LearnmoreMN Blog

But what can I do?

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Getting more young people on the path to college is good for them and for our state. "But what can I do," you ask? Just about everyone can do something. Here are some examples from the inspirations section of the LearnmoreMN Web site of what individuals, companies and communities are doing.

A group of Deloitte employees take out time from their corporate days to work with Wellstone International High School students as a part of the Achieve! Career and College Initiative. At 17 to 21 years old and with limited English language skills, the Wellstone students welcome the chance to learn about colleges, interviewing, resume writing, and job searching from Deloitte’s experienced professionals. A Deloitte policy of allocating 40 hours a year to volunteer projects bolsters their efforts. Read this story

The City of St. Paul’s Circulator bus provides a simple, but highly effective solution to the problem of connecting children to learning opportunities throughout the neighborhood. Circulator buses provide free rides for young people to libraries, recreation centers, community centers and non-profits. The buses are part of the city's Second Shift initiative. Read this story

Bengo Mrema has volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) since 2001. It took him a while to earn the trust of his little brother, but his positive, consistent presence made a difference. Mrema found creative ways to include academics in their meetings and introduced ideas about college and other post-secondary education options. Mrema says his unconditional commitment has paid off. Read the story

What do you do, or what can you imagine doing? We welcome your stories and ideas.

Final Thoughts: Problems Facing Minnesota Students

By Katherine Bristol, April Guest Blogger

Minnesota students score well compared to many other states, yet the achievement gap between different racial, ethnic, and economic groups are some of the largest in the country. College graduates now earn 70% more than high school students, a number which is increasing rapidly. About 66% of Minnesotans receiving their diploma in 2005 enrolled in a post secondary public education institution (compared to 49% in 2002). Of these students, 18% enrolled in a campus associated the University of Minnesota, 38% enrolled in a two-year or technical college, and, 29% enrolled in a four-year state university (not associated with the University of Minnesota) and 16% went out of state. At least 36% of these students also took some college level courses while in high school (math classes accounting for 29% of class, making it the largest indicator of matriculation in to post secondary students). While enrollment is a good indicator that K-12 can provide readiness for post secondary, we do not have the numbers on students who have access to college level courses and whether they are taking advantage of them (based on region), who is graduating from college, and how successful they are a few years down the line.

Many of Minnesota rural communities have declining population, slower economy, and less legislative power over their status as compared to large Minnesotan cities and their surrounding suburbs. Industries that have sustained such communities for years (timber, agriculture, mining, small business) now almost require a post secondary education to even sustain useable workforce. Additionally, the few public colleges that have arisen in rural areas (38 to be exact) lack the resources and consequential interest of local students, putting these colleges at risk for closures. While the state is not losing a great deal of residences who move or pursue other state options for post secondary education, an increasing number of Minnesotans are moving to the twin city metro area, displacing the allocated needs of the respective public schools and college campuses. According to the Center for Rural Policy and Development’s article, Capitalizing on the potential of Minnesota’s Rural Campuses (2003), “The average household income of persons in the rural college counties studied in this project is 75% of the state average and dropping.” The success of rural colleges and their surrounding communities has continuously proven to be of mutual interest and dependence on the well being of each entity. The lack of communication between school administrators and local political leaders regarding the mission and purpose of the colleges are generally lacking, causing issues with keeping the school relevant yet innovative. While we know something must be done, the question is what, and how?

My suggestions for Best Practices:

1. The effects of continued involvement by special programs mentors and community leaders from K-12 and beyond into post secondary education. This includes self-report/ evaluations done by students, teachers, parents, and other reliable sources to create a “learning portfolio” that would grow as the student progressed through school. Starting in the K-12 setting, we need set standards high and make sure that students are aware and have access to a variety of reasonable resources.
2. Massive improvement in the quality of our educators and additional supportive resources. This applies the importance of accessibility of such educators and resources, especially in more rural environments.
3. Change missions of public schools and colleges to fit the needs of the communities. For example, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board (MnSCU) Strategic Plan for 2002-2005 is “Strengthen community development and economic vitality by working with local communities to help them develop, maintain and enhance their vitality; seeking new ways to serve as a key partner to coordinate local, regional and statewide economic development initiatives; and develop frameworks for state and regional planning and collaboration that help more of its institutions to work in partnership with community and business groups.” The influence and role of politics and economics on the schools mission and subsequent outcome is key to getting rural students to not only enroll in school, but also graduate successfully. Also, allowing students to conduct apprenticeships or internships at relevant sites could give them indications of careers they would be interested in and what skills are necessary to succeed in the profession.

