NEAT is committed to informed decision-making.  Whether that's tied to "research-based best practices" or "use the data, to identify the needs, to introduce strategies for improvement" that means doing our homework.

Fall 2001 - Driving Decisions with Data - Provides a framework for parent involvement in data-driven school improvement planning, Parents for Public Schools.

This page is provided to help people who regularly check the site know what's been posted since their last visit.

Posted November 19, 2008

October 2008 - Immigration: Data Matters - A guide to finding and using the most accurate and up-to-date immigration data, Migration Policy Institute and Population Reference Bureau.

and

Ethnic Trends - The dynamic power of ethnic capital, Dr. Bruce Corrie, Concordia University, Saint Paul.

at > For Parents > In the Community > Cultural Communities > Multicultural Resources 

Posted November 12, 2008

September 2007 - Education at a Glance 2007: OECD Briefing Note for the United States (Full Report; Table of Contents), OECD.

at > For Parents > At School > Achievement Gap > Student Achievement > International Comparisons > OECD 

Posted November 11, 2008

November 2008 - A Counseling Dilemma - Minnesota has our nation's second highest student-to-school counselor ratio. That's why counselors didn't find new results by the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership surprising: The achievement gap is as vast as it ever was, Minnesota 2020.

to > For Parents > At School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Parsing Saint Paul > Rigor of Curriculum 

Posted November 10, 2008

April 2008 - Where Minnesota Ranks on Various Measures of Child Well-Being, Every Child Matters Education Fudn.

at > For Parents > At School > Achievement Gap > Children's Well-Being 

Posted October 3, 2008

July 2007 (Updated) - Can All Children Learn? - Not if they have been poisoned - Children exposed to lead have "increased reaction time" and "increased distractibility" plus "robust deficits in … reading, spelling, math and word recognition" because of an "inability to inhibit inappropriate responding" (misbehavior), "and inability to change response strategy" (learn). And the "behavioral mechanisms responsible for these deficits" are "congruent," meaning they are exactly the same as, "the behavioral processes identified as underlying the deficits inflicted by developmental lead exposure." In other words, scientists know lead exposure causes much of what politicians blame failing schools for, Arizona School Boards Association.

at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Parsing Saint Paul > Public Health Issues > Lead Poisoning 

Posted September 23, 2008

Fall 2006 - U.S. Elementary and Secondary Schools: Equalizing Opportunity or Replicating the Status Quo? - Although education pays off handsomely in the United States, children from low-income families attain less education than children from more advantaged families. This article investigates why family background is so strongly linked to education, The Future of Children.
at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Parsing Saint Paul > Parent Availability > Additional Resources 

Posted September 4, 2008

Legislative Commission To End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020 - Charter: Prepare recommendation on how to end poverty in Minnesota by 2020 (Meeting Archive).

• June 2008 - Interim Report - Three ideas are especially critical to the commission’s work: that eradicating poverty is a shared responsibility; that to succeed, solutions must be bipartisan in nature; and that ways must be found to end poverty, not just manage it, Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020.
  
  
• June 2008 - An Anthology of Poverty Across Minnesota - Stories of low-income Minnesotans and state legislators about the influence of poverty on their lives; a project of Minnesota Community Action Partnership (MinnCAP) for the Minnesota Legislative Commission to End Poverty by 2020.

at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > Children's Well-Being 

Posted July 29, 2008

Summer 2008 - School Success in Motion: Protective Factors for Academic Achievement in Homeless and Highly Mobile Children in Minneapolis - Collaborative research project of Minneapolis Public Schools, University of Minnesota, People Serving People, and Mary’s Place, CURA Reporter.
at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Parsing Saint Paul > Student Mobility > Housing & Homelessness 

January, 2008 - Minneapolis Public Schools Institutional Ethnography: Research Findings - Recommendations on disciplinary referral policies and practices; zero tolerance policies result in “school to jailhouse track," Council on Crime and Justice.
at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Community Reform > Additional Resources 

Note: In Saint Paul, the dollars follow the students whereas in Minneapolis and other urban districts the dollars follow the teachers.  The following research reports demonstrate how funding policies can create disparities.

Summer 2008 - When School Funds Follow Teachers, Not Students - The funding distribution system used in Minneapolis and most other public school districts allows for significant spending disparity on teacher salaries between schools resulting in relatively low spending on teacher salaries at schools that serve a high proportion of disadvantaged learners, CURA Reporter.

October 2007 - Minneapolis Public Schools Spending and Population Relationships - In 2004-05, across 53 MPS schools, there was significant disparity in per pupil spending of General Fund dollars on teacher salaries. Lower spending was correlated with higher representation of disadvantaged student groups and vice versa, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) parent group.

“When I first heard about the [Minneapolis Public Schools Spending and Population Relationships] report, I thought it was pretty esoteric. But when I read it, I realized: ‘this is institutional racism 101.’”

—William English, Coalition of Black Churches/
African American Leadership Summit, comments made to the Minneapolis Board of Education, December 4, 2007; quoted in When School Funds Follow Teachers, Not Students, CURA Reporter Summer 2008 (above).

at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Parsing Saint Paul > Teacher Experience & Attendance 

Summer 2008 - When Troubled Youth Can’t Stay at Home: An Analysis of Out-of-Home Placements in Hennepin County - An investigation of racial disparities in out-of-home youth placement in Hennepin County; compares placements through human services and juvenile corrections, CURA Reporter.
at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Community Reform > Additional Resources  (scroll down)

Posted July 14, 2008

May 2008 - 2008 County Housing Profiles - The unmet affordable housing need through the year 2010 in Minnesota is conservatively estimated at 333,000 low-income households. Meanwhile, the number of households in the state spending more than half of their income on housing increased from 1 in 15 in 2000 to 1 in 8 in 2006. Minnesota experienced the fastest increase of extremely cost burdened households of any state in the nation during this time period, Minnesota Housing Partnership (Ramsey County).
at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Parsing Saint Paul > Student Mobility > Housing & Homelessness 

May 2008 - Selecting Population Level Youth Indicators (Power Point) - Utilizes the developmental assets to facilitate a discussion at a Kentucky Youth Development Coordinating Council retreat focused on selecting population-level youth indicators that the state will collectively track and work on improving, Forum for Youth Investment.
at > Roles & Responsibilities > Developmental Assets > Research 

January 2007 - Gaps in Racial Equity and Strategies for Reducing Them - An illustrative (not exhaustive) inventory of areas where data consistently show such gaps or disparities in the performance of society’s various systems and markets, yielding very different results not only for different income groups, but also for different racial and ethnic groups. Reducing gaps means bringing those group averages in line, by fixing or adjusting the way those systems work. Society can’t expect our systems and markets to produce identical opportunities or outcomes for everyone individually. But we can expect them not to produce different outcomes for different racial and cultural groups, Effective Communities, LLC. Published in Pathways to Progress Resources for Focusing Philanthropy on Social Justice and Racial Equity.
at > Engaging Parents > Learning at School > Achievement Gap > About Both > Community Reform > Additional Resources  (scroll down to National)