NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES | PEN Promotes Northeast Schools
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Public Education Northeast or PEN was established in 2004 by Jill Davis, Dean DeGroot and Marcia Thomas when the Minneapolis School District threatened to close Waite Park School.<
FREE SPEECH ZONE | St. Paul mtg, new legislation help illustrate proper response to Secretary Duncan’s challenge
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U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was direct when he spoke in Minnesota last week to about 800 Minnesotans at a meeting convened by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. While complimenting some of Minnesota’s reforms and education accomplishments, Duncan pointed out that we have one of the nation’s largest achievement gaps between whites and students of color. He is “shocked” that Minnesota does not have stronger “alternative routes” into teaching for talented recent college graduates and effective teachers from other states seeking to work in Minnesota. How should we respond? First, by listening openly to the information he shared. Duncan is not just concerned about our achievement gap. He’s also concerned nationally about the fact that a generation ago, the U.S. ranked first in the world in the percentage of people with college degrees. Now, we are ninth. He wisely wants us to lead the world in graduates of 2 and 4-year higher -education institutions.Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading
Free Minneapolls, St. Paul School Choice Fairs this Saturday can help families select among options
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People interested in seeing, at least in part, how school choice plays out for families might want to attend one or more of the free school choice fairs happening this Saturday, Janu
FREE SPEECH ZONE | Unions, students & Families agree: Teacher cooperative idea can help students and educators
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For generations, many Minnesota farmers have been members of a co-op. Now that idea is being applied, with encouraging impact, to public school teachers. Both the Minneapolis and St. Paul Federation of Teachers have endorsed some versions of this idea. And support is coming from places as diverse as Ladies Home Journal and a recent report, “Can Teachers Run their Own Schools? Tales from the Islands of Teacher Cooperatives” (charlestkerchner.com/cr/uploadImages/Teacher_run_case.pdf)Written by Charles Kerchner, a Claremont (California) University professor, it’s the story of another Minnesota educational innovation that is receiving attention all over the country: public schools run like agricultural cooperatives. But if you think about options doctors, lawyers, journalists and other professionals have, this is not just for rural communities. Kerchner notes: “The use of cooperatives is much more widespread than commonly realized, involving as many as 100 million Americans.”But don’t schools need school boards and administrators? Isn’t it vital to have school boards at the top, setting policy, hiring administrators who make recommendations, to school boards and are responsible for hiring and firing the teachers? No.How often have teachers said to themselves “If I were in charge, here’s how I would do it.” Some teacher run schools are charters, some are part of a traditional district. The new Minnesota “site governed law”, provides the option for teachers wanting remain part of a district. Continue Reading
FREE SPEECH ZONE | Lighting a torch, not just a candle with Spanish Speaking Families in St. Paul
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A unique collaboration recently brought more than 200 St. Paul, Spanish-speaking parents and students together to learn critical details of college preparation and college entrance. It’s one of a series of meetings the St. Paul Public School’s Office of Family Engagement & Community Partnerships is holding this academic year with a variety of partners. The goal is to help produce a significant increase in the number of Spanish speaking students who not only graduate from high school but also enter and graduate from some form of higher education. In just under three hours, more than 200 Spanish speaking parents and their children recently ate dinner and talked with a variety of resource people knowledgeable about preparing for, and being admitted to some form of higher education. Speakers included: Josephine Books, World Language Faculty, Inver Hills Community College Rodrigo Marquez, Mexican Consulate Trumanue Lindsey Jr., Student Success Coordinator, Inver Hills Community College Maria Steigauf, ELL Teacher, Paul and Sheila Wellstone & Brooke Stadler, ELL TOSA, Saint Paul Public Schools Barb Schlaefer, Minnesota Office of Higher Education Denise Linares, Associate Director, NAVIGATE and this author from the Center for School Change, Macalester College.Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading
FREE SPEECH ZONE | Drums, Dancing & Drama Help Illustrate Value of Arts for Young People
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What an unusual but remarkable trio – drums, drama and dancing. I watched all three kinds of student performances last week in the space of 30 minutes. Each received a lengthy ovation. And I was struck by the incredible value of arts for young people.First, there was a remarkable drum/dancing corps from Minnesota Transitions, an inner city Minneapolis charter public school. They were remarkably synchronized, highly polished, visually dazzling. The approximately 15 participants clearly were having a great time as they demonstrated that while each individual was very talented, together they could accomplish so much more. They had learned to work together, and the results were stunning.Then there was something I literally had never seen before – two young men reciting “The Challenge of the Light Brigade” as a verbal duet. I’ve read and heard someone read this deeply moving poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. But having it done as a duet gave it a power that I’ve never encountered. Try it with a friend, a child, your husband, wife, or …. Amazing!Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. “Half a league, half a league, half a league onward…all in the valley of death rode the 600…theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.” It’s a deeply moving poem depicting a charge of British cavalry against Russians in 1854. You can read it as a statement of courage, tragedy, or folly. But two young men presenting the poem via alternating stanzas gave it remarkable intensity. These students from the Academy of Sciences and Agriculture in Vadnais Heights did a most masterful job, in a most memorable manner. Finally, a young woman from the Academy for Sciences and Agriculture danced and dazzled to a pop tune, “Son of a preacher man.” She leaped, dipped, and twirled. Incredibly expressive. Continue Reading
NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES | Northeast Showcase is November 13
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Jen Bennington from PEN (Public Education Northeast) gave her list of 5 reasons why parents should consider attending the NE Showcase on November 13th at Edison HIgh School:
FREE SPEECH ZONE | Avalon School Students and Staff Reach Out to GLBT Youth Community
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We, the students and staff at Avalon School in St. Paul, have been deeply disturbed by the recent rash of student suicides in neighboring districts and around the country. The Star Tribune’s recent article, “Schools Struggle with Gay Policies,” brought to light how local schools are dealing with this crisis. Anoka-Hennepin School Board Chairman Tom Heidemann’s words that “these are issues that can be dealt with outside the classroom” miss the point that queer youth need a supportive school environment if they cannot find that it at home or at neighborhood institutions. When none of these environments serve as spaces of refuge and affirmation, it can be suffocating and sometimes deadly. Anoka-Hennepin School District’s “neutrality” policy fails to serve its students and staff. Continue Reading
FREE SPEECH ZONE | Black student achievement gap topic of Social Justice Symposium
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Dr. Roy I. Jones, executive director of Clemson University’s Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models)) will keynote the St.
Are charter schools too segregated? Or does freedom of choice make segregation okay?
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A report released earlier this year by the Civil Rights Project analyzed 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students and found that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools.
Seventy percent of Black charter school students attend “intensely segregated” charter schools, and half of Latino charter school students nationwide attend racially isolated minority schools, the study noted. Also, when compared to other regions around the country, the Midwest has higher concentrations of Black students enrolled in charter schools. Coverage of issues of race and race relations, cultural diversity and immigrant health issues is funded in part by a grant from the F.R. Bigelow Foundation. Locally, over half of Twin Cities charter schools are non-White according to a November 2008 Institute on Race and Poverty report.
Most of the students that attend Higher Ground Academy, a St. Paul K-12 charter school, are from East African countries, said its director, Bill Wilson, in a phone interview. Continue Reading