Government Officials

Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, and Linda S. Olson, “Schools, Achievement, and Inequality: A Seasonal Perspective,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 23.2 (Summer 2001), 171-191.

Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, and Linda S. Olson, “Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap,” American Sociological Review 72 (April 2007), 167-180.

Richard L. Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen, “The Impact of Summer Setback on the Reading Achievement Gap,” The Phi Delta Kappan 85.1 (September 2003), 68-75.

Jennifer Sloan McCombs, et al. Making Summer Count: How Summer Programs Can Boost Children’s Learning. The Rand Corporation, 2011.

National Summer Learning Association. “How to Make Summer Reading Effective.”

 What is the Achievement Gap?

In Minnesota, proficiency rates of subgroups on the MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) tests are used to calculate the achievement gap—the difference in academic achievement between two subgroups of students. According to this measure, there is a significant achievement gap between white and Latino students in Northfield, where in 2012 white students outperformed Latino students by 38.9 percentage points in reading and 38.1 percentage points in math. The achievement gap between white students in general and free and reduced price lunch students is smaller, but still significant. In other words, the achievement gap reflects both racial and economic disparities.  On average, white students from middle class backgrounds outperform both Latino students and low income students.

The Achievement Gap and the School Calendar

Numerous studies have drawn the conclusion that over the summer vacation students lose a portion of what they have learned during the course of the school year. The losses due to this “summer slide” are greater in mathematics than reading, and greater for students in low income families than for students in middle class families who have access to summer enrichment activities. Both subgroups—low income and middle class—progress at the same rate during the school year, but because the low income group starts the year at a lower level, those students never catch up to their middle class peers. Furthermore, the effect of summer slide accumulates over time: students who fall behind in elementary school continue to fall further and further behind from year to year.

Because students in both subgroups progress at the same rate while in school—in other words, school is an equalizing factor—extending the school year would seem to be a simple and effective way of addressing the accumulating effects of summer slide on low-income students that result in an achievement gap.

But there are complications that arise from three other gaps related to socioeconomic status: the readiness gap, the testing gap, and the opportunity gap.

The Readiness Gap

Evidence from numerous studies indicates that minority and low income students enter kindergarten with lower reading and math skills than middle class white students. For example, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley demonstrated that “3-year-olds whose parents are professionals have vocabularies that are 50 percent larger than those of children from working-class families, and twice as large as children whose families receive welfare.” [1]  The education and socioeconomic status of a child’s parents have a significant impact on the child’s literacy skills upon entering kindergarten.  In other words, the achievement gap is a pre-existing condition.

One possible solution to the readiness gap is quality prekindergarten for low income and minority students, in order to bring them up to the same level at which their middle class peers enter school.  But simply extending the school year for all students will not enable students who enter school with a readiness gap to catch up with their better prepared peers.

The Testing Gap

Analysis of standardized test data, particularly ACT and SAT test scores, shows a strong correlation between test scores and household income. Students from higher income households perform better on the standardized tests, and these students in turn gain access to opportunities that give them the prospect of higher incomes as adults than their lower performing peers.  In the words of Deborah Meier, “standardized tests, of all sorts, are peculiarly suited to enlarging class and race distinctions.” [2]  The tests themselves, which are used to measure achievement, help to perpetuate the gaps in achievement, opportunity, and income between white and minority, and between middle class and low income students.

As Meier, again, points out, “once such tests are allowed to stand for achievement, they reinforce the very qualities of schooling that to the damage to start with.” Students who score poorly on the tests “spend more time on remedial tasks, are taught in a more rote fashion, and are far more likely to be held over in grade, an experience that itself depresses their academic achievement.” [3]  The students who fail on the tests—not because of their intelligence or potential, but because of their background and preparation—come to associate school with that sense of failure. “Schools that focus on test smarts,” Meier argues, “undermine the life smarts upon which intelligence builds—and over time convince kids they haven’t got what it takes. Tests become a cause of failure, not a mere documenter of it.” [4]

Extending the school year for some students will simply reinforce a sense of failure as those students engage in remedial tasks designed to bring them up to grade-level proficiency. It might be more productive to provide those students with engaging enrichment opportunities that stimulate their curiosity and love of learning—the kind of opportunities that more affluent families can provide to their children, and that help to boost their academic achievement. This is not to fault the teachers or the schools—remember that white students and minority students, middle class and low income students all progress at a similar rate while in school—but to focus attention on learning that happens outside of school.

