News Cut Category Archive: Schools

Dispatches from the school

Posted at 11:14 AM on February 7, 2012 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

The news today is filled with head-scratching stories from the world of schools.

Check out these:

-- A Newfoundland teacher has been suspended with pay from her job after she sprayed a kid with Febreeze. Christian Roberts, 10, made the mistake of eating fish at lunchtime last week, according to his mother. His mother said her son's classmates starting teasing him about the fishy smell. The teacher sent her son out of class for one period and then sprayed the air freshener on him. (CBC)

-- In Florida, an 11-year-old boy is in police custody after he cornered a special education student in the bathroom and tried to set him on fire. CBS reports the boy "took a can of Old Spice body spray and lit the spray stream on fire." He then "directed the fire stream at fellow student." The school's resource officer told WTSP TV he doesn't think it was a targeted attack but more for "entertainment."

-- A young man in Winona is back in school after grabbing his crotch during a Michael Jackson impersonation. Lenny Boberg, 9, was suspended immediately after the performance of "Billie Jean." The school's principal apologized, the Winona Daily News reports..

-- Mark Denicore and his wife, Amy, are heading for court. Their crime: Daughter Sophie is chronically late for school. Mr. Denicore is an attorney and says he could lose his law license over this. (Loudon Times)

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Putting lipstick on a parent

Posted at 1:15 PM on December 15, 2011 by Michael Olson (3 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

The Rosemount Town Pages editorial board is backing up Rosemount High School Principal John Wollersheim and his decision to pull a prank on some students at a pep rally. The prank involved blindfolding sports captains before a school assembly and telling they that they were going to get a kiss from a special someone. That special someone was one of their parents. The cringe inducing video is drawing negative comments as it makes its way around the pipes and tubes of the Internet.

Principal Wollersheim issued an apology this week, but in an editorial the Rosemount paper said the apology wasn't called for.

There is a lot of talk about Rosemount High School feeling like a community, and events like last week's pep fest are a big part of that. It was fun for everyone involved, and that's nothing to apologize for.

Was this prank community building or in bad taste?

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When bullies understand

Posted at 1:38 PM on December 9, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Schools

The potential of the Internet was fulfilled this week. Chloe McCarty of Blaine made this video on Sunday about a condition she has which causes her to pull out her hair, making her a target of bullies.

She posted it on YouTube and things, apparently, changed for her.

Star Tribune blogger Jeremy Olson followed up and found the video has made a big difference.

With the video has come more understanding among classmates about her condition. One classmate named Matt apologized on her Facebook page: "Hey I really like your video ... I'm sorry about being mean 2 u and judging u without really knowing the real u.." The advocacy group for trichotillomania has contacted Chloe about helping to spread the word about the disorder. Chloe's video has more than 34,000 views -- and that's after the count was recently reset -- and she now has a community Facebook page for followers.

If this story makes you a little nervous as a parent, you're not alone. First, there's the fact that a 12-year-old isn't supposed to even be on Facebook, which has a soft 13-year-old age limit. Second, there are far more stories of viral videos coming back to hurt adolescents, rather than to give them even a little bit of fame and encouragement. (Remember the foul-mouthed Jessi Slaughter, anyone? She dun goof'd.) Third, there's the copyright issue of using a song as background without permission. You can't always expect a Nikki Sixx to come along and give his heartfelt support!

Read his excellent post here.

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Gadhafi and the teachable moment

Posted at 1:30 PM on October 20, 2011 by Eric Ringham (4 Comments)
Filed under: Schools, When people do good

It's a reflex: When a big international story breaks, local media go looking for the local angle. Now that Moammar Gadhafi has been killed, my colleague Paul Tosto remembered this local connection: In 1986, Gadhafi sent a letter to second-grade students at Maxfield Magnet School in St. Paul. The kids had written to the Libyan dictator as part of a class project, and Gadhafi's people apparently saw a PR opportunity.

The children sent Gadhafi questions about dispute resolution, and he answered as though they were taking his side. (You can read Kristin Tillotson's piece in the Star Tribune here, and David Brauer's take in Minnpost here.) What's compelling to me is that a second-grade teacher, Jill Swanson, saw an opportunity to explore a topic as complicated as propaganda, and took it:

"These were 7- and 8-year-olds sharing their thoughts really well, and then his response had a tone of 'thank you for supporting me.' When I read it to them, the kids were looking at me like, 'That's not what we said.' It was confusing to them, but it gave us a great opportunity to discuss what propaganda is, and how to spot it."

Now, that's teaching. A quarter-century later, those kids remember Swanson and the effect she had on their lives. The story fits nicely with today's commentary about Perry Mann, another teacher who made the world different for his students. So, with what we used to call MEA weekend upon us, let's take a moment to thank Ms. Swanson, Mr. Mann and all those others who made a difference in our lives. For me, it's Dann Peterson. Who is it for you?

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College at 11

Posted at 11:30 AM on October 19, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

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Teaching kids a good lesson

Posted at 10:43 AM on October 11, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Sometimes you can't mandate unity.

That much is clear in St. Cloud, where the St. Cloud Times reports on the pushback following discipline against the Apollo High School boys soccer team for unsportsmanlike actions during a game against Willmar. Those included a player removing his shirt, showboating after a goal, and playing music too loud.

The coach of the team, Ganard Orionzi, tried to do what athletic coaches in high school should do: teach kids something important.

"We have been trying to push the notion that this is a team and that the approach is that everything is a team effort," said Orionzi, who led Apollo's girls soccer team to the state tournament before taking over the boys' program this season. "If one or two do something wrong, the whole team is to be punished.

"If one scores a goal or we win, the whole team celebrates. Everything is a team effort and that is the approach we are trying to teach. You win as a team. You go down as a team. You shall do everything as a team."

He intended to forfeit the season-ending game last night against Alexandria, until he realized it could affect Alexandria's postseason aspirations.

The Willmar players also reportedly threatened to go into the stands to fight fans. When the game ended, the paper says, nobody shook hands.

Parents are not happy and have reportedly been circulating complaints against the punishment. A commenter suggests that's part of the problem:

What coaches and administration have done is correct. The behavior of these students does not show pride for themselves, their team-mates, or their school.

I've attended some of the sporting events at Apollo (not having a child in any sports), and it is a bit embarassing of how some of these parents act. They are not setting good examples for their children who are on the teams, so it is no wonder the players act as they do. This is not just Apollo parents, but parents from the visiting schools, too.

This is the second news story I've read today that references the difficulty of educating the children of parents.

In Wayzata yesterday, eighth-grade teacher Seth Brown won a $25,000 Milken prize for his work with the kids, which includes things like making them stand at desks instead of sitting, and using technology in the classroom.

This was the eye-opening line in the Star Tribune article:

His principal said Brown, the only teacher in the state to win the Milken Educator Award this year, is an innovator and that she talks with him often, if only to find out what he's going to try before parents start calling.

Which leads to an age-old question: Do kids learn the lessons they should learn in school because of parents, or in spite of them?

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An actor lives here

Posted at 4:52 PM on October 6, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

I posted earlier today about those signs on lawns announcing that a high school football player lives in the house and wondered when non-sports activities will follow suit.

This afternoon, my colleague, Ted Canova, got the answer.

Chess club? Are you going to take this?

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Education the Russian way

Posted at 2:33 PM on September 16, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

In many metropolitan school districts in the U.S. -- and certainly in the Twin Cities -- there can be dozens of languages spoken by the students. This phenomenon is widely blamed for the disparate test scores, like the ones we saw released this week.

It's coincidence, and certainly fascinating, that the New York Times Magazine is running a piece on what happened when a foreign correspondent put his three kids in a school in Russia where everything is in one language, and it wasn't English.

What struck me as particularly fascinating is the idea that a parent -- a reporter at heart, certainly -- used the situation as something of an experiment, while providing an avenue of escape if that's what the kids wanted. I still can't decide whether this was genius, or foolishness.

I convinced myself that what they were doing was no different from what millions of immigrants in the United States do all the time. Yet my unease stemmed from more than the school. When we arrived in Russia, the country was still suffering through the aftermath of the humiliating Soviet collapse in 1991. Vladimir Putin, a former K.G.B. agent who scorned Western-style democracy, was ruling undisputed. Many Russians -- fed up with post-Soviet disorder -- applauded him.

With oil prices soaring, the economy, based on natural resources, was riding high. In Moscow, newly prosperous Russians embraced a breathtaking materialism, making up for Soviet deprivation. They sped down Tverskaya Street in Lexus S.U.V.'s, outfitted their homes with Poggenpohl kitchens and piled into Cantinetta Antinori and other restaurants run by celebrity chefs from Europe. Moscow has 10 million people, and most are not wealthy. But after a few months, I remember thinking, Was this a society that I wanted to embed my kids in?

Everything turned out well, the article certainly suggests, and the reference in the first line of the paragraphs I quoted above was the only reference in the piece relating to the situation faced by immigrants to the United States.

But I'm pretty sure he wanted people to discuss the parallel and whether it's valid and whether the results would be the same. After all, this isn't Russia.

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How well do you know history?

Posted at 1:05 PM on June 14, 2011 by Bob Collins (50 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

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Money spent on U of M president's home questioned again

Posted at 11:17 AM on June 8, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Who's to say the University of Minnesota president's mansion didn't need a half million dollars for renovations, including a second kitchen. But timing is everything in the world of public opinion.

KSTP reports the U is spending $550,000 "to fix the pool, summer house and adding a second kitchen in the Eastcliff mansion. The second kitchen is needed because the University president needs privacy "while parties are catered out of the main kitchen. U officials say the pool and summer house are falling apart and are in need of a complete renovation."

The mansion is more than just the president's living area. The university holds other functions there, too. Some involve the person who lives there; many do not.

According to a November article from the U of M Daily, the Brooks family -- who donated the house to the university in 1958 -- are picking up 60% of the tab, and private donors are paying for the rest.

But KSTP's report says $215,000 in public money is being used on the project

"There are two projects underway: summer house restoration ($450,000) and addition of a kitchen in the private residence ($100,000)," University of Minnesota spokesman Daniel Wolter said in an e-mail this morning. "Of this, $335,000 was raised from private sources (a gift from the Brooks family and private donations to Friends of Eastcliff). The remaining portion is University funds."

"The project did evolve between the Daily coverage in November and when the Board acted in March. So, I do believe KSTP had the overall numbers correct," he said.

The university spent $640,000 on repairs when president Nils Hasselmo left the U in the mid-'90s. "If you have to live in public housing, this is the best," Hasselmo said about his digs.

In 1988, money spent on the residence helped bring down then-president Ken Keller. He resigned amid a $1.5 million renovation of the mansion and a $200,000 renovation of his office.

That led Gov. Rudy Perpich to pull his request for $23.1 million to fund a program at the U for raising standards. Some digging into the renovations revealed the University had $53 million sitting in a reserve fund.

Want an inside look at the place? Here's an online tour, courtesy of the U's Web site.

