Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/michael-diedrich/page/3/)
In his State of the State address, Governor Dayton prominently featured education. He touched on the accomplishments of recent years, described aspirations for the future, and continued the public discussion of appropriate assessment use. Continue Reading
At a recent Minneapolis school board candidate forum, hosted by the Coalition for Quality Schools, several candidates committed to the “full-service community schools” model. That phrase gets a lot of use, it risks becoming a vague buzzword. For context, the only Minnesota schools currently recognized by the Coalition for Community Schools are the Brooklyn Center school district and Saint Paul’s Achievement Plus schools. Continue Reading
Growing up with the toxic stress and other harmful effects of poverty is tough. So is growing up when the language at home is different from the language at school. Both at once is obviously even tougher, although students who can hold onto their home language while becoming fluent in English will have a leg up as adults. That’s the main thrust of a recent Pioneer Press piece investigating the need for, and development of, more teaching aimed at bilingual students and those still learning English. Continue Reading
Most of the bias in our society operates without people being aware of their own bias. Continue Reading
Like the fish that doesn’t know what water is, culture is generally imperceptible to us until someone else points it out to us or we encounter a culture that’s not our own. Even when we do consider cultural differences, we focus primarily on topics like food or ritual that are easily defined. You eat lefse, we eat kolaches. Your weddings have ceili dances, ours have polkas.
At first blush, holding schools accountable for their students’ performance sounds like an easy enough task, but as we’re finding out, the process is far from simple. One possible bill in the Minnesota state senate illustrates some of the complexity. Continue Reading
Over the long run, widespread use of the Common Core State Standards might allow more small companies to scale up helpful materials. In the short run, however, it looks like the big players are passing off what’s old as new. Continue Reading
The new St. Paul teacher contract agreement resulted from a process that began months before the two sides first sat down at the negotiating table. It’s perhaps the clearest example of teachers using the collective bargaining process to advance a wide-ranging, multi-faceted policy agenda.
Not all of the results of the recent Saint Paul Public Schools negotiations will show up in the teachers’ contract. Some of the proposals, identified by both the community and the teachers’ union as priorities, will receive action from the school board without being written into the contract. (Full disclosure: I was part of the union’s community engagement process, taking notes and doing follow-up research for community discussion groups.) Continue Reading
After an intense negotiations process, the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers and the Saint Paul Public Schools have reached agreement on a wide range of proposals. The union will vote to ratify the contract on Tuesday, March 4. Here’s a look at some of what wound up in the new contract. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and it emphasizes some of the proposals that came from the union’s work with the community. (Full disclosure: I was part of the process, taking notes and conducting follow-up research for community discussion groups.) Continue Reading