By Tyler Boesch, in partnership with Isuroon

Minnesota’s English Learner student population has consistently grown in recent years and is growing at
a faster rate than the total student population. A complex web of funding streams intends to support
English Learners; however, concerns have been raised over whether designated funding is reaching
English Learners and whether it is providing adequate support. This report aims to address those
concerns through the following study aims: 1.) Provide a clear understanding of English Learner funding
streams and how the funding is spent, 2.) Get a sense of whether the current funding is meeting
students…

By Rayan Deeb

The main objective of this project is to conduct a mixed methods research study that seeks to determine the impact of the Asian American Organizing Project (AAOP) has made to the Minnesotan-Asian community since 2016. The goal of this project is to be able to share AAOP’s efforts and achievements with the community, supporters, volunteers and funders. After robust quantitative and qualitative analysis, it was concluded that AAOP’s Civic Engagement efforts have substantially increased in scope and size. Throughout these years, AAOP’s main outreach methods have increased to include phone canvassing, door canvassing, hotspot canvassing, surveys, social media, pledges…

Abstract: In “Changing the Narrative and Playbook on Racially Concentrated Areas of Poverty”, authors Edward Goetz, Anthony Damiano, and Rashad Williams, challenge pervasive deficit-based narratives in public policy and research that posit low-income, racially concentrated areas, or Racially Concentrated Areas of Poverty (RECAPs) as the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development has termed them, as essentially deficient and requiring strategies that would disperse and transform their economic and racial composition. The authors examine traditional approaches to community development and identify the flaws inherent in so-called mobility strategies. They use the case…

In the past 20 years, after decades of disinvestment and decline, central cities have seen a reversal of fortune and are experiencing rapid growth, particularly in the urban core. Many large cities are now struggling with housing shortages and affordability problems. There is vigorous debate amongst policy makers, scholars, and activists about the role that new market-rate apartments play in alleviating housing affordability issues. Prior research suggests that new market-rate construction may result in more affordable housing in the long-run, but much less is known about how this type of new…

In the coming decades, Minnesota is poised to lose nearly 10,000 units of rental housing in the United States Department of Agriculture's Section 515 Program. This housing currently exists in nearly every county in Greater Minnesota, and comprises a substantial proportion of rental housing for very low-income households. In partnership with Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP), a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul that supports the work of affordable housing and community development organizations, I propose a mixed-method research project focused on the Section 515 Program in Minnesota. Through analysis of secondary data maintained by USDA and primary data collected from interviews…

This project aims to better serve students in Minneapolis Public Schools who speak a minority language, which is currently 32% of district students. As is true of monolingual English-speaking students, a subset of these bilingual students experience significant language impairment. This negatively impacts their social and academic success. Because most standardized assessments used to identify students with language impairment are English-based, alternative approaches are needed to assess the language skills of students whose home language is not English. Thus, the current study will develop a new assessment approach that uses a test-teach-retest dynamic assessment format to assess…

Representing one of the highest rates in the country, one in every 42 children in Minnesota is identified with autism spectrum disorder. Without intervention, adolescents risk a sharp decline in social support, stalled neurological progress, and a marked increase in depression and anxiety. Often shut off from educational and social supports that were available in childhood, adolescents experience significant roadblocks as they strive for independence. Similarly, young adults with autism can feel isolated and undervalued as members of our community. This project seeks to shift the status quo by pairing teens and adults with autism in one-to-one mentoring relationships as part of a…

Now available: a new version of the AMI Cheat Sheet, updated for 2019 and using HUD’s Area Median Income for the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metropolitan area, which increased to $100,000 for a family of four.

This is the third update: find the 2017 edition here and the 2018 edition here.

Download a pdf version of this 2019 AMI Cheat Sheet for Minneapolis and St Paul here.

Read the fine print at the bottom of the guide for details about the numbers and data…

The Building Capacity with Black Women (BCBW) project team led by Dr. Brittany Lewis at Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) was formed in the summer of 2019 to work collaboratively with 10 empowered participants to provide the time, space, and tools needed to help Black women that have experienced housing instability resume conscious control over their own housing stability through strategic supports and claim a visible and active voice in the public policy arena as co-collaborators on an engaged action research project of their choosing. CURA believes that when those most affected by housing…

In May of 2019, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) held a multimedia release event for “The Illusion of Choice: Evictions and Profit in North Minneapolis” research project that included a presentation, a video telling the stories of tenants and landlords in North Minneapolis, an art installation with photos that explore the phases of eviction, and an illustrative simulation developed with the Juxta Art Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) team called the “Social Service Runaround.” Evictions are a social crisis in North Minneapolis caused by decades of…