No other state in the union has an achievement gap higher than Minnesota's. So it is not surprising that the Minnesota Business Partnership has identified closing the achievement gap as a critical priority and just last week, Dane Smith, Executive Director of Growth and Justice called for an all out bipartisan effort to close the achievement gap.
African-American children in Minnesota face significant academic challenges. The epicenter of this national disaster is in north Minneapolis, where almost 90% of the elementary schools did not make adequate yearly progress in 2010. The U.S. Department of Education has labeled a quarter of the elementary and middle schools in North Minneapolis as "chronically underperforming".
In this academic desert Harvest Preparatory School stands out as an oasis of achievement by consistently beating the grim odds. 85% of Harvest students qualify for free and reduced lunch and come from the same neighborhoods – and, in some cases, the same families of children that attend the underperforming schools in the area – Harvest results are significantly different. In reading, Harvest outperformed not only North Minneapolis schools but also Minneapolis, St. Paul, Brooklyn Center, Columbia Heights, and Richfield School Districts.
Founder Eric Mahmoud attributes the success to the school's incredibly hard-working staff, its culture of achievement, and data-driven decision-making. Professional development and frequent teacher observation and feedback to teachers consistently help to drive high expectations into classrooms to leverage student achievement. Harvest incorporates an extended school day (eight hours) and an extended school year (200 days) to provide the additional time for learning.
In 2006 administrators began to look at the low performance of African-American boys and created a boys-focused program called Boys Academy. This program of Harvest Preparatory School eventually became its own charter school in 2008, the Best Academy. Disaggregated data of boys in Best Academy demonstrate that it, too, is defying the odds by outperforming Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding school districts. In math, Best Academy boys outperform African-American boys even in affluent school districts such as Edina and Eden Prairie.
Founder Eric Mahmoud hopes that both Harvest Preparatory School and Best Academy will continue to improve on their academic programs so as to fulfill their missions of instructing, guiding, and empowering African-American children to achieve superior academic development. The staff at Harvest and Best Academy strive to provide children with inspiration, hope, and, perhaps most importantly, the skills they need to make a positive change in the community.
