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