A sense of urgency: Education reform in Minnesota

I appreciated the opportunity to have coffee and connect this morning with Nathan Magel and Jon Bacal, two of the fine folks leading an effort to engage emerging leaders around education reform in Minneapolis, and hopefully, across the state of Minnesota. They assert that there are four areas in particular that challenge innovation in education right now: The Achievement Gap, education funding, societal complacency or disengagement around education, and difficulty in catalyzing change inside large education systems.

Sparked by conversations over the past month and further spurred by a group launch yesterday evening, this small group of concerned citizens is pressing forward to create a sense of urgency and to organize and mobilize those concerned with K-12 education in Minnesota. Could that include you? Are you interested in joining forces and making your mark on education? Keep an eye out for this conversation at the upcoming Minnesota Rising 2011 Un/Conference and contact Nathan if you've got some ideas and energy for this work. In the meantime, Jon abides by and recommends the following video and the book, A Sense of Urgency, by John Kotter.

The Importance of Urgency from Will Forsythe on Vimeo.