By Duane Benson, December guest blogger
Earlier this month, I wrote about how important it is to invest early in the children of our community. I feel fortunate to be the executive director of an organization that is doing exactly that: the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) is focused on recommending cost-effective strategies for preparing children to succeed in school.
Created through a partnership of foundation, corporate and civic leaders, MELF was established in 2005 to address growing concerns about the lack of school readiness among many children entering kindergarten. Built on the concept of a limited lifespan, MELF researched the existing knowledge and theories in the field; developed evaluation strategies in order to fill gaps in that knowledge; implemented initiatives to test existing theories and explore new theories; and at the close of 2011, as planned, will conclude these efforts by delivering recommendations to policy makers in Minnesota and beyond.
Working closely with the MELF Research Consortium, we are focused on three major initiatives:
Parent Aware is a pilot of a quality rating system that uses standardized, evidence-based measures to rate the quality of early learning programs; provides support for providers to improve quality; is accessible to parents for selecting quality programs for their young children and has gained legislative support. As of November 2009, there are 295 providers participating in Parent Aware.
Early Childhood Scholarship Program is a pilot of the market-driven approach developed by economists Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The program, which serves 515 children from low-income families in three neighborhoods in Saint Paul, was designed to include both a parent mentoring and scholarship component.
Community Initiatives & Innovation Grants: MELF has supported and evaluated a diverse variety of initiatives and programs in a number of different communities, all with the goal of building better knowledge about which strategies are cost-effective in improving school readiness.
I encourage each of you to consider how you could support high quality early learning for the youngest children in your community.
By Duane Benson, December guest blogger
There seem to be more and more people lately who are interested in early learning and child development, and for good reason: in 2007, half of Minnesota children were not ready for kindergarten, and studies show that only half of them will catch up. I’m writing about this because we need people to understand that investing in children younger than five is essential if we want more of our children to succeed in school.
As the executive director of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, I spend a lot of time reading about investments in early learning, stories of success, and warnings about missed opportunities. With 90 percent of a child’s brain developing between birth and age five, those first few years of life are very important. Learning is crucial at this young age, when many parents are primarily focused on keeping their children safe, warm, and fed.
The good news is that people are paying attention, and not just the usual suspects. Business leaders are getting involved, as they are anxious to keep the future workforce strong. In fact, some of the business leaders on our board have attended the Telluride Economic Summit on Early Childhood Investment, hosted by The Partnership for America’s Economic Success. Economists like Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis are completing return on investment studies, working to persuade foundations, corporations, and governments that investing in our youngest children makes good economic sense. Elected officials in the local, state, and federal arenas are prioritizing early learning even in these difficult financial times. In Minnesota, the Early Childhood Caucus (PDF) and the Early Childhood Advisory Council (PDF) are two entities dedicated to this effort.
As a society, we spend an awful lot of money trying to fix problems, rather than preventing them. Plenty of public money already goes towards the care and education of our youngest children: in fact, Wilder Research found that in 2008, $399 million of public funds were spent on early care and education. However, only three percent of that money went towards improving quality.
Check back later this month to learn more about the work that the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation and others are doing to support early learning. Strategically increasing and focusing our investment in these early stages of life will be essential if we hope to prepare more children to succeed in school and life.
By Gerald Timian, November guest blogger
Educators and those of us who are working to increase college access and career success for low-income and working-class students need to develop strategies that help these students gain the social skills and institutional savvy to be successful.
In my November post, “When Prometheus’ Fire Isn’t Enough,” I talked about my brother and his struggle to make the cultural shifts necessary to make the most of his college education.
Continuing on that theme, let’s probe deeper to understand what advantages middle-class students bring to their college and university experience that are part of their unconscious social patterns and help them have success in school.
First, let me say that I know that many of my statements to follow are generalizations and there are low-income and working-class students who beat the odds and are successful in college. My use of these generalizations is to illustrate that too many of these students start down the path of higher education and never reach the finish line.
