Category Archives: Media

MPR: Task force recommends greater oversight, guidance for school integration efforts

Tim Post reports for MPR: “Task force recommends greater oversight, guidance for school integration efforts.” Post interviews several members as he describes the recommendations of the task force.

Swanson was one of two members who voted against the task force’s final report, primarily because he thought it lacked detail.

But he said the group worked well together, despite opposing views on integration and could have done an even better job if it had more than 10 weeks to finish the report.

Despite the quick turn-around time, the report should be useful to lawmakers, task force member and Republican State Sen. Pam Wolf said.

MinnPost: Integration task force forwarding results to Cassellius

Beth Hawkins writes in MinnPost: “Integration task force forwarding results to Cassellius.” She describes the compromise the task force arrived at in the context of last year’s legislative session and the expectations for their work.

The recommendations carry the endorsement of such presumed opponents as University of Minnesota law professor Myron Orfield, a relentless integration advocate, and Lakeville School Board member Bob Erickson, a fiscal conservative.

Victory, in this instance, was snatched not from the jaws of defeat but from the yawning maw of gridlock.

Star Tribune: A positive grade for integration aid plan

Monday’s Star Tribune editorial gives the integration task force “A positive grade for integration aid plan.”

Two members of the group opposed the recommendations (including Star Tribune contributor Katherine Kersten), arguing that funding over the years hasn’t produced the intended results. But the task force also suggested ways to address those concerns by ensuring accountability and better oversight.

The Department of Education would define limited uses of AIM revenue, and school districts would have to submit plans with measurable goals to receive the funds. The department would monitor and evaluate the programs — and withhold funding if districts do not make adequate progress.

Star Tribune: A bad idea just keeps coming back

Integration task force member Katherine Kersten gives us a taste of what her minority report may sound like in a Star Tribune commentary: “A bad idea just keeps coming back.” She envisions a world where attorney Dan Shulman succeeds in turning the Twin Cities into Hartford, Connecticut:

Most Hartford children still attend district schools, which remain as racially isolated as they were 20 years ago. And achievement is still bottom-of-the-barrel: In 2010, only 43 percent of Hartford’s K-8 students were proficient in reading, and only 57 percent in math. Meanwhile, all-minority charter schools like Jumoke Academy (pre-K-8) are among the region’s highest-performing schools in terms of achievement gains by poor, minority children.

Ironically, the Hartford school district — the intended beneficiary of the court-ordered plan — is now strenuously working against the requirements, which increasingly threaten the district’s viability. Hartford will likely have to close six or seven schools and lay off hundreds of teachers and staff if it is compelled to send more students to the suburbs. In April 2011, the Hartford schools launched a television, radio and print advertising campaign imploring parents not to send their kids out of the district.

Daily Planet: Integration revenue task force approves plan

Alleen Brown writes another story in the Twin Cities Daily Plant: “Integration revenue task force approves plan.” She focusses on describing the elements of the task force report:

The task force’s plan would create an Achievement and Integration for Minnesota (AIM) program. The program would be funded by what is currently known as integration revenue. The difference: only programs that fall under a list of clearly defined categories would receive revenue. Districts would submit plans with measurable goals to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE.) The goals would include improved test scores and reduced differences in demographics between schools and between districts. Approved programs would undergo an annual review by the MDE, to determine whether or not they are meeting their goals. If not, funding would be cut.

The article is a good summary of the report. Of course, all eyes are currently on the minority reports that might emerge by Monday evening.


(Illustration from the TC Daily Planet.)

Star Tribune: State integration task force adopts plan to close achievement gap

Kim McGuire writes in the Star Tribune: “State integration task force adopts plan to close achievement gap.”

For almost a year, the task force has been wrestling over the question of whether the funds should be used to combat segregation, or, as GOP members of the Legislature have argued, use the money for literacy programs and other efforts to narrow the state’s achievement gap between white and nonwhite students.

In the end, the task force gave a nod to both, calling for the creation of a program called Achievement & Integration for Minnesota (AIM), responsible for coming up with a new integration rule that prohibits school segregation. Among other things, AIM revenue should be pumped into programs such as full-day kindergarten for low-income families and Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college preparation effort, according to the task force recommendations.

Aside from the obvious error that the task force has only had two months to do its work, not “almost a year,” the article does a decent job of summing up the conclusion. The article ends with a statement that, “At this stage in the debate, metro school officials were relieved to know that the task force supports the program’s continued funding.”

Certainly. But what really matters is now the Legislature takes up this issue. Most don’t expect it to squeeze its way onto this session’s agenda, so all eyes now turn to the election of all members of the Minnesota House and Senate, some in districts with new boundaries.