The Opportunity Gap

If, as the evidence suggests, students from all subgroups (white and minority, middle class and low income) progress at a similar rate while in school, the cause of the achievement gap must lie in experiences and opportunities that take place outside of school. We’ve seen this to be the case with summer slide, the readiness gap, and the testing gap. Middle class white students with well-educated parents and with access to summer enrichment opportunities consistently outperform their minority and low income peers. Simply extending the school year cannot address the effects of the opportunity gap that results from conditions outside of school.

As one group of researchers (Alexander, Entwisle, and Olson) concludes: “Schools do matter, and they matter the most when support for academic learning outside school is weak.” On the other hand, “school-based public resources do not completely offset the many and varied advantages that accrue to children of privilege by virtue of private family resources outside school.” [5]

Part of the solution is to provide high quality prekindergarten and full-day kindergarten for low socioeconomic status (SES) children to address the readiness gap, and to provide summer school to those children as they progress through school in order to address the cumulative effects of summer slide. Alexander, Entwisle and Olson write: “Preschool and kindergarten can reduce the achievement gap associated with SES which children start first grade, but to help them keep up later will require extra resources and enrichment experiences, often of the sort that middle class parents routinely provide for their children.” [6]

It seems clear that summer enrichment activities are a source of educational advantage to students who have access to them. Instead of extending the school year, and thus limiting opportunities for summer enrichment, those summer enrichment opportunities should be extended to all students.

In considering effective summer interventions for disadvantaged students, Alexander, Entwisle and Olson emphasize the importance of summer reading programs at public libraries, but also stress that summer programs should address “the unique contribution that parents and neighborhoods make” when school is out for the summer. This includes family trips to state parks and museums; swimming, dance, and music lessons; and participation in summer sports teams. Such activities “support learning outside the traditional classroom setting, and that gives children an edge.” [7]

Extending summer enrichment opportunities in Northfield may involve expanding school district targeted services like Summer PLUS. It may involve expanding summer reading programs at the Northfield Public Library, and working with other organizations in the community to extend their reach to disadvantaged populations. It may involve new programs and partnerships to develop youth assets in the community. It will have to involve the entire community working together to provide enrichment opportunities for everyone.

For Deborah Meier, the precondition for addressing the achievement gap is creating a sense of community that includes both children and adults, and that extends from the home to the school. “Kids must see the grown-ups at school as belonging to the same universe as those at home,” she writes, “so that they can usefully keep company with them both. It won’t be possible to tackle the subtler gap between races, language communities, and classes without building cultures of trust that overlap race, langauge, and class and that allow for all children and all families to feel they are respected members of a shared—and beloved—community.” [8]

References

[1] Michael Sadowski, “The School Readiness Gap,” Harvard Education Letter 22.4 (July/August 2006).

[2] Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization (Boston, Beacon Press, 2002), 148.

[3] Meier, In Schools We Trust, 149.

[4] Meier, In Schools We Trust, 149-150.

[5] K.L. Alexander, D.R. Entwisle, and L.S. Olson, “Schools, Achievement, and Inequality: A Seasonal Perspective,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 23.2 (Summer 2001), 183.

[6] Alexander, Entwistle, Olson, “Schools, Achievement, and Inequality,” 184.

[7] Alexander, Entwistle, Olson, “Schools, Achievement, and Inequality,” 184.

[8] Meier, In Schools We Trust, 152.

The Minnesota House of Representatives passed the Marriage Equality Act last week by a vote of 75 to 59 with bipartisan support.

With House lawmakers already having passed a comprehensive budget and awaiting our conference committees to iron out a final package, it was the right time to bring this bill up for a vote.

I am proud to say I voted in support of this historic bill that gives same-sex couples the freedom to marry the person they love. I’m also proud of legislators on both sides of the issue who participated in a respectful debate.

Same-sex marriage is an issue Minnesotans have weighed for many years, which was reflected in numerous speeches on the House floor. With last November’s constitutional amendment, it’s been a big focus of conversations among faith communities, students, businesses, and Minnesotans from all walks of life over the past two years.

In 2012, nearly 58 percent of voters in our District voted against that constitutional amendment. In 2004, when asked if I would vote for a bill that would allow all Minnesotans to marry the person they love, I said I would.

Treating someone differently based on their sexual orientation does not square with Minnesota values. Thankfully, the bill passed by the House makes sure same-sex couples in our state are treated equally under the law. It’s a huge victory for civil rights and provides same-sex couples with the same protections and benefits enjoyed by me and my wife.

