JUST THE FACTS

Innovation in Education

• MESPA, the Hazelden Foundation, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals are partners in the comprehensive statewide Minnesota Bullying Prevention Initiative.
• Four-day school week – Cost savings are realized and research indicates the effect on student achievement is generally neutral. In North Branch 70% of those surveyed approve of the four-day week schedule.
• Flexible Learning Year (FLY) 25 partner districts coordinated school calendars, pooled resources and aligned efforts with area post high school institutions.
• Intermediate districts are developing collaborations to reduce truancy/drop-out rates, make transportation more efficient, and share contracts for services.
• School districts are sharing administrative services and athletic teams yet retaining individual district identity.
• The Becker school district has passed a $400,000 yearly technology levy that will train staff and equip each high school student and teacher with an ipad and provide access to ipads for other levels of instruction.
• South East Services Cooperative is coordinating use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) to make it possible to serve students within the classroom in ways that are relevant, dynamic, blended and individualized, while making teachers more effective and more efficient.
• Northeast Higher Education District (NHED) is a group of school districts  and post secondary institutions exploring new ways of doing and coordinating education for greater efficiency and effectiveness. They will be considering everything from tweaking to complete reform.
• MASA region 9 superintendents are facilitating a dialogue to develop a Mind Shift in Public Education. The group has examined the current realities and is creating a model of significant educational innovation for consideration by and conversation with MASA, AMSD, MASBO, MSBA, MinnCan, MDE, Governor and state legislators.  

Early Childhood

• During the first two years of life early experiences start shaping the foundational learning structures of the brain.¹
• Thirty-nine percent of American children start care when they are younger  than three months of age, 47% between three and six months, and 14% when they are older than nine months. (Flanagan and West 2004)¹
• Every industrialized country in the world, except the United States, provides paid, universal leave for parents before, at, and after the birth of a child.¹
• Every day, nearly six million U.S. children under the age of three spend part of their day being cared for by someone other than a parent (Cohen and Ewen 2008)¹
• More than 30% of children from low-income families and 17% of children from middle-income families have no familiarity with print before kindergarten.²
• About 60% of children from low-income families and more than 30% of children from middle-income families do not know the alphabet.²
• Only 6% of poor and 18% of middle-income children understand numerical sequence.²
• At-Risk children who participated in an early education program were two-and-a-half times more likely to be attending to be attending a four-year college at age 21 than those who did not participate. (University of North Carolina 1972—current, cited in USA Today Focus on early education, January 25, 2011)

Did You Know? (according to Georgetown University Center for Education and The Workforce)

• 90% of our children are enrolled in public school districts in Minnesota.
• Per year, the K-12 Minnesota school system loses $42 million of per pupil aid because of students dropping out before graduation.

• 70% of Minnesota job openings will require at least some college.
• Minnesota is the 3^rd most education intensive job market in the nation.
• Nationally, college degrees conferred will need to increase by 10% a year by 2018 to meet the demand for skilled workers and avoid slower economic growth.

Risks and Realities

• In 2009, 41% of children born in the USA were born to unmarried mothers. Today’s Debate, USA Today, January 25, 2011
• 71% of all minors 8 or older have their own cell phone.³
• 46% of minors 8 or older report sending messages on a cell phone, sending an average of 118 texts per day.³
• Seventh to 12^th graders spend an average of an hour and a half a day sending and receiving texts.³

• The average American eats 70 grams of fructose per day—more than 300% of the recommended limit.⁴
• People’s caloric intake can go up by 71% when they eat in front of the TV.⁴
• Within the next 25 years the incidence of diabetes is projected to double.⁴
• More than 85 percent of the population will be considered over-weight or obese in less than 20 years.⁴

¹ School Readiness Begins in Infancy, J. Ronald Lally, Phi Delta Kappan, November 2010
² Why PreK for All? Libby Doggett and Albert Wat, Phi Delta Kappan, November 2010
³ Teen 3.0, Mpls St Paul Magazine, January 2011
⁴ Experince Life magazine, January/February 201