Many middle-class children begin performing for adults outside of their families at very young ages — dance and piano recitals, sports teams, and so on. Participating in these activities teaches youth that what they do is important to adults and that they are entitled to adult time, talent, and understanding.
Low-income and working-class youth often have fewer expectations from adults. They have been raised to listen to adults and not to question their authority.
What impact do these two very different expectations have on a youth’s college education? My children were raised in a middle-class neighborhood with neighbors who were academics. They saw these neighbors mowing their lawns; they played with their children, heard them tell bad jokes and called them by their first names. In other words, they saw them as people and caring adults. When my children went off to college they were not intimidated by their professors because they saw them as caring adults, not unlike their own parents.
Oftentimes, the only interaction low-income youth have with middle-class people is in some type of formal role; this group is usually limited to teachers, police officers, social workers and ministers. The youths interact with this group of people in a formal manner and see them as authority figures.
When these students enter college they see professors and instructors not as caring adults but as authority figures with a great deal of power over their lives. My children wouldn’t give it a second thought to go to a professor’s office and expect to have all their questions answered until they had an understanding of the material. However, low-income students may be too intimidated to ask for personal help and if they do ask for help they listen with respect and do not ask follow-up questions to get the clarity they need to master the material.
How do colleges and universities have to change their approach so low-income students can begin to see their professors and instructors as older colleagues and guides who are involved in similar educational and intellectual pursuits?
Multiple studies show that low-income and working-class students are more confident and comfortable in the company of peers. I know in my own situation that my mentor treated me like a younger colleague, challenging me to take on difficult ideas.
Another advantage middle-class youth have is that their parents are more likely to spend time with them problem solving. A middle-class youth can go to his or her parents with questions and in most cases the parent will answer the question with another question, which helps their child go deeper into the issue. This in turn puts the child in a position to explore the issues from many angles. Eventually children in these situations come to their own solution to the question.
Because middle-class kids have greater odds of participating in performance activities from such an early age they have an understanding of doing and redoing until they have the skills perfected under the scrutiny of caring adults. When they go off to college they have the patience and persistence to work and rework their writing. They understand the concept of the first draft.
One of my biggest frustrations when visiting a museum or art gallery is that the artist’s finished work is on display and you never see the multiple drafts and failed pieces. I wish I could take students to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It is a fascinating, multilevel gallery designed to show the works of Van Gogh from his earliest sketches to his later masterpieces. For me, the most interesting pieces in the museum were his early works, which were mediocre, and you cannot imagine that from that body of work a master artist would develop.
To be able to help students understand that their first attempt does not have to be the finished one is one of the great insights of their educational journey.
Given that most professors and instructors come from the upper and middle classes, it is important that we continue to educate them about the needs and perspectives of students from low-income and working-class backgrounds. These are the students they increasingly will be seeing in their classrooms.
I have asked a researcher from the University of Minnesota to begin a series of interviews with low-income and working-class students to get a better understanding of how these students see themselves becoming successful in college and in their careers.
My hope is that this information will give us new insights into how to create a democratic and equitable educational system for the 21st century.
By Gerald Timian, November guest blogger
When Prometheus stole fire from Zeus for humans, he taught humans the arts of civilization — writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science. In today's society, Prometheus' fire is represented in the education we get by attending college.
Presumably when students have finished college, they have the knowledge and skills to begin a profession or career. But knowledge and skill are not enough to get by the gatekeepers. People must have the other trappings of the middle class to have the door opened.
My older brother was the first in our family to go to college. My father was a foundry worker and my mother was a waitress. They believed in the American Dream and that their boys would go to college.
My brother was a good student who received a teaching degree in History and Geography. He lived at home and put himself through school. Every evening after dinner when he and I were doing dishes, he would give me a lecture on history, geography, or current events. The topics were wide ranging — everything from the Armenian genocide to the history of Bolivia.
My brother was a passionate and knowledgeable teacher, but he was never able to break into the field. He received enough rejection letters to wallpaper a house. Like Martin Luther King Jr. he was able to see the Promised Land but was never able to enter.
