School success, setbacks studied

by Dennis Geisinger

The findings of research conducted by a strategic planning team were reviewed at the last regular meeting of the Minneapolis Board of Education on Sept. 25, covering areas including student enrollment and achievement, district operations, revenue sources and uses, and the results of parental opinions surveys about students, school principals, teachers and other district employees.

“We sent out 40,000 parent surveys in June and early July,” said Minneapolis Schools Director of Planning Royce Holladay. “About 10 percent were returned by the end of September. Pretty good for a mail survey,” Holladay said.
The strategic planning team is scheduled to bring its recommendations to the board for discussion at its next regular meeting on Nov. 6, after which an adopted set of suggested initiatives will be phased in over the next several years.
A local consulting firm, McKinsey & Co., donated necessary assistance in addressing a wide range of concerns detailed in a report that concluded, among other things, nearly 30 percent of parents overall are not satisfied with the education their child is receiving at school. An even larger percentage of parents in minority groups said they are dissatisfied.

The achievement gap for racial minorities has been a black eye for Minnesota schools for years and the source of ensuing disagreement and hostility among Minneapolis School Board members. With four new board members and a new, permanent superintendent taking office only since the first few months of the year, there has barely been time for a new look at core issues that have led to the loss of 10,000 students and four superintendents during the previous four years.

“We know we’ve had an achievement gap,” said Holladay. “But new people always bring new perspectives.”

Of parents who had removed their children from Minneapolis public schools, 42 percent cited worries about the district’s future, 36 percent had complaints about student behavior and safety, 31 percent said class size was a problem and 29 percent said their child was not academically challenged.

“The board hasn’t prioritized these concerns,” said Holladay. “As we look at things that can strengthen our school’s system of support, we’re checking into successful programs that are in place in schools around the country.”

“For instance, Boston schools tend to focus on instruction, creating opportunities that even free up principals from administrative duties so they can use their time to help teach,” said Holladay.

“And Chicago public schools are more structurally centered,” Holladay continued, “making their staffs more accountable for academic outcomes. We’re trying to find the right mix for our schools, to determine what works best in practice.”
Yet the board says that not all of the recent past has been a negative.

“Really good things have been implemented,” said Holladay. “Like our Institute for Learning program that emphasizes basic principles of instruction and has focused on outcomes.”

“Some other of our programs are doing very well in the southern district, like our magnet programs,” said Halloday. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, one such Southside magnet school, the Northrop Urban Environmental School in the Nokomis area, has been given a state rating of 4 out of 5 stars for the past two years.