Minnesota is a beautiful state and the Twin Cities Metro serves as a wonderful anchor for all our state has to offer. If you are from out of state you have probably heard about our cold winters but there is a lot more to Minnesota than bone-chilling cold. When you look at the top line summaries, Minnesota ranks among the best places to live and the strength of our education system plays a major role in that. When you dive deeper into the numbers, you start to see that not everyone experiences the Minnesota education system in the same way. The difference between the performance of our white students compared to our students of color yields one of the worst achievement gaps in the nation. Teach Minnesota wants to help close that gap by connecting quality teachers with the students who need them the most. The resources on this page can help give you some context to the educational landscape in the metro.
Mapping Prejudice illuminates history of racism in Minneapolis and provides data to help housing advocates and city planners right the wrongs of the past. This University of Minnesota Libraries project taps into a growing community interest to confront painful legacies of racism and to work towards a more equitable future.
St. Paul School Board proposed closing several schools serving predominately immigrant, refugee and multi-lingual learners. The community fought back.
A New York Times article published in November highlights the struggles to integrate Minneapolis, one of the most segregated school districts in the country. Minneapolis Public Schools is trying a new approach.
Three high profile police killings of Black men in the past two years have led to ongoing conversations about racial justice in Minnesota. There’s also been noticeable solidarity between the state’s African American and African immigrant populations.
Many schools across the United States are grappling with ways to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on those efforts in Minnesota, which has some of the worst disparities.
We’ve been telling students that doing well in school creates opportunities—that showing up, doing the work, and meeting teachers’ expectations will prepare them for their futures. Unfortunately, that’s a myth.
Far too many students graduate from high school still unprepared for the lives they want to lead. They enroll in college and land in remedial courses, or start jobs and discover they’re missing skills they need. We wanted to understand why.
Read The Opportunity Myth to hear more about what Teach MN's parent organization, TNTP, found out about what is happening in schools now and what we can do to improve it moving forwards.