MN Gets Passing Grade in K-12 Educational Parent Power

The K-12 Educational System in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is one of the leaders in the country when it comes to how much input, influence and interest parents of students have exercised.

The website EdReform.com released it's yearly Parent Power Index (PPI), a result of combining 5 criteria experts feel create a healthy, inspiring and successful learning and environment. The Index takes into account availability of charter schools, school choice, teacher quality, transparency and online learning. The North Star State came in as the 7th most powerful state, when it comes to parents providing direction for their schools. The Minnesota PPI is at 75%, placing it higher than any other upper Midwest state. Wisconsin is the closest, with a PPI of 74%, ranking it at 9th, just below Pennsylvania.

But it's more than parents driving the success of the Minnesota educational system, the index is also influenced by school official's and state government policies.

Today on The Pete & Doug Show, we asked Kara Kerwin, from The Center for Educational Reform, which runs the website, what strengths our state has when it comes to education and the PPI.

But, she told us we still have areas for improvement.

According to the CER, while there is a growing body of data and information available to parents, policymakers, educators and the general public, the PPI is the first and only comprehensive evaluation of state education policy that is geared towards parents, continuously updated in real-time, and provides an arsenal of state and local resources for parents and educators alike.

Listen to the entire interview with Kara Kerwin from The Pete & Doug Show