Public Schools

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Minnekid
Nicollet Mall
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Public Schools

Postby Minnekid » September 16th, 2013, 7:51 pm

The apartment boom is full of millenials and empty nesters. When focusing on the millenials, the question is will they stay when they have kids? Public schools/ charter/ or special qualifying schools (?) like the International schools are very important. When do you think Minneapolis will put more focus into improving public schools or creating more schools like the International School?

fehler
Rice Park
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Re: Public Schools

Postby fehler » September 17th, 2013, 9:07 am

Well, that huge glut of school closings in late '90s to early 00's is almost reversed. The school buildings closed are reopening with students (some as charter schools, but those still count). Reopened buildings in my area include Folwell, Howe, Longfellow, Northrup on 46th, and Morris Park. Only Cooper is still shuttered. Keewaydin recently expanded. Bancroft and Wenonah opened with 4 Kindergarten sections.

I think the improvement is happening, at the elementary level. It's a filtering-up process, but I've heard people starting to say good things about middle schools like Sanford, which had previously scared my wife (a Minneapolis native, I'm from farm country).

mattaudio
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Re: Public Schools

Postby mattaudio » September 17th, 2013, 10:59 am

Hiawatha Academy in Northrop will be opening in fall 2014 per Eli Kramer. Remodeling has yet to commence

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nordeast homer
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Re: Public Schools

Postby nordeast homer » September 17th, 2013, 12:30 pm

Minneapolis schools still have a long way to go in my opinion. The organization itself makes so little practical sense to me. I live in a neighborhood where we have over 30 kids on our block that are school age. We have a public elementary school 1.5 blocks away. Not one kid on our block goes to that school, instead they get bussed to a school over a mile north or one that is 4 miles to the south.
I grew up in Mpls., but all us kids went to the same school and I think that helped build a better sense of community and pride in your neighborhood. It's tough for a kid to go play with his friend if one lives in NE and the other lives on the south end of town.

Minnekid
Nicollet Mall
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Re: Public Schools

Postby Minnekid » September 17th, 2013, 3:01 pm

Idk the place where kids are sent depends on how full different schools are but I see what you're saying. And that makes sense that it's starting in the elementary level because as kids from the young couples go to elementary they expect good schools, so that is the cities first priority. As they get older and the percentage of kids increase in middle school I hope they continue to improve at higher levels, which I believe is harder. Now on the topic of charter schools, they are privately run with state money involved, do I understand that correctly?

MNdible
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Re: Public Schools

Postby MNdible » September 17th, 2013, 3:16 pm

In my experience, the most important factor to good schools is engaged parents. This can lead to a chicken and egg problem, where engaged parents don't want their kids to go to a bad school, so they send their kids elsewhere and the bad school doesn't get better and the already good school benefits from their energy.

Minnekid
Nicollet Mall
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Re: Public Schools

Postby Minnekid » September 17th, 2013, 3:49 pm

Yes but in terms of what should be or shouldn't be done I agree that It just kills the bad school further. But in terms of city growth there needs to be some of these "good" schools where kids could be sent and the result is families staying in the city. Does minneapolis have any of these schools?

MNdible
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Re: Public Schools

Postby MNdible » September 17th, 2013, 4:09 pm

Most definitely. Schools located in the wealthier and whiter parts of town are generally highly regarded, in spite of MPS blundering.

talindsay
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Re: Public Schools

Postby talindsay » September 17th, 2013, 4:09 pm

Minneapolis schools still have a long way to go in my opinion. The organization itself makes so little practical sense to me. I live in a neighborhood where we have over 30 kids on our block that are school age. We have a public elementary school 1.5 blocks away. Not one kid on our block goes to that school, instead they get bussed to a school over a mile north or one that is 4 miles to the south.
I grew up in Mpls., but all us kids went to the same school and I think that helped build a better sense of community and pride in your neighborhood. It's tough for a kid to go play with his friend if one lives in NE and the other lives on the south end of town.
You're right - I live right by Anne Sullivan but most of the neighbor kids go to Seward or Hiawatha or Dowling. But I think that has a lot to do with the educational and cultural aspirations of the people we attract to our city - people choose a school for their kids based on the values they emphasize in education, rather than on what's the closest to their house. I send my kid to Saint Paul Public Schools (yeah yeah, sending my kid to the suburbs for education :-P ) because they have a well established public French immersion school, and that matches very well with our aspirations and goals (and my own doctoral work on French emigrés). It does bring with it a certain loss of integration between school and community, and it's hard to know exactly how to balance these competing goals.

