LearnmoreMN Blog

College readiness: The foundation of Minnesota’s future

By Robert Jones, April guest blogger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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?

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?

Pass or Fail? Referendum on Partnerships as Learning Relationships

By Rebecca Hopkins, November guest blogger

Last election day, 42 of 76 school districts (55%) successfully passed or partially passed referendum items. This seems to be somewhat positive considering the economic reality as well as some individual district dynamics. However, for some districts a “yes” only continued the same level of funding, and for the districts that were not successful, it may mean some very deep cuts that can translate into losing new, young teachers, coordinators of services, even programs. When districts are already lean, yet still striving for excellence and maximized services, inadequate funding can deal a crushing blow to these efforts.

While I would contend that authentic and intentional relationships between higher education programs and K-12 schools are important in any climate, it is especially important for K-12 schools to feel the added support and strength for their professional development initiatives in this situation. In addition, it is an opportunity for higher education programs to learn from positive, collaborative problem solving that contributes to the cultivation of leadership in our schools.

Regardless of funding, higher education and K-12 schools need to be persistent in collaboration in this important work — it can’t wait. One critical example of this is the importance of culturally responsive teaching. Minnesota continues to face racial disparities in student achievement data. Individual teacher experience and district approaches to development in this area vary. Often, there is a sense of awareness and identification of the issue, but a lack of concrete strategies, implementation, and sharing.

Teacher preparation programs are often criticized for being staffed mainly by white professors who teach mostly white teacher candidates who will serve diverse populations of children. In both the higher education and K-12 context, educators need to have the courage to take on the challenge of this work. One class on cultural diversity doesn’t cut it. Having a couple of professors who “get it” falls short of transforming the teaching and learning paradigm. The K-12 teacher needs to feel safe opening up about their practice — both when they are successful and when they are not. The higher education professor needs to feel supported and open to learning from effective teacher leaders in the K-12 classroom...being a part of a broader learning community that is tackling the same systemic change. Both need to be willing to examine their beliefs about all children being able to learn. When we do this together, and bring our worlds together, we can make real progress for the benefit of the children we all serve.

Reciprocally, but only with an authentic commitment to this work, the higher education partner can serve a critical accompaniment role — walking with K-12 schools and teachers, helping to build long term school cultures of achievement for all learners. By structuring credit-based, personalized, teacher-directed learning opportunities, teachers are supported in moving from awareness to implementation. We need to ensure a culturally responsive and equitable classroom together.

With increased pressure to produce high school graduates who go on to college and can perform successfully in comparative contexts to other nations, how K-12 schools and higher education institutions are partnering should matter to everyone. Together we can transform the education experience for our children. This is an investment that is critical to our survival. Whether we pass or fail this "referendum of partnerships as learning relationships," our responsiveness to each other serves as a harbinger for the larger looming referendum on the next generation in our communities.

Higher Education and K-12 Schools: Critical Partners for Child Success

By Rebecca Hopkins, November guest blogger

In the 1996 movie, “Jerry McGuire,” a highly successful sports agent has an epiphany and drafts a mission statement. This statement is about genuinely caring for the client, not merely manipulating a relationship for financial gain like his competitor Bob Sugar. As he panics about its distribution, he realizes that no one is responding to his question of “Who’s coming with me?"...no one but the goldfish. Now, for the drama to work we are all to believe that in a sea of Bob Sugars, Jerry McGuire is the exception. Yet each of them needs a partner like the star quarterback, Cush, to make payroll. While this analogy only goes so far in the education world...it got me thinking about how it relates to the relationship between K-12 schools and higher education programs.

Quality teacher preparation, and the continued professional growth and development of teachers in the field, is critical. Our work with teachers and educational leaders in higher education is absolutely focused on their growth, expertise, and scholarship — however, our real “clients” are the children served in their classrooms every day. This illustrates the heart of our mission in the higher education classroom...to us it isn’t just a statement. Yet, is this how the majority of K-12 partners view their relationship with higher education? Do they see us as Jerry McGuire or Bob Sugar? What are districts really looking for from higher education? What kind of partner are we seeking?

Schools differ — public, charter, private...as do district dynamics and approaches to professional development planning. When the teachers in a district vote to reallocate funds from professional development to salaries or some other expenditure, is this indicative of the value of professional development they have experienced? The relationship between higher education and K-12 districts should be one of intentionality, support, investment, and reciprocal learning. 

The intentionality should include dialogue regarding mission, and how each partner will support and strive for common goals for the benefit of children. Do we as higher education institutions see ourselves bound to and assisting districts in visioning and planning for the long term — for sustained development across the career path, succession planning for leadership, and transforming district dynamics? This means investment, sharing, and experiencing the successes and meeting the challenges through a collaborative process.