Response to "Vanishing Graduates & Minnesota's Future"

By Katherine Bristol, April Guest Blogger

Minnesota is a prosperous place; the state ranks highly in many social and economic indicators.  The state’s  affluence can be traced to wise investment and policy decisions made by past generations.  However, as we progress into the 21st century, this prosperity is not guaranteed.  In order to be competitive globally, Minnesota needs a highly‐skilled workforce.  Regrettably, several indicators of educational attainment demonstrate that the state is not meeting this standard.  This is especially true for communities of color, which comprise a major source of future workers.  And while Minnesota has the third highest high school completion rate among all states, following high school, about 65 percent of Minnesotans enroll in postsecondary education.  Sustaining this high rate will be a challenge for Minnesota’s high schools and postsecondary institutions.

The total number of high school graduates is projected to decline by 10 percent from 2005 to 2010.  This will occur as children of the baby boomers (“the boomlet”) move beyond the high school age.  According to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, “Unless high school to college participation rates increase—especially among low‐income students, students of color and other students who are traditionally underrepresented in post‐secondary education — colleges will have a smaller pool of students from which to recruit (Minnesota Office of Higher Education 2006).”

“Vanishing Graduates” addresses the economic and social issues associated with a lower number of college graduates.  It got me thinking about what are some practical changes that could be made, without addressing widespread issues such as federal funding and teacher quality. I was able to come up with two, based on my previous research and experience:

1. Set High Standards.  Minnesota must be a national leader in public education.  In order to accomplish this ambitious objective, every student, family, teacher, school, district and program must be held to the high standards.  These goals must be transparent to all, specific and measurable.  Although it may seem counterintuitive, setting high standards is key to improving outcomes for low‐income or minority students who begin school with significant deficits in cognitive, social, and academic skills.
2. Empower Communities, Schools and Individuals.  Empowerment at the community, school and individual levels bestows control to members of marginalized communities who have often been denied that privilege. That control fosters senses of ownership and pride.  When communities are empowered to be involved in their schools, schools are empowered to take control of their own resources, parents are empowered to take initiative in their children’s learning, and young people are empowered to get involved in their communities, the end result will be improved outcomes for students.

I would like to know your thoughts on these suggestions, or the show in general! Please feel free to post your opinion below in the comment section, and we can get the conversation about this important issue started!

Vanishing Graduates & Minnesota's Future

Don't miss "Vanishing Graduates & Minnesota's Future," a public TV show airing on TPT-Channel 17 this Sunday, April 13 at 7 p.m. This thought-provoking documentary examines why a shrinking number of Minnesota's students will be graduating from college and what that means for our economy. Education experts, business leaders and students share their experiences and discuss the state's education challenges. They highlight the need to do a better job of helping more students succeed in school — and how everyone can play a part.

Find out more about the show and view clips. The whole program will be available for viewing next week sometime. TPT will air it again on May 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Check it out and tell your friends and family about it!

Early Childhood Education: Head Start is Not Enough

By Kate Bristol, April Guest Blogger

Macalester College — where I am a student — convened a Mayor's Forum in February to discuss best practices in education. The policymakers and educators who attended help shape the educational systems in many Minnesotan towns. One of the topics covered by the Forum was pre-kindergarten programs — which are vital in putting kids on a path to school success.

Data shows that investment in pre-kindergarten programs pays off, but we have yet to invest in these programs statewide. While districts claim that they lack funding, combining federal funding with an investment from local corporations would be sufficient to start up a pre-k classroom. We know what to do; we know how to do it; now all we have to do is take action.

To maximize high-quality preschool access for low-income students, I suggest the following changes to the federal preschool program:

1. Assist suboptimal programs to meet these standards.
2. Provide funding to hire qualified teachers and for ongoing teacher education.
3. Recruit the 40 percent of eligible children who are not currently enrolled in the Head Start.
4. Expand eligibility criteria of Head Start to include children of families living at the 125 percent Federal Poverty Level
5. Support recruitment of all eligible three-year-olds.
6. Mandate public preschool programs in all 50 states to provide greater access to children of families living at 150 percent
7. Establish minimum quality standards for all public preschool programs to improve kindergarten readiness.