Star Tribune: Success spoiled by city’s idea to walk away from FAIR school

Steve Brandt writes in the Star Tribune: “Success spoiled by city’s idea to walk away from FAIR school.” He paints a glowing portrait of FAIR principal Kevin Bennett and notes the difficult position Minneapolis is putting WMEP in with its threat to pull out. Though he is principal of both FAIR schools, Bennett seems to be everywhere…

Although Bennett acknowledged that staff at each school might feel shorted by his dual gigs as principal, parent Laura Aulik of Edina said she’s amazed at how ubiquitous he seems at school events. “Mr. Bennett definitely does have a fire in him that I have not seen in principals,” she said. “His presence is always there.”

There’s also been a transformation in Bennett since his earlier years at FAIR. Although he’s still gray-suited some days, on others he can be found with plaid shirttails hanging out, often surrounded by laughing, excited students.

But Minneapolis still has concerns, some of which are baggage from earlier times…

The city’s issues with FAIR have two origins: the troubles of the original downtown school, and the lack of integration.

The downtown school struggled with a shaky opening year in 1998, frequent turnover of principals, and its kindergarten through 12th grade configuration.

Bennett changed that. He and WMEP Superintendent Dan Jett pared downtown’s 13 grades to a K-3 and senior high grades combo that wrapped around the Crystal school’s popular 4-8 grade span, and adopted the latter’s arts-infused curriculum.

Clearly, keeping these collaborative integration districts open and healthy is a difficult task no matter which side of the Twin Cities you are on.

Pioneer Press: In Twin Cities suburbs, magnet schools go local

Christopher Magan published a story in the Pioneer Press this weekend, “In Twin Cities suburbs, magnet schools go local.” The story, in the Dakota County section of the paper, focuses on the emergence of new integration magnet schools in the West Saint Paul/Mendota Heights/Egan school district. West Saint Paul is a member of EMID.

Magnets, originally created to diversify large city school districts, had grown into regional efforts. Now, the schools are popping up in the increasingly diverse suburbs such as West St. Paul and Burnsville.

The changes are driven by financial incentives, declining traditional public school enrollments and an effort to compete with other academic offerings across the metro.

“It is a continued evolution for magnet schools,” said Joe Nathan, director of the Center for School Change at Macalester College and a school-reform advocate. “I think there is a financial incentive, and school leaders want to keep the energy of the parents in the district. When enrollment declines, districts want to keep more students at their home district.”

Magan interviewed me last week for this story, and unfortunately he misuses a quote to mine. During the interview he tried repeatedly to goad me into saying that West Saint Paul and EMID were in competition with one another over integration, a point of view I disagree with and refused to support. Here’s the quote he used in the article:

St. Paul parent Eric Celeste, who has sent two children to EMID magnets, said that as funding dwindles, it is obvious school districts will favor their own programs first. “They can’t have EMID’s best interest at heart when they have their own districts’ interest at heart,” Celeste said. “It is a governing mechanism, that when there is tension, it breaks down. There is a huge amount of tension.”

Sounds like I said exactly what he wanted to hear, doesn’t it? What he conveniently leaves out is that this quote was specifically about the tensions that EMID board members feel when serving on our board. The “they” is not a reference to “school districts,” as Magan makes it in his article. The “they” is a reference to individual board members, who I feel are placed in an untenable situation by the governance model of EMID.

While I am disappointed by this misuse of my own quote, I appreciate the story and the coverage by the Pioneer Press of an important issue. The fact that West Saint Paul is developing integration magnet’s of its own underscores the important role our EMID schools serve. We are a model, and adoption of that model on a wider, and more local, scale is an important measure of the success of EMID schools. As the article points out:

Jerry Robicheau, interim superintendent of EMID, said his school board is working to find a “sustainable way” to keep operating its two regional magnet schools – Crosswinds East Metro Arts and Science School in Woodbury and Harambee Elementary in Maplewood – that were in danger of being closed last year.

I recommend the full story to those following integration issues in the schools.

…Eric

Star Tribune: Task force seeks a deal on $100M in school integration aid

Steve Brandt published a story in the Star Tribune, “Task force seeks a deal on $100M in school integration aid.” He focusses on the effort the task force is making to get past the differences between members. The article makes note of the special Sunday meeting the task force will hold at co-chair Scott Thomas’ place this weekend.

Most task force members appointed by DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature seemed to find it acceptable to focus both on promoting integration and narrowing the achievement gap between white and minority students. But with just one remaining meeting scheduled for Tuesday before the Feb. 15 deadline, they haven’t settled on how to divide the spending between the goals.

MSR: State’s integration programs face uncertain future

Alleen Brown’s Daily Planet story get picked up by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder as “State’s integration programs face uncertain future.”

The programs that could see funding cuts include magnet school transportation, college preparatory programs, teacher cultural competence trainings, a network for teachers of color, curriculum development, all-day kindergarten and multi-district collaborations. Many of the stakeholders have testified before the task force.

“We have to plan for a worst-case scenario. How can many of those things be sustained without integration dollars?” said North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale district educational equity coordinator Tom Howley.

Very little is certain. According to task force co-chair Scott Thomas, proposals for the funding have ranged from literacy-specific programs to reward systems for school achievement growth. Some ideas would have districts move away from magnet programs, while others would keep many of the current programs in place.