Case Study: Mankato, Minnesota

After the global uprisings for social justice in the summer of 2020, the Superintendent of Mankato Area Public Schools (MAPS) and school board leadership reached out to MnEEP seeking partnership and guidance for an education equity planning process that would take place from fall of 2020 until fall of 2021.

This process included a pre-assessment using surveys and interviews with multiple stakeholders of MAPS; a staff grounding retreat; community visioning sessions with diverse cultural communities; guidance to the teaching and learning department; and a final strategic retreat with community and staff to draft an equity framework and guidance for a community-wide Equity Summit.

Throughout the process, MnEEP staff and consultants worked closely with an equity committee made up of staff, community representatives, school board representatives, and leadership from the community engagement office of MAPS.

The equity committee was instrumental in guiding the approach with six virtual cultural community visioning sessions: a Latinx session, an African American session, an Asian session, a Sudanese session, and a Somali session.

Youth from each of these cultural groups were also interviewed as part of this process. The MAPS Race Equity framework with draft mission, vision and values, and equity lens considerations were then presented to the school board and adopted in July 2021.

A final community-wide Equity Summit was held on Sept. 21 in Mankato, MN with more than 250 attendees.

Read full report here: mankato-race-equity-framework