Paying for the approximately five million additional children who would become eligible under this proposal may seem staggering. However, state and federal governments would share the financial burdens. The long-term benefits to our society of high-quality preschools are enormous. There is an astounding benefit-to-cost ratio of seventeen to one. There would be higher rates of education, employment, income, and marriage; and lower rates of delinquency, crime and drug use.

As a nation, we cannot afford to do otherwise.

Final comments on the achievement gap

By Josie Johnson, March Guest Blogger

I have received many comments regarding the articles on issues relating to the achievement gap question. They have been thoughtful and encouraging. The bottom line supports the need for all of us interested in the education of ALL children, to get involved.

In his book Achievement Matters, Hugh B. Price, former president of the National Urban League, states in the introduction: “Education is the great equalizer in American society. It unlocks the doors to children’s futures.” All the comments I have received made that statement in many different ways.

Our challenge is to apply the skills of research and analysis. We need to take time, and review all the educational reforms strategies we have initiated in the last 54 years.

Marvin Cetron and Margaret Gayle in their book Educational Renaissance, reported on hundreds of reform efforts they studied in the 1980s. They identified several school districts that showed some progress. We in education often refer to “best practices” however I am not sure we truly follow models of “best practices.” We too often introduce a new reform before we determine what worked and what did not work in the last reform methods to educate all children.

I believe our American education system is in trouble. We are losing a once-held prestigious position in science and technology and we have again, relinquished our interest in educating all the children to outsourcing and recruiting from abroad.

Until America places value on all her children we will continue to be "A Nation at Risk" and widen the achievement gap.

The Role of the Black Community in Educating Black Children

By Josie Johnson, March Guest Blogger

In her March 12, 2008 column, “Evidence shows classmates’ color is not a key factor in achievement” Katherine Kersten stated in her charge of “social engineering” that the various academic plans to offer parents and students choice and to close the achievement gap were based on a belief  “that Black children can’t learn adequately unless they are sitting next to white children.”

That premise has confused many educators, parents and ordinary citizens for nearly 54 years —  the belief that busing is a means of placing Black children next to white children so they can learn. Educators, parents, and policy makers offer many theories about learning and learning environments. However, none of the theories or plans is based on an osmosis theory.

In my judgment, what Black children need is an equal opportunity to be educated. Black parents and other community people must find the energy, strength, unity and commitment to remind Black children of their education history. Black children need an environment of safety and teachers who respect them and support their learning process and progress. This process must include spiritual leaders, community partners and the children’s homes.

The learning process includes Black adults being involved in all that affects Black children. That includes the emotional health of Black children.

Evidence suggest that educators, parents and others must agree that the time has come, again, to address the following issues more directly:

• The quality of education Black children are receiving;
• The experiences of Black children at the end of their school day;
• The extents to which Black children are prepared to compete for the benefits of society others enjoy and,
• The extent to which Black children, today, feel inferior while attending majority white or majority Black school.

As we continue to develop and promote plans to educate our children we must develop a sense of “peoplehood” that embraces the entire Black community. In other words, we need a consciousness that requires all Black adults to be concerned about all Black children, and all Black adults acting responsively for the safety and welfare of the Black community.

This attitude will benefit all people and the whole community.

Issues Before the Achievement Gap

By Josie Johnson, March 2008 Guest Blogger

On May 17 we will celebrate the 54th year since the Supreme Court settled the question in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other tangible factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunity? “We believe that it does,” the Court said.

Thurgood Marshall, the chief NAACP Legal Defense lawyer at the time of the decision, believed that the American Dream could be made to work for Black people as well as whites. He did not believe that the system was flawed and deeply etched with the effects of segregation and the laws of segregation which had denied Black children equal education opportunities.

Some historians have written that Marshall, the NAACP lawyers and the Black community were convinced that the Supreme Court decision guaranteed Black children the education their parents and communities had suffered and died for since 1865.

The dream of true emancipation through education continues to elude our Black community. It has become clear that the issues facing Black parents and Black communities are larger than simply the condition of the schools or transportation. They are more subtle and insidious.

In many schools, Black children are taught by teachers who believe them to be inferior and, therefore, treat them that way. The same teachers teach white children that they are superior. Curiously, the degree to which Black children are experiencing this from teachers has increased since the enforcement of Brown. Many Black children are forced to fight their way rather than learn their way through school in an effort to gain some sense of self-respect.

In many communities, experienced Black teachers have been removed from classrooms with large numbers of Black students where they served as models and have either been “promoted” to an administrative position or reassigned to a white majority school.

