LearnmoreMN Blog

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.

Minnesota wants race to the top

By Vallay Varro, November guest blogger

Minnesota is on a roll. This summer we came together as a state and enacted reforms that clear the path to quality pre-K for all families. And now to show support for our state’s bid in the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge — a grant program to give states federal dollars for pre-K reforms like the ones we just passed — MinnCAN (link) convened community leaders across Minnesota to express their shared commitment to early childhood education in this video.

We cannot underestimate the impact that effective early education has on a child’s life. When we prepare students to succeed in kindergarten, we give them the opportunity to be high-performers throughout their education. This means higher graduation rates and more college degrees. It means an important step towards closing our achievement gap.

Right now our achievement gap is handicapping the next generation of Minnesotans and jeopardizing our collective future. By investing in early education we can begin to close it and in turn help an economy thrive, Our Race to the Top video signals to the application reviewers that Minnesotans are serious about making sure all of our children enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Twenty-eight leaders also endorsed a letter of support, illustrating broad support for early childhood learning reforms. This letter and screenshots from our video were enclosed in Minnesota’s Race to the Top application, demonstrating that Minnesotans understand the stakes of the situation and are poised to act together.

You can reinforce that message and join the community leaders by clicking here to sign a petition in support of Minnesota’s application.

A few months back, we achieved our third campaign goal by getting Minnesota leaders to  enact a pre-K quality rating system and create scholarships for low-income families. Those reforms put Minnesota on the path to closing its achievement gap, and with the help of Race to the Top, we can continue on that path. It’s time to rally together again and show the Race to the Top reviewers just how serious Minnesota is about making sure all of our children start their education off right.

For more information on MinnCAN and our campaign goals, visit www.MinnCAN.org and follow @MinnCAN. Stay Tuned for the announcement of our 2012 Goals in the coming weeks.

Fixing Minnesota’s achievement gap requires reform

By Vallay Varro, November guest blogger

Minnesota’s achievement gap is a disservice to Minnesota students. Its implications on our economy today and tomorrow are irrefutable and enormous. By the numbers, we have the second-largest gap in the United States. The good news: We know what we need to do to reform our public schools.

Thirty-two years ago, amidst war and chaos in Laos, my family and I relocated to the United States as political refugees. We arrived with nothing more than the clothes on our backs; our perseverance and will to seek out the American dream was unstoppable. We left Laos for our safety and chose the United States for opportunity, and our vehicle to achieve the American dream: education. My parent’s convictions inspired me to graduate from high school and college, and attain a master’s degree in education policy. I share this anecdote because, with the circumstances I faced as a child, I should be a “face” of our achievement gap.

Minnesota’s achievement gap wears many faces, but the life a child is born into should not dictate his or her education opportunities. I was lucky. Education is learning, teaching and parenting. It’s also the preservation of the foundational and fundamental values that encompass our democracy, the fuel for our economic engine and the guarantor of knowledge and impact. Our collective future hinges on our ability to educate all children today, and educate them well.

We are a state rooted in progressive education policies and investments in young people. This is credited by, for example, innovative charter school laws and Post-Secondary Enrollment Options. While past achievements alone are not sufficient, they can serve as the launch pad for reform. Despite our unrivaled legacy of education innovation, we have the second-largest achievement gap in the country  between black male and white male students. Recent MCA-II (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) results and national reports indicate a troubling picture:

• For five consecutive years, 20-40% more white students have passed the MCA-II test in reading and math compared to black and Hispanic students.
• In 2011, only 17% of black students and 23% of Hispanic students passed the grade 11 MCA-II mathematics test compared to 56% of their white peers.
• Also this year, 83% of white students passed reading, whereas 54% of Hispanic students and 48% of African-American students met state benchmarks.

The truth is, Minnesota’s achievement gap is only widening. It requires our immediate attention.

We must adopt an environment in which teachers use different teaching strategies, increase time on task and innovations that incorporate technology, critical thinking and a multidisciplinary approach to learning. Fortunately, many schools are beating the odds and effectively teaching students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is in our best interest to make these best practices common practice.