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How do you spell 'spelling bee?' E-v-i-l

Posted at 12:45 PM on June 6, 2011 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

That was a heck of a blast against spelling bees from professor Anatoly Liberman at the University of Minnesota on MPR's Midmorning today.

"It's an unmitigated evil," Liberman told MPR's Kerri Miller. He is the author of Etymology for Everyone: Word Origins and How We Know Them. "The whole thing is wrong from beginning to end. I would not allow any child to come close to the competition, let alone win it."

Liberman said the words in the championship rounds of the spelling bee are useless. "They're invented," he said. "They exist, but they have a shadow existence. They exist for the sake of failing students, those who want to partake in the spelling bee."

"Not a single of them has anything to do with the English language. They are German, Spanish, sometimes architectural terms from France," he said. "Knowing how to spell them is absolutely a useless accomplishment."

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Appeals Court upholds U of M's right to flunk a student

Posted at 12:00 PM on June 6, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal of a graduate student's lawsuit against the University of Minnesota for not refunding her tuition after flunking out of a course required for her master's degree.

Linda Zinter claimed breach of contract in her suit against the U of M, saying the university had an obligation to grant her a master's degree when she completed the degree requirements. But, she claimed, the university later required her to take two other courses for her final project.

But the Court of Appeals said wading into the claim would "require analysis of the goals of the MLS (Master of Liberal Studies) program. This is not something that courts are equipped to do."

Under Minnesota law, people can't sue educational institutions for educational malpractice. "When (Zinter) asked the district court to evaluate the method of teaching that required her to take additional courses before enrolling in the final project seminar, she was mading, under other names, educational malpractice claims," the court said.

Zinter did not complete one of the courses the U required of her to enter the "final project seminar," so she received an "F" grade. In today's ruling, the Court of Appeals rejected her request that the university remove the grade from her record.

Read the court's opinion here.

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A tale of two classrooms

Posted at 12:42 PM on May 31, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Two unrelated stories today from the world's classrooms:

In Saint Paul today, Sen. Al Franken and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan read to kids. (Photo via Jeffrey Thompson)

In Mexico, Martha Rivera Alanis sang to her kids. She was trying to keep them calm while drug cartels did their thing outside her school.

She tweeted that the rest of Mexico can learn from her kids. "I'm going to carry on, of course it is possible," she said. "If my 5- and 6-year-olds can do it, it is up to the rest of us to carry on."

She was honored today for her bravery. It was a private ceremony.

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Lessons from the 8th grade

Posted at 2:54 PM on May 16, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

The world is full of people who see wrongdoing and do nothing about it. Where do people learn to just keep their mouths shut? Maybe from 8th grade.

In Dayton, Ohio, an eighth grader has been banned from the school prom and class picnic because she told her mother two kids on a school bus were having sex. A Dayton TV station says the girl's mother told school officials, who promised to investigate. Their investigation concluded that the girl waited too long to tell someone what was happening on the bus on which there were eight adult chaperones.

"If they are not doing anything to the chaperones, how can they punish my daughter?" the mother said. She said her daughter was afraid of saying anything immediately because she didn't know what the boy would do. "Other students know, and we are afraid of possible retaliation," she said.

The two kids having sex were suspended, the TV station reports.

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Is college worth it?

Posted at 10:46 AM on May 16, 2011 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Schools, Surveys and trivia

Pew Research is out with a survey today that says the majority of people surveyed do not think college is a good value. For some reason it also surveyed college presidents who said -- surprise -- it is a good value.

How does anyone know?

Any question framed like that requires the respondent to know what is a good value. When you try to buy a car and the salesman says "I can put you in this little number for only $30,000," it may be obvious to you that a 1975 Datsun isn't worth $30,000. When you tell our salesperson that, he'll say, "what will it take for you to drive home in this car today?"

Now, maybe the answer is a fast-moving flood, or maybe it's the $5 of bus fare you have in your pocket, but you have some idea what the value of the car is before you decide the asking price isn't a good value.

One suspects that people who answer Pew's question don't have an idea of the value.

Seventy-five percent of those who took part in the Pew survey said it's too expensive. Fifty-seven percent said college isn't a good value today. That means almost 20 percent of those surveyed think it's too expensive, but it's still a good value. How can it be too expensive and still be a good value?

Eight-six percent of college graduates said college is or was a good investment.. But 57 percent said they'd rather work and make money than, presumably, going to college. Is this the same 57 percent who said college isn't a good value? The survey says the percentage who don't think it's a good value is about the same among those who went to college and those who did not.

And yet most college graduates think they're earning $20,000 more a year thanks to going to college. Most non-attendees think they're earning $20,000 less. In addition, most graduates say that their college education was very useful in helping them grow intellectually (74%), mature as a person (69%) and prepare for a job or career (55%).

So most college grads think they earn more, more think college is worth it even though it's expensive, most think it helps them grow intellectually, most think it helps people mature and most think it prepares them for a job or career. And yet, most don't think it's a good value.

It's time for the car salesman approach here to figure out the role of higher education. If you don't think it's worth it now, what's it going to take for you to drive home with this degree today?

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What makes a good teacher?

Posted at 3:44 PM on March 1, 2011 by Jon Gordon (5 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

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College tuition and the search for the easy answer

Posted at 12:00 PM on February 22, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

At the beginning of a Capitol rally in St. Paul today, Gov. Mark Dayton apologized to protesting higher education students for what his generation "did to financial aid."

Presumably my colleague, Alex Friedrich, is going to jump into this on his excellent On Campus blog, but what exactly did Dayton's generation do to financial aid?

Ronald Wirtz, the editor of Fedgazette from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, answered that question in a 2009 study. The short answer: A lot. But, like so many statistical arguments, it all depends on how you look at the numbers.

Take grant aid, for example:

Most of these spigots have been pouring out much more--not less--money over time. From 1997 to 2007, inflation-adjusted grant aid to Minnesota students grew by 74 percent. Institutional grants and tuition discounts accounted for almost half of all grant aid in 2007, at about $417 million, with the other half made up of federal, state and private grant aid.

Institutional aid is doled out in many forms and programs. For example, at the University of Minnesota, the Founders Free Program promises grant and gift assistance equal to tuition and required fees for any state resident who has been admitted as a first-time, full-time student, completes the Federal Application for Financial Student Aid and is eligible for a Pell grant (which indicates financial need, though a student does not necessarily have to be low-income). Started in 2005 and fully implemented last year, the program provides free tuition for nearly 5,000 students--12 percent of undergrads there--according to the university.

And yet, it's undeniable that more and more students are taking out bigger and bigger loans to pay for school, thus making higher education unaffordable.

In the UW System, average debt of resident undergraduates who completed a bachelor's degree and who borrowed while in college hit $22,400 in 2008, according to system figures. That's an 85 percent real increase from 1989. In the 2007 graduating class from Minnesota public universities, 77 percent carried student loans averaging $23,600, according to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. Their monthly payment over 10 years was $270.

Overall, financial aid -- a mishmash of programs varying from one institution to the next -- has been rising:

But the cost of tuition has been rising faster, and only .3 percent of college students get their college costs paid for with scholarships and grants.

Ideally, a lot of this goes away with an economy that's zipping along. Graduating students get great jobs that pay a fair amount of money (enough to make a dent in student loans, anyway). But that, obviously, is not the case. It's a terrible time to be a graduating student, the economy being what it is.

Who's got an easy fix they'd like to share?

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Teacher's anti-student rant becomes a cause

Posted at 10:13 AM on February 16, 2011 by Bob Collins (21 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Should a high school English teacher have called her students out for being lazy and whiny?

The question is playing out in Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reports, because teacher Natalie Munroe wrote a post on her blog about the kids she has to teach.

"My students are out of control," Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post. "They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying."

And in another post, Munroe -- who is more than eight months pregnant -- writes: "Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS." She also comes up with a colorful list of comments that she felt should be available on student report cards.

Apparently she wrote the blog anonymously, and didn't mention the school at which she teaches.

But now that she's been outed by some kids, she's been suspended and she's talking and blogging out loud. "Parents are more trying to be their kids' friends and less trying to be their parent," Munroe told the AP. "They (kids) want everything right now. They want it yesterday."

Schools are in uncharted territory when it comes to disciplining teachers for their online behavior. But increasingly, schools -- as in Minnesota -- are under pressure to police the online behavior of kids.

Not surprisingly, Munroe has become a cause for generalizations. It's true, her students might be lazy jerks. But does that mean all students are? I'd like to hear from teachers on this.

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What do you know and why do you know it?

Posted at 10:26 AM on January 24, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

MPR's Midmorning today picked up on an item on News Cut last week, discussing why almost half of those studied apparently learned nothing in their first two years of college, and quite a few didn't learn much over four.

Is this an indictment of our high schools, our colleges, or ourselves?

Inside Higher Ed says it's a "lack of rigor."

They review data from student surveys to show, for example, that 32 percent of students each semester do not take any courses with more than 40 pages of reading assigned a week, and that half don't take a single course in which they must write more than 20 pages over the course of a semester. Further, the authors note that students spend, on average, only about 12-14 hours a week studying, and that much of this time is studying in groups.

Not surprisingly, online readers have been sharing their opinions.

"In 1996 I adjunct-taught freshman English at the U of St. Thomas, and all went well. (I'd been an adjunct professor at several colleges, and I work as a professional writer.) In 2006 I was again recruited to teach two more sections of the same course. Thirty-six of my 40 students did fine, but four of them decided they didn't want to learn grammar and critical thinking and such, and they contrived--through e-mails to the chairman and the dean, through visitations to the chair's office by tearful parents, and by badmouthing me to others--to get me fired. The chair expressed surprise that I was including writing basics, saying they no longer taught these skills. I had, quite literally, never gotten the memo on this, so I was shocked and appalled--and fired. BTW, I had caught one of the four cabalists plagiarizing, red-handed, and as a parting shot I sent the evidence to the English Dept. secretary (who would not have dared to withhold it from the chairman); no action was ever taken against the student." -- Nicholas, Minneapolis

I graduated college two years ago with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, and I am currently applying to grad schools. The biggest problem I see with the college education system is that most programs are not difficult/focused enough. I learned more in those 4 years than any other time in my life. I spent countless nights up late studying, and so did all of my friends. My viewpoint is that I was there spending large quantities of money, and I wanted to get the most out of my education. The teachers I also respected the most were the ones that pushed the students the most. I feel few students today appreciate this.

Secondly, most students today pick general degrees that do not focus their education. The idea of being "well rounded," requiring students to take a wide variety of unrelated classes, only prevents them from focusing on a chosen profession, creating a less skilled work force. For instance, I knew an accounting major who had to take a gym class to get his degree.

