Policy breakfast series

Making a difference through research

CEHD's policy breakfast series brings a research focus to the conversation about closing Minnesota's opportunity gap. Policy breakfast events examine the role of school leadership, early childhood education, reading and literacy, STEM education, and teacher preparation. Each event discusses the ways CEHD research can inform Minnesota's education policy.

Spring 2017: Ready to Lead? Positioning America's high schools for success

Recent policy attention has been focused on reforming early childhood and elementary education with limited focus on secondary schools. What are the unique challenges facing secondary schools, and how can school leaders best prepare and respond?

A panel discussion and question and answer session was held on May 17, moderated by Kent Pekel, experienced educator and President and CEO of the Search Institute.

Panelists

  • Muhammad Khalifa
    Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota
  • Karen Seashore
    Regents Professor of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota
  • Janelle Scott
    Associate Professor of Education and African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
  • Chris Richardson
    retired superintendent, Northfield Public Schools

Event resources and videos

University of Minnesota Culturally Responsive School Leadership Framework[PDF], Muhammad Khalifa, Mark Anthony Gooden, and James Earl Davis.

Our video playlist of this event features discussions about critically self-reflective school leadership, effectively integrating evidence and policy, learning cultural competence, expanding the definition of data, strategies for replicating other's successes, and combining micro-level efforts with macro-level policy.

Past events

Our past events are archived below, with photos, slides, and handouts available.

Leadership (Spring 2013)

CEHD’s Center for Applied Research in Educational Improvement and the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development recently investigated the actions that effective educational leaders take to address the achievement gap and to support high quality classroom instruction. Leadership has been shown to be second only to classroom instruction in its effect on student learning outcomes, making this research critical to the educational policy debate at the national, state and local levels.

Early childhood education (Fall 2013)

It is an exciting and hopeful time for young children and their families in Minnesota. Investments through the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant, the Promise Neighborhood Initiative, the Investing in Education (i3) program and legislative support for all-day kindergarten have created an unprecedented opportunity to improve the way we address the achievement gap and prepare children for school.

As a result, our state agencies are launching a number of new initiatives, which require increased cross-agency collaboration and policy change. How are these new initiatives being implemented? How are we determining success, and what are the strategies for sustaining these new initiatives?

STEM education (Spring 2014)

As the US moves toward implementing the Next Generation Science Standards and Minnesota reviews them, how can we embrace these developments and help inform policy decisions? What are the implications of the recent national reports such as A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Integration in K-12 Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research for improving science education? What sort of policy support can help move them into widespread use?

Research and literacy (Winter 2015)

Research shows that if students don't read proficiently by 3rd grade, odds are they will not catch up. Right now, nearly one in four 3rd graders in Minnesota is failing to reach basic levels of literacy. Solving this problem requires powerful research efforts and strategies Faculty and staff in the Minnesota Center for Reading Research and the Departments of Educational Psychology and Curriculum & Instruction conduct research on how to support teachers and schools in helping K-12 students become competent readers.

Teacher preparation policy (Fall 2015)

Policies that regulate teacher preparation and licensure in Minnesota have been under much discussion in recent years. Questions abound about what kind and how much preparation future teachers need to be successful with all students, who to recruit into teaching, and how to best meet the staffing needs of P-12 schools now and into the future.

Child protection (Fall 2016)

In 2015, the Governor's Task Force on the Protection of Children emphasized the critical need to pay close attention to the responsible and effective use of data in case decision making. How do Minnesota child protection professionals currently access and use date in their practice and policy decisions? What improvements in data collection and use are needed? How can a better data-based decision making system be realistically implemented?