The Achievement Gap

What is a Community School?

A commentary today from Ed Week:

Community Schools: Reform's Lesser-Known Frontier

from Education Week. 2-05-10 

By Sarah M. Fine

When it comes to the battle of ideas that has dominated the school reform stage for the past decade, 2010 may be opening on a hopeful note. The Obama administration has taken up the task of settling the debate over whether America’s schools should be reformed by raising standards or by expanding community-based supports. The verdict? A resounding yes to both sides. No-excuses steps to ensure accountability are a necessary component of school reform, say the president and his advisers. But so too is an approach that takes into account the myriad non-academic needs of students, families, and communities.

The administration’s plan is not so much a compromise as a two-pronged strategy. The first prong, involving a continued focus on accountability, is already well under way. Efforts to create voluntary national “common core” standards—spearheaded not by the federal government but by a coalition of national groups—are moving forward. Experiments with merit-based pay for teachers have proliferated. And the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top initiative promises to inspire yet more data-driven innovations.

But when it comes to linking schools with networks of social support, lawmakers have barely made it past the starting line. The administration requested $10 million to help organizations develop proposals for “Promise Neighborhoods,” place-based anti-poverty programs modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone, but implementation will not begin until 2011.

Given the extraordinary ambition of the Promise Neighborhoods initiative, it seems reasonable, even wise, to spend time on planning. But the need to improve education outcomes in underserved communities is an urgent one. And it so happens that there is another, less resource-intensive way to create networks of social support for students. It involves what have become known as community schools, and it has been consistently overlooked by both lawmakers and the news media.

The principle behind community schools is a simple one: Take neighborhood schools and turn them into community hubs, by extending their hours and broadening their uses. Rather than locking up on weekends and after the dismissal bell each day, a school might keep its facilities open, for use by partner organizations offering tutoring, recreation, health care, child care, meals, or English-as-a-second-language classes. The arrangement is win-win: Service organizations gain facilities and opportunities to collaborate, and families gain a more centralized system of services. Since this process involves schools and organizations that already exist, the costs and the time associated with implementation remain relatively low.

What the creation of community schools does require, though, is a shift in thinking. Schools have to recognize that non-academic factors play a key role in determining academic outcomes, and service organizations have to reimagine themselves as actors in the education domain. Such shifts might not be easy to make—but good program coordinators and the promise of better outcomes can go a long way.

Britain has long been a leader when it comes to expanding the function and the vision of its schools. Under the leadership of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the country began opening “extended schools”—facilities that have long hours and house programs ranging from health services to business-management classes. The project has produced remarkable results. “Student performance at every level is up, and some of the schools that were some of the worst performers have been turned round,” Mr. Blair said recently. By the beginning of this year, all British government-run schools were required to qualify as extended schools.

In the United States, however, this model has been much slower to catch on. During his tenure as the chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan transformed 150 schools into community schools, and saw achievement levels and graduation rates jump—prompting him to later reflect that the project was “the best money I spent.” Other experiments with school-community partnerships have seen similar success. Nevertheless, community schools account for only about 5,000 of the nearly 100,000 public schools nationwide. Why?

The movement for community schools lacks two of the usual suspects in successful undertakings: money and momentum. Martin J. Blank, the director of the Coalition for Community Schools, estimates that a total of $100,000 is needed to facilitate and sustain a single school’s transformation into a community school. This sum is small potatoes when it comes to federal funding, but as of last fall, the government had financed only 10 community school programs, leaving 400 grant applicants in the cold.

As far as momentum goes—well, as usual, education reform has been kicked to the curb by an overburdened Congress. In early September, U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, both Democrats, reintroduced legislation for the Full Service Community Schools Act. The bill, which was originally introduced in 2007, would authorize $200 million per year for five years to fund federal grants for partnerships between school districts and community-based organizations. Using Blank’s estimate, this funding could support the transformation of 2,000 schools.

The community-schools bill was referred to the House Education and Labor Committee, where it has sat, unexamined and undiscussed, for more than four months. It has made no headlines and garnered little support, even from those who care deeply about the health of America’s education system. If things continue in this vein, the bill may again fail to make it to the House floor—and thousands of families will never reap the benefits that might have come from the transformation of their local schools into robust community hubs.