The cause of our achievement gap isn’t a lack of knowledge. We know what we need to do, but we lack the bold leadership and political will necessary to advance the policies we know make a difference in children’s lives. Our strategy must be a multi-pronged approach to organize and mobilize ordinary people, practitioners, community leaders and policymakers to achieve the wins necessary to reconstruct public education. Luckily, many Minnesotans recognize this. Reform is on its way.

For more information, visit www.MinnCAN.org and follow #MinnCAN.

Helping adult learners be successful

By Anne Marie Leland, October guest blogger

As Minnesota State Economist Tom Stinson said earlier this month, “Focusing just on expenditure cuts may be short sighted — productivity growth and long term cost saving may require investments which increase short term expenditures.”

Suggesting that the state consider expenditures that don’t have a “right now” economic impact may be considered difficult in light of the current Minnesota budget woes. There is ample data and rationale to suggest otherwise when we consider the population of Minnesota adults who are low-wage and educationally underprepared.

As discussed in my first post, postsecondary education is critical for our economic competitiveness. By 2018, 70% of all jobs in Minnesota will require some postsecondary training beyond high school. Currently, 40% of working adults have no high school diploma, only a high school diploma or have some postsecondary education (no degree or certificate). Current demographics make it impossible for this need to be filled solely from new high school graduates. Minnesota FastTRAC aims to be a key strategy to help close that gap by creating adult career pathways for low-wage, low-skilled Minnesotans.

According to the 2008 US Census — American Community Survey, Minnesota has a significant population of working learners, ages 18-64, who may not have the basic skills required to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Of these working learners,

• 251,210 have no high school diploma or GED
• 892,744 have a high school diploma but have not entered college

Adults with basic skill needs entering postsecondary and career and technical education (CTE) programs are often at a disadvantage. Adult working learners face a myriad of other challenges — the need to work, support a family, upgrade digital literacy skills — that make persisting in education difficult. Typical challenges for some of these adults include lack of:

• affordable childcare
• transportation
• knowledge in enrolling in postsecondary education
• study skills compared with expected college behavior
• time to enroll in education due to economic and family constraints
• successful experiences in traditional education settings
• stable housing

According to the 2010 US Census, there are now about 544,000 Minnesotans in poverty, comprising 10.8% of the state's population. About one million or one in four, are considered near poor with incomes less than 200 percent of the poverty threshold. When set in the context of Minnesota’s poverty rate hurdles that face low-wage, low-skilled adults present a challenge when addressing the skills gap.

For some, it is difficult to think about investing in adult education when there are comparable issues facing our youth. Yet, there are very strong linkages between investing in parents’ education and positive outcomes for their children.

FastTRAC partners see at least three promising connections between the Minnesota FastTRAC initiative and the state’s early education efforts:

1. As the evidence shows, increasing parents’ educational levels is good for their kids, and FastTRAC is based on nationally promising career pathway models to assist low-wage adults in particular to access education, good jobs, and family-sustaining careers;
2. Possible connections between existing early childhood education programs and FastTRAC adult career pathway programs to systemically pursue “dual generation strategies” and provide the quality child care/supportive services adult career pathway participant need; and
3. FastTRAC adult career pathway programs in the early childhood education field to help prepare quality early education practitioners (who can really relate to the low-income parents of the children in these programs).

As noted by Tom Stinson, increasing productivity — especially among our state’s working adults — is a prudent and wise investment. The FastTRAC model fits this paradigm in that it has the potential to greatly increase productivity for the target population of low-skilled adults AND the investment can be made through the proven use of re-directed existing funds and collaborative partnerships.

For an up close look at a local FastTRAC program in Southern Minnesota, please watch this video and hear from students, service providers and employers.

Bridging the skills-credential gap

By Anne Marie Leland, October guest blogger

Minnesota faces the reality that it needs to educate adults to help meet our future workforce needs. According to a recent study conducted by Georgetown University, Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018, 70% of Minnesota jobs will require education beyond high school by 2018. Yet today, only 40% of working-age adults in Minnesota have a postsecondary degree as stated in Minnesota Measures: 2009 Report on Higher Education Performance. Minnesota FastTRAC is one strategy to close the 30% postsecondary skills gap in Minnesota — it is among a set of complementary strategies the state will pursue to address the skill/credential gap.

