Eight years ago, it was a school on the brink of closure. This year, Carver Elementary won the Minnesota’s Future Award from the Minnesota Business Partnership — again. Carver is the only two-time winner of the award, winning it last year as well.
The school will receive $50,000 and recognition at the Business Partnership’s annual dinner on Tuesday.
“The three things staff at Carver have that really make the difference are: leadership, passion and courage. The Carver staff learns together, shares and never gives up on students. They reflect on everything they do and always put students’ emotional and academic needs first,” Principal of Carver Elementary Gena Abrahamson said in a statement.
In 2009, the Maplewood school was on the edge, having missed federal testing targets for four straight years.
But the next two years, Carver reached adequate yearly progress, and in 2011 it was removed from the state’s “No Child Left Behind” watch list.
Last year, Carver won the award for “proving that students from all backgrounds can succeed.”
About 65 percent of students come from low-income households, two-thirds are students of color, and 20 percent have limited English proficiency, according to a statement. The school continued to outperform the statewide average overall and in subgroups for student achievement, the statement said.
“While Minnesota’s achievement gap remains among the widest in the nation, Carver Elementary is proving we can do better and that all students can succeed,” Pat Ryan, CEO and President of Ryan Cos. US and chair of the MBP Education Policy Committee, said in a statement. “Carver’s collaborative, data-driven approach and willingness to try and use effective practices is a model that other schools should emulate.”