LearnmoreMN Blog

Northfield succeeds in student support

By Kim Horner, August guest blogger

Ten years ago, there was a rumor circulating that no Latino male had ever graduated from Northfield High School. Though inaccurate, this rumor was a little too close to reality. From 2001-2004, only 15 Latino students graduated from Northfield Public Schools while 27 dropped out — a graduation rate of 36%. During that time, fewer than five of Northfield’s Latino graduates pursued post-secondary education.

In response to these alarming facts, a group of Northfield educators and community members gathered together and decided to make a change. With funding from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, the group launched a program called TORCH (Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes) in 2005. The original goal of TORCH was to improve the graduation rate of Latino students in Northfield; and it worked. Within three years, the Latino graduation rate had risen above 90%. Because of this success, TORCH has expanded programming to all low-income students, students of color, and students who would be the first in their family to attend college.

Broadly, TORCH focuses on providing students with academic and social support, career and post-secondary exploration, as well as leadership and volunteer opportunities. But the foundation of TORCH’s success is relationships with students and their families. TORCH started small, with just a handful of students, and the staff invested time into getting to know the students’ abilities, challenges and aspirations. Rather than creating blanket programming to act as a Band-Aid, TORCH staff was and is committed to providing support specific to individual student needs and opportunities specific to individual student interests.

Take Yovany and Erick for example: Yovany, a rising senior, used the support of TORCH to complete two PSEO courses through Riverland Community College this past year, served on the TORCH Youth Advisory Board and Latino Students for School Policy Change team and is attending Itasca Community College Engineering Camp this summer. Erick, a rising junior, was encouraged by TORCH staff to apply and serve on RALIE, a school leadership board, plays varsity soccer, and is serving with other TORCH students as an elementary school mentor through the Northfield PLUS program this summer. With the support of TORCH, both students have grown over the past year, and are continuing to develop an understanding of their interests and talents. Perhaps most importantly, providing Erick, Yovany and all students with opportunities specific to their interests, fosters engagement; and that is critical to student success in the classroom and beyond.

Next year, TORCH will be serving more than 450 students in grades 6-12 as well as more than 150 alumni. While TORCH is excited to be serving a greater number of students, we know it will be a busy year as one-on-one relationships and interventions remains of critical importance to the program and to student’s success. Ultimately, it is also our hope that one day TORCH will be unnecessary, because the type of support we provide has become systemic, and students from all backgrounds are successful.

What are other examples of programs that have helped students succeed? Please share them in a comment to this post.

Collaborating to close the achievement gap

By Sara Dziuk, July guest blogger

Each year in Minnesota we invest millions of dollars in some 500 initiatives to close the achievement gap, yet the outlook for underprivileged kids remains one of the worst in the country and the gap continues to grow.

Nationally only 8% of low-income students earn a college degree by age 24 compared to 82% of their higher income peers. I’m proud to say College Possible students are graduating from college at the same rate as students from all income levels nationally, effectively closing the achievement gap for our students. We now have an opportunity to grow our model through a unique partnership with Generation Next and Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Generation Next was launched in 2012 to dramatically accelerate academic achievement for all children. Generation Next is based on the Strive Partnership framework, uniting the community around shared goals to support the success of every child from cradle to career. Together, we’re working to close the achievement gap in the Twin Cities.

Generation Next identifies organizations achieving the strongest results for Minneapolis and St. Paul and maximizes their impact by leveraging resources to scale and replicate best practices. After a rigorous selection process, I’m thrilled that College Possible is one of six premier partners selected to become a Social Innovation Fund subgrantee. The Social Innovation Fund mobilizes public and private resources to find and grow community-based nonprofits with evidence of strong results.

In our meetings with the other partners I couldn’t be happier to see the familiar faces of former College Possible AmeriCorps members. It’s inspiring to see our vision come full circle as our Corps members go on to careers at other organizations focused on education equality, continuing our mission work even after they complete their service with us.

We also saw the potential for our work to come full circle as we met with leaders from other Generation Next partner organizations. Although we focus on very different things, Way to Grow’s success ensuring pre-natal health through kindergarten readiness contributes to College Possible’s success as these kids go on to thrive in college and beyond with a network of support along the way.

In addition to these investments in proven solutions, Generation Next launched action networks focused on early literacy and college and career readiness this spring. This gives me an opportunity to be at the table with our partners across sectors sharing best practices. There is so much energy in the room at these meetings and we’re seeing true, effective collaboration happening.

With facilitation and coaching on how to use data to support a “cycle of inquiry,” more than 100 individuals and organizations are establishing action plans that identify effective strategies and break down silos. Action networks focused on 3rd grade reading, 8th grade math and high school graduation will launch in 2014.

