Objectives:
Increase the number of proven schools serving students with unmet needs; school sectors improve, creating the conditions for more students to access schools that are both rigorous and relevant.
Strategies:
- Expansion of successful schools
- Improvement (technical assistance, communities of practice)
- Transformation and restart
- Support establishment of promising new schools
By 2022, as part of a five-year plan, our sister organization Great MN Schools will invest in 30 schools with the goal of 10,000 students underserved attending high-performing schools.
GMS makes strategic investments in proven and promising schools, providing the expert guidance, funding and resources needed to create a community of great schools. They empower district, charter and independent schools with the resources they need to provide an exceptional education to more Minneapolis kids. GMS coordinates closely with all school sectors and funding is by invitation only.
- Proven and promising schools can access funding, expert guidance and technical assistance in a variety of ways through our sister organization Great MN Schools:
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- Expansion
- Improvement
- Transformation
- New schools
Click here for more information and to learn about each of these key opportunities. For more resources, explore Great MN Schools.
2. School-Wide Family Engagement Rubric for schools, made possible by the Flamboyan Foundation. This self-guided and -reported tool illustrates what effective family engagement looks like in its stages of development, can help schools focus and prioritize family engagement efforts, and help schools generate new engagement strategies.
And to learn how other cities are leading the way – ensuring more and more students attend great schools of all types – explore ‘Eight Cities,’ a project of Bellwether Education Partners.
Improving how children in Minneapolis experience school is possible when we work together to ensure every child has a great teacher and school leader, and our educator workforce reflects the rich diversity of our community.
Objectives:
- Increase the number of effective diverse teachers and leaders in our schools
- Support current teachers and leaders in their work to dramatically increase student success
Strategies:
- Increase pathways for more effective, diverse teachers and leaders entering the profession
- Create an aligned ecosystem to develop, support and sustain an effective and diverse educator workforce
- Increase principals’ capacity to lead schools with strong instructional cultures
- Strengthen school talent management practices to recruit, hire, develop and retain effective diverse teachers and leaders
Following a RFP in 2016, we announced initial talent grants totaling $568,500 to execute pilot strategies to support the retention of great teachers and increase the diversity of our teacher workforce. In 2017, we received responses to an open-ended survey from 25 school principals, representing district, public charter and private schools in Minneapolis, each serving students from primarily under-resourced communities. Leaders shared feedback on what resources and support would be most effective to help them hire, develop and retain the educator team needed in their school. This information coupled with conversations with additional school leaders, talent team members and other local and national stakeholders engaged in preparation and development of educators guides our investments.
For more information, contact Cay Kimbrell, our director of talent.
More pathways into teaching
To attract more diverse, aspiring teachers, and respond to school needs…
Read more
Strengthening community and connections for educator diversity
Affinity groups, stakeholder collaboration, focused learning for change to increase educator diversity
Read more
Hiring, developing, retaining talent
Having the right team in place to effectively support the needs of every student takes focused, strategic work
Read more
Centering on strong instruction
The time students and teachers spend with each other is precious – we need to make sure it leads to student success
Read more
- ‘The Opportunity Myth’ – Too many students graduate from high school still unprepared for the lives
they want to lead. To find out why, TNTP asked the students themselves. We’re proud to have officially endorsed this ground-breaking research. - Imprint – Interested in making an impact on Minnesota’s future? Check out these tools and tips for exploring the teaching profession.
More coming soon!
Community Engagement
Objectives:
- Increase agency of families to advocate for their children and for systems change
- Increase accountability within communities for improving school quality
- Increase enrollment in high-performing schools
Strategies:
- Increase transparency of school performance information
- Expand the number of community-based partners recruiting, training and empowering parents as advocates
- Build capacity in high-performing and high-potential schools to attract and retain more families
- Build awareness among civic and grassroots leaders surrounding high-performing schools
We’ve set the following goals for the 2018-19 school year:
- At least 2,500 parents benefit from advocacy training
- Six citywide and four school-based campaigns are designed and led by the community
- Enrollment in low-performing schools decreases by 500 students
In the 2016-17 school year, our Community Engagement Committee recommended pilot grants to support closing the “information gap” for parents (see our April 2016 and November 2016 announcements). We announced our first RFP for grant proposals in 2017, and our second in 2018. For more information on funding opportunities, contact our director of community engagement, Rashad Turner.
Community Engagement Video
Some of our partners helped produce a video highlighting our community engagement work
Watch the video
KWST Behavioral Development Group
Addressing the overrepresentation of students of color and low-income students in special education programs
Read more
Children's Defense Fund
Building on parent trainings to cover education topics more deeply
Read more
Tools:
- Minneapolis School Finder – Helping families make
empowered, informed decisions when selecting a school, our resource houses information on what schools across Minneapolis have to offer academically and culturally. - A guide to schools that work – Designed with and for families to help them demand better schools or ask more from their existing schools. This resource is available in Hmong, Somali and Spanish.
- Learning Heroes – Is your child ready for the school year? This site offers a readiness check, as well as fun (and free) activities that cater to the strengths and needs of the child.
