LearnmoreMN Blog

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.

Student migration and Minnesota’s future

By Nate Lassila, January guest blogger

Investment in education decades ago led to Minnesota’s highly educated workforce and vibrant, innovative economy — luring other educated individuals and their families to start or continue their careers here. This is still occurring, but decreasing investment over the past decade may change Minnesota’s appeal in the years to come.

We know that two things are occurring. First, Minnesota high school graduates who go to college in other states exceed the numbers who come here from other states for college. The net loss is more than 5,000 students per year, as reported by the Minnesota Private College Research Foundation (Student Migration Trends: Minnesota’s Net Loss of College-Going High School Graduates, November 2009). Secondly and optimistically, we are an importer of about the same number of 24-39-year-olds who have a bachelor’s degree. So each year we lose thousands of students to colleges in other states (who may stay there after graduation), yet we gain thousands who see Minnesota as an attractive place to live and work. But how much longer will this perception hold?

According to Minnesota state demographer Tom Gillaspy, in the 1950s Minnesota was below average in terms of individuals’ annual incomes and education levels. State leadership at the time made a strong investment in education — a decision geared to push development of a world class workforce. This investment succeeded, even though it has diminished in more recent times.

Now we are beginning to feel the pain of failing to continue this contribution to education. Years of neglect have led to reduced access and affordability of college at a time when our workforce is aging and retiring. Minnesota now finds itself putting a band-aid on a major policy problem.

The conclusion is unclear. How long can Minnesota rely on a reputation to keep and lure talent for our major industries? We lose college-bound students each year, but we still attract other talented individuals — some who grew up here and know of the benefits of Minnesota life. If we want an economic and education infrastructure that continues to draw families to Minnesota, we may need to make an equal or stronger effort than was made half a century ago. Who, I wonder, will provide the leadership needed to make this happen?

Preparing young women for success

By Debra Pridgen, October guest blogger

My mother has repeatedly stated to me throughout my life that, “experience is the greatest teacher.” I have the privilege of working for an organization that provides a vast array of experiential learning opportunities for girls and women. Yes, it is the Girl Scouts. I was a Girl Scout as a girl and then being a mother of four lovely daughters, my past Girl Scouting experience came full circle to be shared in my role as the leader for them and many of their girl friends. How time flies; I’ve been employed with the Girl Scouts for 12 years now.

Some people ask why there is a need for an all girl organization. Nearly a century ago, Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low recognized that developing girls’ leadership abilities was critical for ensuring they would be the positive change-makers of the future. Since Low’s time, the world has changed dramatically. This ever more complex and uncertain world clearly requires ongoing experience, education, and leadership of a new kind.

Recent research shows that girls want opportunities where they can learn by doing and have cooperative learning experiences. Girl Scouts provides these opportunities and helps girls develop skills and a strong sense of self. When coupled with academic learning and positive experiences in school, girls are well-prepared to succeed.

We know about the power of programs like Girl Scouts that support young people. I’d like to hear your thoughts about how we can do more:

—How do we expand opportunities to support kids beyond school?
—How can more volunteers and mentors get involved?

Focusing on the positive

By Jenny Wright, July guest blogger

When we challenge ourselves to take an approach to young people that builds on strengths and opportunities rather than focusing on problems and deficits, wonderful things can happen. Each year we take our Beacons youth from eight Minneapolis Public Schools out to a Citywide Youth Leadership Camp Retreat at YMCA Camp Iduhapi. Youth learn leadership skills, practice teamwork through high ropes course challenges, and plan service projects to complete back in their neighborhoods and schools. 

There is one story that we hear again and again. It goes something like this: 

The youth development workers from the Beacon Center always choose at least one young person for the Leadership Retreat who is not usually viewed as a “leader.”  These young people might struggle with academics and behavior in the classroom, but the Beacons staff has identified them as having leadership potential in the afterschool program setting.  Their teachers may ask, “Are you sure you want to bring that child up to a camp about leadership?” The Beacons staff insist that yes, they do, and the child attends the retreat. At camp the young person hears over an over again that they ARE a leader and they are given opportunities to practice. When the young person returns from camp, the teacher seeks out the Beacons staff days later to say, “What happened at that retreat? Something is totally different about the way this child is behaving in my classroom.”

We know from this annual experience that sometimes just the act of telling a child that they ARE a leader can open up a world of possibility. I believe the same is true of telling them that they can be learners. When I describe the work we do in our Beacon Centers in the Minneapolis Public Schools, I say we “engage youth as leaders and learners.” This is work that every one of us can contribute to. Young people need to have multiple people and places in their lives where these messages are reinforced and where they are given opportunities to practice and develop new skills. By setting high expectations for all young people starting with the belief that EVERY child has the capacity to lead and to learn, we can change the outcomes in our schools, neighborhoods, and society.