Minnesota FastTRAC is a cross-agency initiative to increase adult postsecondary credential attainment in high demand occupations that lead to family-supporting wages. It is a pathway back-to-work strategy that integrates basic skills education, career-specific training, and support services to meet the needs of low-wage, educationally-underprepared adults. Each local FastTRAC program consists of a series of connected educational and training programs that allow low-skilled adults to advance over time to successively higher levels of education and employment in a given sector, from basic skills education to a postsecondary credential.

By addressing local skills gaps, FastTRAC programs work as effective supply chains for employers in need of skilled labor. This ensures that students have good job prospects once they finish their program. Currently, Minnesota has 27 operating FastTRAC programs throughout the state made up of partnerships of employers, Adult Basic Education, workforce development, and Minnesota State Community and Technical Colleges.

With collaboration among a wide array of public, nonprofit, and business stakeholders, the FastTRAC Initiative is beginning to change the way Minnesota approaches talent development for adults. Moreover, the FastTRAC approach is significantly more successful than traditional postsecondary education/training approaches for nontraditional adult learners: studies, such as Building Bridges to Postsecondary Training for Low-Skill Adults: Outcomes of Washington State’s I-BEST Program from the Community College Research Center, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, show that students in programs like FastTRAC are 29-35% more likely to earn a postsecondary credential.

Minnesota is already hearing from employers that FastTRAC works:

"In the health care industry where the majority of our staff are certified nursing assistants, this FastTRAC program has been a godsend. People who are unsure of their desire to do this type of work can get a feel for what it will be like. Those who perhaps have a limited job history or limited successful job history are coached and shown how to achieve success. Those who are successful now have an avenue to enter advanced training and get a taste of college courses.   

This is an indispensable program and the time, money and effort spent on it needs to be maintained. We find that those who have been through this program easily get through their crucial first year of employment, and those who have shown interest in the advanced training are usually 5 plus year employees."
—Deb Barnes, Administrator/Regional Director, Parker Oaks Communities, Elder Care of MN

What are other examples of how more Minnesota adults are successfully pursuing a postsecondary credential?

Middle schools: Strengthening the connection

By Sally Wherry, September guest blogger

Can we act on what we know? Research has identified the strong link between a student’s experience in the middle grades and the likelihood of graduating from high school (Balfanz). Specific risk factors for dropping out include course failures in math and/or reading, missing more than 20% of school time, and receiving poor behavior grades in a core class. Studies have also indicated that during the middle grades it is possible to identify up to 50% or more of eventual dropouts. Advances in technology now allow us to gather powerful information leading to targeted help for middle school students. And Minnesota has been responding with policies and programs to assist our middle schools.

Beginning in 2006, the Minnesota Legislature appropriated funding to reimburse districts for the cost of assessing 8th grade students with the ACT’s EXPLORE test and 10th grade students with the PLAN test. Aligned to the ACT, these assessments provide parents, students and teachers with valuable early college and career readiness benchmark information. Of the more than 40,000 Minnesota 8th graders who tested in 2010-2011, 40% of these students met three or four of the four readiness benchmarks, however 25% of those tested met none of them. Since the fall of 2008, MDE has trained over 700 counselors to use EXPLORE and PLAN data to promote college and career readiness. To apply a medical analogy, it’s not enough just to take your child’s temperature...appropriate treatment is necessary if he registers significantly above 98.6.

So what are we doing? We know that Minnesota’s student to counselor ratio is almost 800:1, making the implementation of additional support systems and networks critical. In order to assist every Minnesota middle school student to not only graduate from high school, but also be prepared to successfully pursue postsecondary education and career opportunities, we need to increase their awareness of the importance of the choices they make.

