Category Archives: Achievement Gap

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Our constitution is a remarkable document that serves as a pillar for our country’s freedom and democracy. However, the document itself is not without its flaws, as is evident by the 27 amendments that have since followed since it was written in 1787. One of those amendments, the 19th amendment, was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920 –finally giving women the right to vote. Well, some women. Because until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, women of color were still largely prohibited from voting in many states.

Just seeing the timeline and facts of these events shows us how incredibly flawed, complicated, and exclusive women’s suffrage proved to be. Like our Constitution, this movement was vital to our country’s evolution, but it was an inadequate moment in our history by excluding so many. As an organization that develops women, all women, it is incumbent upon us as civic leaders to acknowledge this fact and learn about the different angles of the story of suffrage in the United States.

It is undeniable that our communities become a better place when they are more diverse and inclusive. To move the world in that direction, we must first acknowledge the foundation upon which we stand and look ahead to where we want to be. Because of this, the Junior League has is hosting a centennial celebration of the 19th amendment called “When We All Vote”. This event is meant to discover how the 19th amendment in 1920 is part of a much larger and longer story about the pursuit of voting rights, a struggle that is both unfinished and ongoing. Please join us for the virtual event below celebrating a decades-long effort about using the power of your voice and envisioning a more just future:

Save the Date!

Announcing a Special Event August 18th Honoring the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Mark your calendars to join us on Tuesday, August 18th at 6:30 pm CT/7:30 pm ET for “Why the Women’s Vote Matters,” a powerful panel conversation —exclusively for Junior League Members—exploring the complicated history of the 19th Amendment.

Our Panelists are:

Jordan Brooks, Executive Director, The United State of Women

Stephanie Young, Managing Director, When We All Vote

We will be joined by Grammy® and Golden Globe® Nominated Actress, Singer and Songwriter Mandy Moore to get you revved up and excited! RSVP here: https://www.ajli.org/?nd=workshop_detail&workshop_id=240

Back to Books

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Written by Elizabeth Gill

Do you have a stack of books that you have been meaning to read? How did that pile grow, what compelled you to purchase these books? What enticed you to buy those at the bookstore? Was it the clever title or interesting cover that sparked an interest?

Back to school season is upon us and as a teacher, it is an especially poignant time for me.  I love the new starts that it brings: new colleagues, new students, new parents, and new school supplies! 

Over this past summer, I have been reflecting on all of the places that I’ve been a teacher.  I taught in struggling schools in St. Louis, Missouri before moving up here and getting to teach in a top district in the Twin Cities area.  In each and every building, the language arts teachers are passionate about books and teaching students lifelong literacy skills. The differences have been in the resources given to teachers to meet that goal. 

Textbook-Only Teaching

The linoleum floor gazed up at me in all its green and cracked glory.  I had to be careful when I went to work with Trinity because her desk was next to a spot in the floor where I could see the brown subfloor, and I didn’t want to catch my heel on it again.  Surprisingly, the textbook on Trinity’s desk was brand new. I spoke with her teacher about it and the district had purchased the whole textbook suite, including workbooks, the year before.  It was a last-ditch effort to get reading scores up. But the single-use workbooks were not for students to write in. Who knew if those would ever be purchased again? To be safe, the teacher had those stored behind her desk.  There weren’t enough for everyone anyway.  

I was impressed by the textbook.  It had well-written stories by well-known authors.  The interior had full color illustrations and deep questions at the end of each tale.  

The students didn’t read them.  

Sure, they read a few stories as a class. Yet, there was no time for students to leaf through and find a story to read on their own.  The textbooks were heavy and thick. None of the students seemed interested in trying to find anything to read there. No other books were available.  During my year there as a student teacher, it was rare for me to observe students reading anything that wasn’t in the textbook or being read to them.  

They were 7th grade students in one of the most poverty stricken schools in the region. 

Fully-Funded Teaching

“Think of this as a book spa. We have our books organized by content level, reading level, interest level. With the district budget each grade can choose between 95 and 100 books and those will all be ordered for each ELA classroom districtwide.”

The sixth grade language arts teachers met as a group for an hour and a half surrounded by newly published books, award-winning books graphic novels and high-quality picture books. We were each able to take a cart and gather a collection of books that we thought would be great for our students and would connect with our students to build their identities as readers. We debated the merits of individual books and selected books that students would want to read and could be challenged by.  

When we went to scan the books and order them, we had enough money to go back and choose another book to add to our list.  Each sixth grade reading classroom in three different middle schools was going to receive 97 brand new, never-been-read-before books.  Each seventh and eighth grade classroom was going to receive their own stack. Oh, and a teacher that teaches seventh and eighth grade? She would receive almost 200 new books without ever having to buy anything herself. 

Book Access and the Opportunity Gap

You know that phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover?” 

Young students DO judge based on what a book looks like. Certain characteristics are more important to students than adults, particularly the age of a book, the pictures on its cover, and the summary on the back. These all work together to entice a student to read or, horribly, prejudice a student against a book.  Effective literacy programs embed choice reading, so more books that students want to read translates well into increased skills and abilities in reading. For school districts that have a budget tightened by poverty, teachers are the ones building the libraries out of their own funds. Direct donations of books and grants for buying books go a long way towards impacting the opportunity gap.  

