 Thank you to everyone who joined us on Tuesday, April 18. We had a great turnout to discuss the preliminary decisions that have been made in drafting our ESSA state plan. The commissioner and staff from the Minnesota Department of Education gave a brief overview of what decisions have preliminary been made, and how those decisions came to be. The audience then posed questions to the commissioner about the decisions and other parts of the state plan. For more information, please visit the ESSA web page or email mde.essa@state.mn.us. The next ESSA Update meeting will be Thursday, June 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Roseville. Details coming soon!
Metropolitan Education for Future Employment
Staff from the Minnesota Department of Education were invited to discuss changes under ESSA with
teachers and school leaders from the Metropolitan Education for Future
Employment (MEFE) charter school in Minneapolis’ Whittier neighborhood. Department staff presented basic information on ESSA and listened to the experience of educators and school administrators. MEFE staff and community members
gave feedback on the challenges and opportunities they saw with their students.
MEFE draws students from 17 countries, including Southern and Eastern Africa and
Syria.
MEFE leaders explained that they administer a GED
readiness test as a pre-assessment for proficiency and graduation readiness.
MEFE participants described the difficulty they had in obtaining formal records
for their students with limited formal education, or with coursework
only from international educational institutions. Primarily oral cultures may
rely on multiple levels of interpretation to relay information.
Educators noted some assessments such as the ACT and Accuplacer were not
culturally sensitive, and yielded results that may be invalid for MEFE students
with their wider range of life experiences. MEFE staff describe reports from students
who graduate and are put into college EL tracks, who then expend funding on
remedial coursework. They report there can be a real gap in academic English
proficiency.
MEFE staff noted that adolescents have a social and
emotional reaction to being placed in EL services, and may react to the
perceived stigmatization by resisting placement.
They describe that students reach a level of social English and don’t want to
be seen as ‘stupid.’ Similarly, students and families were described as
sometimes resistant to participating in special education services because of
their experience with stigmatization. MEFE staff observed that environments
such as theirs, which are more ethnically focused, are nurturing and supportive
of the soft skills students need to succeed.
Lao Advancement Organization of America
Department staff had a chance to present on ESSA to community
members from the Lao Advancement Organization of America (LAOA) at a community
lunch. Program participants then provided feedback and asked questions. Members were primarily Laotian-born seniors with
family members in schools throughout the metro area.
Community members expressed a desire for more Lao-language
interpretation services. They described that non-English speaking elders
provide child care for school-age children. Participants stated that working
parents are often very busy, and grandparents are a key group for schools to
engage.
Community members also described that many of their families
arrive in the US with limited formal education, and need support to engage the
U.S. educational system. They describe that families are not aware of what
opportunities to expect from schools. LAOA staff observed community members may
not value the formal education system because of life experience in their home
countries.
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