LearnmoreMN Blog

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?

Student success must be everyone's business

By Julie Plaut, August guest blogger

Six years ago, Minnesota Campus Compact held its first meeting focused on how colleges and universities committed to community engagement might increase student enrollment and retention in college. One of the participants’ comments really stuck with me: Campuses already know how to create systems that boost student success. They do it for student athletes, often providing both financial assistance and structured academic tutoring, as well as encouragement to enroll in the first place and a sense of belonging from their team. Since the institution has a stake in their success/eligibility to play, faculty members are expected to alert key staff if an athlete isn’t performing well in a class. This allows someone to reach out, find out what’s going on, and offer support early — success isn’t just considered the individual student’s responsibility.

That meeting happened at Augsburg College, which offers a striking example of how an institution can apply a similar approach to supporting students more generally. Augsburg’s entering class has gone from 11% students of color in 2005 to 40% in the last two years, in part because the college deliberately set out to build relationships with college access programs and to remove obstacles that could prevent lower-income students from enrolling. Scholarships are now available for participants in any college access program, and instead of requiring admitted students to pay a $150 deposit before their financial aid has kicked in, students may write a letter committing to enroll. Graduates of a nearby K-8 school, where scores of Augsburg students do service-learning, also qualify for scholarships. Many people at the college are deeply engaged with the surrounding Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, and it matters that they see the mostly Somali residents as neighbors, partners, and potential students, not simply service recipients.

The college has paid attention to retention as well. A strong connection with Admission Possible, for instance, has AP college coaches on campus and AP alumni hired as staff in student service areas. There may still be issues to address, but the institutional commitment to enrolling and supporting a more diverse student body is clear — and that’s an important step.

“Student success must be everyone’s business,” according to the authors of Student Success in College. It's not enough to know that an educated workforce is critical to our collective well-being, or even to offer diffuse college access programs. We must change policies and cultures to advance education as a public good. What other examples of effective systemic change have you seen? What other changes do you consider necessary?

The Power of Community-Engaged Learning

By Julie Plaut, August guest blogger

What have been the most powerful learning experiences of your life?

In my work at Minnesota Campus Compact, I frequently ask people that question, and only rarely does someone highlight a classroom lecture or textbook exercise. Instead, they tend to talk about experiences that engaged them as whole people, forced them to learn new skills, even made them uncomfortable — experiences like adapting to another culture or collaborating on a challenging project.

The diverse colleges and universities that come together in Campus Compact offer community-engaged learning experiences in part because they support student success. One excellent example involves Nekima Levy-Pounds, who leads the Community Justice Project (CJP) at the University of St. Thomas. As she asserted effectively on this blog in May, circumstances both within and beyond schools contribute to an unacceptable opportunity gap in Minnesota. CJP also demonstrates that engaged teaching and learning can help change those circumstances. In collaboration with the St. Paul NAACP and community members, law students have conducted research on issues of community concern and successfully advocated for changes in local criminal justice policies and practices.

Those are law students, you might think; they’ve already "succeeded.” Yet they are developing critical skills while building community relationships, educating youth about their rights, and addressing systemic problems that can affect others’ educational paths. Other partnerships illustrate the power of engagement for students who might have been struggling. Northfield TORCH (Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes), for example, involves high school as well as college students and adult volunteers in academic support and civic engagement activities; since this effort began in 2005, the graduation rate among Latino students has risen from 36% to 90%. A recent assessment of youth organizing in three cities also found that participation improved students’ performance and increased their educational aspirations.

Expecting students of all ages and backgrounds, in all types of educational institutions and programs, to contribute something of value to others should not be a radical idea. Inviting those students to address issues that matter to them is motivating. So is holding them accountable — emphasizing that more than their own grade or degree is on the line. No surprise, then, that many students are eager for community-engaged learning. In a 2010 survey of 1,600 randomly selected University of Minnesota students, for instance, 86% agreed that "opportunities to connect my academic work with community-based experience are important to me.”

Employers also want to see students engaged in real projects that develop and demonstrate the communication, teamwork, and problem solving skills they most highly value. In national surveys by Peter Hart & Associates, employers emphasized the importance of opportunities for students to apply their skills and knowledge and identified community-based projects as the best evidence of their skills and knowledge. MnSCU leaders’ interviews with 352 Minnesota employers yielded recommendations for more experiential learning opportunities as well.

Meaningful community-engaged teaching and learning is not necessarily easy. It usually involves partnering with others and thus giving up some control. The issues that arise can be contentious and often extend beyond a teacher’s expertise. Students may seek to change our own institutions’ policies and cultures. Yet all these challenges actually help achieve our core educational purpose.

What other powerful examples do you know about? What else might we do to engage students in hands-on learning that not only supports their success, but also strengthens our democracy?

This way or the highway

By Lindsey Alexander, July guest blogger

Last week, the New York Times published an article on the challenges facing vocational education in the U.S. today. They profiled a young man, Matt Kelly, who was disinterested in school and failing several high school classes. His mother feared he wouldn’t graduate. But a counselor encouraged him to take some classes at a nearby vocational academy in his junior year. There he found himself interested and motivated by the coursework. He started getting A’s and B’s and earned a scholarship to a community college.