Lastly, students today are blinded by this contemporary idea of the college experience. Yes, college should be fun, and was for me, but the primary reason you are there is to learn. - Jake, Washington DC

"I think that technology has made it easier for students to pass classes without studying for them. In taking a test I could easily google all the key points within a few minutes of studying and pass a exam rather than doing the work by going to class and reading the required books. By doing this, you can't retain much and I think many of my fellow students don't retain much. Unfortunately for me I can't do this as I chose a field (Latin and Greek Languages) were truancy and being unprepared for class results in shame and possibly corporal punishment:)." - Peter, University of Minnesota

"I'm a Health Instructor at MN West Community & Technical College. I've taught at a 4-year institution and at this two year institution for over 20 years.

"I agree that many students get to college lacking the discipline and study skills to succeed nor do they care about learning. They just want to pass and get their degree with as little effort as possible.

"I assign more than 40 pages of reading per week and expect at least 20+ pages of writing throughout the semester. Students don't do it. It's very difficult to engage students in the kind of class participation needed to develop critical thinking and other higher order thinking skills When the student hasn't read the material.

"Students complain that the course is too much work (especially "for a health class" - as if health should have less rigorous academic standards.) Because the course is not now required (because the legistlative mandate of 60/120-credit degrees has squeezed out so-called "frill" classes, enrollment in my courses is plummeting. Students are opting for classes with less rigorous course work." -- Nancy, Worthington

"I agree with the conclusion that our higher education system is in decline. But I think you need to consider the larger picture.

"1. Our primary and secondary education systems have been in decline for years. It was only a matter of time (and repeated generations graduating with lower requirements) before this decline propagated to our universities.

"2. Our society has not valued education since at least the 80's. Financial and non-financial incentives are nearly 100% oriented to training for management and business, which in my experience are the least academically challenging." - Alan, St. Paul

"This book is yet further evidence that much of the indictment is of the 100-year-old underlying system that all colleges and universities use -- that students earn degrees by accumulating just enough course grades and credits. There is a deep alternative being developed, in which a degree is defined as a set of capabilities ("student learning outcomes") to be actually demonstrated. - David, St. Paul

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Academically adrift

Posted at 12:02 PM on January 19, 2011 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

A University of Colorado at Boulder student wanted to make a point, so he paid his college tuition in cash -- more than $14,000 in one-dollar bills:

Nic Ramos might be onto something, showing kids what the parents (much of the time) have to pony up for a semester at college.

"The sacrifices that my family is willing to make for me to go to school and be happy," said in the video. "I know that I always appreciated it and all those things but this just put it into a whole new perspective when i could physically see that sacrifice."

So what does that money -- or more accurately, twice that amount -- buy? For many students: Nothing, a new study says.

In a book released this week (Academically Adrift) sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, found that in a study of 2,000 students' performances standardized test three times during their college careers, almost half showed no gains after two years and only a little over a third showed nothing gained after four years.

Update 2:54 p.m. - MPR's Midmorning will discuss the issue with the book's authors next Monday morning.

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Cheating 101

Posted at 2:20 PM on November 18, 2010 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

A business professor in Florida has figured out that several hundred of his students have been cheating, so he gave them a lecture they may remember -- if we're lucky -- for the rest of their lives.

He told the students -- he used statistical analysis to identify them -- that if they admitted to the cheating, and if they took a four-hour ethics class, they wouldn't be kicked out of school.

Two-hundred have come forward so far.

It would have been great if the camera had caught the expressions on the kids' faces.

The other lesson for students: Kids, some adults are smarter than you are.

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Dear parents, Take the foot off the gas

Posted at 10:18 AM on September 24, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Schools

Today's Question deals with the dirty little secret of Minnesota schools: There are a lot of kids killing themselves. The reasons are more difficult to get to, however, partly because some school officials insist they've got to keep a lid on the situation so that more kids don't kill themselves.

On MPR's Facebook page today, one young man takes issue with the notion that there's a cure for this problem that's going to come from the schools alone.

Meet David.

Today's adults seem to be quite out of touch with the "plight" of the modern teenager. I am a senior in high school, and although I have seen and encountered bullying, I have never seen it as a significant detriment to a teens mental health.... There are many, much more pressing issues that are not so easily solved. First of all, the pressure teens feel from their parents and teachers to get good grades and test scores can be crushing. This is juxtaposed with acute societal pressures to be "cool," form a confident personal identity and find a place in the world.

To top it off, a vast majority of teens I know have very difficult home lives, in which they are unable to make their own decisions and have very few places to find peace and quiet. Adults are constantly nagging teens to keep up grades, stay competitive in sports, make friends, and many other things--and all the while, teens are seeing their guardians struggle with their own relationships, jobs, and a plethora of other issues.

Although hiring more counselors or having a stricter policy to defend our poor teens against bullying seem to be easy fixes, neither would see a significant change. What we need are more sleep, more comfortable places to have time to ourselves, more free time, more compassion and above all, less stress. Teenagers are more mature than they're often given credit for, and when given a choice, they will be civil to each other. The greatest issue rears its ugly head when adults have so much difficulty understanding what causes the teenagers so much pain.

Over to you, parents.

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Considering dropouts

Posted at 11:17 AM on September 9, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Mayor R.T. Rybak and Minneapolis school officials are teaming up on a "We Want You Back" campaign to try to convince recent dropouts to come back to school. MPR's Sasha Aslanian reported on the effort today. As is customary on these sorts of endeavors, it's enlisting help of some popular artists to speak the musical language of the target audience:

Sasha's story said 25 percent of all Minneapolis school students drop out. But why? Are they not connecting with what's being taught? Is what's being taught not relevant to them? Why not?

I thought about this while watching the viral video of the day. This "concert" from the control room of the Large Hadron Collider:

Sure, that's probably not going to appeal to your typical high school kid. But what about this?

A little to "Schoolhouse Rock" for the '10s? Probably.

But if the key to getting a dropout back in the classroom is Slug or at least a message the kids can relate to, what's the key to keeping them there in the first place? Education isn't a "give 'em what they want" world. It's a "give 'em what they need" endeavor. What's the secret to marrying the two?

Stephen Hawking weighed in on this today. He said the way to inspire more young people to study, is to "reverse the dumbing down of intellectual culture." That seems somehow counterintuitive.

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A 'Race to Nowhere'?

Posted at 2:37 PM on August 31, 2010 by Drew Geraets (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

No Child Left Behind. Race to the Top. Race Your Child to the Top Before They're Left Behind? School's just starting and the debate over education policy already sounds more intimidating than AP chemistry.

Is our culture of learning and definition of success driven mostly by these policies? How large of a role do teachers, parents or other forces play?

"Race to Nowhere," a documentary film by Vicki Abeles, looks at the pressure to perform in schools today. Here's the trailer:

What is/was your school experience like? Are students today under too much stress?

Related:
- Homework: A burden or learning tool? (Midmorning)
- Teachers offer back-to-school advice (Midday)
- Challenge Success (Stanford University School of Education)

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A month and millions to improve schools

Posted at 1:57 PM on July 29, 2010 by Drew Geraets (0 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Nineteen of Minnesota's consistently lowest-achieving schools will share nearly $24.5 million of $3.5 billion in federal funds to help turn around student performance.

Schools had to choose one of four models to implement:

Turnaround Model: Replace the principal, screen existing school staff, and rehire no more than half the teachers; adopt a new governance structure; and improve the school through curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.

Restart Model: Convert a school or close it and re-open it as a charter school or under an education management organization.

School Closure: Close the school and send the students to higher-achieving schools in the district.

Transformation Model: Replace the principal and improve the school through comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.

Schools receiving the School Improvement Grants are required to "fully and effectively implement the chosen turnaround model in its entirety by the first day of the 2010 school year," according to a Minnesota Department of Education press release.

In Minnesota, 16 of the 19 schools receiving money selected the transformation model. Most schools in other states are also choosing that model.

Nearby states receiving funds:

Iowa: 18 million
North Dakota: 9 million
South Dakota: 11 million
Wisconsin: 51 million

Here are the schools receiving money in Minnesota:

View School Improvement Grant in a larger map

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Live-blogging: The Great Textbook War

Posted at 11:00 AM on June 3, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

I'm not entirely sure, yet, how we're making the transition from the 11 a.m. documentary, "The Great Textbook War," to the subsequent follow-up conversation, " What should our kids learn in school?"

The historical documentary could lead in so many different directions, including the rise of the religious right as a political force, by way of local school boards and school controversies. Rep. Michele Bachmann, for example, got her start in politics partly as a result of the Profiles of Learning.

So I'm live blogging here starting at noon, but opening up the area starting at 11 for your comments on what you're hearing on the radio (or online. You can listen here.), and we'll go here on the blog wherever you think we should go.

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Preview: The Great Textbook War

Posted at 12:01 PM on June 2, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

It'll be impossible not to think about current events when you listen to a documentary on Minnesota Public Radio tomorrow about a controversy over textbooks that erupted in West Virginia in 1974.

It was a battle over textbooks, but the underpinnings included religion, racism, and politics. Stop me if you've heard this before.

In Kanawha County, W.Va., the school board received new textbooks for its elementary schools, but they became the staging ground for a battle between liberal and conservative values. It grew to include a labor dispute after parents refused to send their kids to schools. Coal miners and chemical plant engineers walked off the job. Then schools were firebombed and dynamited. Snipers aimed at school buses. Crossed were burned on lawns. And a preacher cited Bible verse to explain why that's what God wanted. (See video)

By the end of the program, which airs on MPR's Midday tomorrow, you may be wondering whether this is the past, or the future?

Last year, many of those involved in the "war" held a reunion. A comment, reported by West Virginia Public Radio, raised an intriguing question: Have we lost the ability to work things out?

Calvin Skaggs sees parallels between 1974 and today, too. Skaggs made the documentary, "With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right," which featured the textbook strike.

"These textbooks were introducing public school students to ideas about God and sex and society which their parents were not going to like. That's how it got started. It rippled until it was about everything," Skaggs said.

"If this textbook controversy had happened 20 years earlier, the community would have worked it out. There was a polarization beginning then that has absolutely infected our country now and frankly, frightens me," he said.

After tomorrow's broadcast, we'll hold a forum in the UBS Forum and consider another question: What should children learn in school?

Colleague Michael Caputo will be holding an online discussion while the documentary is on the air, I'll be live-blogging the follow-up discussion at noon.

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Minnesota education: Not up to standards

Posted at 4:06 PM on May 25, 2010 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

The Minnesota Department of Education today released the results of math graduation requirement tests taken by high school juniors. "Graduation test scores in Minn. show modest gains," the headline on our Web site says, but "Hundreds of kids don't have a prayer of succeeding" might've worked, too.

Only 58 percent of 11th graders met the math graduation standard -- up 1 percent from a year ago. The primary reason for the low score is the "achievement gap." Only 23 percent of black students met the math standard. Of course, there's still more than a year before they're ushered out the door.

"Minnesota students are better prepared for career and postsecondary education than they were only a few years ago, the Department of Education said in its press release.
"There's nothing alarming here," the education commissioner said

Last year, 78 percent of Minnesota 10th graders met the state's reading graduation requirement on the first try. This year? 78 percent.

