Don Austin: The path to prison
When Don Austin was 15 he stole a car, sparking a police chase that killed a woman and disabled her two children. While he was in jail, he learned to read.
Beth Hawkins covered education and other public-policy topics for MinnPost from its launch in 2007 to October of 2015, when she left to write for Education Post, a nonprofit based in Chicago.
When Don Austin was 15 he stole a car, sparking a police chase that killed a woman and disabled her two children. While he was in jail, he learned to read.
Jon Berry grew up in the small town of Greenwood, South Carolina, where schools ignored Brown v. Board of Education in favor of what he calls “separate but equal.”
Sammy White is a behavior specialist. He’s incredibly good at helping kids regulate their emotions enough to stay in school. When he tells students he’s been there, they believe him.
If Ansu Kolleh is among the half of Minnesota English language learners who graduate from high school, it will be at least in part because of his disposition, which has allowed him to survive being the newcomer over and over again.
The way Nordame Williams remembers the choice, it was between the jail — the same facility where Jon Berry teaches — and agreeing to do community service and enroll in an alternative learning center.
After his family moved to Minneapolis from Gary, Indiana, Walker made two deliberate decisions. The first was to volunteer in as many places as possible to stay busy and off the streets. The second was to structure his social life around a core group of friends who shared his goal of going to college.
If he could travel back, would he do it again? “No question,” says Trockman, whose last post was in the blazing hot seat of liaison between the school board and MPS leadership.
Screening twice on Friday, July 17, the documentary chronicles the 2010-2011 epidemic of student suicides in Anoka-Hennepin.
The end goal, explains MPS’ Amy Johnson, is for everyone in a school community to feel ownership over the success of all of the kids.
Aaliyah Hodge is one of three fellows in a program recently launched by the school for students pursuing a master’s in public policy. It is the first of its kind.
Their advice for those hoping to follow in their shoes: Find a college that provides support — financial and otherwise — for first-generation college-goers and lean on it.
In his current role, the former Minneapolis mayor is head of Generation Next, a 2½-year-old effort that, until now, has been frustratingly hard to describe.
The next two-year deal just might be struck in 12 weeks, vs. a year. A review of both starting wish lists suggests the next agreement is likely to simply build on the current one.
Mill City will offer a novel, four-pronged approach with Global Classical Studies as a lynchpin. Up to 150 ninth-, 10th-, and 11th-graders are expected this year.
The lawsuit is one of several ongoing efforts to force the Board of Teaching to license teachers trained outside traditional Minnesota programs.
A 2014 appeals-court opinion cited a 2009 clarification of the statute that requires charters to be specifically included if a provision is to pertain to them.
The school’s approaches were chronicled in the 2014 book “Restoring Opportunity,” an examination of three programs that have proven transformational over time and on a large scale.
Education advocates consider: When lawmakers and the governor have cooled off enough to again inhabit the same space, what should they lobby for?
Art Rolnick said he was encouraged to hear that Dayton was willing to be flexible about the way early-childhood services are delivered: “We need a governor with that kind of leadership.”
Walid Abubakar and his sister moved here 11 years ago from a refugee camp in Ethiopia.
By Beth Hawkins
July 23, 2015