Mr. Kelly’s experience mirrors that of thousands and thousands of students across the country. They have a hard time taking interest or finding motivation in the current educational system and upon graduation from high school (if they make it that far) — they are essentially set adrift in the labor market.

In his 2009 State of the Union speech, President Obama spoke of a plan to increase U.S. post-secondary attainment. In his speech, he asked every American to commit to one year or more of education beyond high school adding, “this can be community college, a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship.” The range of post-secondary options presented by President Obama is important. For the past few decades, the four-year degree has been touted as the ticket to the middle class. While this emphasis on the bachelor’s degree has worked well for many students, there is a significant portion of the population that it does not work for. It is critical that we find a way to train and educate all young people if we expect to meet the future needs of individuals and our economy.

According to Pathways to Prosperity, a report released earlier this year by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, 70% of high school graduates go to college within two years of graduating, but only 40% of them obtain a degree by their mid-20s. Furthermore, the U.S. has the highest college dropout rate in the industrialized world. In addressing why these problems may be occuring, the report says:

Certainly a major reason is that too many [students] can’t see a clear, transparent connection between their program of study and tangible opportunities in the labor market. We fail these young people not because we are indifferent, but because we have focused too exclusively on a few narrow pathways to success. It is time to widen our lens and to build a more finely articulated pathways system — one that is richly diversified to align with the needs and interests of today’s young people and better designed to meet the needs of the 21st century economy.

This focus on “a few narrow pathways to success” might explain a lot of the problems plaguing higher education: non-completion, skyrocketing costs, students arriving and/or graduating unprepared, unsatisfied employers, increases in student loans, barriers to access, etc.

Creating multiple pathways to careers might help young people find a connection to a future, stay interested in school and explore post-secondary options that make sense for them.

The Department of Education reports that 75% of students who start public high school graduate within five years, but this figure increases to more than 90% when students concentrate in “career-oriented courses.” As the guidance counselor of the young man in the New York Times article said, “Matt came in with zero motivation — let’s face it. [Technical courses were] a route to get him to see his future.”

As part of the Citizens League’s higher education project we’ve asked people to re-imagine our system of higher education — the institutions themselves, but also K-12, students, employers, families and society. If clearly defined career pathways are indeed what is needed, what do they look like? How might we create them? What role would the various players (employers, students, K-12, etc.) have in these pathways?

Citizens League takes on higher ed reform

By Lindsey Alexander, July guest blogger

In January, the Citizens League began a multi-phase project looking at higher education in Minnesota. Higher education, as we define it here, includes post-secondary education of any kind (certificate programs, two- and four-year programs, public, private, for-profit, etc.).

The initial research, conducted as part of the project’s first phase, has included conversations with people involved in all aspects of higher education. Through these conversations a number of issues have emerged. They include:

Preparedness
Many people are concerned that a rising number of students are not adequately prepared for college-level coursework. A 2010 study by the University of Minnesota and MnSCU found that 40% of Minnesota public high school students entering a public college or university had to take at least one remedial course in math, writing or reading, up from 30% in 2000.

How can our current system of K-12 education better prepare students for the rigor of post-secondary education?

Link to K-12
Advocates of better overlap between K-12 and post-secondary believe earlier and more effective K-12 career counseling could enable students to chart a personalized path to a career, which would allow them to more efficiently acquire training, credits and experiences in ways and at institutions most relevant to their future. Helping students to identify their aptitudes and interests early on helps them to focus on–and stay interested in–the classes and programs that are most relevant to their future.

How can we create and enhance K-12 and post-secondary connections to create a more cohesive approach?

Connection with employers
Many stakeholders interviewed said that it is important to bring employers into the discussion of any reform strategy and for employers to better articulate the skills and abilities graduates need to be workforce ready. Can employers adequately articulate what they are looking for in new employees? Can institutions — both post-secondary and K-12 — measure whether students are graduating with those skills and abilities?

Much of the growth in jobs over the next decade will be in positions that require less than a bachelor’s degree, including jobs that require little post-secondary education but some degree of on-the-job training. How can we prepare students to enter the workforce after graduation from high school?

Online innovations
Numerous stakeholders voiced concern that the higher education business model has not evolved well. Many believe online learning is a major innovation in higher education.

Advocates of higher education innovation argue there are two particularly valuable characteristics of online institutions, such as Western Governors University. First, they are separate from traditional systems of higher education. There’s no pressure to fit into the traditional model of higher education so they are freer to innovate than traditional bricks and mortar institutions. Second, online colleges and universities focus solely on teaching and learning.

Critics question the rigor of online education and whether online courses can truly impart the critical thinking skills employers value. What role could and should online education play in Minnesota’s higher education system?

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What do you think of the above issues? Please post a comment to share your views. To learn more about this work go to www.citizing.org/projects/highered or read the full story on these issues in the May/June edition of MN Journal.