When my brother died at the age of 41, he was making $8.50 an hour and working 60 hours a week as a short order cook. He spent his money on classes, books, beer and cigarettes. He was always hopeful that with just the right additional class, he could make another attempt at the Promised Land. Why was it that he was never able to get that career opportunity?
He was smart and well educated in his field. What he lacked were the other trappings of the middle class — he was unable to make the cultural shifts necessary to get by the gatekeepers. His language was not the language of the middle class.
At the University of Minnesota, he struggled to find a mentor who could show him the underlying rules of the middle class. He also lacked the ability to cut the ties that bound him to family, neighborhood and class. These anchors give a young person the stability they need to thrive but they are also a double-edged sword. They can pull you down when you are trying to make the leap to the middle class. The anchor ropes are so intertwined that if you cut one that is holding you back, you damage the others and are not able to return home again. You risk becoming the "other" in your parents’ home.
Unlike my brother, I was fortunate to find a professor at the University who took an interest in me. He invited me to his home to have dinner with his family. He schooled me on the ways of the middle class and invited me to parties to watch them discuss the world. He sent me on endless interviews of physicians, educators, business people and bureaucrats to listen and learn and understand their rules. When the time came to begin a career, I had learned enough about the middle class to fool the gatekeepers and begin a career.
College access programs represent a significant trend in education today. My concern with these programs stems from my own family's experience.
Helping low-income and working class students reach college is an admirable goal, but helping them achieve their full potential while there is quite another. It is not enough just to get young, low-income kids into college. What higher education needs to understand is that more and more students are going to need support systems and relationships with mentors so they can begin to understand how the middle class world operates and how to work toward success.
Historically, colleges and universities have assumed that by the time students enter college, they are young adults capable of managing both their educational and personal lives. However, students need more than a cursory understanding of middle class systems and structures in order for them to be successful in college and in future careers.
How do we identify the types of supports certain students need in higher education and then how do we go about creating the networks of people who can provide those essential supports for students' success?
This needs to be a combined effort on the part of colleges and universities and those programs designed to help low-income students obtain access to higher education. In other words, the supports must continue beyond gaining entrance.
By Frank Hernandez, October guest blogger
Several weeks ago, thousands of students walked onto our college campuses to start new journeys in education. Among them was a young man who a few years ago was involved in local gangs and destined to drop out of high school. How did he, and many others like him, end up at a top-notch private college?
The answer to that question is as complex as each student. Yet, there are some common threads. First and foremost, each student needs to make a conscious effort to change some things about how they want to live. Many also find support from local community-based organizations.
For example, Centro is a local Latino community organization, which is located in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. It offers a continuum of youth programs for Latino youth. Educational success is a priority across all Centro youth programs. Community-based organizations like Centro have many assets, such as bilingual, bicultural staff; strong relationships with families; and effective communications with the schools, health providers and other anchor institutions.
For the past two years, Centro’s youth coordinator, Mitch Roldán, has been working with gang-involved youth in the Minneapolis schools. With Mitch’s help, one such participant chose to move away from the gangs. He also found a deep connection to his cultural roots, took on a leadership role with his peers, and decided to apply and start at one of Minnesota’s private colleges this fall.
If community-based organizations like Centro are so successful, why aren’t more P-12 schools working closely and systemically with community-based organizations? What can teacher preparation programs learn from community-based organizations to better reach families and students who might otherwise not enroll in post-secondary education?
These are precisely the questions that a collaborative team of faculty from Augsburg, Bethel, Concordia (St Paul), Hamline, St. Catherine and St. Thomas began asking themselves as they worked on developing a new teacher preparation program through a special grant program at the Bush Foundation this past summer.
Later this month, I’ll share some highlights from the plan, which is still in development. But a key element in the plan is the commitment from our teacher preparation institutions to partner with community-based organizations.
Do you agree? Please share your thoughts and examples about what worked in effective higher education and P-12 educational partnerships with community-based organizations.
