In the end, frontrunners benefited from record spending in MPS board race
Incumbent Rebecca Gagnon and former City Council Member Don Samuels won the four-way race for two at-large board seats.
Beth Hawkins
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.
‘Smartest Kids’ author Ripley to keynote AchieveMpls event
Amanda Ripley is the author of “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way,” a best-seller since its 2013 release.
Unpacking the Strib’s teacher-eval story — and a puzzling MPS response
There is a tremendous amount of chatter on the interwebs. If you can tear yourself away from the election, I commend you to it.
The sea of cash in the Minneapolis school-board race just became a tsunami
According to campaign finance disclosures filed Tuesday, spending in the blazing hot four-way race for two citywide seats likely has surpassed $500,000.
Big money, mean mailers and forgotten races: what you need to know about the Minneapolis school board election
A primer on a stranger-than-fiction campaign.
What education issues are influencing voters? Not all-day-K, poll finds
At the top of their lists are overall school funding, teacher quality, class size and curriculum and standards, a MinnCAN poll found.
The quiet MPS school-board race: Inz vs. Larson in District 5
It’s playing out in the southern half of south Minneapolis, where both candidates are well liked and respected.
Patrick Henry High is the perfect school to host Michelle Obama
There are any number of reasons why Henry deserves the spotlight, including impressive academic indicators. But it’s also because it’s at the epicenter of an effort near and dear to the Obamas’ hearts.
Detroit and needy schoolkids: What if we saw resilience first, instead of deficits?
Educators and education policymakers talk all the time about persistence and grit and culturally relevant pedagogy. What about changing the prisms we look at children through?
Angry groundswell rips MPS board: ‘Stop making excuses,’ ‘We want an audit’
“You all constantly claim you want community engagement,” law professor Nekima Levy-Pounds said. “But when we step up our voices are silenced.”
Event reveals disconnect between diversity goals and Minnesota’s teaching license policy
The Board of Teaching announced in April that it had finally created a “reciprocity” process for those with degrees from out-of-state teaching programs and would begin issuing licenses. It hasn’t.
Progressive Education Fund joins spenders in MPS school-board race
The fund will make its first expenditure on mailers promoting two of the four candidates running in the election cycle’s hottest ticket, a four-way race for two at-large seats.
Black leaders’ letter calls for outside probe of MPS’ Al Flowers contract
The letter calls on MPS leaders to explain why the contract was placed on the school board’s consent agenda, which by law is supposed to contain routine business matters.
Project SUCCESS finds that academics and ‘soft skills’ are not an either/or
Students and families are offered free tickets to plays at local theaters, as well as opportunities to stage productions, spend a week canoeing and tour colleges.
A ‘crazy’ amount of money is being spent on Minneapolis school-board races
Cash and services raised this year by groups spending heavily on the board races — and there are just two red-hot contests — amount to nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
‘First Generation’ shows perils of pre-college navigating
In scene after scene, adults systematically undermine the ambitions of this documentary’s four bright protagonists. The film screens here Oct. 1 and 2.
DFL endorsement dust-up, part 2: a hint of hypocrisy?
Pop quiz for politics junkies: What’s the most interesting thing about the roster of those supporting Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek’s re-election bid?
Outward Bound, to youth and adults: ‘You can do so much more than you know’
At 50, Outward Bound is active in the Twin Cities. Research is mounting that the “soft skills” experiences that a wilderness expedition imparts can have an immediate impact on academic achievement.
New challenges for Hiawatha as it prepares to open a high school
Hiawatha Academies, which opened its first K-4 school in 2007 in south Minneapolis and its first middle school five years later.
Michele Bachmann to emcee fundraiser for group campaigning against anti-bullying-law rollout
On Monday members of the group are expected to pack the Anoka-Hennepin school district’s school board meeting to speak against the adoption of a long-sought LGBT-affirming policy.