It’s also important to note that with our comprehensive Human Rights Act, the Marriage Equality Act includes the strongest religious protections of any other state that has legalized same-sex marriage. Under the bill, religious organizations are not required to perform marriages they do not support. Those kinds of protections make sure we respect the deeply held beliefs of people who oppose same-sex marriage.

With the Senate expected to vote on the same-sex marriage bill this Monday and Governor Mark Dayton signaling his intent to sign the legislation into law, Minnesota will soon become the 12th state in the country to allow all people to marry the person they love.

If you have any questions or comments about the Marriage Equality Act or the House Energy Policy Omnibus bill, please contact me by phone at (651) 296-0171, by email at rep.david.bly@house.mn, or by postal mail at 559 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.

Related posts:

1. An Ignorant People Cannot Remain a Free People
2. Rally for the People
3. AFSCME PEOPLE Council 5 Endorsement

The Omnibus Energy Bill passed the House last Tuesday. If HF956 becomes law, it would set Minnesota’s first solar energy generation requirement for the state’s utilities at 4 percent by 2025. Renewable energy production for the state would need to be 40 percent by 2030.

The bill as it’s written now, would allow for private citizens to invest in the installation of a solar voltaic device and be ensured that there would be a means to sell unused electricity. If private businesses and homes generate enough solar energy to sell to the utilities on the electrical grid, the bill requires utilities to pay a rate adusted annually by the energy commission.

For futher reading, the full bill can be found at the Legislature’s website. Minnesota’s Department of Commerce has information about the current solar rebate program. .

Movement on the national front is evidenced by the Huffington Post’s article on Renewable Energy Standards in other states. An April 2013 post on the Clean Energy Authority blog describes proposed national legislation making financing solar energy projects similar to financing oil projects , and a number of national news organizations covered Echotech Institute’s announcement that there is tremendous growth in the clean energy jobs sector.

Related posts:

1. Minnesota Could Have the Strongest Renewable Energy Standard– House Energy Committee Update
2. Local Ownership For Energy Projects
3. Minnesota Renewable Energy Society

The May 6th 5 pm live video conference and live chat takes place here in this blog post. The follow-up blog comment thread will also be attached to this post, with the discussion open till Friday May 10. See my blog post from earlier today for more details.

At about 4 pm, CDT, you’ll see a YouTube live video window immediately below this paragraph. At 5pm or later, you’ll be able to click it to watch and listen to the live panel. Below the video window, there will be a live chat window available at 5 pm where you’ll be able to submit questions via text.

Update 4:30 pm:

Unfortunately, some panelists has to cancel this afternoon at the last minute so we’re canceling the video conference for today and will have an update soon on when it’ll be rescheduled.

My apologies for the hassle. Enjoy the gorgeous spring weather!

We’re hosting a live video conference today, May 6, at 5 pm to discuss the DRAFT “final” report on the Downtown Parking Conversation. The draft is on the agenda for the City Council work session on Tuesday, May 14th.

Panelists confirmed thus far:

• Britt Ackerman (attorney, Hvistendahl, Moersch, Dorsey & Hahn; NDDC Board member)
• Mary Closner (downtown business owner, swag – funky and fine art)
• Ross Currier (NDDC Executive Director)
• Leota Goodney (Leota Goodney CPA; downtown business/building owner)
• Chris Heineman (Community Planning and Development Director, City of Northfield)
• Christopher Tassava (Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Carleton College; board member, Northfield Citizens Online)
• Steve Wilmot (Architect, SMSQ; member, Heritage Preservation Commission)

We’ll be using Google+ Hangout Air for the video conference, embedded right here on the downtown parking conversation blog.  If you’re unable to attend the live conference, I’ll have it archived here for you shortly after it’s over.

There are three ways for you to participate in this event:

1. We’ll be using an online text chat feature so that anyone can submit questions for the panel during the video conference.
2. You can submit questions for the panel ahead of time by either attaching a comment to this blog post, or by using the Contact Us form
3. After the panel is over, we’ll continue the discussion via blog comment thread till Friday, May 10, possibly later.

Got questions or suggestions? Attach a comment or contact me.

Update 4:30 pm:

Unfortunately, some panelists has to cancel this afternoon at the last minute so we’re canceling the video conference for today and will have an update soon on when it’ll be rescheduled.

My apologies for the hassle. Enjoy the gorgeous spring weather!

