Dept. of Shameless Self-Promotion

New articles up at the Daily Planet:
“Pushing against the achievement gap”
The high schoolers in Claire Hypolite’s chemistry class are clustered in little knots of desks, heads down and pencils flying as they grapple with packets of homework problems. They toss solutions and gossip back and forth in English, Somali, and Hmong while they work. Watching this entirely generic classroom scene, it’s hard to believe more than 80% of these kids were failing this class only a few months ago.

“Schools Pay, Society Benefits from ECE”
How do you market an investment that costs almost twice as much as the losses it’s designed to offset? One way is to wait for someone else to fund it.

Filed under: Announcements, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Achievement Gap, Claire Hypolite, Early Chilldhood Education, Edison High School, Education, Education Funding, Education Reform, Minnesota, Shameless Self-Promotion, Wilder Foundation

Fresh Times at Edison High

(Published in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, 12/8/08)

Last year, Minneapolis Public Schools pushed the restart button on two of their seven high schools. It was a dramatic move, designed to restore parents’ confidence after years of sinking test scores and declining enrollments. Students and teachers alike greeted it with tears and anger. After these so-called “fresh starts,” at least one school—Edison High School—is going full steam ahead with a high-energy restructuring plan.

Filed under: Minneapolis, Edison High School, Education, Fresh Start, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Schools, NCLB, Public Schools, Restructuring