"We are seeing improvement in all the categories, but the achievement gap is still so large - for the black students to have a 23 percent graduation rate is just not acceptable." Education Commissioner Alice Seagren told MPR's Tom Weber.

If that sounds familiar, that's the boilerplate response state officials have been giving on days like today for several years. Whatever's being tried isn't working.

Last year, a federal report said Minnesota has one of the highest gaps in the country. Some Minnesota experts said the problem isn't that black students are doing worse, but that white students are doing better.

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Closing the educational gulag

Posted at 12:08 PM on April 15, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

An end is near to one of the most bizarre practices in the history of public education in America. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city's teachers' union announced a deal to close the infamous "rubber rooms," where teachers who are accused of wrongdoing are sent to live out their working lives by sitting in a room all day, sometimes for years.

The deal expands the list of charges for which school officials can suspend teachers without pay to include violent felony crimes. Those who aren't suspended will be given administrative work to do.

Public Radio's "This American Life" presented a segment on the rubber rooms in 2008.

The timing of today's announcement is curious. The premiere of the movie, The Rubber Room, is tomorrow.

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Watching the wrecking ball

Posted at 12:30 PM on March 11, 2010 by Julia Schrenkler (2 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Higher education reporter Tim Post took some demolition pictures at the University of St. Thomas this morning. The wrecking ball is out for a full-force demolition* because this is a space-clearing measure for new student buildings.

Post kindly sped this photo off to News Cut Headquarters. This slow-motion-smash in a single set is right here:

While Post is in the field working on other stories, we'll check back with more details. Share your own in the comments - photos or first-hand knowledge especially welcome.

UPDATE 1:33 p.m. Post dropped me another line and provides this info from the UST news release:

Crews from Carl Bolander & Sons Co. will begin to demolish the 70-year-old building after 7 a.m. Thursday and expect the job will take about two weeks. Most of the remaining material - limestone and concrete - will be recycled and used at other construction sites.

That means two weeks of activity, so if you're in the area and have your camera handy send us your photos!

*The News Cut Dictionary says: Demolition and deconstruction differ. Deconstruction preserves some structural or even design elements for a new use.

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Covering Shakopee

Posted at 3:55 PM on March 8, 2010 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Submitted to you without comment. In Shakopee, middle-school officials are considering a dress code. Students will -- if the code is adopted -- wear standard red or black T-shirts.

The Jordan Independent says not everybody is on board:

What precipitated the idea, most recently, were two incidents in which staff members asked girls to zip up their sweatshirts to cover up more of their chests, Neubeck said. The girls responded, "Why are you looking there anyway?" and one told a female social worker, "but the boys like it."

An answer that suggests a far deeper problem.

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Fresh Eye on the Radio: Exit the bully

Posted at 4:38 PM on March 3, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Fresh Eye on the Radio (with Mary Lucia), Schools

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Abuse or protection?

Posted at 12:16 PM on March 2, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

A proposed law aimed at preventing the fallout from what happened in a Willmar classroom (and, certainly, other schools) a few years ago goes to the House floor in Washington tomorrow.

The legislation -- HR 4247 -- establishes minimum safety standards in schools, and stipulates when physical restraint or locked seclusion can be used against students. It also requires states to report when restraint is used on students. (See bill)

It's an area where everyone in school needs to get on the same page.

An example occurred in Willmar where a special ed teacher locked a disruptive student in a "time out" room rather than allow the student to use the bathroom. Some paraprofessionals complained that the teacher was abusing the student.

An administrative law judge concluded that there was no maltreatment, and that the paraprofessionals had disagreements with the teacher that fueled their accusation, but the Minnesota Department of Education refused to withdraw its finding that agreed with the allegations against the teacher.

A district court and then the Minnesota Court of Appeals overturned the ruling (See court decision).

The federal legislation (available here) might clear up what constitutes maltreatment, especially when disruptive behavior might affect the classroom.

Every state has a different approach to this. In Minnesota, revised legislation goes into effect next year clarifying when restraint can be used:

(1) restrictive procedures be the least intrusive intervention to respond to the emergency; (2) the child be directly observed during the course of the procedures; and (3) the school document each use of the procedures. Provides that restrictions end when the threat of harm ends. Requires same day notification to parents. Limits implementation of the procedures to licensed, trained staff. Prohibits, among other things: (1) withholding food; (2) preventing bathroom access; and (3) physical holding that restricts the child's ability to breathe.

It is certainly an emotional issue as these comments about the bill on WashingtonWatch.com attest:

As a teacher of children with Autism, I support 90% of what this bill proposes. BUT: the requirement that makes it illegal for schools to write restraint or seclusion into a student's individualized behavior plan could be EXTRAORDINARILY HARMFUL to the students I work with. For students with dangerous behaviors, planning for and customizing the use of restraint for that individual student's behaviors allows us to use it least often and most effectively. It also ensures that the parent/guardian has signed on, fully understands what may occur, and has given consent. If students are only allowed to be restrained in emergency situations without any planning or criteria, there is a GREATER risk or harm or excessive force. PLEASE tell your congressperson to reconsider the language in this bill, so that we can continue to offer our students the least restrictive, effective treatment we can, as they are entitled to.

And countered by another parent of a child with autism:

Don't forget Autistic Children are tactile defensive. In my son's case it sent him into an anxiety attack and made the situation worse. And had a residual effect on how I was able to calm him after those periods of restraint.

They need this Bill to pass for their protection. Most times like my son, he doesn't come and tell me what happened. This Bill will be his voice!

The bill made it to the House floor after passing through the Committee on Education and Labor last month on a 34-to-10 vote. The lone Minnesota representative on the committee -- Rep. John Kline -- voted against it.

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School stimulus strings

Posted at 11:39 AM on November 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Banks across the country have been paying back their TARP funds -- the money the government forced them to take so that they'd ease restrictions on credit -- because they didn't like the strings that were attached, such as limits on CEO pay.

Might schools be next?

The U.S. Department of Education is requiring schools receiving stimulus funds to submit salary information for their employees.

What's behind the move? An article in Education Week suggests the Obama administration is going to use the data to determine if schools that receive money to fight disparities are putting the most experienced -- and, presumably, the best -- teachers into the fight; that suggests some schools may be using the money for salaries of teachers who are assigned to portions of the district where so-called Title I resources aren't supposed to go -- the more well-off.

Stimulus money, however, is all a small slice of how inequities are created in schools. And it only deals with inequities within districts. The problem is far bigger than that, notes the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota.

Because of the way schools are funded here, there's a guaranteed "inequality" built in from one district to the next. Some voters vote to increase spending,some don't. Director Joe Nathan cites several examples of the have/have-not result:

Anoka Hennepin will be able to spend $165
Rushford Peterson will be able to spend $940/pupil
South St. Paul will spend $1010/pupil
Wayzata will spend $1609/pupil
Ulen Hitterdahl will spend $1990/pupil.

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Dirty dancing

Posted at 10:51 AM on November 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

I haven't been to a school dance since the days when "dance" meant all the boys stand on one side of the gym, all the girls stand on the other side of the gym.

Apparently, things have changed:

You have to love the solution of one California school. When things get out of hand, they turn up the lights, and play Burt Bacharach "or anything that William Shatner recorded."

Yep, that should kill it.

Last February, MPR's Tom Weber looked at the "situation" in Minnesota, with the classic video using action figures.

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Are you smarter than a fourth grader?

Posted at 10:02 AM on October 14, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (8 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Good news for Minnesota students and educators: you're tops when it comes to the third 'R'.

In Minnesota, the average score was 249 (out of 500) for fourth-graders and 294 for eighth-graders. Both of those scores rank the state near the top, well ahead of the national average in each grade. Fourth-graders ranked third, behind Massachusetts (252) and New Hampshire (251). Eighth graders ranked second, behind only Massachusetts (299).

MPR's Tom Weber passes along a link to a set of sample questions for this year's test. The default set is 4th grade, but there's another tab for 8th grade if you want a challenge to go along with your coffee break.

Don't be shy, post your scores in the comments.

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On Streaking

Posted at 9:04 AM on October 7, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (18 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Boy, they just don't allow any fun at school anymore, do they?

The Pioneer Press reports on a Stillwater student who faces two weeks of suspension for dashing through a homecoming rally wearing a thong.

Stillwater Area High School senior and cross country runner Brian Brochman donned a Bill Clinton mask, running shoes, and an olive-green thong, dashed through the gym during Pepfest and out the door.

The school's CSI unit -- that's Crime of Streaking Investigation -- was quickly set to the task.

Officials figured out the would-be streaker was a member of the school's cross country team -- based on his speed and body type -- and approached the team's coach with a photo. Brochman said he 'fessed up at that point.

His punishment was to spend two weeks in an "alternative to suspension" program called the Youth and Community Accountability and Prevention Program, which is held at the Washington County Historic Courthouse in Stillwater.

So, my question to you, dear readers: Does the punishment fit the crime?

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History or politics

Posted at 1:40 PM on September 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Schools

You let the president of the United States speak to school children and the next thing you know they're singing about him.

The school in New Jersey says the kids were learning a song for Black History Month last winter.

It's become a YouTube sensation in the last few days, even though it was uploaded in June.

New Jersey's education commissioner today ordered a review of the teaching of the song, and wants to find ways to celebrate Black History Month without "inappropriate partisan politics in the classroom."

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The president's speech to students

Posted at 1:08 PM on September 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

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The presidential speech

Posted at 8:58 PM on September 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (24 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Here's the speech President Obama is going to give to schoolchildren whose parents didn't keep them out of the classroom to avoid hearing it.

The irony? He delivers a message that has been a Republican mainstay: Personal responsibility.

The speech accomplishes one thing: It makes those who oppose their children seeing it look silly.

The President: Hello everyone - how's everybody doing today? I'm here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I'm glad you all could join us today. I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday - at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a lot about responsibility.

I've talked about your teachers' responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that - if you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

Now I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in.

So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home - that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who's fought brain cancer since he was three. He's endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer - hundreds of extra hours - to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he's headed to college this fall.

And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That's why today, I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education - and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your failures define you - you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust - a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor - and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you - don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down - don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

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That's a wrap

Posted at 4:58 PM on September 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Well, that's it, then. Summer is over. Now where did I put that snowblower?

The kids are heading back to school on Tuesday, and Slate.com raises the annual question: Should you have meddled in the decision about which teacher they'd get? You did meddle, didn't you? No, of course not. You left it to your wife. Coward!

I hope I never go down this road. It's the mommy/daddy version of backroom dealing. And it succumbs to the temptation to try to perfect every aspect of our children's lives. As my colleague Hanna Rosin put it about her oldest child's progress through elementary school, "Every year I have thought about lobbying for a particular teacher or to have a particular friend in her class. And every year I have resisted. I never once regretted that. She's had teachers who were, yes, slightly petty, and yellers, and also teachers who favor her. What happened to her? Nothing. She learned that--gasp!--adults are flawed, too."

