Minneapolis public schools continue to lose students to other school districts or charter schools.
The stats show a loss of almost 1,500 students last year from the district, with most being students of color.
The Minneapolis School District and Minnesota, in general, have struggled to close the achievement gap between demographics. Most of those schools experiencing the loss in numbers are in north and northeast Minneapolis.
Minneapolis school leaders cite busing, moving, discipline practices, and unresolved family requests as the top motives explaining the mass exodus.
Minneapolis Superintendent Ed Graff vows to “change the climate and the culture of our schools to better retain existing students.” He proposes that these adjustments “will increase academic success and ultimately our student enrollment.”
A decline of 743 students is a loss of up to $8 million in revenue for the already strugling school district.
An enrollment task force is in place to administer a plan to increase the student body population. They aim to gain more pupils by listening more to the needs of Minneapolis families, and again, ambiguously improving the district’s culture and school climate. The first step, members of the task force assert, is to level the playing field for all parents to be heard.
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