by Jim Boyle
Editor
Over coffee and cookies, community members and school district officials alike gathered this week to brainstorm ways for the Elk River Area School District to reach goals relating to student achievement and career and college readiness.
Making books available on buses, reading to children outside of school and parent volunteers in the classroom were some of the ideas School Board Director Tony Walter heard Jan. 31 at the district’s future home in the old Minnesota School of Business building.
Citizens share ideas about how to achieve the goals set out by World’s Best Workforce legislation at a Jan. 31 community cafe in Elk River.
“The big thing we found is that a lot of this starts at home,” Walter said.
Walter was one of five School Board members to lead small-group discussions during the district’s World Best Workforce Community Café that evening. The gathering aimed to celebrate district achievements from the 2015-16 school year, review 2016-17 goals and participate in breakout sessions.
The evening also informed attendees about World’s Best Workforce, a bill passed in 2013 to ensure every Minnesota school district is making strides to increase student performance. Each district has the same five goals:
•All children are ready for school.
•All third-graders can read at grade level.
•All racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed.
•All students are ready for career and college.
•All students graduate from high school.
Each district in the state was tasked with creating its own plan to align curriculum and instruction so that students are properly prepared for life after high school. The program’s success is measured by MCA scores, high school graduation rates, career and college readiness and closing the gap by student group, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.
Shane Steinbrecher, chair of the School Board, said as a local business owner, he’s passionate about World’s Best Workforce as he likes to see students prepared for life after high school.
Steinbrecher listed off a number of facts to the approximately 20 people in attendance of the community café, including that 70 percent of jobs will require more than a high school diploma by 2018. The MDE also lists that fact on its website.
Further, Steinbrecher noted that Minnesota has one of the worst black-white achievement gaps in the country.
“That was kind of shocking to me,” he said.
While each district must adhere to the same objectives, how they get there can be determined by districts, making the strategies flexible, said Cory Franson, director of community engagement and community education.
Franson said throughout the past several months, district leaders have met with local community organizations and parent groups to gather insight and develop strategies to achieve the five goals. The district’s plan will likely look different year to year, he said.
“This report gets individualized and every year it uproots itself,” he said.
Director of Teaching and Learning Kelly Stanton likened the World’s Best Workforce plan to a moving document, meaning that it’s always evolving. One purpose of the community café was for local residents to brainstorm ways they could get involved with helping the district achieve the World’s Best Workforce goals, she said.
Perhaps business leaders would learn about the tasks at hand and want to get involved in some way or maybe a parent would be inspired to volunteer and lead a reading group in the classroom, she said.
For each of the five goals, the district has identified its own, individualized goal that corresponds, Stanton said. For example, regarding the World’s Best Workforce goal that all children are ready for school, District 728 officials note they will work to increase participation in early childhood programming by 5 percent. To achieve that goal, the district has identified marketing outreach, free programming, parent education and utilizing digital tools as avenues.
Elk River parent Ruma Padukone, who has one child that attends district schools, said she attended the café to learn more about what World’s Best Workforce is all about.
“The district is doing a great job,” she said, adding it’s a good sign that it’s looking for ways to improve even more.
As community members left for the evening, they were encouraged to fill out a questionnaire about World’s Best Workforce and share their ideas.
“Thanks so much for coming to our first World’s Best Workforce Community Café,” Stanton said. “Hopefully you’ve learned how we can collaborate better as a community.”
To view the report on World’s Best Workforce in ISD 728, visit isd728.org/Page/3339.