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The context of test scores

Posted at 11:54 AM on August 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

As a simple consumer of news, I am easily confused. Take education, for example. Stories about test results in Minnesota are starting to become an instant turn-off.

Take the last few months of test-score stories from MPR.

More Minnesota schools not meeting standards

New science test scores show improvement

Some improvement, but Minnesota test scores mostly flat

Latest school test scores show improvement

Just give it to me straight: Are our kids smart or aren't they?

Of course it's all in the packaging. One person's "improvement" can be another's "not quite as abysmal as we used to be." But over the "testing season," the message has generally been that we're relatively mediocre in the big scheme of things. And we can quibble over whether "proficient" is a synonym for "smart."

That's why today's headline caught me a bit by surprise:

Minn. students rank highest among ACT takers

How does this fit with the take-away so far? I posed the question to MPR's education reporter, Tom Weber:

The ACT is a voluntary test, presumably taken by those students who most want to go to college and get a good enough score to attain acceptance to a school. So, what these scores show us is that - within that population of students, Minnesotans score well - and they're scoring better than even last year's crop of Minnesotans scored.

Ed Colby, with the ACT, pointed out that the test is "not just about how prepared they are for college - but also how well they've learned what they've already been taught."

The other stories we've been reporting about in recent weeks are all tied to a different test, the MCA-II, which is mandatory. 100% of Minnesota kids (or just about 100%) took the MCA's, only 68% took the ACT.

But even on MCA test, scores were either flat or higher compared to last year. So, if you want to combine all the test stories into one thought, there's a pattern that suggests students in Minnesota are improving their scores, albeit only slightly in some cases.

Here's a screen grab from and ACT report with some more info that wasn't in my story - it's how Minnesota has performed over the past five years on the test; notice all scores are higher from year to year and consistently above the national average. (click the image to see a larger view)

Finally, here is a link to a sample ACT test to try your skills at home.

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Public education by the numbers

Posted at 4:51 PM on August 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

A Census Bureau report has a little bit for everybody in the school funding debate.

Overall, Minnesota is decidedly middle-of-the-pack among states when it comes to per-pupil public education spending, according to the report released today by the Census Bureau.

The state finished 22nd, spending $9,539 per student in 2007, slightly below the national average of $9,666.

The state was 49th in the amount of per-pupil education expenditures that come from the federal government ($670). But the state's commitment to public education is actually much higher. The state ranks seventh in the country in the amount that comes from the state ($7,679).

$4,329.20 of the state's spending goes for salaries (15th), $400 goes toward general school administration expenses (46th).

Here's the spreadsheet data.

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The revolving school superintendent door

Posted at 2:45 PM on July 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Schools

The Minneapolis school system, it seems, has tried everything. But, like so many other metro school districts nationwide, it can't keep a school superintendent in office for more than a few years; barely long enough to make a difference.

Bill Green announced on Thursday that he will not seek another contract as the superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools. He has been the district's interim and permanent leader since 2006. He said he plans to return to teaching and writing as a history professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

Here's a timeline of the last 15 years in the city:

1993 - The school board turns over the schools to a for-profit private firm. Peter Hutchinson and his three-person Public Strategies Group operate the schools on a performance-based contract. "We need to make whatever changes are necessary to see all children learn and see that the gap between children of color and white children closes," Hutchinson says. It's the first time a private company took over an entire school district.

1997 - Hutchinson leaves. Some minority groups didn't want Hutchinson as superintendent, and charged him with failing to meet minority students' needs," MPR's Laura McCallum reported.

1997 - Carol Johnson is hired

2003 - Carol Johnson leaves. She became superintendent of schools in Memphis, and superintendent in Boston

2003 (September) - The Minneapolis School Board taps Dave Jennings as new superintendent. "I have confidence because he's shown to be a warrior for public education in the city of Minneapolis. And I think that's what we need," Board member Audrey Johnson says of the ex-legislator.

2003 (October) - Jennings quits after "some African American leaders, who claimed the search process was flawed and Jennings lacked the necessary qualifications," MPR's Tim Pugmire reported. "While the noise is coming from a small group of folks, it is beginning to get in the way of the work, and time is short," Jennings said.

2004 - Thandiwe Peebles is introduced as the new Minneapolis school superintendent, telling people she didn't think things in Minneapolis are as tough as people said they were.

2006 (January) - Peebles resigns, embroiled in controversies over her management style and over allegations that she used district employees to conduct personal business for her.

2007 - Green, an African American, is named interim superintendent. "I would not do this if I felt that we were in a death spiral," Green said. "I do feel we can turn this around."

St. Paul has spun through a few superintendents, too, but they tend to stay longer. Meria Carstarphen left in February after a short tenure. But her predecessors -- Pat Harvey and Curman Gaines -- stayed for a combined 13 years.

Johnson, by all accounts, was brilliant and in great demand. And that's part of the problem. There are apparently so few game-changing school superintendents available, that a small-market city can't keep them.

The average lifespan of a superintendent is three years.

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The top public high schools

Posted at 5:50 PM on June 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Newsweek magazine is out with the top 1,500 public high schools in the U.S. No Minnesota school is on the top 100. "It's only based on advanced placement and international baccalaureate," says MPR education reporter Tom Weber.

The note on methodology attached to the rankings is depressing:

We take the total number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school in May, and divide by the number of seniors graduating in May or June. All public schools that NEWSWEEK researchers Amy Novak and Dan Brillman and I found that achieved a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests in 2008 as they had graduates, are put on the list on the NEWSWEEK Web site, Newsweek.com.

NEWSWEEK published national lists based on this formula in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. In The Washington Post, I have reported the Challenge Index ratings for every public school in the Washington area every year since 1998. I think 1.000 is a modest standard. A school can reach that level if only half of its students take one AP, IB or Cambridge test in their junior year and one in their senior year. But this year, less than 6 percent of the approximately 27,000 U.S. public high schools managed to reach that standard and be placed on the NEWSWEEK list.

Twenty-eight Minnesota schools made the list. Of the twenty-one Minnesota schools that were ranked previously, only 11 improved from their previous ranking:

Patrick Henry in Minneapolis
Edina
Mahtomedi
Irondale in New Brighton
Century in Rochester
St. Anthony Village in St. Anthony
St. Louis Park
Eden Prairie
South in Minneapolis
Wayzata
South St. Paul

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Test score headlines

Posted at 11:55 AM on June 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

I've written in the past that school test results often seem to be described in overly rosy terms.

The headline of the Minnesota grad standards test results today seems like one such occasion: Latest school test scores show improvements

The reality? Only 57 percent of Minnesota 11th graders who took the math test passed. And fewer than half are proficient in math.

"Like last year's reading results, this year's math results are another clear indication that if we raise expectations, more of our students will accept the challenge and meet those expectations," Minnesota Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said in her news release.

Eight percent more, perhaps. That's the increase from last year in the percentage of 11th graders declared "proficient" in math. And that number is only 3 percent for black students.

This year was the first year the tests were supposed to determine whether a student would graduate, and we were told the results would be better because the tests "matter" this year. Wouldn't we have expected a bigger improvement if the previous scores were blamed on students not taking the test seriously?

But improvement is often in the eye of the beholder. Here are some tables from the department's press release. You decide.

You may recall that "proficiency" wasn't determined until after officials saw how well -- or how poorly -- the students did.

And most officials in politicians figured they would do poorly. So they removed the test results as a grad requirement.

What headline would you write about these scores?

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Is college worth the money?

Posted at 1:42 PM on June 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

A commentary in the Chronicle of Higher Education raises the possibility that college may be the next bubble to burst:

Consumers who have questioned whether it is worth spending $1,000 a square foot for a home are now asking whether it is worth spending $1,000 a week to send their kids to college. There is a growing sense among the public that higher education might be overpriced and under-delivering.

In such a climate, it is not surprising that applications to some community colleges and other public institutions have risen by as much as 40 percent. Those institutions, particularly community colleges, will become a more-attractive option for a larger swath of the collegebound. Taking the first two years of college while living at home has been an attractive option since the 1920s, but it is now poised to grow significantly.

College enrollment, it says, crested this year and will be declining over the next few years. Some colleges are competing for fewer students by freezing tuitions.

(h/t: Andrew Sullivan)

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Live chat: Understanding Minnesota's standardized testing

Posted at 9:08 AM on May 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

MPR's education reporter, Tom Weber, has a story about the state's standardized testing, in which students -- and this is particularly crucial for high school juniors -- need to show proficiency in math and reading in order to graduate.

So at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Tom is going to be here on News Cut answering your questions about the testing which has just been completed.

What sorts of questions? Let's start with this paragraph in his story:

... what Minnesota and at least two dozen other states do is called 'standard setting.' They establish the grade at which is student is considered proficient, it could be 87 or 57. They find that magic number by first reviewing every test question to see how well students did on each. That's key, according to John Willsee, because it lets everyone know how hard the test was. Willsee teaches educational research at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro.

Wait a second! They establish what "proficient" is after the students have already taken the test and "proficient" is based on how well students did on each?

Willsee's view?

"What they want to do is ensure they don't use these rough rules people grew up with, like 90% is passing. That's actually completely arbitrary. they take all this information into consideration in setting an appropriate cut score that will be fair to test takers."

On the surface, it sounds like we're deciding what "proficient" is after we find out whether the students are.

That's my question for Tom. What's yours? We'll see you here at 9.

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Where's?

Posted at 3:28 PM on April 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

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Are you smarter than a Minnesota math student?

Posted at 6:01 PM on March 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (28 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

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The Labor Day standard

Posted at 11:34 AM on March 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Schools

Go ahead and schedule your Labor Day vacation. A Minnesota House committee killed a bill late this morning that would've allowed schools to start classes before Labor Day.

It's not often that a one-sentence bill at the Legislature can get Minnesota worked up, but HF195, which went before the House Finance Committee today, is one such occasion.

Notwithstanding Minnesota Statutes, section 120A.40, a school district may begin the school year on any day before Labor Day only for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years.

Labor Day comes late this year (September 7), and some educators say that's too late. Graduations would be held in mid-June, proponents say. Besides, the kids in the band and football teams are already practicing by mid-August, according to Rep. Kim Norton, DFL-Rochester, who is sponsoring the bill and is also a substitute teacher.

But the underlying issue is the economy, specifically the resort industry. If kids are back in school before Labor Day, they and their parents can't be spending the week at a campground or resort. And young summer employees can't be working if they're in school.

"They'll have about a 45 percent decline in booking," Rep. Larry Howes, R-Walker, said today. He said in 2004, the State Fair lost thousands of visitors because of an early school start date. He predicts the fair could lose up to $2.5 million in revenue if the bill becomes law.

"Labor Day is the largest vacation week in the state of Minnesota," he said. "It's not just the resorts, the airline industry loses bookings when school starts before Labor Day."

But Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, says the economic argument is a shallow one. "It's a question of whether they're going to spend it at the end of the sumer, or at the beginning of the summer," he said.

"Rep. Norton picked the worst two years to try this," said Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia. "It's the worst years since the Depression. If you stop them from spending on Labor Day weekend, it's going to hurt those resorters. We don't need to put another nail in the coffin for rural Minnesota."

The not-until-Labor-Day policy of Minnesota schools -- Michigan and Virginia are the only two other states with the policy, according to Rep. Norton -- extends back to the state's agrarian history. The kids needed to help out on the farm.

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Are high school sports a luxury?

Posted at 11:48 AM on March 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

On NBC's critically acclaimed -- and little watched -- series "Friday Night Lights," a high school principal, who happens to be married to the football-crazed Texas town's football coach, fights a losing battle between athletics and academics. There's plenty of money and support for a new Jumbotron scoreboard for the football stadium in the down-and-out town. But not much for academics.

In Woodbury, the football field at the new high school, which opens next year, awaits the action. An enclosed press box and lights are part of the amenities. It sits in the shadow of spiffy -- and expensive -- new baseball diamonds, right next to more than a dozen baseball fields and soccer fields at the city's Bielenberg sports complex.

In today's economy, are these luxuries? Is there still a worthwhile purpose for high school sports?

Woodbury has not one, but two youth athletic leagues which run in-house and traveling programs for the major sports. Kids in the city have no shortage of avenues to sports participation. That's not always the case, especially in rural areas of the state.

But a Star Tribune story offers a reminder why schools don't want to get rid of sports, aside from their status as the most sacred of sacred cows. Minnesota allows open enrollment -- school choices. They can go to school wherever they want. Tuesday's story raised questions about whether some schools -- Hopkins was the focus of the story -- essentially employ "ringers." If you don't live in a district, or you only moved their to play sports -- does the whole "community identity" excuse for high school sports still exist.

Woe be to the school district that doesn't offer sports. Their athletic students will jump to another district, taking state funding with them.

Clearly, some district are looking to save money by cutting high school sports. The Minnesota State High School league, at the request of some central Minnesota school districts, considered reducing the number of games the schools play, eliminating classes and divisions in some sports, and getting rid of some tournament games. In the end, it decided to do nothing, at least not yet.

Mark Rusinko, a governor's appointee to the Minnesota State High School League board of directors, suggested that if schools want to cut costs by cutting the number of games played, they could do so.

It's a complicated process, Wally Shaver of Let's Play Hockey pointed out. One school may save money by eliminating a game. Another school may lose $20,000 in gate receipts because of the lost game.

Some schools are raising the fees for participating. Others are scheduling sports doubleheaders so two sports teams can ride the same bus. But there's tremendous pushback -- especially in hockey -- when the subject of reducing the number of games comes up.

But some districts have cut high school sports. Even the liberal Minnesota 2020, which might be expected to lead the cut-athletics-save-academics parade, lamented the loss of football, baseball, track, wrestling, and dance line in the Crosby Ironton district.

On Monday night, the school board in Marshall considered $600,000 in cuts. None of which -- except for cheerleading, which was proposed for elimination -- involved team sports programs.

Should school districts rethink the role of sports?

Let's kick it around in the comments section.

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Proud, deeply committed, deeply honored, and out of here

Posted at 10:54 AM on February 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Meria Carstarphen is accepting the job as the Austin, Texas school superintendent, giving us the opportunity to parse her statement of last week when she said.... well, we're still not sure exactly what she said.

But here's what she said:

"I am proud to be the Superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools and am continuing to work to serve the District's students, families, staff and community members every day. It is well known that I very much enjoy my job here and remain deeply committed to achieving the vision that we have set forth over the past three years."

SPPS has big work ahead of us in the coming months with preparations for spring testing, Large-Scale System Changes and budget reductions. I am committed to leading those efforts."

And here's what she said today:

"I am extremely honored to have secured the confidence of the Austin School District Board of Trustees that they would name me the lone finalist to become their next school superintendent.

"I am deeply honored to have worked with the St. Paul Public Schools families and staff. It is thanks to their commitment that we have come such a long way in the district in such a short time."

The Austin-American Statesman comments section to the story is not filled with the happy welcome of Austin. It's chock full of the best wishes of St. Paulites.

WOO HOO!! She's your problem now!

Thank god. I am truly sorry for your students, teachers, and community, but this is such a blessing for St. Paul. Carstarphen is a rock star for sure. She is narcissistic and self-absorbed. She come in, surround herself only with yes-men and women, alienate most senior staff and teachers. She will implement many "sweeping" changes, but won't stick around to see them through or be held accountable for results. Remember that her D.C. gig only lasted 18 months, and she was with us less than 3 years. Do not be fooled, this is all about Meria, and not about students or Austin. Yes, she truly is a "Rock Star". Glad you got her!

---

Why does this choice NOT surprise me in the least! I wouldn't even have to see her resume to know that she'd be "highly thought of". __ And by the comments from the people of St Paul, we're in for something LESS than expected

---

I would like to that the citizens of Austin for relieving our school district of a total failure. You will certainly find this out later.

---

This woman is a charter member of the transient club of school supers that bounce from failing district to failing district. They know all the buzz words, they are described as "rock stars". Once she arrives she'll disappear for a couple years and ZERO will change. You will have paid her well over a million for a couple years of nothing and poof she'll be gone to the next stop......

Good luck and a hearty thank you for relieving us of this no results slick talker......

Photo: Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN - Dr. Meria Carstarphen, the lone finalist to replace Pat Forgione as AISD Superintendent, says hello to Eydie (CQ) Lugo's first grade class at Zilker Elementary School today.

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Math tests not adding up to graduation for Minnesota students

Posted at 7:26 AM on February 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Minnesota has new graduation standards for math and thousands of Minnesota high schoolers aren't going to pass them. What should the state do? Prevent them from graduating and keep them in school until they get it right? Or change the law and allow them to move on?

The current crop of seniors is the first class to graduate -- maybe -- under the new rules.

"The bottom line is that the majority of Minnesota's 11th-graders are probably not going to meet the proficiency level," Sen. Chuck Wiger, DFL-Maplewood, told the Mankato Free Press. He's filed legislation to give the two-thirds of the students who took -- and failed -- the test an option to graduate with math remediation.

Not everyone likes the idea. "If we go in this direction, we're largely taking a leap of faith at this point," Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul told MPR's Tom Weber earlier this month. "It's not going to be informed by any data or research. I'm not seeing the rationale behind that, and I don't want to make a decision just to make a decision. I think we have to slow things down and explore things further."

The trouble is the clock is ticking for the class of 2010.

Part of the problem is schools are still developing curricula for the standards that are already being employed.

"Parents don't know this is even coming down the pipeline," Edina School Board member Peyton Robb told a hearing at the Capitol in December. "Basically, they're going to be faced with this result at the end of their 11th grade year. Their senior year is likely to be trashed, in large part, because of the remediation that will be needed."

If you're a Minnesota high school senior caught up in this, please contact me.

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Carstarphen's view

Posted at 12:44 PM on February 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

St. Paul school superintendent Meria Carstarphen released a statement this afternoon following reports she's in the running to be the superintendent of schools in Austin, Texas.

I am proud to be the Superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools and am continuing to work to serve the District's students, families, staff and community members every day. It is well known that I very much enjoy my job here and remain deeply committed to achieving the vision that we have set forth over the past three years.

In that time, SPPS has repositioned itself to address, not only current, but future needs. We have a strategic plan that takes us through 2011. We have a process in place to develop recommendations for systemic changes that are needed. The Board, the community and the SPPS staff are well aware of the need to continue the change process.

SPPS has big work ahead of us in the coming months with preparations for spring testing, Large-Scale System Changes and budget reductions. I am committed to leading those efforts.

It is my understanding that the superintendent search in Austin is a closed search and I am not in a position to comment on that process. Any questions regarding that process are best directed to Austin.

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Moving on?

Posted at 9:03 AM on February 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Less than three years from the time she was selected as St. Paul's school superintendent, Meria Carstarphen is already thinking of getting out of town, according to reports today. She's a finalist for a superintendent's job in Austin, Texas. The news comes almost three years from the day Carstarphen was selected as St. Paul's school chief in March 2006. A concern at the time was she tended not to stay in one place very long.

The first school officials appeared to hear of her desire to leave was when she put her Summit Avenue home up for sale, although they tried to dampen speculation by saying she only intended to move into a condo instead.

Her predecessor, Pat Harvey, only stayed for 6 years, and considered leaving for Portland halfway through her tenure.

Her predecessor, Curman Gaines, lasted seven years. He, too, let his name be floated for an out-of-town gig (Seattle) halfway through his tenure. But he had spent 25 years in the system, coming to St. Paul as a science teacher in the '70s.

Why don't school superintendents stick around longer? The Pioneer Press analyzed metro school district salaries last year and found them rising faster than teacher pay. It documented how far districts are willing to go to keep superintendents around, usually with car allowances and bankable vacations and unused sick days.

Gaines was considered one of St. Paul's best superintendents. A comment at the time from a teacher's union official might explain why. "He's one of us. He's home-grown. He knows the state and what's going on. We don't want to lose him - and I didn't have to say that," Sandra Peterson said in 1995.

What direction should St. Paul take now? Should it look for someone local or try to attract someone else's superintendent who's ready to move on?

Update 2:18 p.m. - MPR's Paul Tosto, who knows more than a little something about the education beat, sends along this report that shows the average urban school superintendent lasts for three years. In 1999, it was a little over two years.

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How soon should kids get on a career track?

Posted at 9:06 AM on February 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (29 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

"Hey, this would make a good show for Midmorning," I hollered over the cubicle walls the other day while I was writing this post last week about the Governor's Workforce Development Council proposal to the Legislature to require students to develop a plan for their future careers as early as the ninth grade. Some people say it's not early enough; others say it pigeon-hole's kids into a career track.

So Midmorning will take the first 45 minutes of the first hour of the show this morning to discuss the topic.

I'll be in the studio live-blogging the program with Jim Bierma, lead counselor of Minneapolis public schools; Randall Hansen, founder of Quintessential Careers, a career development Web site; and Marc Scheer, researcher, educational consultant, and career counselor with a Ph.D. in counseling psychology. His book is called "No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the Great College Rip-off."

None of them is on the Council but we'll be talking about the role of schools and the pros and cons of this idea. That's where you come in. Post your thoughts in the comments section below now or during the show and I'll pull the best ones out to read on the air and ask the guests to address.

9:03 a.m. - We're about ready to go. Jim is describing his work with the Minneapolis Public Schools. We've got some good comments that we can insert into the show if we get a chance. Keep them coming.

9:07 a.m. - Recommended reading: Career and college planning needs of 9th graders.

9:10 a.m. - Jim Bierma says by around 10th grade, students have more realistic plans. But if a student says he wants to be an NBA basketball player, "we go with that." We never tell them they can't, he says, but they emphasize that college will be necessary for that. He favors the career track, saying it helps students become more motivated.

