Officials, lawmakers and civil rights groups commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by calling for much-needed updates to the law.
Education
A space for local and national stories about issues surrounding education, especially as they relate to African Americans.
Posted inEducation
U. S. education equity ‘has a long way to go’
Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius said she will continue to work with local groups to close the achievement gap between Black and White students.
Posted inEducation
Teacher brings award-winning education expertise to N. Mpls
James Barnett, principal of Minneapolis College Preparatory School, a public charter school currently serving 9-12 grade students at the old “Lincoln Elementary” building on 12th and Penn Ave. N, is originally from Chicago, Illinois. He moved to Minneapolis when he was in the fifth grade.
Living predominantly on the North Side, he went to Hall Elementary and Franklin Junior High. In high school, he attended Minnehaha Academy, and then went to St. Olaf College for his post-secondary education.
Posted inEducation
Home visits engage parents, enlighten teachers
With kindergarten, many children experience their first taste of independence. They get a glimpse for a few hours a day of what it’s like when their parents aren’t around. Little do they know that this will become their natural reality for the next 13 years.
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Minnesota college students face loan crisis
Minnesota is fifth among U.S. “high-debt states” where college student debt upon graduation on average has surpassed $30,000, says The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). The 2014 project student debt report that TICAS released last November points out that in 2013 seven in 10 college graduates from public and private nonprofit colleges owe an average of $28,400 in student loans, up two percent from 2012.
Posted inEducation
Blacks now finishing high school at record levels
After 30 years of little to no progress, Black youth are completing high school at the highest rates in history.
This is the finding in a new issue brief titled, “Young Black America Part One: High School Completion Rates are at their Highest Ever,” published by the Center for Economic Policy Research, a Washington-based think-tank. The report examines Census Bureau data for 20 to 24 year-olds, and compares high school completion rates around the country over the past 30 to 40 years.
Posted inEducation
Age 0 – 3 the focus of achievement gap forum
On March 5, North Minneapolis’ Phyllis Wheatley Community Center hosted Mayor Betsey Hodges’ Cradle to K Public Forum. Roughly 100 Minneapolis parents and community members gathered to voice concerns and add input to the city’s growing factors that contribute to the Minneapolis achievement gap between students of color and their Caucasian counterparts.
Posted inEducation
Educator’s faith in schools and students bears fruit
A “difference-maker who loves children.” That’s how Bill Wilson describes Dr. Tyrone Brookins. Wilson has known Brookins for almost 20 years.
A native of Dallas, Texas, Brookins has become a widely praised math teacher and now principal at Battle Creek Middle School in St. Paul Public Schools. He is the kind of person almost everyone wants working with young people and other educators.
Posted inEducation, News
Racial disparities in early childhood education hurts U.S.
Increased investment in early childhood education and care can eradicate many of the racial success gaps that persist throughout society, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP).
Posted inEducation, News
Interim MPS super says this is no time to ‘play scared’
If the Minneapolis School Board approves it, Interim Superintendent Michael Goar plans to “right size” the district. “What we are proposing are the things that I will be focusing on as superintendent for the next four months,” says Goar, who was named Bernadeia Johnson’s interim successor in December and assumed his new duties Feb. 2.
Posted inEducation, Local & State, News
SPPS super says battling the board not her style
St. Paul Public Schools [SPPS] has “evolved” since 2009, the year Valeria Silva was hired as its superintendent. “Have we made mistakes? Yes. Have we improved on the mistakes we made? Absolutely,” says Silva, who adds that SPPS must keep pace with a city that has “gone through the largest transformation in 25 years.”
Posted inEducation, News
Critics say GOP education reform would hurt poor and Black students
As the Republican-led Congress prepares to update the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), civil rights groups, educators and student advocates fear that current proposals leave many poor and Black children behind.
Posted inEducation, Local & State
BDPA Twin Cities celebrates 25 years of education, innovation
An annual ceremony held on Jan. 9 this year in Minneapolis presented awards and highlighted the achievements of high school and college students who are majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Chaos once again at Green Central
Two years ago, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) reached out for help in dealing with academic and race relations problems at Richard Green Central Park School by hiring Lorraine Cruz — a top-notch educator and administrator — as principal.
Posted inEducation, Local & State, News
MPS superintendent bids farewell to all-consuming job
She leaves proud of many achievements as ‘a fierce advocate for children’
Among the “frustrating challenges” she often faced during her nearly five years as Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) superintendent was the unfair “characterization” she received from some in the Black community, says Bernadeia Johnson, who announced her resignation last month. Her last day is January 31.
Posted inEducation, Local & State
Generation Next’s education data reveal no surprises
We’ve heard it before: Kids of color lag behind Whites When it comes to Generation Next, partnerships and outreach play a key role in their hoped-for success. “We’re kind of an opt-in effort, and the more folks you get to opt-in the greater [our] likelihood [of success is]” said Jerimiah Ellis in a previous MSR […]
Posted inEducation, Local & State
Five big steps across the achievement gap
With 10 small, experimental ‘bright spots’ along the way Earlier this year, Generation Next held a kick-off event at the University of Minnesota to unveil what they believe are the five core initiatives to closing the achievement gap here in the Twin Cities. Curious as to how they intend to attack these five areas, I […]
Posted inEducation
Graduation Celebration 2015
Spokesman-Recorder Nonprofit 501c3 will host its 20th Annual High School Graduation Celebration at the Hilton Hotel located in Downtown Minneapolis in May of 21st 2015. The theme for this event, “Education and Graduation: It’s a Family Affair,” honors the Twin Cities’ African and African American high school graduates. The Spokesman-Recorder Nonprofit 501c3 has hosted this […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Closer to the finish line on educational equity
With opportunity gaps widening for poor children and children of color, new guidance from the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education offers new hope and protection from discrimination. For the first time in 13 years, the Department now makes clear that states, school districts, and schools must make education resources equally available to all students without regard to race, color, or national origin.
Posted inEducation, News
Money blocks low-income children from a good education
All schools, including charter schools, must do a better job teaching our children, stated Marquette University Professor Howard Fuller recently at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Fuller, a founding member of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), former Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent, and current board chair at a Milwaukee charter school, was the featured keynote speaker at the second annual Minnesota Charter School Conference July 29 at McNamara Center.