On student councils and international competition ...

As the K-12 education reporter, I often find myself debating with folks about the quality of American education in comparison to other countries.
I've heard dozens of anecdotes from educators and teachers who have been to China, Japan, Germany and others, and have returned with stories of factory-like students marching through a regimented 10-hour school day before coming home to enthusiastically renew their studies before dinner. And we've all read the reports of American students lagging behind their international peers in everything from reading and math to science and engineering.
I can't debate the accuracy of those reports. But what I can debate is the fact that American education includes more than education - and that's significant.
On Tuesday, the Mankato East Student Council held its fall blood drive. Council members organized a small army of nurses and cots, brought in boxes of doughnuts and cases of bottled water, and set a goal to collect 110 units of blood.
But the interesting thing is that Tuesday's blood drive is only the first of two drives the Council in sponsoring this year. Because East's National Honor Society decided to focus its service projects elsewhere this year, the Council made the decision to continue the spring blood drive themselves (which is normally sponsored by the Honor Society).
That one decision could save dozens of lives. And it illustrates a broader understanding of what's important to a community.
The point is this: In American schools, education goes beyond reading, writing and 'rithmetic. In this hyper-standardized and assessment-heavy era of education, it's important that students are taught about the world that lies within arm's reach.
We should all value a competent American student who can compete with the best and brightest on a global scale. But we should also value a student who understands the world outside a textbook.
And while a blood drive won't change the world (well, it might for the patient who needs the transfusion) - it does show that Mankato is teaching its students to value community and the role they can play within it.

Co-worker won't cough in the crook of their arm? Car won't start? Having a poor day? You need heartwarming stories of Mankato students:

- Loyola students remember a fallen friend: http://www.mankatofreepress.com/archivesearch/local_story_044174443.html
- Mankato elementary students brighten the holidays: http://www.mankatofreepress.com/archivesearch/local_story_352220315.html
- Mankato soccer jerseys travel the globe: http://www.mankatofreepress.com/archivesearch/local_story_025220340.html

Polite disagreement

The public hearing on attendance boundaries for Mankato's new Rosa Parks Elementary was an interesting place to be on Monday night.
A few observations:
- Folks are remarkably loyal to their neighborhood schools. A couple families said they built homes in the Franklin attendance area specifically for that school. A couple other families said they trust the education at their current school and are hesitant to change.
- District boundary lines are confusing. Mankato's map of boundaries looks like a jigsaw puzzle. Washington's boundary stretches across much of hilltop Mankato, but only because its own neighborhood has lost much of its residential land due to the expansions by the two hospitals and Bethany Lutheran College. Kennedy's area, however, is so concentrated with students that its boundary is little more than an island situated in the middle of Washington's area. It's confusing to district officials, not to mention parents.
- Lastly, people are exceedingly polite in this town. Parents had legitimate concerns about the effects of these changes on their children - and they brought all of them to the public hearing. One woman said her daughter is already having anxiety about changing schools; another parent was worried his child might now spend more than an hour on the bus each morning. But despite the concern and disagreement, discussion was respectful and polite throughout.

But just in case you're wondering what Mankato is missing (or what you can do to waste the next four minutes), here are a couple good fight videos from town-hall style meetings:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts5siyBYddM&feature=related
2. http://failblog.org/2009/04/02/injury-fail/
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J63nHNydOgs

Funny numbers

When it comes to education statistics, all the numbers don't always add up.
Much has already been said and written about the achievement gap in American schools. To an alarming degree, non-white students are not achieving at the same levels as their white peers. There are a number of reasons, some explored and some unexplored, but most relate to income level.
But here is where the numbers can get confusing.
Last week, The Free Press re-printed a story from the Christian Science Monitor that analyzed a report from the Center on Education Policy on the achievement gap in all 50 states. Minnesota did not compare favorably because its gap is not closing as fast as some other states.
But fast forward to Wednesday when the National Center for Education Statistics released the results from a nationwide math assessment for 4th- and 8th-graders. In it, Minnesota's students competed with those of Massachusetts, New Jersey and Vermont as the country's best performers.
But even further, the scores of Minnesota's non-white students - although still not as high their white peers - were just about the same as the national averages.
And while it's difficult to draw conclusions from any single report or batch of test data, it seems that while Minnesota continues to have a clear achievement gap - most students are still receiving a competitive education.