A high profile walk-out by Native American students in the Minneapolis South High All Nations program and supportive members of the wider South High community focused attention on the program last spring. This fall, things are going better at South High, according to two All Nations students.All Nations was established in 1989 in order to provide an American Indian focused program within the larger confines of South High. It’s is a citywide program, meaning students from across the Minneapolis school district can enroll in it. This year, there are 132 students in the program.This is one of a three-part series on the Indian Education program in Minneapolis Public Schools. Part one and part two focus on elementary education. Continue Reading
The proposal to add more Early Childhood education programming to Minneapolis Public Schools sites was a hit with many parents at the October 14 Northeast Minneapolis forum on the Minneapolis Public Schools new Five-Year Enrollment Plan.Parents and community members filled the Northeast Middle School Media Center to listen to Area A Superintendent Michael Thomas explain, using a PowerPoint presentation, the district’s new five-year plan and how it would impact their neighborhoods. Following Thomas’ presentation, people split into groups consisting of one district employee and five or more attendees.Anchoring one of these small groups was North High School Senior Academy principal David Branch. Branch expressed support for the proposed new early childhood centers, one of which would be located at North High School. Bringing young children into the building would be a good fit for North, Branch said, and would give older high school students a chance to gain valuable skills, and offer their services, by reading with the younger children.The district’s efforts to bring more focus to young children brought both hope and concern for downtown Minneapolis resident Denise Holt. Holt, who does not yet have children, was at the meeting as an advocate for the growing neighborhoods of downtown Minneapolis. Letter from Downtown School Initiative to school boardDear Minneapolis Public Schools -We are aware of the Minneapolis Public School’s Five-Year Enrollment Plan and the accompanying attendance boundaries proposals for the downtown Minneapolis area. In order to maintain neighborhood cohesion and continue to build a community in this relatively new residential area, we strongly urge the Minneapolis Public Schools to consider downtown – North Loop, Downtown East, Downtown West, Elliot Park, and Loring Park – as one community when drawing attendance boundaries. Families choosing to raise their children in downtown Minneapolis share the same culture and values; they support building a dense, vibrant and walkable community. Continue Reading
Chris Rigert seemed to embody the sense of frustration and exhaustion that characterized the Minneapolis Public Schools Area C meeting on the district’s new Five-Year Enrollment Plan. Rigert, who serves on the district’s Parent Advisory Council, said it seems as though the district officials rolling out the plan are “all new” employees, and have not been around long enough to know how many new initiatives and changes parents in the district have been subjected to.Another parent, Scott Bordon, echoed this sentiment by saying that “we are where we are now” because of poor planning on the district’s part. Speaking during the meeting’s question and answer session, Bordon asked the district to concentrate on “right sizing our classes, buildings, and attendance areas” rather than spend money on new programs and buildings.About 200 parents and community members packed in to the Ramsey Middle School cafeteria in Minneapolis to listen to Cecilia Saddler, Associate Superintendent for south and southwest Minneapolis schools in Area C, explain the district’s latest initiative, which is designed to address an expected increase in student enrollment.Using a PowerPoint presentation, Sadler reviewed some of the highlights of the plan, which was introduced in a presentation to the school board on September 24. Following this, attendees participated in small group discussions and a final question and response segment.Some parents expressed support for the difficulties facing the district, in terms of fluctuating enrollment numbers and the desire to offer competitive school choices to all, but all who spoke publicly during the evening had questions or criticism about the district’s plans.Many parents in attendance were from the Hale/Field dual campus schools, and they immediately pressed the district to settle a rumor: would Hale/Field students, under this new five-year plan, be routed to Roosevelt High School, rather than Washburn? Apparently, an earlier version of the proposed Five-Year plan made reference to this as an option, causing many in the community to become alarmed at the thought of losing their pathway to Washburn. Continue Reading
In 2012, just 25 percent of Native American students in the Minneapolis Public Schools graduated from high school on time. Graduation is the end of an education process that lasts at least 13 years. Two of the tools used by the district’s Indian Education department tackle shortcomings at earlier stages: training district teachers on “best practices” for working with Native youth, and offering a language immersion preschool program at Anishinabe Academy, the district’s Native-American focused magnet school.This is one of a three-part series on the Indian Education program in Minneapolis Public Schools. Part one and part two focus on elementary education. Part three focuses on the All Nations program at South High School.This summer, Washburn High School teacher Ruth Thoorsgaard participated in the optional two-day training course offered by the Indian Education department. Continue Reading
