ITEMS OF INTEREST
The documentation for the grant opportunity to increase science, technology, engineering, and math course offerings including the instructions, application, and budget documentation are now available on MDE’s grant opportunity site.
This opportunity is available to Minnesota school districts and charter schools to encourage low-income and other underserved students to participate in advanced placement and international baccalaureate STEM programs.
Please contact Mary Barrie at 651-582-8478 for further information.
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Governor Mark Dayton has proclaimed the week of January 22, 2018, as Paraprofessional Recognition Week. There are over 20,000 paraprofessionals in Minnesota working hard every day to make sure every child has the education they need to succeed in school and life. Thank them for their hard work by recognizing their efforts and contributions! Please see the January 12 memorandum that provides activity suggestions for Paraprofessional Recognition Week. Check our website for ideas and recognition certificates for the paraprofessionals in your school. For more information, contact Barbara Sisco at 651-582-8226.
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Local education agencies and nonprofit early childhood organizations are invited to apply for these grants. There is $20,000,000 available in federal funding from CFDA 84.317C award entitled Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy. The funding is available primarily to advance literacy skills, including pre-literacy skills, reading and writing, for children birth to grade 12, with emphasis on disadvantaged children, children living in poverty, English learners, and children with disabilities. Minnesota’s SRCL grant targets improvement of core instruction by building staff capacity to deliver evidence-based literacy practices through literacy coaching and continuous improvement. Grant funds provide for the hiring of local sub-grantee literacy coaches. State literacy coaches will support sub-grantee literacy coaches hired with the grant funds.
The grant period is anticipated to run from July 1, 2018, through September 30, 2020. The maximum grant award for one application is $900,000 with a minimum grant award of $250,000. The primary use of funds will be to hire a literacy coach or coaches who will support others within the applicant organization(s) as related to the selected age band. An applicant may apply with one other partnering organization if necessary to support the hiring of a literacy coach or coaches. The partnering applicant must be interested in the same age band and same evidence-based strategy and timelines as the primary applicant. The state reserves the right to award amounts that differ from the request or the maximum or minimum.
Applicants will submit a draft of their local literacy plan that aligns with the state’s literacy plan with their application. Applicants will develop a proposal that aligns with the selected specific age band. The age bands are: birth through age 5, kindergarten through grade 5, middle school grades 6-8 and high school grades 9-12. An applicant may apply for funding for more than one age band, but a separate application must be completed. We will accept the applications in one submission. Applicants applying for funding for birth through age 5 will need to respond to specific eligibility criteria.
The grant opportunity documents will be available to download after January 18, 2018. Please read through the instructions carefully. An application information session will be offered February 8. Applications must be submitted into a designated email site by Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 3:30 p.m., Central Time. Contact Jennifer Wazlawik for more information.
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WORKSHOPS
Dr. Gilman W. Whiting of Vanderbilt University will present a workshop on March 26 at the Minnesota Department of Education on the Scholar Identity Model™, a psycho-social model designed for assisting communities in developing methods to combat academic apathy. Dr. Whiting is a dynamic speaker and the founding chair of the Achievement Gap Institute for the George W. Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt. Attendees will learn about research, theory and practice relative to underachieving, high-ability students and the Scholar Identity Model ™. Participants will gain a model for engaging students who appear to lack motivation. Dr. Whiting’s areas of research include educational disparity; special and gifted education; race, sports, and American culture; welfare reform; and fatherhood initiatives. The target audience for this workshop includes classroom teachers, out of school service providers, success coaches, administrators, psychologists, counselors, social workers, integration specialists, deans, and gifted and talented education coordinators & specialists.
Register for the workshop.
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Set Up Your Boards and Commissions for Success!
Engage in peer to peer learning on tools related to access, practices and attitudes to create and sustain an inclusive and welcoming board culture. Topics include:
- Recruitment
- Welcoming new board or commission members
- Board governance and cultural practices
Visit the Department of Human Rights website for more details and to register.
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This day-long workshop will focus on strategies for increasing racial and economic integration and reducing achievement disparities—activities that Achievement and Integration (A&I) districts can include in their plans.
Lunch will be provided and registration is required. Register for the Dismantling Disparities workshop.
Feel free to promote the workshop using the Dismantling Disparities flyer.
Who should attend? District staff who are or are not familiar with the A&I program, members from your district’s World’s Best Workforce leadership team, district or school staff who work to reduce disparities for your students.
Keynote Address will be given by Dr. Brian Lozenski, assistant professor of urban and multicultural education in the Educational Studies Department at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Lozenski will present on the history of integration and provide examples of inclusive interventions and strategies. Dr. Lozenski has worked extensively with educators, parents, schools, and districts to develop perspectives and strategies intended to address issues that have created race and class-based educational disparities.
School Climate Panel will be moderated by MDE’s School Safety Technical Assistance Center staff Heather Hirsch. Panel members will discuss how they are addressing school climate related issues. Panelists are from the Madelia area school districts, Redwood Falls, and Rochester. Topics will include chronic absenteeism, discipline practices, assessing equity and school climate needs.
Strategies will be presented by several school districts:
- Bloomington Public Schools on using Check and Connect to increase student engagement and achievement.
- Stillwater Area Schools on professional development to support Cultural Competency and Student Engagement.
- St. Anthony-New Brighton Schools on a cross-district summer writing seminar to increase integration and career and college readiness.
If you have questions, please contact mde.integration@state.mn.us.
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