Yet hope springs eternal that the bill, and the movement, might still take off. “Working together, we can make our nation’s schools the community hub for not only learning, but also vital services and support for families so that students come to school ready to learn,” declared Sen. Nelson at a press conference in the fall.

Let us hope that those of us who agree with him can make enough noise to ensure that the Full Service Community Schools Act and the beliefs it represents receive the attention they deserve.

Sarah M. Fine is a writer who spent four years working at an inner-city charter school in Washington.

Ranking Achievement Gap Strategies

Early education, more time in school, strengthening school leadership, and developing community schools as hubs for family support won  the strongest support from the 65 participants.   (Note: Some thoughtful choices were separately submitted by a few of our experienced members who could not be present.)

Here are the top-ranked choices:

• Providing early childhood education – especially for those at risk
• Lengthening the time in school – day or year – including summer school
• Establishing community schools as hubs for support of families from prenatal care through school
• Establishing PK-3 or PK-5 schools (pre-school tied to early elementary grades)
• Strengthening principals as school leaders
• Increasing authority of principals in choosing or retaining teachers

See below for the ranking of the 25 items considered by the Committee.  Many of the lower-ranked items were undoubtedly viewed as supplemental or ancillary to the top-ranked items.

Tally of  items marked at Achievement Gap meeting 12-11-09	Tally totals
Providing early childhood education – especially for those at risk	36
Lengthening the time in school – day or year – including summer school	35
Establishing community schools as hubs for support of families from prenatal care through school	18
Establishing PK-3 or PK-5 schools (pre-school tied to early elementary grades)	15
Strengthening principals as school leaders	14
Increasing authority of principals in choosing or retaining teachers	11
Strengthening after-school programs including extra curricular activities	10
Reducing class sizes especially for early grades	10
Using data driven instruction	8
Educating parents about child development through ECFE, PAT, & MELD	8
Increasing pay and setting higher qualifications for teachers	5
Emphasizing early literacy including expanded use of Americorps	3
Recruiting adult mentors for students	3
Utilizing visiting nurses beginning with prenatal care	3
Utilizing paraprofessionals for home visits and support for new parents	3
Restructuring teacher education	3
Empowerment training for parents	2
Reducing segregation and achieving a balanced racial and ethnic student body	2
Adopting innovations including on-line learning and teacher-led schools	2
Using smaller schools – either standing alone or created within larger schools	1
Increasing use of experiential learning	1
Providing incentive payments to teachers	0
Using computer-assisted retraining of brain to improve speech recognition	0
Supporting parents in pursuing their own educational goals	0
Allocating both teacher and dollar resources more strictly based on need	0

Gap Closing Principles from Seed Academy

Eric Mahmoud

CEO and President of Seed Academy and Harvest Prep

Achievement Gap Committee, 11/13/2009

 

History: We started our K-1 in 192 and the whole idea was to add a grade every year. After our first year, there was an article in the Star Tribune and Prince read that article. His manager called us up and asked us to come to Paisley Park. He made a $200,000 contribution. That became the seed money to get our elementary school going. Long story short we have about 800 students and four programs in our building on Olson Memorial Highway. We have a preschool program, SEED Academy Elementary School, Harvest Prep and our new program, the BEST Academy, which stands for Boys in Engineering, Science and Technology.

 

Mission: The mission for our school is to instruct, empower, enable and guide African American children to achieve superior academic, social and moral development. The way these programs relate to each other. The acronym is WINNERS,

·       W = we love our children

·       I = Innovation and creativity. Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge

·       N = Non-negotiation for student success. We can’t dictate the type of children who walk through our doors. We can only dictate the support systems we put in place.

·       N = No excuses.

·       E = Effort reaps rewards (not innate ability)

·       R = Resilience. No matter how many times you fall down, the most important this is the number of times you get back up.

·       S = Social Responsibility.

