I second Patty's request; though I wanted to attend the Monday event, I had to be at another meeting. Did anyone from the forum attend the NEAT forum on Monday? What were their impressions?
For a long time, I've encouraged participants to act as citizen reporters and share notes on public meetings that they attend on issues of relevance to this forum. So, let me step forward and try myself. Hopefully, others will jump in as well.
NOTE: Jennifer Armstrong, NEAT president, is writing an official report, maybe she will share some or all of if with this group.
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There were about 40 to 50 people at the forum, including many policy makers and district officials. Anne Carroll and John Brodrick were there from the Board of Education. Rep. Ellen Anderson was also in attendance.
Yusef Mgeni, of the Saint Paul Public Schools Office of Educational Equity, began by describing this concept of an "achievement gap", "expectation gap," "opportunity gap," or whatever you wish to call it. He talked a lot about the expectations that we have for students, as parents - educators - and a community. I think that he was trying to make the point, that students can and will respond to the expectation that we put to them and that our failure is in that too often we expect too little of certain groups of students.
We talked briefly about the fact that students of color are about as likely as "white" students to take advanced placement type classes, but that they take far fewer of these classes. (Sorry, I don't have the numbers in front of me). He talked about a pilot project at Arlington High (and somewhere else?) that is showing good results at increasing the participation of students of color in these advanced placement classes - and expressed the hope that we would learn lessons that we can spread throughout the district.
Tom Watkins, from the St. Paul Public Schools, showed us some of the data that is available from the district on achievement and how it can be used to locate gaps in achievement and hold schools accountable.
http://rea.spps.org/
He also tried to put the data into some context and talk a little bit about how it is used by the district.
Jennifer Armstrong, president of NEAT, talked some about the social and community factors that affect children as they come to school and affect their ability to achieve while in school. The implications being, that schools alone cannot be held fully accountable for this achievement gap - there are many factors involved that extend beyond the school walls and the reach of the district. Issues of housing and public health.
The school district is very proud of the results that they get with students who have some kind of stable living situation and stay in one school for an extended period of time. Apparently, it is very clear from the data, that the lowest achieving students are those that are new to the district or who move around a lot within the district.
Finally: Carlos Mariani spoke again about the need to set high expectations of students and impress upon them a real sense of self worth.
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I hope that this was helpful.
I'd be happy to try and expand upon particular parts of the program or discussion, if anyone has specific questions.
I'd also love to hear what others thought of the event - or what I missed?
I know that at least 4-6 members of this forum were there.
Best wishes,
Tim Erickson Hamline Midway [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Tim Erickson http://www.politalk.com St. Paul, MN - USA 651-643-0722
[EMAIL PROTECTED] iChat/AIM: stpaultim
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