Improving the Education of Minnesota’s Students from Pre-K through College

The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) is an all-University applied research and technical assistance center at the University of Minnesota that connects faculty and students with community organizations and public institutions working on significant public policy issues in Minnesota. The CURA Reporter is published twice annually to provide information about CURA's programs and projects. Subscriptions are free upon request. This publication is available in alternate formats upon request. t Printed with agribased ink on recycled paper, including 20% post-consumer fiber. M innesota is a national leader in educational outcomes and, on many indicators, provides a national model of performance. However, Minnesota also faces many educational challenges, including achievement gaps among subgroups of students. Nationally, many educational outcomes for pre-kindergarten to 12th grade (P–12) are well defined and have been tracked for years. 1 However, the 1 Examples of sources of outcome data include the National Assessment of Educational Progress (The nation's Report Card; nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard), the annual Digest of education Statistics (nces.ed.gov/programs/digest), and The Condition of education (nces.ed.gov/programs/coe), all from the National Center for Education Statistics. current federal regulations regarding school accountability (largely due to the No Child Left Behind Act that was enacted in 2001) define school success in a very narrow way, typically performance on a single-event state exam, attendance rates, and graduation rates. Schools continue to struggle with identifying the means to address critical issues of success for students in some subgroups, particularly students of color, students from families in poverty, students who are English-language learners, and students receiving special-education services. In the higher education arena, outcomes are poorly defined and not tracked to the extent seen in P–12, and outcomes and measures of success are generally less visible. In A Culture of evidence: postsecondary Assessment and Learning Outcomes, Educational Testing Service researchers stated: " What is needed is a systemic, data-driven, comprehensive approach to understanding the quality of two-year and four-year postsecondary education, with direct, valid and reliable measures of student learning. " To meet this need, they proposed a comprehensive system for determining various aspects of higher education learning, with a call for individual institutions to develop their own context-specific outcomes valued at their institution. Although such guidance is limited, it is available—yet such Data-driven decision making creates learning opportunities at St. Paul's Como Park Elementary School. Here, students explore reading through story telling in the library. guidance has not had a strong presence …