By Kent Pekel, September guest blogger
How does Minnesota move beyond admiring the problem of the gaping gaps in educational achievement and attainment that persist in our state along racial and socioeconomic lines? That was one of the questions I had the opportunity to pose last night to more than 100 community members who gathered to watch a preview screening of a new TPT documentary, “Challenging Expectations.” The program offers a compelling overview of the urgent need to put students from groups that have long been underrepresented in higher education — especially students of color and low-income students — on the path to success at technical, community and four-year colleges.
The program describes many of the changes that schools, colleges and community partners need to make to reach that goal, from increasing access to challenging high school classes to providing mentors and support systems for students who face challenges beyond the classroom. Carlos Mariani Rosa — legislator and head of the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership — spoke about the need for systemic responses combined with individual commitment and community leadership. He also suggested that we need many more non-profit organizations like Admission Possible and publicly supported initiatives like the federal TRiO programs.
I agree with Carlos about the need for systemic reforms and supports, but I was most struck by the conversation afterward about another critical part of the formula for academic success: student motivation. Time and again, we heard students who were succeeding against the odds say they had a fire in the belly to make their way to college and a career. Some of those students said that motivation came from a family member, others drew it from a mentor or teacher and still others had no idea where it originated.
As I reflected last night on my years as a K-12 teacher and administrator, I realized that despite the fact that my colleagues and I were deeply committed to student success, no school or district I worked in had a formal strategy to increase and sustain students’ motivation to succeed in school. Instead, we assumed that strong relationships and good teaching would result in the motivation to learn. For many students, those things are enough. But my experience in recent years and the “Challenging Expectations” program reinforce my sense that schools and organizations that work with youth now need to put in place proactive and powerful strategies for motivating students to succeed in school and progress toward higher education and high-skill employment.
And so the question in my mind today is this: what would that look like? How can we do more than hope that students develop the persistence to work through academic and personal challenges to reach their goals? How can we help young people who tweet and text all day develop the willingness to undertake the “boring” work that is required to learn to perform a science experiment, write a great essay or create a great work of art?
What programs and educators are already doing this, what can we learn from them and how do we replicate them across Minnesota? We need to stop admiring the problem of the achievement gap and start solving it at scale for all of our students and in all of our communities.
By Shvonne Johnson, August guest blogger
First Step is a six-day/five-night college preparatory experience for high school women of color who are serious about pursuing higher education. During the week-long journey at St. Catherine University, the young women build community with one another, explore college majors that would lead to fulfilling careers, and learn how to best prepare for college while still in high school. They are also introduced to various women of influence in the community that unapologetically share their stories of resilience to serve as "visions" of possibility for the girls.
While St. Kate’s has had summer programs for girls of color for over 30 years, in the last 10 years, First Step has served hundreds of students. While we hope that these students choose St. Catherine University, and many have, our larger goal is to get them to pursue any college or university that is the best fit for them.
This summer, the First Step staff and St. Kate’s community had the honor of serving 50 young women from as far away as Texas and Georgia. As one student said, "Yes, it really teaches women of color to have confidence and be themselves. It gives you a lot of college insight, gives you the courage to make a lot of new friends and meet some really great people. This is a once in a lifetime experience and I think everyone should have the chance to do this. It’s an enriching experience unlike any other."
First Step truly impacts young women of color so they’re motivated and confident in their abilities to achieve success in higher education.
I’d love to hear more examples of the impact of access programs like First Step. What are you doing or what have you seen that’s working?
By Kathleen O'Donnell, guest blogger
As education reform catches fire and gains focus in the Minnesota philanthropic community (see In tough economy, nonprofits refocus and Giving Forum), where is innovation being nurtured? What are the essentials to getting and maintaining educational equity in our state?
The 2009 season of The Minneapolis Foundation’s Minnesota Meeting public affairs forum focused on equity in education. Dozens of corporate and foundation sponsors helped us convene three events to foster constructive dialogue on different aspects of the issue. View a summary of a few of the recommendations generated throughout the series. Visit Minnesota Meeting.com to view all three events, download fact sheets, and read event summaries. The statistics in Minnesota speak for themselves. What do you think?
