Todd Barnes, President, Front Street Marketing
Over the past year, while many students were performing well below grade level, community members have been bringing their concerns about under-utilized Supplementary Education Services (SES), or Title I tutoring services, to the Minneapolis Public School (MPS). In turn, the district began engaging the community in conversations about finding solutions.
“We looked at a proposal through Urban League,” said Daniel Loewenson, a MPS staff member who has been working closely with community members, “[and] we decided, since it was close to or just after the beginning of the school year [2008-2009], we would do a pilot effort” to enroll eligible students in tutoring programs.
As a result, MPS entered into a contract with the Minneapolis Urban League and Front Street Marketing and Communication. Through this collaboration, Front Street’s president, Todd Barnes, says that their main goal was to identify the barriers that hinder students from obtaining services.
Over that last few months, member of this pilot program have been touring the 16 SES provider sites talking with the program directors about the challenges they face in recruiting and retaining students. Two types of providers seem to have an advantage over others in regards to enrollment and retention: those who offer tutoring services within the school building and those who offer SES tutoring services as the primary part of their programmatic offerings. However, Barnes stressed that at this point the findings are speculative.
“I don’t want to…paint a picture that can’t be backed up by hard facts and stats,” Barnes explains. Once the research is completed, he continues, “We will be able to stand before the district, parents and the community and present a series of recommendation to make sure that we get the kids in the tutoring program who need to be there.”
-for more information, contact Front Street Marketing at (612) 302-3180.
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