New Minn. achievement gap effort launches

A new effort to narrow the achievement gap between white students and students of color is launching Thursday during an event at the University of Minnesota.

Generation Next is a collaboration between school districts, colleges, non-profit groups and businesses.

Its mission is to find programs that are helping close the gap, and place them in Twin Cities schools.

Generation Next's Executive Director Michael Goar said one example is after-school tutoring programs.

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"A specific tutoring program for kids that are falling behind," Goar said. "Making sure you capture those kids and making sure that you understand what curriculum is being used in schools and make sure you have a really strong tutorial program."

Goar said the group will focus on developing a system to coordinate the 500 achievement gap efforts already in place around the Twin Cities.

"There's a lot of great intentions and people who are passionate about public education," Goar said. "I think we're blessed with plethora of programs. But we're not blessed with a system, a system to manage all these separate initiatives."

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