School Improvement

We support schools that serve low-income communities in developing and implementing plans that will take them from good to great.

Growing great schools

Great schools are EXCELLENT – where all students learn, grow, and achieve meaningful academic outcomes – and EQUITABLE – where all students are supported and get what they need to thrive.

How we grow the supply of great schools

Working in partnership with school communities, we make vital investments in schools, providing the expert guidance, funding, and resources necessary to grow and succeed. Based on well documented best practices, we explore and identify individualized solutions that reflect the schools’ unique strengths and differences, while centering on students and their learning.

Good to Great Process

Each school in our portfolio starts with a comprehensive school quality review that leads to the development of a customized Good to Great Success Plan which identifies goals and priorities over a three-year timeline. We provide funding and guidance throughout the process which includes strategic interventions that builds and strengthens leadership capacity at the instructional, operational, and governance levels. 

Leadership Accelerator

The Leadership Accelerator pilot program brings the most effective and scalable parts of our Good to Great work to a larger community of schools. It is a cohort model anchored in an 18-month, three-phase diagnostic review process, intensive planning, and initial implementation with a mid-year progress review. To ensure the implementation of the plan, schools receive access to strategic interventions proven to be most impactful. A pilot cohort of three schools is underway and GMS is in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of this model, while supporting these schools’ execution of their improvement plans.

Our schools continue to outperform other options in Minneapolis.

The achievement gap in Minneapolis is pervasive, but schools working with us are a step in the right direction.

86%


of portfolio schools outperform Minneapolis for low-income students

71%


of portfolio schools outperform Minneapolis for Black, Indigenous, students of color

“Our Portfolio Director has been with us since before we were even a school! Their depth of knowledge and understanding of complex issues is great. We would have been in a very different place without Great MN Schools this year.”

Erika Sass Northeast College Prep

Looking for support?

Contact Great Minnesota Schools to get in touch with a Portfolio Director.