It’s early in the process but we’ve already seen that we can make great strides by working together. The success of our students depends on a broad community partnership with youth practitioners, parents, students, teachers, government, foundations and business. You can join in giving every student an opportunity to succeed by becoming a partner­. Soon even more students in the Twin Cities will have college in their future.

The achievement gap: not someone else's problem

By Mike Ciresi, March guest blogger

The achievement gap that exists between our K-12 students of color and white students will have profound effects on higher education in the state in the coming years and, therefore, on our economy unless we work diligently to close the gap. If we do that, we will help ensure that our students are ready for college and the workforce of the 21^st century.

In a state that boasts the highest ACT scores in the nation, 40 percent of our high school graduates entering public colleges and universities require some type of developmental course in math or English or science. Many are students of color. The achievement gap in K-12 has led to what many experts call a college-readiness gap.

Our colleges and universities have to spend millions of dollars on these courses.

Now consider that by 2018, 70% of the jobs in Minnesota will require some post-secondary education. There will be fewer jobs for people without a high school diploma and those jobs won’t pay enough to support a family. Our businesses will need highly trained and highly skilled workers to compete nationally and globally.

On an individual level, a college graduate earns $650,000 more over a 40-year career than a high school grad, according to the Pew Research Center.

Add to that the changing demographics of the state. For example, Minneapolis is now 40% people of color. In a few decades, the state’s largest city will be majority people of color. If the achievement gap persists, we will as a community leave behind a generation of young people and we will shortchange what our businesses need to grow and prosper in a highly competitive world.

But if we begin to close the achievement gap and graduate students of color at the same rate as white students (in Minneapolis, for example, fewer than half the students of color graduate on time), we can add $1.3 billion annually to our state’s economy by 2020. And better educated residents will mean less reliance on social programs, lower crime rates, higher rates of voting and volunteering, and more students prepared for college and high-skilled jobs.

We should applaud efforts such as the recently announced GradMinnesota initiative, co-chaired by Lt. Governor Yvonne Prettner Solon and Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. The initiative seeks to increase the current high school graduation rate in Minnesota from 77 to 90% by 2020.

As I mentioned in my post earlier this month, the Minneapolis Foundation, with a host of community partners, has launched “RESET Education,” a public awareness campaign aimed at closing the achievement gap. It emphasizes five successful strategies that are working effectively in some Minneapolis district and public charter schools and in schools around the country. RESET stands for: Real-time use of data; Expectation not Excuses; Strong Leadership; and Effective Teaching and Time on Task. Business leaders, educators and parents can get involved and help make a difference. Many colleges are already working closely with local high schools and middle schools and their students.

The achievement gap is not someone else’s problem. It is our problem. And we must solve it sooner, not later, for the sake of our K-12 students, who are our future college students and high-skilled workers. Find out more about RESET Education and what you can do to make a difference.

Now is the time to RESET Education in Minnesota

By Mike Ciresi, March guest blogger

As people with an interest in education, you are familiar with the achievement gap. In Minnesota, the gap between white students and students of color, and between higher income and lower income students, is one of the largest in the country.

While we have been discussing and studying the achievement gap for a number of years, it still persists to the detriment of many of our students and to our state’s economic future. There are many causes of the gap, including poverty. But now is not the time to throw up our hands in despair. We cannot wait to eliminate poverty before attacking the achievement gap. In fact, it’s time to redouble our efforts to close or eliminate the gap by engaging parents, business and civic leaders, and the wider community and by highlighting what positive steps are working in some of our schools to help our kids succeed.

Last year the Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation for Children (RKMC) began such an effort through a public awareness campaign. We received widespread positive feedback from community leaders, parents and educators.

This month the RKMC Foundation is supporting the Minneapolis Foundation as it launches an even bigger effort called RESET Education. It will feature public service ads on Skyway banners, online, in print and on the radio, as well as a media campaign and three major Minnesota Meeting events featuring national education experts at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. A movie trailer on the achievement gap will run at area theaters and longer video highlighting strategies that are effective will be available online.

The RESET Education campaign stands for:

Real-time use of data. Successful schools continually monitor student progress and use data to drive and differentiate instruction. At present, information about student proficiency is not available until after the school year ends.

Expectations not Excuses. Successful schools expect every child to excel and accept no less. Teacher expectations are shown to account for 42 percent of the difference between white and African-American students’ realization of their potential, after controlling for all factors.

Strong Leadership. Successful schools empower school leaders to shape staffing, resources and culture and hold them accountable for student and teacher success.