A reciprocal learning relationship between higher education and our K-12 partners is vital. School of Education programs cannot be developed in isolation — curriculum needs to be grounded in research and facilitate teacher collaboration to address complex challenges in the current K-12 climate. In addition, this reciprocal learning should be evident by timely program review that requires consistent engagement of K-12 partner perspectives and data. We should be going public — showing the broader community how it’s being done in today’s classroom — highlighting teacher leaders in the field and concrete strategies that produce real results. The good news for all in this “together” view of the child as the focus, is that we can transform teaching and learning in both contexts.

This type of partnership, or rather, authentic relationship, between K-12 schools and higher education institutions can occur and needs to be occurring even in the absence of grant funding. We shouldn’t only be banking on Cush, the standout quarterback. Sustainable approaches and mechanisms mean a shift in priority and value. Some school districts are seeking exclusive higher education partners for their needs, shifting the focus of professional development from the individual to the organizational level. While there are still some basic questions that need to be asked such as available services and costs, etc., hopefully districts are also interested in the critical questions of mission and investment and are the ones asking “Who’s coming with me?”

Partnering on learning opportunities

By Mayor Chris Coleman, February Guest Blogger

Just over a month ago, I began my second term as mayor with an inauguration ceremony. During my speech, I described how important it is that we in the Twin Cities evolve to think of ourselves as partners in an effort for regional growth and prosperity. This means that we must stop fighting each other and position ourselves to face global competition. Saint Paul can no longer compete against Bloomington or Minneapolis. Our future depends on our ability to compete with Shanghai or Stuttgart, Seoul or Sao Paulo.

This effort necessarily begins with education. A well-educated workforce is vital to attracting, retaining and expanding businesses in Saint Paul. We are fortunate to have a wealth of college presidents, corporate executives and church leaders who recognize this fact. Our partners in higher education, business and nonprofit training programs are developing fine-grained models that match people with training opportunities designed for specific jobs. In the next four years, we’ll continue to work together to demonstrate how cities and school districts can share the responsibility of providing high-quality learning opportunities for all children.

This approach requires us to work across barriers that have prevented us from forming partnerships that could help students. The Kellogg Foundation has recognized the city’s role in expanding the quality of and access to learning opportunities for all of our students. Thanks to Kellogg’s support, my office has launched the Learning in Cities Project, a partnership with the Center for Democracy and Citizenship. This initiative will allow us to expand the definition of youth success beyond the math and reading test scores mandated by No Child Left Behind. Our long-term goal is to create an organized system of after-school learning opportunities throughout the city that will allow young people to develop the skills — academic and otherwise — that they need to meet the expectations of 21st century workplaces and communities.

As one outgrowth of this work, the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers and Saint Paul youth workers will have the opportunity to engage in professional development side-by-side for the first time ever. As part of the federation’s annual Professional Development Conference, the talented individuals who work with students during the school day will learn more about the talented individuals who work with youth when they’re not in school. Youth workers and teachers are being asked to participate as speakers and presenters, so that all can benefit from the knowledge and skill-sets that each exemplifies.

The Missing Partner

By Frank Hernandez, October guest blogger

Several weeks ago, thousands of students walked onto our college campuses to start new journeys in education. Among them was a young man who a few years ago was involved in local gangs and destined to drop out of high school. How did he, and many others like him, end up at a top-notch private college?

The answer to that question is as complex as each student. Yet, there are some common threads. First and foremost, each student needs to make a conscious effort to change some things about how they want to live. Many also find support from local community-based organizations.

For example, Centro is a local Latino community organization, which is located in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. It offers a continuum of youth programs for Latino youth. Educational success is a priority across all Centro youth programs. Community-based organizations like Centro have many assets, such as bilingual, bicultural staff; strong relationships with families; and effective communications with the schools, health providers and other anchor institutions.

For the past two years, Centro’s youth coordinator, Mitch Roldán, has been working with gang-involved youth in the Minneapolis schools. With Mitch’s help, one such participant chose to move away from the gangs. He also found a deep connection to his cultural roots, took on a leadership role with his peers, and decided to apply and start at one of Minnesota’s private colleges this fall.

If community-based organizations like Centro are so successful, why aren’t more P-12 schools working closely and systemically with community-based organizations? What can teacher preparation programs learn from community-based organizations to better reach families and students who might otherwise not enroll in post-secondary education?

These are precisely the questions that a collaborative team of faculty from Augsburg, Bethel, Concordia (St Paul), Hamline, St. Catherine and St. Thomas began asking themselves as they worked on developing a new teacher preparation program through a special grant program at the Bush Foundation this past summer.

Later this month, I’ll share some highlights from the plan, which is still in development. But a key element in the plan is the commitment from our teacher preparation institutions to partner with community-based organizations.

Do you agree? Please share your thoughts and examples about what worked in effective higher education and P-12 educational partnerships with community-based organizations.