This month’s issue of the Minnesota School Boards Association Journal includes an article by Dave Eisenmann, the director of instructional technology at Minnetonka Public Schools, titled “1:1 iPads with 1,600 Secondary Students: Two Years of Accelerating Learning.”  The article shares some of the lessons from the one-to-one iPad program Minnetonka launched in September 2011. Not surprisingly, Eisenmann is enthusiastic about the iPad program, which he says has increased both student achievement, student engagement, and school connectedness. The iPads have increased communication between teachers and students and their parents, and have provided new opportunities for collaboration between students. The iPads, Eisenmann notes, facilitate more frequent formative assessments (homework and quizzes) which allow teachers to provide “more timely interventions if a student doesn’t understand a concept.”

Minnetonka launched its iPad program with a limited pilot program, initially putting iPads into the hands of 16 teachers and approximately 350 ninth grade students.

The article includes URLs to videos about the Minnetonka iPad program, including this video on “Student Engagement, Collaboration, and Classroom Community,” which illustrates some of the benefits Northfield is hoping for from its iPad program.

Student Engagement, Collaboration, and Classroom Community from Minnetonka Public Schools on Vimeo.

As Northfield moves forward with its own one-to-one iPad program, one of my concerns is that teachers receive adequate training and feel prepared to face a classroom full of students with iPads this September. At a recent District Curriculum and Staff Development Committee (DCSDC) meeting, teachers were asked to brainstorm ideas for staff development in the coming year, and iPads topped most of the lists. According to Eisenmann, in Minnetonka:

Time is provided to allow teachers the opportunity to observe colleagues during their work day, so they are able to see others teaching the same curriculum, as well as observe other subject areas and how technology is utilized. The instructional technology department makes a concentrated effort to be in each iPad teacher’s classroom at least once a week, directly observing what is going well, gathering ideas for future instructional needs, and being there to help teachers as soon as they need it.

It sounds as if Minnetonka has strong support from an instructional technology department, and that starting out with a pilot program has helped them to develop new pedagogical practices in a more focused manner. In Northfield, I think many teachers are fired up about the possibilities of iPads in the classroom, but they’re also anxious about being prepared and staying one step ahead of their tech-savvy students.

Last week the Minnesota House passed a series of comprehensive bills that invest in priorities like our children’s education and property tax cuts.

To pay for these important investments, we passed our tax bill. It eliminates our $627 million deficit without gimmicks and pays back the remaining $854 million school shift.

The bills we passed make Minnesota’s economy stronger.

Small businesses create jobs when there is demand for their products and services. An ‘all-cuts approach’ to our budget process shrinks demand and does not create an environment conducive to job creation. For example, cuts to local government aid (LGA) and county program aid (CPA) over the past decade caused property taxes to skyrocket by 86 percent.

Those tax hikes fell on the backs of middle class families who then had less money in their pockets to spend at local businesses. Without customers fueling demand by purchasing products and services, companies could not build up the capital necessary to expand their workforce. In fact, the LGA cuts that sparked painful property tax hikes led to less demand, forcing many businesses to lay off workers.

The bills passed by the House this week are designed to increase demand and create jobs by putting more money in the pockets of consumers.

The House DFL tax bill invests $270 million into direct middle class property tax cuts for nearly one million Minnesotans through the Homestead Credit Refund, a retooled renter’s credit, and increased funds to cities and counties. Under the new Homestead Credit Refund, homeowners in Rice County will see an average increase of $203. In addition, Rice County will receive nearly $450,000 more in CPA in 2014 and the city of Northfield will receive over $660,000 more in LGA.

Providing help with property taxes for middle class families reverses the trend of LGA and CPA cuts over the past decade that caused property taxes to skyrocket. It puts more money in consumers’ pockets that will be pumped right back into the economy.

As we all know, nothing comes free. The investments we’re making in areas like property tax cuts cost money. The House DFL plan generates the revenue needed to build a stronger economy in a way that’s fair.

One component of our tax plan raises additional revenue for our investments by increasing the income tax rate to 8.49 percent on the wealthiest 1.1 percent of individuals (taxable income greater than $400,000 per year for joint filers). High income earners have done extremely well coming out of the recession.

Asking those who can afford to pay a little more in income taxes to help improve Minnesota’s economic vitality is a much fairer approach than pushing the cost of the things we need onto the backs of middle class families in higher property taxes. Polling shows a majority of Minnesotans support the House approach.

In the coming weeks when we’ve settled on a final budget, I’ll use my bi-weekly column to outline the investments we’re making, how we’ll pay for them, and the benefits we expect.