The Minneapolis Foundation’s new strategic plan (over and above donor-directed grantmaking) includes a focus on promoting social, economic, and racial equity in our community. One of the key areas towards which the Foundation will target resources to help achieve equity is through grantmaking, partnership, and leadership activities that help transform education. Learn more about The Minneapolis Foundation’s strategic plan, in particular the focus on transforming education.
What do you think the next steps should be? Where are the greatest opportunities? How should Minnesotans embrace the charge to do “whatever it takes” to ensure the success of all of our children — and thereby our future economy?
By Kathleen O'Donnell, July guest blogger
In late June, while most kids were just settling into summer, Destination 2010 students came together to prepare for the final leg of their K-12 journey. Their third annual summer weekend retreat was held at Camp Saint Croix with the theme of Rising to the Challenge and Exceeding Expectations.
Destination 2010 is an initiative of The Minneapolis Foundation designed to help a cohort of students graduate on time (in 2010) and pursue higher education — while sharing lessons learned along the way. Instead of creating new programs, the initiative weaves together existing resources to provide information, opportunities, and support to the students, the majority of whom are low-income students of color, and many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college. The program also conducts campus tours, connects kids with summer enrichment activities (and underwrites the costs), and offers many other activities to keep kids involved, focused, and achieving year round.
It’s an unusual program for its size and scope — launched in 2001, every 3rd grader in seven struggling Minneapolis and Saint Paul public schools was invited to participate. Every student who remained continuously enrolled in the two districts would receive a $5,000 or $10,000 scholarship to pursue post-secondary education. As they prepare to enter their senior year, 185 students remain in the program. This includes 40% of the original 364 students, along with students in another program who merged with Destination 2010 midstream.
The high attrition rate underscores the fact that mobility has posed the same challenges to Destination 2010 as it has to the school system itself. And the effect on the students can be devastating. We’ve witnessed first-hand the corrosive effects of mobility on relationships over time, on access to information and opportunities, and on academic success.
On the flip side, one of our greatest successes has been the ability to keep students on our radar who might have otherwise fallen off. For many students, the identity of being in Destination 2010 has transcended time and place. We’ve been able to maintain relationships with some students through homelessness, multiple moves, family upheaval, and time in the juvenile justice system.
Another significant challenge has been the need to constantly combat the pull of low expectations — both from external sources and within the students themselves — especially among so-called ‘average” students. Generally speaking, high-performing low-income students (those who are “beating the odds”) garner attention. Students viewed as average or underperforming often pass under the radar of efforts to nurture college aspirations. Yet even as Destination 2010’s approach has been to set the same high goals for all students, that vision hasn’t necessarily taken root for every single student or family.
And, honestly, for some students, the barriers can seem overwhelming. It can be very challenging to continue to hold high expectations and demand accountability for our students, when we’re aware of the difficulties and instability in their personal lives. It’s a balancing act for everyone who teaches young people to strive to achieve amid stressful circumstances.
Fortunately, we work in close partnership with the families, community programs, and school leadership and staff. To connect most effectively with the students and their families, a group of Destination 2010 liaisons who reflect the diversity of our students serve as the primary contacts. The liaisons have built relationships that open the door for tough conversations about what it will take to get into higher ed. They work with the students, but also help families navigate the roadmap to higher education (financial aid applications, appropriate pre-college class selections, etc.). They even keep family phone numbers current...not a small task. They keep our students encouraged and connected; keep the families informed, involved, and empowered; and have helped make Destination 2010 a diverse yet cohesive community of students striving to achieve.
Destination2010 student Rakeem has reflected, "I have been through a lot of programs in my life due to certain circumstances, but D2010 is by far my favorite. I look forward to seeing my friends and fellow students doing something productive and so serious about their lives to come. I see so many of my peers throwing their lives away with drugs and what not. I have made the choice to do something better and I feel that the decision I have made is the right one. Well, I am aware of my surroundings and I am capable of getting to my destination, are you?”
Question to readers: What strategies have you found to be successful in keeping students connected through achievement programs that aren’t necessarily focused on a specific school, neighborhood, or activity?