We can have a world class system

By Jerry Ness | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I was one of 27 superintendents who began meeting in February 2005, to develop a call to action which we hope will spark the transformation of education in Minnesota for the global information age. Our work resulted in a document entitled “Minnesota's Promise: World-Class School, World-Class State.”

I have been sharing Minnesota's Promise and its 10 strategies with you through the group's writings and documents. Strategies 1-7 were outlined in previous columns, and Strategies 8-10 are explained below.

Strategy 8: Provide services for students with special needs that are proactive, effective, efficient and adequately funded.

Because many of our students face additional educational challenges, we must provide extra support and different strategies for students who need them. Whenever possible, students with disabilities and other special needs should be served in the least restrictive learning environment, and if a student's need for additional support has been met, that student should transition out of special services to participate fully in mainstream programs along with his or her peers.

Strategy 9: Provide schools with funding that is predictable and sufficient to produce world-class performance.

Because unpredictable and insufficient levels of state funding undermine the ability of educators to undertake the difficult reforms required to create world-class schools, we must provide schools with financial support that is both sufficient to help all students meet and exceed state standards and is stable over time.

Minnesota's current commitment to allocate additional resources to serve students with the greatest educational needs should be preserved, and school funding formulas should be more easily understandable to all Minnesotans.

Strategy 10: Ensure that students come to school physically and mentally ready to learn.

Because large numbers of students are struggling with obesity, other physical problems and challenges to mental health, we must build partnerships with families, care providers, insurers, non-profit organizations, faith communities and government agencies to enhance students' physical and mental well being. Even in the face of tight budgets and pressure to focus resources on academic priorities, we should maintain and strengthen our commitment to provide students and families with support from skilled counselors, social workers, nurses and other professionals who help schools educate the whole child.

Conclusion: The promise can be kept

The 10 strategies of Minnesota's Promise are interconnected. Like a spider's web, each strand strengthens the others. While work on any one strategy will improve the educational chances of some children, it will take the whole vision to create the high-performing system we need to improve the educational success of all children.

And a similar web of change agents is needed: educators and school boards, parents and policymakers, community, faith and business organizations. Minnesota's Promise must be everyone's vision and everyone's work.

Achieving this vision over the next decade or so will require us to implement many different initiatives and reforms - passing new laws, crafting new policies, designing new organizational structures, and trying new ways of teaching in and leading schools. An equally important part of creating a world-class educational system will be changing the way we think and talk about education in our state.

Some who read this report will ask if creating a world-class educational system in Minnesota is actually possible. They will ask if there is any realistic chance that our state can muster the financial resources, the political will, the consensus, and the community engagement that will be necessary to get from where we are today to where we want to go tomorrow.

Our answer as the authors of Minnesota's Promise is a resounding yes: We can make it happen, and we must make it happen. American education today must change and adapt in response to the challenges of globalization, and no U.S. state is better prepared than Minnesota to lead the way. Working together, we can realize Minnesota's Promise for all of our students and for our state.

Jerry Ness is the superintendent of Fergus Falls public schools. He will resume writing a column in mid-August.