Beth Hawkins writes about education in Learning Curve. Hawkins has covered a variety of subjects for MinnPost since its launch in 2007, but has a particular passion for reporting on education. In addition to her conviction that education is one of today’s most pressing issues on a policy level, she’s motivated by her experience advocating for her two sons in great schools and not-so-great ones.
There are no publicly available indicators showing which schools of education train excellent teachers. Or whether those new teachers actually end up in the classroom.
As reporter Beth Hawkins gets ready to take a new job, she reflects on her time covering education in Minnesota.
Half of the school’s students are English language learners, and almost 90 percent qualify for free meals. Yet over the last two years, test scores at Como have gone up 20 percent.
NCLB required states to develop plans for giving impoverished students “equitable access” to highly qualified teachers.
We meet their families and the educators who have invested in them, and we hear about their plans for the future. All without stereotypes.
After 26 years at the helm of the Center for School Change, Joe Nathan has announced that he’s ready to pass the baton.
Four years after it was launched, the MMR doesn’t accurately and fairly reflect all students’ academic growth, critics say.
The episode represents a proxy war being waged over the strategic direction of Minneapolis Public Schools.
The book, written by Macalester College Professor Duchess Harris for sixth- to 12th-graders, traces the roots of Black Lives Matter as far back as the 1700s.
“When you break down the components … people are in favor,” says Morgan Polikoff of USC. “It’s just when you call it Common Core people don’t like it.”
Now in its eighth year, Phillips Eye Institute’s Early Youth Eyecare Community Initiative (EYE) screens 30,000 students annually in Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools.
Community Partnership Schools will have charter-like flexibility to hire the staff they want, decide (within limits) the length of the school day and year, and choose all or none of the central office’s services.
Large-scale change has caused enough discomfort that tensions within the district are at a flashpoint.
Long seen as a national model, Harvest Network’s schools saw math proficiency drop 20 percentage points this year, while reading scores dropped 9 percentage points.
Why didn’t new efforts manage to move the needle farther? Doubtless some of the answers are the same for Lucy Laney as they are for other struggling schools.
“Other systems are faced with difficult either/ors,” said the KIPP network’s Mike Feinberg. “When you have a longer day, some of those either/ors turn into ands.”
The iteration that passed the Senate includes nine amendments by Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, and a key amendment by Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
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.