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