As we think about the fresh beginnings that come with the back to school season, think about what you can do to freshen a child’s classroom library.  

Call to Action

Help encourage a child to read: The Junior League of Minneapolis will be helping all children enjoy the excitement of the Scholastic Book Fair by sponsoring the whole 3rd grade class of Partnership Academy, the school that HOMES partners with on science activities. At the September GMM we would love you to write encouraging words on book plates that will go into the front pages of these books. Due to the large Spanish speaking population in the school, our focus will be to include books in Spanish and about science. Kids will be able to choose their own books which is just as much fun as you remember!

Watch a documentary on the Opportunity Gap in Minneapolis: Love Them First – Lessons from Lucy Laney Elementary is a Kare 11 News Channel Originals Screening about a school in North Minneapolis. There will be a screening at Riverview Theater on 9/5 and on television on 9/12. Join the JLM at the screening on the 5th. 

Salon Series Recap – Second Harvest Heartland

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Junior League of Minneapolis Community Partner Salon Series
SALON: [suh–lon; French sa–lawn] an assembly of guests common during the 17th and 18th centuries, consisting of the leaders in society, art, politics, etc. under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.

In January, we’re offering members the chance to connect with some of our community partners in small group settings to take a more holistic look at the achievement gap in Minneapolis.

  • From Second Harvest Heartland on January 12, we’ll deepen our understanding about hunger in our community and its tie to the achievement gap.
In the JLM’s first night of the Salon Series, Theresa McCormick, Produce Strategy Manager at Second Harvest Heartland, shared with us that 1 in 10 people in MN experience stress induced by hunger every day.  Second Harvest Heartland’s mission is to end hunger in our community through community partners.  Second Harvest does by running a number of different programs that serve varying populations of our community. And while Second Harvest employs a staff of 150+ individuals, much of their work is made possible by volunteer groups, like the Junior League. In 2016, 30,000 people volunteered to help sort and repack food to prepare it for distribution.  In 2016, Second Harvest distributed 80 million pounds of food, 55% of which was fresh food.
Through it’s various programs, Second Harvest serves approximately 532,000 individuals each year. Many of their programs focus on getting food into the hands of children and families.  Unfortunately, 1 in 6 kids in Minnesota is at risk of hunger.  In suburban areas, children miss almost 19 million meals every year primarily due to lack of participation in government funded programs.  In rural areas, children miss almost 7 million meals each year because of barriers to availability of food and access to transportation to get food.  Almost 9 million meals are missed throughout the summer due to lack of availability to school meal programs during the summer months.
In order to help these children, Second Harvest is currently piloting a program called “Food + You” which aims to increase healthy food resources available to students and their families by partnering with schools to create tailored solutions.  This multi-dimensional program connects students and their families with existing federal nutrition programs, direct food distribution, and community resources. After the pilot is completed, Second Harvest will use the data to develop the long-term program model.

New Reseach On Minnesota Achievement Gap 

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Minnesota Public Radio News has spent the past year looking into the reasons Minnesota’s Achievement Gap is among the worst in the nation. Through data and research it has compiled a summary of causes, implications, and solutions to explain why Minnesota’s students of color face an uphill battle in their attempts to overcome the Achievement Gap.

Please follow this link to learn more.
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/03/07/graduation-gap-sources

What Can We Do to Boost Math and Science Statistics?

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According to the National Math + Science Initiative, only 42% of fourth grade students and 35% of eighth grade students performed at or above the proficient level in mathematics in 2013. The National Math + Science Initiative also reported in the same year that only 44% of U.S. high school graduates are ready for college-level mathematics and only 36% of U.S. high school graduates are ready for college-level science. What do these statistics mean? It’s alarming that less than half of the United States’ population is performing at grade level and less than half are prepared for college-level math and science courses.

What can we do to help improve these statistics? The Junior League of Minneapolis (JLM) is actively working with students and parents through the H.O.M.E.S. (Hands-on Math, Engineering and Science) project. Students in grades K-5, along with their parents, are encouraged through positive learning associations and resources to explore STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) activities further at home. By increasing the interest in STEM among students and parents, this is addressing the achievement gap in Minnesota.

One of the easiest ways to help improve these staggering math and science statistics is by helping students have a positive association with math, science and engineering. When students are excited and curious about a subject, they are more inclined to work harder and have a passion for it. The STEM projects set forth by H.O.M.E.S. are hands-on, creative and a lot of fun! JLM members are encouraged to sign up for a shift. It’s the perfect way to spark the love of STEM learning with students and to help decrease the achievement gap in the Twin Cities.

By Katie Runman

2015 Minneapolis – St. Paul Community Report Card

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While progress has been made to address the achievement gap there is still much more work needed. This week Generation Next released its annual report highlighting goals, indicators and trends in our community. Key insights from the report point to areas of opportunity and continued growth.