 

Best Practices for Closing the Achievement Gap. This so called achievement gap is related to three types of gaps: a Belief Gap, Time Gap and Leadership Gap

 

·       Belief Gap: Dr. Stevenson at University of Virginia wrote a book called the Learning Gap. He looked at Asian education and American education. He concluded that some of the worst schools in Asia are actually better than some of the best schools in America. He said the difference is based on how the school is organized and the beliefs and values of the two cultures. He surveyed Asian students and asked what is the most important ingredient, hard work or innate ability? Asian students said hard work. American students, and they said innate ability. In the American culture if you have it, you have it. If you don’t, you don’t. In the Asian culture, if you don’t have it, all you have to do is work for it and you will get it.  For African American students in particular, that has a significant undermining effect if your belief system is centered on innate ability. That is the belief gap of many of our children. They can sit next to other children, other children will get the information and our children, because of the belief gap, it undermines their capability.

 

·       Time Gap: When you are running a race and you are behind, the only way to catch up is to devote more time. Many of our children come to us behind. What we found is that a 6.5-hour school day is not long enough. We have an 8-hour school day. We started a year ago, 200 days per year vs. the typical 175 days. Our children need more time. We spend two hours in math, sometimes three, as opposed to one period. In reading, we spend 2.5 hours.  We have 5^th and 6^th graders from other schools that don’t know addition and subtraction. You have to steal time and bend time to favor those students.

 

·       Leadership Gap: From a leadership standpoint, it is moving the teachers and organization in the direction of success for the children. If we have to spend more time, we will do it. If we have to spend more resources, we will do it. That is the role of leadership: Great leader, great school; Poor leader, poor school. The leader determines how to use resources and what staff stays, what staff leaves. Jim Collins said in Good to Great, a leader has to decide what staff are on the bus, what staff has to get off the bus, what staff are in the right seats on the bus.

 

This whole idea of the achievement gap we can make a significant and positive difference if we focus on the belief gap, time gap and leadership gap.

 

Gap-closing schools

·       Mission driven

·       More academic time, good teaching and more of time

·       Positive school culture where children feel safe.

·       Teaching for mastery instead of to a test

·       Families as partners, where they have shared responsibility.

 

One thing we are focused on is that we are aligned with both MN and federal standards.

 

Every other Friday, we stop school at 2 p.m. and we spend three hours for collaboration and staff development.

 

Q&A

 

Q: Are you an MPS Charter School?

A: We are chartered by the state. Minneapolis used to be our sponsor. Now we are sponsored by the Audubon Center

Q: Why the break?

A: We felt there was a closer alignment. We wanted more of an environmental focus.

 

Q: If leadership is the key, how do you clone yourself? Find other leaders?

A: It is looking at the principles behind what makes schools and leaders then duplicating those principals. The principles are hard work, looking outside the box in order to solve the problem, then being committed. And a real passion for the children.

 

Q: How do you draw students in?

A: Because we are public, it is first come, first served. We advertise. Because we have been in business for a couple of years, we are pretty well known in the community. We have a lot of referrals by other parents. We have a waiting list.

 

Q: How stable is your population?

A: Mobility is a huge issue for most school districts around the country. Our children are probably a little less mobile than most schools. One of the things that we do, since we have our own busing system, we don’t have to relegate our enrollment to Minneapolis. We have students from St. Paul, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park. About 15-20 percent of our population would be considered mobile, those that started at the beginning that are not with us at the end of the year.

 

Q: Revenue?

A: We probably have about right around $10,000 per student. That would be all federal and state programs.

 

Q: What is the biggest success in recruiting is …

A: Making sure our parents are satisfied with the program. If that happens, parents will refer other parents. A lot is word of mouth, customer service, making sure we are communicating on a regular basis, and that we are fulfilling the promise we have given them.

 

Q: Do you do home visits?

A: Not on a regular basis. But we do have parent teacher nights where parents come out once a month. We found if we have the students being recognized or performing that night, it brings the parents out. Food also helps bring the parents out.

 

Q: What percentage is special ed?

A: About 15 percent in all programs.

 

Q: What is key?

