Education

Education coverage includes what's working, what's not working, how our kids are doing, how our college students are paying for their educations, the achievement gaps, teachers, students, parents, district schools, charter schools, private schools — and your contributions and opinions are welcome. 

Our weekly Education Newsletter highlights articles, blog posts, events, and links. For example, look for lots of links to thoughtful discussions of education issues from Beth Hawkins at MinnPost and Diane Ravitch at Education Week.

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Click here to see current and archived issues. 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to look at University of Minnesota's long-term agreement with TCF Bank

By Kia Farhang, The Minnesota Daily

Relationships between universities and financial institutions, like the one between the University of Minnesota and TCF Bank, are being analyzed to see if they take advantage of students.

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Lack of black students causes concern on University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus

By Megan Holden, The Minnesota Daily

(Click here for larger version)

The University of Minnesota’s small population of black students has been a cause of concern for some time.

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Louis King: Prepare the underemployed for jobs that will emerge as workforce ages

By Staff, Civic Caucus

In the Twin Cities area between 2010 and 2040 there will be an absolute decline of 272,000 in number of working age whites and an absolute increase of 445,000 in working age people of color. Summit Academy OIC offers highly-focused, time-limited training in two fields that will definitely be hiring more workers, construction and health care, according to Summit's leader, Louis King II. About three-fourths of Summit graduates are placed in jobs today. Summit stresses the importance of getting underemployed persons permanently attached to the work world, including the essential element of networking, from which people of color were largely excluded in years past.

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United Way education conference features Miami and New York models of school reform

By Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet

Andrea Coleman delivered the keynote speech. 

Charters, performance pay, Teach for America, online learning and other tenets of “school reform” were heralded at a recent conference called "Transforming Our Future," sponsored by the Greater Twin Cities United Way. The conference, held at the St. Paul River Centre, featured keynote addresses from Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and Andrea Coleman, CEO of the Office of Innovation at the New York City Department of Education. [See sidebar and comments for Minnesota teachers' points of view.]

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St. Paul teacher's '27 Acts of Kindness' project honors victims of Newtown, CT shooting

By Kristal Leebrick, Park Bugle

Senior Joe Krivit, junior Rev Benion and counselor Molly McCurdy stand near Como Park Senior High School's 27 Acts of Kindness board. The project aims to promote positive actions in honor of the 27 people who died in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. (Bugle photo by Kristal Leebrick)

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December, Como Park Senior High School counselor Molly McCurdy found herself searching for some way to help students at her school address the tragedy.

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Botanical Art School moves to Longfellow

By Rebekah Peterson, My Broadsheet

A school that is part of the movement to revive an art form thousands of years old is getting settled in its new location at the Longfellow House. Previously at the Bakken, the Minnesota School of Botanical Art opened its doors at the beginning of the month.

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Facing increased need for remedial courses, MnSCU wants better college prep for high schoolers

By Marjorie Otto, The Minnesota Daily

(Click for larger version)

An increasing number of Minnesota high school students are struggling to be fully prepared for college classes.

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What's going on at the "new" North High: Small classes, emphasis on arts and communication

By Makula Dunbar, TC Daily Planet

Student Artwork

Makula Dunbar

In fall 2012, North High School in Minneapolis kicked off a revitalization effort that effectively separated "old North" from the incoming class of 2016. The freshmen enrolled in the new North Academy of Arts and Communications, which is structured as a small learning community. Having just completed the first semester of NAAC, Principal Shawn Harris-Berry says things are looking up.

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Minnesota education policy – Who's in charge?

By Mary Treacy, Poking Around

Commenting on the “America the Ugly” social studies curriculum now raising such a controversy in Minnesota, an opinion piece in the National Review Online blog asserts that “any development of American-citizenship education (history/social studies) standards should involve elected legislators in the states, which have the responsibility for education under the Constitution.”

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Poking Around

University of Minnesota to expand Landscape Arboretum with 78-acre purchase

By Hailey Colwell, The Minnesota Daily

A snow-glazed pathway along the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's Dwarf Conifer collection. (Photo by Jaak Jensen)

The University of Minnesota plans to purchase about 78 acres in Chaska, Minn., for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to expand its research programs and recreational space.

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