With a 92 percent poverty rate, the 2,000 Native American students who attend Minneapolis Public Schools face significant hurdles on their road to academic and personal success. An example of these hurdles comes from Anishinabe Academy, the district’s city-wide Native American magnet school: more than 30 percent of the students at this school are homeless at any given time during the school year.This is one of a three-part series on the Indian Education program in Minneapolis Public Schools. Part one and part two focus on elementary education. Part three focuses on the All Nations program at South High School.The district’s Indian Education program works on behalf of these students and their families. The program was created in 1972, as part of the Federal Indian Education Act’s mandate to “meet the unique needs of American Indian and Alaskan Native students.” Danielle Grant, the current director of the program, brings both a forward-looking and a historical perspective to her work, which focuses on the “integration of academic rigor with cultural responsiveness” for all Native kids in the Minneapolis Public Schools.Grant acknowledges that many Native families lack trust in school and government systems. Grant calls this “historical trauma,” and connects it to the time when Native children were removed from their tribal communities and sent to boarding schools in an attempt to destroy indigenous ways of life. Continue Reading
Recently, I wrote an article about a group of South High School teachers in Minneapolis who led a protest of the MAP (Measuring Academic Progress) standardized test by encouraging parents to opt their students out of it. Opting out of standardized testing as a form of civil disobedience, if you will, is a growing national movement that is inching its way in to Minnesota. Continue Reading
Approximately sixty parents and community members turned out to listen to Area A Assistant Superintendent Michael Thomas explain the Minneapolis Public Schools’ new five-year enrollment plan. The October 1 community engagement meeting was held at Anwatin Middle School in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood. The focus of this meeting was on Area A, Zone 1, which is in North Minneapolis. Changes under the plan will affect Sheridan, North High, the Davis Center, Cityview and Lincoln schools, as well as Hmong International Academy, Minneapolis College Preparatory and Pierre Bottineau French Immersion school. (See Zone 1 Recommended Changes – PDF document attached.)Thomas used a Powerpoint to introduce key points of the plan, taking a few questions from the audience as he went. Continue Reading
When Minneapolis parent Rachel Skildum-LeGarde is asked about what she is looking for in a school for her children, her answer comes quickly: she wants challenging and rigorous academics, strong art, theater, and music offerings, and a solid athletics program.Her three oldest children are currently enrolled at Roosevelt High School in south Minneapolis, and so far, Skildum-LeGarde is cautiously optimistic about the education they are receiving there. In her view, Roosevelt is making “a lot of strides” in its music and art departments, and Skildum-LeGarde also feels that Roosevelt has offered her children a “fairly good” sports program.When it comes to academics at Roosevelt, however, Skildum-LeGarde is not quite convinced that her children are getting a solid, comprehensive education. While Roosevelt is an IB (International Baccalaureate) school, Skildum-LeGarde notes that that program, with its emphasis on critical thinking and deeper student engagement, does not start until the 11th and 12th grades.Skildum-LeGarde said there is not a program in place, such as the “Middle Years” program for grades 6-10 that some IB schools have, to ensure 9th and 10th graders are being academically challenged. In fact, Skildum-LeGarde feels her son is getting an “easy” A in English class this year as a 10th grader, and wonders whether or not he’ll be adequately prepared to start the rigorous IB program next year, as a junior.For her, this is important. She said that, while she does “try to supplement” her children’s education at home, they are at school for up to ten hours a day, with classes and after-school activities, and she’d like to feel as though they are getting the “best start possible” on a path to college.Skildum-LeGarde serves on both the DPAC (the district’s citywide parent group) and the Title 7 Parent Committee, which is for Native American parents, and she thinks finding more and better ways for parents to get involved in their children’s education is important. Continue Reading
Eric Kohnke is the father of three children who go to public school in Andover, and this year, he has decided to opt his children out of statewide standardized testing. For Kohnke, the desire to opt his children out of tests such as the MCAs centers around his own education and his work as an electrical engineer.Full disclosure: In early June, as a public school parent, I was included in a Pioneer Press story about parents who have decided to opt their children out of standardized testing; Kohnke contacted me recently to ask about my decision to do so, and to find out more about how to opt his own children out. In conversation with him, he explained why he his children will not be participating in standardized testing this year.Kohnke says that he has “always been opposed to multiple choice tests for math and science,” which are included in the annual MCA tests, along with a reading test. For Kohnke, multiple choice tests in math emphasize product—the right answer—over process, or knowing how to find the right answer. Instead, Kohnke wants his children to have more experience learning how to find their way to the correct answers, saying that not understanding the process “won’t fly” in college or the workplace.Another issue for Kohnke is the way he says the school is lining up its math course sequence for high school students. Continue Reading