- The BARR Center – Strong relationships with students lead to great teaching and positive results. Learn about the 8 strategies BARR uses to make this a reality for teachers, students and their families.
- Innocent Classroom – Founded in Minneapolis, Innocent Classroom is bridging the relationship gap between students and teachers with real-world conversations and application.
Research:
- ‘Recognizing and Amplifying Family Power in Minneapolis-St. Paul’ – This report explores family engagement as experienced by 30 community partners, and offers insight on how philanthropy can support this vital piece needed to ensure education works for students and their families.
- Design Thinking with families – Toward a local K-12 ecosystem that actually understands and caters to family needs, we completed Design Thinking conversations with 50-plus parents from diverse races and ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
- GreatSchools report on school choice – 800,000 families across Minnesota participate in school choice. In order for this choice to be wholly beneficial, this report tackles when and how families engage in the different stages of the school choice process.
- ‘The Opportunity Gap–Defined’ – Toward more great schools, we support strategies that recognize the unique strengths and opportunities of each of neighborhood and school community. This report offers an analysis of student access to high-performing schools in Minneapolis.
- Relevance framework – When school life is relevant, students—and other stakeholders—are more connected, motivated, and engaged. Our ‘Framework for school relevance’ is designed to help schools define relevance, assess ways they are making education relevant for students, and guide them toward increased relevance.
Objectives:
- Schools are able to recruit and retain diverse and high-quality educators through the talent pipeline
- Schools are empowered to make important decisions around budget, staffing and curriculum
- Schools and school systems are held accountable to meaningful academic and school climate standards, as well as governance
- Proven and promising schools have access to money, facilities and other resources needed for success
- Policy decisions value the voices of families, educators, and proven and promising schools
Strategies:
- Streamline out-of-state teacher licensure
- Provide sustainable revenue for alternative and nonconventional teacher preparation programs, improve the quality of traditional programs
- Safeguard conditions that support schools serving families most in-need
- Improve accountability for low-performing charters
- Make school accountability measures accessible and inclusive of families’ needs; empower parents with reliable and thorough information
- Attain equitable funding for schools across sectors
Our Policy Committee—a network of educators, advocates and community leaders—helps inform this work. MN Comeback announced initial policy investments in 2016. Funding is by invitation only. To explore funding opportunities, or for more information, contact our director of partnerships and external relations, Nicholas Banovetz.
MN Council on Latino Affairs
Ensuring proper implementation of state laws to improve access to the teaching profession for candidates of color
Read more
Mr. MacKenzie & E4E-MN
Expanding pathways for people of color to enter the teaching profession
Read more
- ‘Candidate briefing packet, 2018’ – Toward good
policymaking and better outcomes for children, we compiled this packet of solutions to make a community of great schools a reality.
Objectives:
Ensure proven and promising schools are able to operate in quality facilities that support their educational goals.
Strategies:
- Provide technical support to schools that improve their capacity to plan, lease and/or own facilities
- Develop a connected network of community resources, including professional services, real estate owners and developers, public officials, and other key influencers
- Provide financing support for proven and promising schools that want to expand into their own facility
- Increase the supply of high-quality facilities sites
For more information, contact Nicholas Banovetz, director of partnerships & external relations for MN Comeback.
- School facilities resource guide – Many school communities face considerable challenges securing
space. As one solution, we developed the comprehensive ‘Resource guide for school facilities.’ With the building blocks of facilities planning, a directory of local experts and lease negotiation guidelines in-hand, we’re ensuring schools can make better-informed decisions. - ‘The Opportunity Gap–Defined’ – Toward more great schools, we support strategies that recognize the unique strengths and opportunities of each of neighborhood and school community. This foundational report offers an analysis of student access to high-performing schools in Minneapolis.
Objectives:
Relevance translates to all students thriving in schools that meet their needs. While this is a nebulous and uncharted space, we’re committed to elevating relevance. Our initial strategies are outlined below.
Strategies:
- Create a relevance framework, indicators and guiding principles toward shared language and to promote its application; integrate across levers/committees and grant-making.
- Equip families with related tools and vocabulary so they can find the best-fit school.
- Increase relevance in proven and promising schools.
We—MN Comeback and our Relevance Committee—welcome the participation of more partners to help engage broad, diverse communities in helping better define relevance and building-out tools for families. Contact Nicholas Banovetz to get involved.
Green Central, Cristo Rey and Northeast College Prep
As a preview of our relevance magazine, check out three schools and how they're relevant for the students and families they serve
Watch the video
- Schools That Work – A collection of stories
elevating the power of a great school, their necessity and the empowered steps some are taking to ensure their existence in Minneapolis. - A guide to schools that work – Designed with and for families to help them demand better schools or ask more from their existing schools. This resource is available in Hmong, Somali and Spanish.
- Minneapolis School Finder – Helping families make empowered, informed decisions when selecting a school, our resource houses information on what schools across Minneapolis have to offer academically and culturally.
- Relevance framework – When school life is relevant, students—and other stakeholders—are more connected, motivated, and engaged. Our ‘Framework for school relevance’ is designed to help schools define relevance, assess ways they are making education relevant for students, and guide them toward increased relevance.