A:  When we first started out, I thought curriculum was the be all and end all. We tied a lot of our philosophy and our work with curriculum. As we become mature as an organization, it is really not about the curriculum, it is about having dedicated, competent, strong teachers. That is really the bottom line. When you know what the goals are, Minnesota and national standards, the curriculum doesn’t address all of the standards. At the lower grades, we have used a program called Direct Instruction, K-2^nd grade. It gives our children a very good jumpstart, the phonemic awareness and phonics they need. It is weak in the area of comprehension. We had to add to it. We have become less curriculum dependent and more laser focused on the standards. We created a report card that directly aligns with the standards. Before, the teacher would grade students for the work they had done that quarter. I said we are going to scratch that. I want to know what are the benchmarks. You are going to take those benchmarks, divide them up into quarters, and determine what you are going to teach that quarter. Then, the same the state evaluates whether students met the benchmark, teachers will give that type of evaluation for the students that quarter.

 

Q: Why do families leave?

A: For various reasons. I have a phenomenal teacher, 3^rd grade teacher, 96 percent of her kids were proficient in reading and math, lost about six or seven of 25. Half of those students moved out of the state. With the economic times, we are seeing a lot of mobility. As for teacher mobility, we had about 25 percent teacher turnover last year. One of the reasons was because Harvest Prep went from 175 days to 200 days. So teachers were honest, and I was honest with them. They couldn’t do the longer year. I am honest. This is what our kids need. You could be a great teacher. You may not be a great fit.

 

Q: Given the criteria for good to great teachers, can you evaluate how well our higher ed schools are doing on teacher preparation?

A: I think there is anecdotal evidence that the higher ed institutions have not done a good job, especially working in urban environments. In particular, some teachers are not ready to deal with some of the nonacademic issues they find in the classroom. They don’t have the sense of urgency that is necessary. I don’t want to make a blanket indictment. ... KIPP and Uncommon Schools program in New York, they have created their own teacher education program at Hunter’s College. …

 

Q: [Couldn’t hear question, something about data?]

A: We haven’t done a good job of actually tracking the data. As far as looking at the number of graduates, we have been tracking that. We started 8^th grade about 2 years ago, prior to that we only went to 6^th grade. I could track 6^th grade graduates that graduated from high school, it exceeded 90 percent and 80 percent going to college. We don’t just want to get them in college, we want them graduating.

 

Q: Two questions:

·       Does the state come to you and say, "Can we learn from you?"

·       Second, my organization runs an after school program. Our kids have much better success than those who just go to school during the day. These programs are run by and for African American and American Indians. It raises questions about our integrated education. What is wrong with it that these kids aren’t able to succeed?

 

A: The biggest enemy to being great is being good. Sometimes when you are good, you rest on your laurels. I believe we are a good school, not a great school. We have a long ways to go. There are many, many models that the state can learn from. From a school perspective, city perspective, state perspective, it is a matter of will. When you have the will, you do whatever it takes. ….

 

Second part: My position is, I want our children in effective schools. I don’t care if they are all black or all white; the schools need to be effective. You can find effective integrated programs. Just going to an all African American school does not make a school successful. What makes it successful is the leadership, and the unit of change is between the teacher and the student. [Integration] may have a social outcome, but it doesn’t have any educational value.

 

Q: How do you recruit teachers?

A: Anywhere and everywhere. We have had national recruitment efforts and local. We find out from students who have come from other schools, who was a great teacher in their school and we go try to pirate them. We have had about 10 teachers from Teach from America, which has been a great asset to our program. At one time, especially when we were a private school, I didn’t think white teachers could teach our children well. Over the years I have found we can have effective African American teachers and white teachers. The real question is, "Do they have a sense of urgency?" The percentage is about 55 percent African American, and the rest other.

 

Q: [Didn’t hear question]

A: There are some incredible programs going on in MN and around the country. I asked my staff, how many of you have actually seen a successful teacher or school? How many of you have read about a successful teacher or school? The reason I asked, because you can’t know success unless you have seen it. You don’t know how it feels or what it sounds like. You don’t even know if it is possible or not. One of the things I do I go around the country all the time, looking for models of success so I know what it sounds and feels like. These policy makers need to go to successful schools to see what is possible. Hopefully, then there is a higher sense of urgency.

 

The distance runner Roger Banister was first guy to break the 4-minute mile. Then a whole bunch of other people did. He showed what was possible. Once you see other people breaking that barrier of achievement, you know what is possible.

 

Q: What about parents?

