Post in State of the City - Narrowing St. Paul Students Achievement Gap

Mar 24 13:30 UTC

Just a short note to highlight some of the great work that St. Paul
community members and the City of St. Paul have been doing to support St.
Paul students to be successful. Communities can and often do play a huge
role in public education, and St. Paulites are especially valuable.

We are incredibly grateful for the strong financial support this community
provided in approving the 2006 local tax referendum. While the state
Legislature and Federal government are still lagging in inflationary
increases, support for all-day Kindergarten, ELL, Title 1, and Special
Education funding, St. Paul stepped up and closed some key gaps that allow
us to provide early education and high school reform in particular.

In addition, Mayor Chris Coleman, Council members, and the City of St. Paul
are providing great leadership and support through a number of substantive
efforts, most notably the Second Shift (before and after school) and Early
Childhood Initiatives; see more information at
http://www.stpaul.gov/mayor/education/.

Kids and schools also benefit tremendously from the hundreds of volunteers
working with students every day tutoring, mentoring, helping with homework,
chaperoning field trips, figuring out college applications, supporting
research, building skills, coaching, and so on. Volunteers also serve on
site-based decision making councils, PTOs, districtwide committees, and
other groups ensuring that everything is pointing in the same strategic
directions on behalf of student achievement. Every one of these volunteers
makes a difference, and we are all so grateful.

We are also very lucky to live in a community where nonprofit, business, and
public organizations have formed countless partnerships on behalf of
students. It DOES take an entire community to make this work, and St. Paul
is setting new standards not only for involvement, but for measurable impact
and success.

This wrap-around community support fuels the work of talented and committed
teachers, staff, and administrators who care deeply about their students,
are embracing professional development and best practices, and who every day
go the extra mile on their own time and their own dime to do what's right
for students and their future. These adult leaders make a world of
difference in children's lives, and we're so lucky they chose St. Paul.

All together, we're making major progress on behalf of our kids. Yes, we
have a long way to go on critical gaps that should never have existed and
that we absolutely must close -- but thanks so much to St. Paul for moving
forward strongly in the right direction. If it can be done anywhere, we can
do it here. See the St. Paul Public Schools Strategic Plan for additional
information at http://www.spps.org/StrategicPlan.html.