• When students choose a sequence of more rigorous courses, it opens up the widest variety of choices for colleges and careers. In 2010-2011, MDE launched a campaign to provide Minnesota 8th graders with information regarding college and career readiness in order to encourage more rigorous course-taking in high school, especially for students in underrepresented groups. This project provides information to students and parents in a variety of ways. Additionally, a framework of tools, resources, strategies and WebEx presentations related to the research-based core components of preparing students for postsecondary success has been developed for middle school educators.
• Ramp Up to Readiness a program of the University of Minnesota’s College Readiness Consortium, also aims to increase the number and diversity of students prepared for postsecondary success. Students develop personal postsecondary plans and are then supported by a multi-year framework of specific goals, steps, curriculum, rubrics, and an evaluation system. This program spans the middle school/junior high grades through high school, providing a much needed link.
• Beginning in 2006, MDE and McREL partnered with four Minnesota high schools, to launch a pilot program, the Minnesota Model of Systemic High School Redesign. Since then, working in collaboration with the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP), more than 86 principals and schools across Minnesota have become involved in training and networking. Middle school principals then indicated they desired an aligned model as well, so in 2010, MDE launched a middle level school redesign initiative. The goal of both of these efforts is to provide cost-effective, research-based support for our secondary schools, leading to increased success for all of our students.

A new opportunity for community involvement with middle school issues is coming up later this month. Consider attending a conference on Sept. 27 at TIES in St. Paul that aims to promote community and statewide collaboration leading to high school completion and postsecondary success. And of course, efforts to support our students do not begin and end at the doorstep of our schools. This month’s issue of Blueprints, MDE’s online high school newsletter, identifies additional collaborative efforts occurring across Minnesota.

We must combine and leverage our efforts to ensure that all Minnesota’s students not only graduate from high school, but are also effectively supported during their middle school years on the path leading to postsecondary readiness and success.

Middle schools: linking Minnesota learners to future success

By Sally Wherry, September guest blogger

We’ve fortunately come a long way since I was a middle school-aged student. My school-directed experience with high school and postsecondary planning was limited to taking the Kuder Vocational Preferences Test. Upon reviewing my results, a well-intended counselor sternly announced, “Well, Sara…it looks as if you have no interests at all.” Although this was not exactly the guidance I needed to encourage me to enroll in rigorous high school courses or to inform college and career planning, I was lucky to have a family that did! For some educators, middle schools have long been considered as merely a bridge between the elementary and high school years, serving to link one educational institution with another. Focusing on the two sides of this educational bridge has diminished the importance of the link, often leaving middle school students and parents inadequately informed about how to prepare for the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead, and sidelining middle school educators from critical alignment efforts.

My years teaching middle school students served to underscore for me the complex needs of this age group. I learned not only how important it was to engage them in their learning, but also that if engagement was the sole outcome of a lesson, it was comparable to having them jump up and down in place…active, but going nowhere. I also learned the importance of collaborating with fellow educators, but my network, although extremely valuable, was small and narrowly focused. Middle school connections to elementary curriculum and awareness of the strengths and skill gaps of individual students, as well as opportunities to collaborate with high school staff, were limited by the length of the school day, differing schedules, contractual issues, the lack of time dedicated to professional development, and the challenges of data sharing and technology. Like most Minnesota districts, our student body was also rapidly changing; many of our kids no longer fell into the white/middle class/English-speaking home demographic. How could we build a strong connection that supported the growth of all students if our one-size-fits-all structure had limited knowledge of where our kids came from or where they wanted or needed to go?

Whether you love it or hate it, the accountability requirements of NCLB have laid bare Minnesota’s dreadful Achievement Gap between white students and students of color. Commissioner Brenda Cassellius and Governor Dayton’s seven-point plan has targeted “Raising the Bar — Closing the Gap.” In order to reach this critical goal, it is imperative for us to build a stronger bridge...or middle school...that supports all of our students. It has baffled me when high school principals have confessed to limited initiatives, programs and information sharing with their feeder middle schools. We need to start amplifying our efforts to promote and support policies, such as individual learning plans (Governor’s Workforce Development Council — “All Hands on Deck”) for all students. We must partner and collaborate with other educational and community organizations to develop comprehensive strategies (P-20 — “The Road Map to College and Career Readiness”) and share resources that redesign or develop stronger middle schools…schools that provide a firm foundation that enhances individual student growth and informs decisions leading to postsecondary opportunities and success.

What strategies or efforts have you tried or observed that strengthen our middle schools?