Dear Colleague:
July 13, 2011
Earlier this year, you asked us to keep you informed about efforts to consider bringing the Strive
educational improvement model to the Twin Cities. As you may recall, the Strive Partnership
brings together key individuals and organizations across a city or region to identify common
goals for closing educational achievement gaps from cradle to career, to publicly report on
progress and to use the Six Sigma quality improvement process to remove roadblocks and
improve outcomes. We are writing now to provide you with a brief update on two important
steps forward that we have taken over the past several months.
First, a group of senior leaders from important Twin Cities organizations has come together to
convene our investigation of Strive. This group of critical decision makers is comprised of:

Allison Barmann, Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company; Director, Itasca Project

Sarah Caruso, President and Chief Executive Officer, Greater Twin Cities United Way

Chris Coleman, Mayor, City of Saint Paul

Peter Hutchinson, President, The Bush Foundation

Bernadeia Johnson, Superintendent, Minneapolis Public Schools

Robert J. Jones, Senior Vice President, University of Minnesota and Co-Chair, AfricanAmerican Leadership Forum, Education and Life-Long Learning Work Group

Karen Kelley-Ariwoola, Vice President, Community Philanthropy, The Minneapolis
Foundation

Kim Nelson, Senior Vice President, General Mills and Co-Chair, African-American
Leadership Forum, Education and Life-Long Learning Work Group

Carleen Rhodes, President and CEO, The Saint Paul Foundation

Carlos Mariani Rosa, Executive Director, Minnesota Minority Education Partnership

R.T. Rybak, Mayor, City of Minneapolis

Valeria Silva, Superintendent, Saint Paul Public Schools

Laysha Ward, President, Community Relations and Target Foundation
The second development that we want to share is that this group of critical decision makers has
helped to bring together a second and larger group that they have charged with analyzing the
Strive model, setting draft goals for closing educational achievement gaps in the Twin Cities and
identifying and understanding the many educational improvement initiatives that are already
underway in our community. The group will utilize its analyses of these and other issues to
decide if bringing the Strive model to the Twin Cities would help to produce changes in
organizational priorities and practices that would, in turn, lead to the type of significant closing
of achievement gaps that has eluded our area for too long.
The members of the Strive Working Group are:
STRIVE WORKING GROUP MEMBERS
Lee Anderson
Director, State and Local Government Relations
General Mills Foundation
Phil Davis
President
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
Allison Barmann
Engagement Director, McKinsey & Company
Director, The Itasca Project
Mary Donaldson
Director
Concordia Creative Learning Academy
Jim Bartholomew
Education Policy Director
Minnesota Business Partnership
Jane Eastwood
Education Director
City of Saint Paul
Theresa Battle
Associate Superintendent
Minneapolis Public Schools
Frank Forsberg
Senior Vice President, Community Impact and
Innovation
Greater Twin Cities United Way
Laura Bloomberg
Executive Director
Center for Integrative Leadership
University of Minnesota
Darlene Fry
Assistant Director, College and Career
Readiness
Saint Paul Public Schools
Dale Blyth
Associate Dean and Director
Center for Youth Development
University of Minnesota
Jennifer Godinez
Associate Director
Minnesota Minority Education Partnership
Deb Bowers
Superintendent
St. Louis Park Public Schools
Jeff Hassan
Co-Chair, Education Work Group
African American Leadership Forum
Lisa Boyd
Group Manager
Target Corporation
Zainab Hassan
Program Officer
The Minneapolis Foundation
Brenda Cassellius
Commissioner
Minnesota Department of Education
Susan Heegaard
Vice President, Education Achievement
Bush Foundation
Paul Cerkvenik
President and CEO
Minnesota's Private Colleges
Ellen Luger
Executive Director
General Mills Foundation
Mike Christensen
Director
City of Minneapolis Community Planning and
Economic Development
Paul Mattesich
Executive Director
Wilder Research - Minnesota Compass
Pam Costain
CEO
AchieveMinneapolis
Ann Mulholland
Vice President, Grants and Program
The Saint Paul Foundation
Gail O’Kane
Vice President, Strategy, Planning and
Accountability
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
Todd Otis
President
Ready 4 K
Kevin Overson
Program Administrator
The McKnight Foundation
Cecilia Retelle
Manager, Education and Labor Management
Policy
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce
Coordinators of the Strive investigative process:
Kent Pekel and Julie Sweitzer, University of
Minnesota
Mary Cathryn Ricker
President
Saint Paul Federation of Teachers
Elaine Salinas
President
MIGIZI Communications, Inc.
Ken Simon
Director, Secondary Schools
Minneapolis Public Schools
Dane Smith
President
Growth and Justice
Gerald Timian
Program Officer
The Saint Paul Foundation
Meeting Facilitator
Cheryl Mayberry, Integrative Performance
Management, LLC
The Strive Working Group began meeting in June and will conclude its work in September. At
that time, our smaller group of critical decision makers will consider the working group’s report
on behalf of the convening organizations they lead. Depending upon the conclusions of the
working group and on their own analysis, the critical decision makers could decide that no
further consideration of the Strive model is merited or could decide to move forward with
planning for the implementation of Strive in the Twin Cities. The outcome of this inquiry is
sincerely undecided at this point as we consider a broad range of ideas and options in the interest
of our students and our community.
Whatever decision is reached, we will keep you informed and will continue to invite your ideas
and your involvement. Notes and resources from the Strive Working Group meetings can be
found on the Web site of the University of Minnesota’s College Readiness Consortium at
www.collegeready.umn.edu/resources/strive.html. If you would like to talk to someone directly
about any aspect of this process, please contact Kent Pekel or Julie Sweitzer of the College
Readiness Consortium staff. Kent can be contacted at pekel@umn.edu and Julie can be reached
at sweitzer@umn.edu.
Thank you for your ongoing interest in this exploratory effort.
Sincerely,
The Strive Investigation Leadership Team