I do think that structurally Saint Paul has done a better job of balancing the needs of community with the desires of individuals to choose what type of education their children receive; there seems to be fewer problem schools in Saint Paul, but my perception may be way off on that.

David Greene
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Re: Public Schools

Postby David Greene » September 17th, 2013, 4:27 pm

I'll say that we've talked lots about schools for our son, who is five years away from needing it. We live 1 1/2 blocks from Jefferson but neighbors have told us not to go there. Now I don't know a Jefferson from a Bancroft, but I will say when I've been in the building during shcool hours, it looks like complete chaos to me.

Of course in five years everything will have changed. Some schools will be much better while others will have worsened. I hope we'll be able to go to the neighborhood school. We'll see.

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Nick
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Re: Public Schools

Postby Nick » September 18th, 2013, 9:26 am

I tend to think that, if the public school...situation?...ever improves, it won't be because of anything anyone did intentionally to fix it.
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NickP
Target Field
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Re: Public Schools

Postby NickP » September 18th, 2013, 12:22 pm

To be fair David, I would argue ALL elementary schools look like complete choas, lol :) All those kids in a confined area, the amount of energy they burn through could probably power Vegas for years. haha

seanrichardryan
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Re: Public Schools

Postby seanrichardryan » September 18th, 2013, 12:25 pm

I tend to think that, if the public school...situation?...ever improves, it won't be because of anything anyone did intentionally to fix it.
That won't stop some polotician from taking credit for it. :P
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

NickP
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Re: Public Schools

Postby NickP » September 18th, 2013, 12:34 pm

Let's start a brainstorm session. What is something people find to be a problem with the Minneapolis public school system and how would they fix it?

Minnekid
Nicollet Mall
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Re: Public Schools

Postby Minnekid » September 18th, 2013, 8:00 pm

Well one idea is have more of the qualifying schools. I don't know if that is a real term. But what I mean is, have schools that are public but you have to pass a test to get in. This results in the smarter kids being bunched together, which doesn't help the main public schools, but it can help keep families stay. I know NYC has a lot of these.

David Greene
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Re: Public Schools

Postby David Greene » September 18th, 2013, 10:02 pm

I tend to think that, if the public school...situation?...ever improves, it won't be because of anything anyone did intentionally to fix it.
That's far too pessimistic. I'm not an expert but I know people who are and they tell me there are many programs around the country that have successfully closed achievement gaps. Solutions are known. We simply lack the political will to implement them.

David Greene
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Re: Public Schools

Postby David Greene » September 18th, 2013, 10:03 pm

To be fair David, I would argue ALL elementary schools look like complete choas, lol :) All those kids in a confined area, the amount of energy they burn through could probably power Vegas for years. haha
Maybe my perspective was warped, but I don't remember kids running through the halls of the school I went to.

David Greene
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Re: Public Schools

Postby David Greene » September 18th, 2013, 10:09 pm

Dr. Melissa Krull in Eden Prairie was trying to integrate the schools by redrawing school boundaries. Unfortunately parents and the school board pushed her out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ans ... _blog.html

Lots of good ideas here, including integration, culturally sensitive learning and sanctions for promoting segregation.

Unsurprisingly, segregation of schools follows segregation of housing. A safe home life predicts good school performance while an unsafe/resource-starved home life predicts failure. It's not just schools we need to worry about. It's our whole society. This is why quick-fix "school reform" doesn't work! We have to de-silo our conversations and action.

talindsay
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Public Schools

Postby talindsay » September 19th, 2013, 9:11 am

To be fair David, I would argue ALL elementary schools look like complete choas, lol :) All those kids in a confined area, the amount of energy they burn through could probably power Vegas for years. haha
Maybe my perspective was warped, but I don't remember kids running through the halls of the school I went to.
My daughter's school can be chaotic before or after school, but during school hours it's very disciplined. And the students address teachers when they pass them in the hallways too. It's all a matter of the school's ethos; there's been a trend away from discipline and toward letting the children establish their own paths in many of the grade schools we visited before selecting one. The one we chose was one where the principal said that creativity was important, but discipline was still a requirement for a well-run school to optimize educational outcomes. Some families may love montessorri, for example, and more power to them; but a classroom that's chaotic is not what we wanted.

MNdible
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Re: Public Schools

Postby MNdible » September 19th, 2013, 9:17 am

Are you sure you didn't accidentally send your child to a German immersion school?

(I kid.)


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