9:12 a.m. - Randall Hansen says the #1 answer of students when asked what they want to do it "I don't want to work behind a desk all day." He says the governor's proposal may be geared to "cost saving." "It just limits people, especially so early to say 'oh, you're on a community college track, if your grades improve we can review that.' It limits the students' view of what's possible."

9:15 a.m. - Bierma says they're not putting kids on a community college track. He says students can change their career plan at any time. He says surveys of parents and students shows support for career plans (tracks).

My question: What if a student doesn't have a plan for a career at the 9th grade. Does this push them to decide something and is that good or bad?

9:18 a.m. - Matt in Luverne, a high school senior calls. Says he had tons of ideas of what to do and it was good to see options. But he didn't like the idea of making kids write down what they might want to do. "It puts undue stress" on the kids.

9:19 a.m. - John from Bloomington says this is the German model of education. He says students are put on a trade track or an education track. He says it reduces student anxiety.

9:24 a.m. - Marc Scheer says he falls out on the side of being concerned about students' financial futures. The current generation of students graduating are Generation Debt. They're receiving lower salaries than they expect. He'd like to see consideration of future salaries become a bigger part of the picture.

Tangent time As you know, I've been talking to kids on campus for the last few weeks, asking them where their "passion" for the choice of their direction comes from. In interviews with 60+ kids so far, I haven't met anyone who says it came from anything that happened in high school.

9:28 a.m. - A parent of a 9th grader calls and says she fears that instead of having a variety of resources available to help kids make decisions, what we'll have is a tracking where people were told at an early age, you should do this or you should do that. She also says there aren't enough counselors in schools, a fact also brought up by several people in the comments section below.

Jim says Minnesota is last in the nation for school counselors per student. "We're also optimistic that we do a lot of things in classrooms. School counselors are all about getting girls in science and math and we do not tell people, 'you cannot do this.'"

9:38 a.m. - Andrew, a high school student, wants to get into the performing arts and he says it's hard to find good information. What's available for him, he asks? Jim says he would show him Web sites for colleges that have strong acting programs.

Is that a decision Andrew could've made in 9th grade? Yes, he says.

9:40 a.m. - A caller says she would've "sold herself short" if she had made decisions in the 9th grade. She also wonders why Minnesota would move forward with this plan without a foundation in place to support it?

Marc says there's a danger students could get locked into something rigid at an early age. "No one wants a 13 or 14 year old to make all their life decisions, but at the same time we need more of a career emphasis in high school."

Jim says school counselors are promoting a program that doesn't lock students into anything.

9:42 a.m. - I'm having a flashback to the mid-90s when there was a worker shortage in Minnesota and businesses were concerned that they wouldn't have enough well-trained workers. It led to efforts to increase emphasis on career tracks in high schools, and caused a debate on what schools are for: to provide "enlightenment" or to make workers for businesses?

9:50 a.m. - Dr. Hansen, one of the guests earlier in the hour, has posted this follow-up in the comments section.

Hi. One thing I wanted to follow-up on from the show this morning is the importance of something Jim said... that I think it is important to tie interests to possible careers and jobs -- so high school students can then do the research themselves and find out information about the type of work, the pay, the values, the job outlook, and so forth about each type of career.

Too often students -- in high school or college -- choose a major, say philosophy -- as Jim mentioned -- and proceed with no clue as to the kinds of jobs they could get with that major... or they assume they will just continue on to graduate school.

We have a section on QuintCareers.com that we call real jobs for real majors -- where students can find a list of jobs for just about any type of college major.

Thanks again for having me on the show.

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Choosing your career path

Posted at 1:06 PM on January 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (33 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

I'll be on All Things Considered tonight with Tom Crann, talking about what I've learned so far during the News Cut on Campus "tour." My theme this evening will be the number of people who wish they'd made different choices when choosing a career path in high school, and the story of one person who wishes her parents had told her she was making a mistake.

(Update: Here's the dance mix -- Listen)

That's why I've taken note today of an idea being considered at the Capitol on the subject of career paths: Requiring students to have one.

On Tuesday, a House committee heard recommendations from the Governor's Workforce Development Council, one of which would require high school students to develop a plan for their future careers as early as the ninth grade.

According to the Legislature's Session Daily report, "Executive Director Brenda Norman presented the recommendation that every Minnesota student, from ninth grade on, should have an annually reviewed plan to guide them down an educational and occupational path of their own choosing."

There are, of course, two schools of thought on this:

Rep. Steve Gottwalt said he was concerned about adopting a European-style plan. "I get awfully concerned when we're talking about mandating things on ninth-graders and graduates in high school...The fact that we might require them to start building a career path too early or too arbitrarily is a bit of a concern."

"Ninth grade, to me, is almost too late to be thinking about where they want to be going," countered Rep. Jeanne Poppe.

This question sent me into the Wayback Machine to my youth, which -- for the record -- was not in Europe. We had two tracks in high school and kids were separated in 10th grade -- the college track vs. the "business" track.

As a member of the esteemed college track, I was told by my guidance counselor that I would be an engineer, because that's where the jobs were in the early '70s, especially in my declining New England milltown. So he loaded me up with a planned schedule that included trigonometry and physics and a whole host of classes for smart people that I had no hope of passing or any interest in attending. Back then, however, I often did as I was told.

That afternoon I showed my mother my planned schedule and her jaw dropped.

"I thought you wanted to be a journalist," she said.

It was a forehead-slap moment. "Oh... right," I said. "I forgot."

It provides a good reminder that lives are changed by parents who'll slap you on the side of the head and tell you when you're being stupid.

And that brings us to the question for discussion. Is your career path a matter of discussion between a student and parents only or should the law require you to choose a career path by a certain point?

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Math scores may not add up to graduation

Posted at 6:45 AM on December 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

This is quite a conundrum. A new math requirement for graduating Minnesota students may be too hard, and the timing isn't good.

The tests are used to determine whether schools are meeting federal standards, but they also are used to determine whether a student should graduate. The problem is, apparently, that a student wouldn't find out he/she isn't proficient enough to graduate until late in the junior year, leaving only the senior year to learn what he or she needs to learn. Last year, about a third of 11th graders were proficient enough to pass.

Says a story from MPR's Tom Weber:

A new task force, announced at the Capitol committee meeting, will look at possible remedies for the math test. They include everything from moving the math GRAD to 10th grade, to changing the requirement that exams be given at the end of each math course instead of once in the 11th grade, to even tying GRAD scores to drivers' licenses as a way to entice kids to pay attention.

The possibility of not graduating doesn't get their attention?

There's another problem. The state's Department of Education is about six months behind schedule coming up with the test. (See comments section)

Legislators, who caution that they're not changing the standards, are considering moves that would prevent graduating rates from dropping dramatically, giving the state an educational black eye. But they don't appear to know yet what options to pursue, and the clock is ticking.

What would you do?

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Study: Teachers teaching what they don't know

Posted at 2:45 PM on November 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Too many teachers are teaching a subject they know little about, according to a damning report on the ability of schools to prepare kids for careers. It leads to an obvious question, "how are kids going to learn from teachers who don't know the subject?"

The study, from Richard M. Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania, was sponsored by The Education Trust, described as a "child advocacy organization." It was based on 2003-04 statistics.

Among the findings:

* In high-poverty schools, two in five math classes have teachers without a college major or certification in math.

* In schools with a greater share of African-American and Latino children, nearly one in three math classes is taught by such a teacher.

Perhaps this goes a long way toward explaining why an average 15-year-old in the U.S. is behind the average 15-year-old in 21 industrialized countries in math.

The problem of unqualified teachers was one of the targets of the No Child Left Behind Law, but it was overshadowed by criticism over the NCLB mandate for standardized testing. It required teachers to be "highly qualified," but left it to the states to determine what "highly qualified" means.

The report said Minnesota classes are taught by highly qualified teachers 98.4% of the time. But teachers reported they were "in-field qualified" only 88.9% of the time. Still, only Rhode Island and Indiana had higher percentages.

Here's the full report.

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High school musicals

Posted at 10:21 AM on October 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

(My colleague, Tom Weber, who probably can carry a tune, sent me this entry)

This Friday marks the theatrical release of the third "High School Musical" movie. This sequel focuses on the teens' senior year, which would suggest this will be the last of the "High School Musical" series - but if anyone can finagle another sequel, it's Disney.

I truly don't understand the draw of this phenom, but that proves nothing except how far removed I am from the target audience. Still, I used the opportunity of the movie's opening to find out what some schools around the metro (and one outstate) are performing this year.

A few notes:

- One high school (Eagan) is doing "High School Musical."
- Centennial is doing "Sweeney Todd," the school edition. Me wonders if the 'school' edition has dulled the show's murderous undertones - but if you take out those themes, what's left?
- Rumors that I portrayed Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls" when I was a senior are actually quite true.
- This was never an attempt to be a complete list of all schools, so if yours isn't listed but know which show they're doing, please join the discussion of this blog entry.

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The racial gap in school

Posted at 3:08 PM on October 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

MPR's Tom Weber takes a look at two issues facing Minneapolis -- and many other schools -- today.

His report on the state of Minneapolis schools is about as sobering as it gets. Despite every attempt by administrators to maintain an upbeat attitude, how do you find any hope in the racial and ethnic disparities? (Full report here)

The way girls dress

Posted at 12:57 AM on September 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

A school board member in the Perham-Dent School District has given public voice to something we old curmudgeons have been muttering since the days when we dropped our kids off at school: how do those girls get out of the house dressed like that?

"They looked like they were at a brothel rather than at a football game," said Bridgit Pankonin at a recent school board meeting, as reported by the Worthington Daily Globe (registration possibly required).

The Minnesota State High School League spectator conduct policy says only that attire must cover the entire torso.

In the end, the school board decided not to try to legislate the attire girls -- or boys for that matter -- wear away from school, figuring that merely raising the subject would start a conversation in the district.

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The state plane

Posted at 12:02 PM on September 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his education commissioner, Alice Seagren, are flying around the state today to talk about his education reform proposals for the 2009 legislative session.

The pair drop into an airport, do some interviews with the local media, get back on the state airplane, head to the next stop and do more interviews. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Flying around the state is a good way to get your mug -- and point of view -- on TV, newspapers, and radio around the state.

How much does it cost?

The governor is using the state airplane, N70MN, a Beechcraft Super King Air 200. You can follow its flight history via FlightAware.com.

It started its day at St. Paul's Holman Field, flew to Moorhead, then Duluth, then St. Cloud, and then back to St. Paul, on to Winona, then Albert Lea, and back to St. Paul.

A 2003 survey put the hourly fuel use of a twin-engine King Air 200 at 106 gallons per hour.
It took 52 minutes to fly to Moorhead, 44 minutes to fly to Duluth, 41 minutes to St. Cloud, and 22 minutes to St. Paul, according to FlightAware.com.

