one annual test, and provides struggling students with help (interventions) that have been demonstrated in studies to work. The challenge for schools is to provide extra staff to implement RTI effectively.

"It takes a village to raise a child" is a quote widely attributed to an African proverb. While a child's immediate family members are their first and most important teachers, too many children struggle in school because their family support system is unable to help. This is where community comes in. Go to any school in America and you will find community volunteers. They read to children, provide tutoring, chaperone field trips and much, much more.

Wouldn't it be great to combine the power of RTI with the passion of community volunteers? The Minnesota Alliance With Youth is making this a reality.

The Alliance provides AmeriCorps Promise Fellows to schools. They work with school staff to use data to target the right support to the right youth at the right time. Promise Fellows serve as a bridge between the school district and community organizations to work with students in grades 6-10 who are at risk of dropping out. Teachers use RTI interventions during school hours and community members continue those interventions after school through mentoring, service learning, academic support and family engagement.

Case study
Clare Dudzinski is one of four AmeriCorps Promise Fellows working in the Northfield school district this year. Clare provides tutoring in the core academic subjects (English, math, science, and social studies) to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students at Northfield Middle School, and helps to coordinate the Middle School Youth Center (MSYC), a free, after school drop-in program aimed at strengthening academic and social skills. Clare frequently partners with the TORCH (Tackling Obstacles, Raising College Hopes) coordinator, who works with students who are low-income, minority, or first-generation college students. These students are already demonstrating improvements this year in attendance, engagement, organizational skills and assignment completion.

Clare is continuing the tradition of AmeriCorps members who are making a difference in Northfield. In 2006, the graduation rate for Latino students in Northfield was 36 percent. By 2010 the percentage rose to more than 90 percent. According to the ServeMinnesota 2010 Annual Report, "the individualized support provided by AmeriCorps members was an essential ingredient of this success."

Community Partners
So, individuals are volunteering at schools nationwide; so too are community organizations. Partnership is at the heart of the Minnesota Alliance With Youth. Collaboration is the key to ensuring young people have the resources they need to be successful.

In Northfield, it's the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative and Northfield Union of Youth/The Key. Dozens of other organizations are partnering with the Alliance, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Girl Scouts, Wilder Foundation, the 4-H program, and many more. We partner with organizations within the communities we serve and we partner with larger organizations regionally or statewide. These organizations represent the nonprofit, for-profit and public sectors. It is a powerful list of passionate, giving people.

With Youth
We also partner with youth, one of our most precious untapped resources — all of us will benefit from meaningfully engaging young people in our lives. At the Alliance, youth and adults are equal contributors in our work. A diverse group of youth serves on our Minnesota Youth Council to provide their perspective in dialogues with legislators and local officials.

We encourage organizations, adults and youth interested in helping youth reach their full potential to contact us at www.mnyouth.net.

Eliminating a "wait to fail" culture

By Sarah Dixon, December guest blogger

Say what you will about No Child Left Behind, it has shown us two things: a stubborn achievement gap between students of color and white students and the value of data in helping students achieve. It has also taught us that one assessment at the end of the year is too little, too late — a "wait to fail" culture that often leaves students too far behind to catch up. I am convinced the next great step in education is a model that meets the needs of struggling and at-risk learners proactively, long before students take that spring high-stakes test.

This model is Response to Intervention (RTI), and it's been around for a few years. According to a 2008 study by the University of Colorado-Boulder, every state in the U.S. and the District of Columbia "indicated some emphasis on RTI either in current practice or in development." In Minnesota school districts, some are in year one, two or three of implementation and are just starting to see results.

What is RTI?
Put simply, the RTI model is an educational approach that provides a standards-based curriculum to all students and additional, progressive help (interventions) to students that are falling behind. While this sounds a lot like the way education has been delivered for generations, it differs in two ways:

1. It's about constant monitoring. According to the National Association of School Psychologists, parents and school staff agree that RTI's student progress monitoring techniques provide more instructionally relevant information than traditional assessments.
2. It's about effective help. The interventions used in RTI have been demonstrated to work in randomized controlled trials.

How does RTI work?
RTI has three basic components: school-wide screening, progress monitoring and tiered service delivery, and fidelity of implementation.

Every student is tested at the beginning of the school year to find out where they are at in relation to the curricula. Additional monitoring of student progress on assignments, quizzes and exams occurs constantly. When students show signs of lagging behind, teachers and other staff provide extra help. If progress isn't made, more frequent, more intense help is provided, sometimes including special education services. Critical to student success is the fidelity of implementation — or the commitment to having the RTI program in place and the teachers' ability to use the process in his or her instruction.

But it's hard. Implementing RTI in a way that becomes ingrained in the culture of a school, where teachers understand how to read the data and then apply a menu of interventions with individual students takes training, coaching and time. In addition, cash-strapped schools face major hurdles when proper implementation means hiring extra staff.

Some organizations, including the one I lead, Minnesota Alliance With Youth, are offering schools assistance in implementing RTI. The Alliance facilitates an innovative community approach to provide support to students falling behind that complements what the school is doing. We place AmeriCorps Promise Fellows in schools that meet a number of criteria in a competitive grant process. The AmeriCorps members build capacity by involving community members — something schools don't have time to coordinate. This partnership encourages student achievement through service learning and civic engagement opportunities, stressing high quality in- and out-of-school activities. The essence of our approach is this: providing the right support to the right youth at the right time, with the right scale, intensity and duration.

Later this month I'll post another blog that delves deeper into the benefits of community engagement in the lives of our youth. If you are interested in helping youth reach their full potential, please let us know at www.mnyouth.net.