During the last seven years, significant progress has been made in improving outcomes for young people in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) and in the City of Minneapolis. While not alone in claiming this great progress, AchieveMpls is proud of the role we have played in strengthening academic performance and career and college readiness for all MPS students.

Along with MPS, we are highly committed to reporting more information, data and measurable results about the investments made in our programs and in the work of the District. We believe that transparency in reporting key indicators allows our entire community to understand what is going well and where there is need for improvement.

We will celebrate the successes because there are many; yet we will be honest about our weaknesses in order to improve outcomes for all children. Even as substantial progress is being made, unacceptable racial and economic disparities continue to exist in our schools and our city. These disparities impact the lives and future opportunities of our young people every day.

A major focus of AchieveMpls programs is career and college readiness, so most of the data we track pertains to progress in this specific area.

We measure academic preparedness by the number of young people who are

• graduating from high school (up more than 25% in the last seven years)
• enrolling in college immediately after high school (up 15%)
• successfully completing college (those numbers are still being assembled).

For the past decade the federal government has required school districts to report graduation rates using the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) formula in No Child Left Behind. According to this calculation, the graduation rate in MPS has risen rather dramatically from 52.8% to 78.4% from 2004 - 2011. Beginning this spring, all school districts will be required to report a new four-year graduation rate. Using the new calculation, the graduation rate in MPS and virtually all “highly mobile” districts will be lower. While a strong upward trend in graduation rates will still be apparent, the actual four-year graduation rate will be at 50%.

We measure planning for college by the number of young people who are

• taking the ACT and SAT
• accessing meaningful work experiences through the STEP-UP summer jobs program
• completing modules in My Life Plan, annual career assessments from grades 6-12 that are facilitated in part by AchieveMpls Career & College Centers
• completing financial aid application (FAFSA)