  • Less than 30% of the 762 early childhood programs in Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP) are rated as high-quality and the biggest gap is in licensed family childcare where only 8% of the 436 programs are rated as high quality.
  • While the majority of low-income children receive a screening through their doctor’s office, only 33% of three-year-olds receive the state-mandated Early Childhood Screening.
  • Approximately 17,000 students in kindergarten-5th grade are not reading at grade level and the majority are in the lowest achievement level—the “red zone.”
  • The percent of students in MSP meeting 8th grade math benchmarks has been steadily decreasing over the last three years—from 44% in 2013 to 39% in 2015.
  • Unlike many other outcomes, some student groups of color have higher levels of social-emotional skills than white students.
  • The number of students graduating high school in four years has been steadily increasing over the last three years—from 3,900 in 2012 to 4,200 in 2014.
  • High school graduation rates are increasing for every student group, except for the rate for American Indian students which has remained relatively flat.
  • Research shows the best predictor of a student’s likelihood to graduate from high school in four years is not race or income; it is whether or not they failed courses in 9th grade.
  • Dual enrollment course participation has a greater academic benefit for low-income and low-achieving high school students than more socially, economically and educationally advantaged participants.
  • Current projections in MN indicate that 74% of all jobs in 2020 will require a post-secondary degree. Currently less than half of students in MN and only 37% of students in MSP have a post-secondary degree after 6 years of enrollment.

To learn more please read the full annual report:

http://www.gennextmsp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Gen-Next-Annual-Report-10-15-2015.pdf

Study :: It’s Not Too Late When Kids Reach Adolescence

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With all of the focus on early childhood education and the achievement gap, interventions for adolescents have increasingly been viewed as too costly and not worth the effort. A recent study shows why this assumption might not be true and how we can make a difference in the achievement gap with teenagers.

A University of Chicago research team is carrying out the first ever large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Match Education’s tutoring program over two years with 5,000 students in 15 Chicago Public School high schools. This tutoring intervention is designed to address the problem of academic mismatch (applying the wrong intervention for kids who are falling behind and exacerbating the downhill slide), providing youth with high-intensity individualized math tutoring – two-on-one instruction for an hour a day, every day (“tutoring on steroids”) – designed to help them catch back up to grade level so that they can reengage with regular classroom instruction.

First year results show that participation in Match improved student math test scores by the equivalent of an extra one to two years of learning for the typical American high school student; reduced math course failures by over 50%; and reduced overall course failures by over one quarter.  See the summary here and a New York Times Op Ed here.

Post contributed by Sara Sternberger.

What is Advocacy?

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This is after all an Advocacy blog? Let’s take a step back to make sure we’re on the same page.

Advocacy is the act of pleading for, supporting, or making recommendations to influence change. People tend to associate advocacy with lobbying or politics – and it can be – but individuals can advocate for themselves or others too. Can you remember a time when you  spoke up for someone who wasn’t present or defended a friend? Advocacy just means “speaking up” and giving voice to our passions and principles.

The JLM Advocacy committee is working to define advocacy for its membership, engage members in a non-partisan way, and educate membership on the issues surrounding the achievement gap. It’s important that we raise our collective voice in favor of programs and policies which support our vision of decreasing the achievement gap.

WAYS TO ADVOCATE                                                                                                            

  • Creating public awareness through education – sharing data and stories to persuade
  • Blogging
  • Communicating with your elected officials and encouraging others to do the same
  • Writing a letter to the editor

TOOLS TO GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT

  • Social media
  • Promotional materials
  • Letters to the editor
  • Opinion Editorials

Attend the Advocacy event “Coffee & Conversation with Minnesota State Senator Terri Bonoff” on Saturday, March 21st from 9:00am-12:00pm to take a deeper dive into the world of advocacy, understand how you can become civically engaged and hear from  Minnesota State Senator Terri Bonoff on her journey and current priorities. See the JLM website for more information and registration.

Additionally, please post comments on the articles and links you see. Nothing educates people more than a great conversation!

Post contributed by Kristy Barnett.

2015 Children and Issues Briefing

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The Children and Issues Briefing is an annual event preceding the legislative session.  Key leaders and experts from across the state inform and engage participants in discussion on policy to improve outcomes for children in Minnesota.  This year’s event featured speakers from Governor Mark Dayton, the Minnesota Children’s Cabinet and a youth panel, among others.

One of our own JLM members was in attendance and shared these key takeaways :

  • Early Childhood is a priority for legislatures and policy.  Four years ago Early Childhood funding was nonexistent and the proposal for this year is at $100M.  There is still a need to grow though.
  • In order to make progress, legislators need to focus on outcomes rather than specific programs.  This requires both political sides to find common ground.
  • Children are looking for Equity.  Everyone should have the opportunity to be successful, as all kids have potential.  This was a common comment from experts and children on the panel.
  • One of the most impactful quotes – “It is unacceptable that a whole life can be written in just the first chapter”.  This amps up the importance of intervention early in life.

Videos of that day’s presentations were just release and can be viewed here.  I encourage you to view a few segments and consider how you can get involved.  One presenter commented that letters, emails and visits to the Capitol make a difference.  What resources would you need to send a letter or email?