A: We haven’t put as much emphasis on parents as we probably could. We only have some much energy, and control over parents. If you have limited time and resources, what do you control? I control time and budget and teachers. That is where I put a lot of time in. We invite parents to participate and encourage them. We talk about their role in the education process. I know there are other programs that do a lot more with parents. I am not the expert on engaging parents. … We don’t have the resources to go out and do a better job.

 

Q: Two questions:

·       Teacher salary?

·       Do you see a difference in the kids who come up through your SEED Academy and those who come from outside?

A: Preschool question: Our preschool aligns with our elementary program. There is a significant difference in the performance. They can take an 8-hour school day. The academic difference, behavior and other indicators, they are prepared.

 

Compensation: We align pretty much with MPS. We just received this Q-comp, the short answer to that, we are going with an “eat what you kill” compensation system. If you don’t perform, you don’t get paid. You don’t get an additional salary increase. You get a base salary. Then you get a 3 percent increase if you hit your growth score. It’s all within the control of the teacher. We use the NWEA assessment. There is a growth score. If I had a 6^th grader reading at the 1^st grad level, there is a growth score. You might not get them to 6^th grade, but you get them to 3^rd or 4^th grade. If you hit that score, you get compensated. Then teachers are formally evaluated three times a year. It’s a five-point system. They have to get three out of five from two out of three evaluators. If they do that, they get another 3 percent.

 

Q: How do you evaluate teachers?

A: A rubric. It goes from 1-5. An example, all teachers, when they start a lesson, they have to have the objective on the board and state the objective. We will evaluate them on their objective. That is one component. We have ten components of teaching. The objective, modeling, did they give children independent practice? The rubric says this is no good and this is great. … They know what we are expecting.

 

Q: Who does the teacher evaluation?

A: Three administrators in the building. Two principals and an assistant principal do the evaluations.

 

Q How do you fund your Pre-K?

A: About 80 percent of our kids are on Title XX, the rest are parent pay.

 

Q: Given superintendent powers, what are the first 4 things you would change in MPS?

A:

·       I would change teacher compensation for great teachers.

·       I would change the length of the school day and school year.

·       Incentives for great schools.

·       If there was some way possible that we could supplement the cost for transportation. If the children don’t get to school, they can’t get educated.

 

Q: Harlem Children’s Zone?

A Geoffrey Canada is light years ahead of where we are. It started with wrap-around programs. In 2004 he started a school. The similarity is in spirit, the sense of urgency, and the same commitment to the children. …

 

Q: [Follow-up question, couldn’t hear]

A: As phenomenal job that Geoffrey Canada does, there are schools all around the country that don’t have the same wrap around services that are doing as well if not better. In Harlem, I visited the Excellence Charter School for Boys, one of the best schools I have ever been in. 100 percent African American boys, 100 percent proficient in 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grade reading and math. They have an incredible program and all they have is a school. It can be done.

 

Q: Talk about building character?

A: The social and moral development are a very important aspect of our program. I tell people that the Unibomber had three PhDs. Being smart is important but not sufficient. We want smart children who make a contribution to our community.  We have a community meeting every day for our middle school, 30 minutes a day. It gives us an opportunity to inculcate values and character. When we talk about superior moral development, what does that mean?

 

Q: Girls program?

A: Sister Academy … When we developed this boys-focused program, BEST Academy, the parents and some of the teachers said, “What about our girls?” We created a parallel program called SISTER Academy. It stands for Sisters in Science, Technology, Engineering, Rx (Medicine). It has a technical focus at the middle school. It is a program under Harvest Prep.

 

Q: Creativity, how that plays out?

A: We are pretty rigid about [reading and math]. We also have a music program and an art program. Even with my engineering background, I think the great engineers are exercising both sides of their brain. Our arts and music program helps them. We are rigid in some areas. This gives them an opportunity to create.

 

 

Summary: Self-governed schools

October 16, 2009

Presenters:

• Bob Wedl, partner in Education Evolving and former Minnesota Commissioner of Education
• Jon Bacal, executive director of the newly created Office of New Schools in Minneapolis Public Schools
• Jeff Buszta, a North High teacher working on a New Schools proposal

Meeting Summary: Legislative changes allow Public School Districts to approve self-governed schools. The structure gives teachers control over budget, curriculum and other decisions. The School Board has to approve the plan, including accountability measures. The new structure is not an end in itself. If schools don’t meet targets, the district ends the contract. Self-governed schools join charter schools and contract alternative schools as new school models. Minneapolis is poised to approve several self-governed schools. During the Q&A, several long-time educators raised concerns that similar reforms had been tried in the past and the structure would lead to teacher burnout. Others said it did not address integration issues.