Flight planning software that calculates today's winds shows the plane flies at an average speed of 201-250 miles per hour (it can fly much faster and does in cruise but, obviously, flies slower during takeoff and landing). So its flights to Winona, Albert Lea, and back should last 29 minutes, 28 minutes, and 21 minutes for a total flying time today of about 4 hours. Add in 15 minutes in each location for taxiing and you're left with about 5 hours and 45 minutes at 106 gallons of fuel per hour.

Fuel at St. Paul Downtown Airport (where, by the way, it's ridiculously overpriced compared to other airports) is about $6.50 a gallon or $689 per hour.

Total cost? For fuel: $3,755.05, or about $1,500 more than a teacher can earn in performance pay under the governor's Q-Comp program.

How often is the plane used? Not that often (based on filed flight plans). Total in-flight time in the last 4 months: 47 hours.

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Zero-tolerance policies

Posted at 2:21 PM on September 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (20 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Two cases of box-cutters at school have been in the news this week.

In Blaine, Tony Richard, 17, was suspended for 10 days and could be expelled after a box cutter was found in his car. Richard says it's there because he uses it at his after-school job at Cub Foods.

The school, like many others, has a zero-tolerance policy on "weapons."

What was the school worried about? Probably what the officials over in Sheboygan, Wisconsin were. A 16-year-old student faces charges after his mother called the school to say he planned to "handle the situation" of another kid who chased him with a baseball bat on Monday. He was picked up on Tuesday with a box cutter.

A week or so ago, a kid in Naperville, Illinois was suspended under a zero-tolerance policy. He had a Swiss Army Knife. He was to be expelled until officials considered the fact he's a special needs student.

The American Bar Association has looked at the zero-tolerance movement and found it lacking.

The ABA Journal story noted how unfair zero tolerance policies have become. One private attorney in Virginia observed that children are able to understand that there is a difference between being treated equally and being treated fairly. She said, "Kids are not going to respect teachers and administrators who cannot appreciate the difference between a plastic knife and a switch-blade."

The lawyers association said in a 2001 report that "most current policies eliminate the common sense that comes with discretion and, at great cost to society and to children and families, do little to improve school safety."

Do you favor zero-tolerance policies?

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In summer, kids' thoughts turn to algebra

Posted at 4:50 PM on August 6, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Minnesota is falling further behind in the No Child Left Behind-motivated ranking of schools making annual yearly progress, according to a story by MPR's Tim Nelson today. In many ways, anecdotal evidence suggests, we've almost stopped being alarmed by the steady drumbeat of bad education news. If you listen to enough politicians -- and talk shows -- you'd swear our kids are stupid, and our teachers are relatively incompetent, and there's not a heck of a lot we can do about it.

I'll see your anecdotal evidence, and raise you one week in Minneapolis where kids have actually chosen to spend the gorgeous weather inside three schools, learning algebra concepts, from teachers who have taken a pay cut to teach them.

The week is being coordinated by Elizabeth Bortke, who's been working on this week's program -- called B.A.S.E. (Believe, Achieve, Support, Educate) camp -- since last March. She talked to more than 4,500 students earlier this year, to convince them that algebra can be interesting, and relevant, and that a week indoors can prepare them for whatever they want to achieve in life. Four-hundred-forty-one kids took her up on the offer. She also recruited 44 teachers.

The state is pushing down the curriculum for math. Kids will have to learn it sooner. "Instead of having algebra taken in high school, now, our 5th graders from last year will be the first class to have to take algebra in the 8th grade," according to Bortke.

Bortke looked for a program that would teach algebra differently "instead of the 2x + 4 = 6 approach." The kids first learn concepts through a visual manner -- they were playing games involving numbers on dice when I was at the Field School this afternoon. Then they learn the formula behind the game, which is -- if you're like me -- the kind of scrawling that gave you bad dreams at night well into your adult years. We had to learn the formula and then try to figure out what that had to do with "real things." These kids see "real things" and then see the formula. (Listen)

"I'm learning a lot," one teacher told me. "I have a classroom of girls and it's interesting to see the difference from a classroom where you have both genders. Girls have their work and they seem to be a little bit quieter and they get down to business. When I've had mixed genders, the girls don't get that opportunity because the classroom tends to be louder with both the boys and the girls together."

More girls than boys are attending this week's sessions.

"I don't think the District is thinking this week is going to change things dramatically, but it's our first baby step in helping our kids improve and arming them with the tools
they need to be successful," Bortke told me. The Minneapolis Public Schools will track the students who attend this week's B.A.S.E. camp over their school years to see how well -- and if -- this approach works.

The kids seem to get it. One 8th-grader-to-be called her cousin to tell her, "you have to be here, it'll give you a step up." While I visited today, the cousin showed up, smiling, introduced herself to Bortke and nearly ran with her to the classroom.

Kids today, eh?

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'There was no pact,' pregnant teen says

Posted at 11:04 AM on June 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Stick a fork in it. The Pregnant Teen Pact story is over.

Lindsey Oliver, one of the pregnant teenagers in Gloucester, Mass., says there was no pact among the teens to get pregnant. She told Good Morning America today that the 18 pregnancies in the high school are a coincidence. She said she was using birth control when she got pregnant.

She also disputed claims that movies like "Juno" are glamorizing pregnancy. She said the claim doesn't make sense because the character couldn't care for her own baby and had to give the child away.

Not that anyone has let the facts get in the way of this story.

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The reluctant teacher of the year

Posted at 5:50 PM on June 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Of all the "teachers of the year" who've been named since I moved to Minnesota in the last century, Carleen Gulstad stood out more than any other, mostly because of the credit she gave her brother at the luncheon honoring her last month. Her brother killed himself when she was 15.

"He was an amazing teacher for me, and taught me about the glaciers and lakes and rocks and all that," Gulstad said. "He took me for walks. He taught me to read, he taught me to love music. And I wanted to carry on his work in teaching. And also, he was a guy that needed somebody to be there for him. And I wanted to be that teacher, to be there for some other kids."

"Because he was the kind of kid who struggled (with depression) and because he was a loner, I think about those kind of kids a lot. So a part of my teaching is to reach out to those kids, too, and to let them know that there's somebody there for them," she told MPR's Gary Eichten the next day.

Gulstad has resigned her title "for personal reasons."

During her appearance on MPR's Midday, Gulstad seemed reluctant to talk about the politics that surrounds teaching. Questioned by a listener, she shied away -- mostly -- from the question of teacher salaries, and put emphasis instead on mentoring programs for teachers, saying that young teachers leave the profession because they feel alone.

She also displayed a neat insight into kids. "Kids are kids," she said, "but now they're developing in a world that's moving faster than ever."

A replacement will be named soon. Presumably they'll come from the other finalists: Joe Beattie of Hastings High School; Rose Regan, Pine Bend Elementary School; Diane Weiher, Lake Harriet Community School; John Bade, Northfield Middle School; Julie Buryska, Wilson Elementary School (Northfield) ; Gordon Westendorf, Proctor High School; Steve Brehmer, Mayo High School; Lynne Meyer, Greenleaf Elementary School (Rosemount area) and Derek Olson, Afton-Lakeland Elementary School.

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Are you a better reader than a Minnesota 10th grader?

Posted at 3:03 PM on June 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Schools

Thanks to the communications department at the Minnesota Department of Education, we've got a sample of the Minnesota reading test I referenced in the post earlier today.

This is just one sample question, but try your luck at it . First, read the following editorial from the Star Tribune:

It's pointless at this late date to lay blame for the sports facilities mess Minnesota now faces. Let's just say that no other metropolitan area has amassed a more illogical stadium/arena configuration.

Based on national trends, the optimal arrangement is this:

• A cozy outdoor baseball park with 40,000 seats, real grass and an atmosphere that captures the timeless charms of the great summer pastime in an urban setting.

• A 70,000-seat pro football stadium--either domed or retractable--that delivers adequate revenues to the NFL team and doubles as a convention hall and venue for a variety of big-space attractions.

• A separate outdoor, on-campus football stadium (capacity 50,000) for the local university team that wants to maintain a collegiate atmosphere.

• A single downtown sports arena (capacity 18,000) shared by NBA basketball and NHL hockey teams that doubles as a concert/convention hall.

On this test, Minnesota scores zero; it has none of the above. Rather, it has separate and competing hockey and basketball arenas and a single football revenue (the Metrodome) that satisfies neither its football tenants nor the baseball team that has endured "temporary quarters" for 18 seasons.

Unraveling this mess seems impossible given Minnesotans' fierce change of heart on helping to fund sports venues. Metropolitan Stadium, the Metrodome and Xcel Arena were all built with public money, but the mood now ices up when the Twins or Vikings enter the room. And recently the university has chimed in with a plea for its own oncampus football stadium.

But again, none of this should surprise Minnesotans, given this state's irrational sports setup. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, designed to bring order, has been unable to prevent chaos. And so teams and cities are left to freelance. The ever-growing popularity of sports has created space issues for the state of Minnesota.

Minneapolis interests continue to investigate a small-scale, privately funded urban ballpark, possibly in the Warehouse District. A financing plan is expected to be announced. . . . The Twins, meanwhile, have their own citizen-based study underway that may, or may not, merge with the Minneapolis effort by year's end.

As for football, the Vikings want a joint deal with the university, but the university worries that a big, domed, ultra-commercial NFL stadium would spoil the collegiate atmosphere it wants. Successful college programs in NFL cities (Boston College, Georgia Tech, Cal, Washington) have been careful to retain their own venues.

To complete the picture, Minneapolis now struggles to afford $30 million of improvements so Target Center can compete with its sparkling new, state-funded rival in St. Paul. And the Metrodome slouches toward monster trucks and pro rasslin' jamborees.

Idealists keep claiming that the public is fed up with subsidizing pro sports; that Americans have finally resolved to say no. But they haven't. Voters in Phoenix, Houston and Green Bay just approved new playpens. Philadelphia last week decided to move ahead on two new stadiums. Eleven are now under construction, adding to the 49 built in the 1990s--with two-thirds of the cost borne by the public. The boom continues unabated.

Perhaps Minnesota's stadium mess cannot be fixed, given the toxic political atmosphere. Fatigue has set in. But Minnesotans must also understand that their sports configuration runs opposite to the national market--and that's why teams and a few die-hard citizens feel compelled to keep pressing for change.

OK, good job, you've read down this far, but did you retain what you read. Let's find out. Answer these questions and ignore the varying formatting: that's just me flunking the state's comprehensive html standards.

Question 1:

Question 2:

Question 3:

Question 4:

Question 5:

Question 6:

But wait! There's more. There's a seventh question that calls for a written answer, with the student stating at least four causes of the stadium mess that the author mentions.

There are 38 questions in all. The full sample, including a scoring system for the "in your own words" answers can be found here.

By the way Education Commissioner Alice Seagren will be Gary Eichten's 11 a.m. guest on Tuesday's Midday on MPR.

(H/T: Randy Wanke, Brianna Chambers)

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