Effective Teaching. Successful schools consider teaching to be effective when students master the material, not just receive it. Students with a highly effective teacher can gain up to a full year of additional academic growth.

Time on Task. Successful schools have their students spend more time in the classroom and make every minute count. Fifteen additional school days a year would gain the equivalent of an additional year of instruction by the time a student graduates.

Public charter and Minneapolis district schools using RESET strategies have all of their students making excellent academic progress and significantly outperforming students at schools that don’t use them.

Without positive change in closing the achievement gap, the numbers tell a chilling story. Fewer than half of Minneapolis students of color graduate on time. Minnesota ranks last in the country in graduating Latino and Native students from high school. Sixty-one percent of white fifth graders are proficient in math compared with 12 percent of African-American fifth graders. And 87 percent of white third graders are proficient in reading compared with 36 percent of Latino third graders.

But if we close the gap — which we as a community can do — the picture is far brighter. Not only will we be providing greater lifetime opportunities for all our students, but we will be improving our state’s economic future and our ability to compete in the 21^st century. If we graduate students of color from high school at the same rate as white students, we could add $1.3 billion annually to our state’s economy by 2020. Those educated graduates will become our college students and our workers of tomorrow. We owe it to them and to us to make the effort and to succeed.

Won't you get involved by attending a Minnesota Meeting at the Fitzgerald Theater, becoming active with local school efforts and letting local leaders know you support RESET? More information about RESET Education.

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.

Preparing for and entering postsecondary education

By Lesley Lydell, January guest blogger

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

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

Growing Participation

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

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

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

Achievement Differences

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

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

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

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.

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.

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?

Beating the odds

By MayKao Hang, June guest blogger

If we are going to improve the quality of education of all children, we need to think about the achievement gap as an opportunity gap and become highly dissatisfied with the status quo. The source of power to fuel the economic engine of our community lies on more than the wonderful commercial products we create to improve the lives of people; it lies with growing, and then retaining, all the talent and creativity that exists within all of us. Regardless of background, we must believe and expect that we can unite and work to fill the opportunity gap that is eroding the ingenuity that has created companies such as 3M, St. Paul Travelers and Best Buy.

Back when Amherst H. Wilder was still alive 105 years ago, the majority of residents within the City of Saint Paul were immigrants. Most came to seek a better life in Minnesota and were able to turn challenges into entrepreneurial enterprises. According to a recent study commissioned by the Minneapolis Foundation and completed by Wilder Research, immigrants start businesses at three times the rate of those who are native born. In the City of St. Paul in 2010, 45% of the children were English Language Learners. While this may be down somewhat from Amherst’s time, the fact is that somehow throughout our history we have figured out how to get ahead.

I admit I am one who is dissatisfied with the seeming complacency with the fact that we are far behind other states and regions that we have long outperformed. If we expect to regain our standing, we must close the achievement gap that continues to be the overriding issue for Minnesota’s schools.

On May 31, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Dayton’s Bluff Achievement Plus School, a school that, until bold steps were taken, had only 12% of its students at proficiency. Today, Dayton’s Bluff performs to state levels despite despite high mobility, high poverty (more than 90% free and reduced lunch) and many from non-English speaking homes.

How is Dayton’s Bluff beating the odds? Achievement Plus began in 1997 as a model of comprehensive school reform that would develop, test, and disseminate more powerful instructional programs, effective student and family support services that address barriers to learning and extended learning strategies. No experiment can be without failures and successes when working to ensure excellent outcomes for children living in the lowest socio-economic areas of our city. After nearly 15 years of doing this, we share a few of our learnings:

• Perhaps nothing has been more fundamental to success than setting explicit and high academic standards and providing rigorous instruction.
• Providing teachers with the support and training to teach effectively to these high standards is essential.
• Evidenced-based practices that target and effectively mitigate barriers to learning for children and families are available. It pays to intervene early.
• Extended learning opportunities must be targeted to the specific gaps in childrens' knowledge and be tightly aligned with the school curriculum in order to show any effect on student achievement.

As we move forward with the Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood initiative, an effort to create cradle to career success for children living in a diverse, high-poverty, 250-block area of Saint Paul, we will weave what we’ve learned from Achievement Plus into the effort. And, we are learning from residents, subject matter experts, institutional leaders and other stakeholders what they see as essential investments in our children. We must commit to making those investments.

The only way that improvement of the human condition has ever occurred has been the belief that as a community we have what it takes to hold onto the promise for achievement and greatness in all children and then to act as adults to make it happen.

I hope you will all be with us as we work together even more closely to ensure that we stay a vibrant and productive community.