The following is a meeting paraphrase.

Beyond the Achievement Gap: Where is it working?

June 5, 2009

Presenters:

• Barbara Bearman, long time civil rights and desegregation activist
• Caty Royce, Midwest Director of the Fund for an OPEN Society, a national organization to support integration of our nations' communities
• Geneva Finn, attorney and research fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the U of M Law School.
• Tonya Glover FAIR parent and integration activist
• Kevin Bennett, principal of FAIR and the Interdistrict Downtown School
• Jim Hilbert executive director of the Center for Negotiation and Justice at William Mitchell College of Law and one of the plaintiff attorneys for the two desegregation lawsuits in the mid-1990s

Summary: Patterns of segregation, school segregation and institutional disparities

Achievement Gap Committee
May 8,2009

Presenters:
Barbara Bearman, long time civil rights and desegregation activist, board member DFL Education Fund, former secretary Minneapolis NAACP;
Geneva Finn, attorney and research fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the U of M Law School.
Baris Gumus-Dawes, research fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the U of M, who focuses on racial change in schools and neighborhoods.
Jim Hilbert, one of the plaintiff attorneys for the NAACP (and parents) on the two desegregation lawsuits in the mid-90's, and currently executive director of the Center for Negotiation and Justice at William Mitchell College of Law.
Caty Royce, Midwest Director of the Fund for an OPEN Society, a national organization developing and implementing strategies to support integration of our nations' communities.

Dr. Terrie Rose on early childhood mental health

Terrie Rose
Founder of Baby’s Space

I have been waiting for this opportunity to link early childhood mental health to issues of the achievement gap. My hope is that by the end of our time together, it will be crystal clear how what happens for a young child in laying that basic foundation has everything to do with first grade math success or high school graduation.

Tom Friedman: failing to close the gap is like swimming without a suit

Credit bubbles are like the tide. They can cover up a lot of rot. In our case, the excess consumer demand and jobs created by our credit and housing bubbles have masked not only our weaknesses in manufacturing and other economic fundamentals, but something worse: how far we have fallen behind in K-12 education and how much it is now costing us. That is the conclusion I drew from a new study by the consulting firm McKinsey, entitled “The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools.”

...The answer, says McKinsey: If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, United States G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher. If we had closed the racial achievement gap and black and Latino student performance had caught up with that of white students by 1998, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher. If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been narrowed, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher.

Read the full article here

Minnesota Meeting: two speakers on the Gap

No Achievement Gap Committee meeting this week.  But at a recent Minnesota Meeting, two education experts discussed what Minnesota can do to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color.

Kati Haycock,  president of Education Trust, an organization based in Washington, D.C. that advocates for young people, especially those who are poor or members of minority groups.  She lists 6 requirements to reduce the gap:

1. More teacher support
2. Measure teachers by their students gain
3. Neediest kids get the strongest teachers
4. Raise sights for all children - rigorous set of high school courses
5. Dollars intended for poor children must follow those students to the school level
6. Demand quality and results

Rudy Crew,   former supt for NYC and Miami schools and author: "Only Connect: The Way to Save Our Schools."
1.  In every school a high degree of human caring
2.  A higher level of expectations
3. A variety of strategies - a repertoire - used to reach students
4.  Schools governed toward an institutional culture that is demanding and that reaches and engages the parents

Listen to these talks at MPR   

Way to Grow

Carolyn Smallwood, Executive Director of Way to Grow, described its work.  In 1989 Way to Grow began as a program of the Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board.  Its founders envisioned an organization that would strive to eliminate the daily barriers affecting families so parents could prepare their children for success in kindergarten and life.

The agency is approaching its 20th anniversary, continuing its mission to prepare children for academic success by supporting families with culturally appropriate, community-based services for school readiness. Currently visiting 1,400 Minneapolis families, its Family Educators build trusting relationships with parents and their children and  focus on ensuring that young children are physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively ready to start kindergarten.