Furthermore, teachers are offered pay incentives classified as combat pay, to accept teaching assignments in schools in Black majority neighborhoods. All of these behaviors and policies perpetuate institutionalized racism which is etched deeply into the American social fabric.

One year after the historic May 1954 decision, renowned scholar and historian, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, predicted that it would force Black people to face:

…a cruel dilemma…with successfully mixed schools they know what their children must suffer for years from southern white teachers, from white students who sit beside them and under school authorities from janitors to superintendents, who hate and despise them….They must eventually surrender race ‘solidarity’ and the idea of American Negro culture to the concept of world humanity, above race and nation. This is the price of liberty. This is the cost of oppression.

Unfortunately, Dr. Du Bois was accurate in predicting the experiences Black children would have in desegregated schools.

In today’s system our children are not being taught to function successfully in society. Their learning has been replaced by emphasis on the achievement gap. The U.S. Department of Education describes this gap as “the difference in academic performance between different ethnic groups.” The Department also states that the achievement gap is a multifaceted problem that requires examination from multiple perspectives. Some educators suggest it is the difference between a child’s potential and his/her actual achievement.

In my judgment, the challenge to help Black students reach that potential is, in part, the lack of knowledge about and respect for the Black student’s community’s relationship/history with education.  Neither the teachers nor our children know their history. They don’t know who they are, their relationship to education or, from whence they have come.

The gap is caused by disparities in information, resources, instruction, belief, commitment, quality and care. Our children are given medication, assigned to special classes for emotional or academic deficiencies, allowed to fall short of their potential rather than reach their potential.

We must pull together as a nation, if we are to survive. We must save all of our children and help them become the best they can be.

The society needs all its children to become successful, productive, happy citizens.

A different kind of glass ceiling…

By Willy Tully, February 2008 Guest Blogger

The barriers that prevent Minnesota students from enrolling in college are often erected well before the senior year of high school.

A study, conducted for the Minnesota State Legislature by Ghere, Moore, and Schelske in 1999, shows that, "students begin self-selecting for high academic achievement as early as third grade, and courses that students take in middle school and early in high school are closely related to future college attendance."

Choices relating to academic rigor and extracurricular participation, as well as peer influence, shape a student’s perception of what they can achieve. At the same time, reserved space in honors courses, the cost of summer programs, and a lack of knowledge about (or access to) postsecondary choices exacerbate the innate barriers. Underperforming middle school students are funneled into high school programs that are unchallenging and that will not provide the requisite spark needed to excite the passion for learning present in every young person.

In actuality, students are constructing their own ceiling as they progress through a K-12 education. The unfortunate parallel is that our educational system is designed to reinforce these limiting "self" selections.

This makes me angry, and I hope it makes you angry too.

Schools are under-funded, teachers and counselors are under-paid, there are abhorrent socioeconomic and racial disparities in education, and schools located just minutes from one another are miles apart in the quality and breadth of educational programming they can offer. But now is not the time to despair. Indeed, now is the time to repair and rebuild. We must champion community cooperation – we must be pioneers for freedom and equality in education.

With the tools and the might, we must reach up and shatter that glass ceiling, for the limitations posed on individuals prevent this community from reaching its truest potential – from reaching greatness. And greatness is possible.

From the Outside In

By Willy Tully, February 2008 Guest Blogger

If it truly takes a village to raise a child, then how in the world do we expect our youth to succeed without a comprehensive approach to education?  Comprehensive…that sounds difficult. It doesn’t have to be.

I work for a large mentoring organization, but I don’t work formally on mentoring — I connect the youth in the program with postsecondary opportunities, placing an emphasis on higher education. As an organization, we strive to provide the highest quality in mentoring to both the youth and adults that come to our door. But the fact of the matter is that anyone can be, and realistically is a mentor in their everyday life. From teachers to preachers to parents, high school counselors to college admissions counselors to custodians, daily interaction with children is an opportunity — an opportunity to impart some amount of knowledge, build confidence, and fulfill the obligation that adults have to invest positively in youth. 

An Investment — Education is the Best
Perhaps we can agree that the greatest method by which an individual might enrich their circumstance is education. Beyond the simple yet hugely important informal stuff that occurs in a mentoring relationship, every mentor should be equipped with the tools to discuss higher education with a child. Collectively we know how to do this, but individually we have a need and an opportunity to learn more.

Each of us plays a role as a mentor. By sharing our experiences with one another, together we can improve our community from the ground up. We can all start by asking, “how can I change a child’s life today, and what do I have to say?”