Related posts:

1. Lawmakers Beat the Clock
2. The Sinking Middle Class and a Shrinking Economy
3. Middle Class hardest hit for State taxes

Here is our DRAFT "final" report on the Downtown Parking Conversation.  I’ve also sent it out via email to all of the participants in the stakeholder gatherings for feedback before formal submission to the City Council.

We have attempted to highlight and prioritize the ideas/recommendations from a wide variety of stakeholders/users. 

Please note that the raw "data" of ideas is included as an appendix.  We are particularly interested in hearing if we have not adequately raised the visibility of key ideas.

Please share your feedback on the report with us by Friday, May 3rd.  We will do our best to incorporate what we hear from you in the report presented to the Council.  

You can submit feedback, ask questions, and engage in discussion via the comment thread attached to this blog post.  You can also use the form on the Contact Us page.

Also, our online coordinator Griff Wigley will soon have an announcement about a panel discussion via live video conference early next week, so watch for that.

Over the past several weeks we have been busily working on preparations for the District’s transformational technology initiative. Our current work has included:

Finalizing the lease: We were able to finalize the lease to allow us to receive the devices this Spring with the payment beginning in July. This will allow the District to have some additional time to prepare the iPads for students. The lease will still expire at the end of June in 2016.

Selecting a case: The District has zeroed in on the Griffin Survivor as the case for both the iPad 2 and iPad Mini devices. We have several vendors providing quotations and are confident, due to the volume we are purchasing, will get an excellent price.

Professional Development: We have set our Spring/Summer Professional Development schedule for our teaching staff. You can view our draft schedule by clicking here. These options accompany the regular sessions that have been offered at our buildings throughout the year.

In addition to our local professional development offerings, our teachers have access to workshops at TIES,  an educational technology consortium in St. Paul. As members of the consortium, our teachers can attend these sessions at no additional charge.

Our staff also has access to training through Atomic Learning, an online video professional development resource. This service provides hundreds of short online videos about dozens of software tools, including iPad use.  Our goal has always been and will continue to be to provide professional development in multiple venues en masse in an effort to support our staff. 

In the coming weeks, we’ll be working to prepare our process for entering the devices into our inventory. We will be discussing the first courses that are interested in transitioning to digital textbooks. 

As we move through the initial stages of implementation, I am reminded of a comment made by an elementary school child when I worked as a teacher and Director of Technology in Madelia, Minnesota. Our community had approved a bond issue to replace an early 1900s elementary school with a new and renovated facility. The morning after the vote, the child expressed disappointment to his mother as she was dropping him off at school: “I thought you said they voted to give us a new school. We still have the old one!” The young man obviously thought that schools were built overnight…the same can be said for how some view transforming education through the use of mobile technology. This ‘digital conversion’ will take some time and won’t happen “overnight.”  Our project is on track and we are excited about the path we are embarking upon. We will continue to move at a rate that supports our students, their teachers, and our futures.

As always, don’t hesitate to contact me by email at matt.hillmann@nfld.k12.mn.us or by phone at (507) 645-3458 if you have questions, comments, or concerns about the transition.

Since the approval of the transformational technology proposal, we have been working on finalizing a number of details. A handful of the things we’re working on:

• Selecting a case
• Lease details
• Mobile device management system
• Learning management system
• Professional development schedule and curriculum
• Intake and inventory strategy
• Student distribution
• Policy and protocols

Each of these items are at slightly different stages, with the mobile device management system and learning management system seeing the most progress to this point. Nate Knutson, our outstanding network manager, has installed a test version of the Lightspeed Mobile Device Management system and we are liking what we see. This system should allow us to manage our iPads using one system as well as apply the District’s web content filtering wherever the devices are, not just at school.

We are nearing the selection of the enterprise version of Schoology as our learning management system. Several school districts in Minnesota (such as Minnetonka and Farmington) who have implemented a 1:1 iPad initiative are using Schoology. The web-based system will be a core resource for our staff in the substitution stage of the SAMR model framework we are focusing on for the 2013-14 school year. Our District Tech Steering committee viewed reference material and saw a demonstration on Friday by Northfield High School business education teacher/media specialist Julie Wolner. Mrs. Wolner is piloting Schoology with two of her classes this semester and is seeing great success.

We’ll be finalizing some other decisions and plans in the coming week. This is the phase of project where we are doing our best to “cross the Ts and dot the Is.” By focusing on details at this point, we should have an opportunity for a smoother implementation.

We’ll continue to update the blog and capture our journey towards transformation. Check back for updates!