Minneapolis School Superintendent Carol Johnson to Speak at Carleton

Carol Johnson, superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, will speak on the challenges and achievements of urban public schools at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 24 in Leighton Hall, Room 304 at Carleton College. A question and answer session and a reception will follow. The talk is free and open to the public.

As superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, Johnson is chief academic officer for Minnesota’s largest and most diverse school district. The district educates more than 49,000 students who speak nearly 80 languages. An April 2003 report by Learning First Alliance, one of the nation’s largest education coalitions, praised Minneapolis Public Schools as one of five high-poverty districts from across the nation to have shown three or more years of test score improvements across subjects, grade levels, and racial and ethnic groups.

Johnson was hired as superintendent in 1997 after serving two years as superintendent of St. Louis Park schools. Before that, she had been a teacher, principal and administrator in Minneapolis. Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fisk University. She received a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a doctorate in educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota.

Johnson’s visit is sponsored by the Carleton’s educational studies department and is supported by the Coalition of Women of Color. For further information or for disability accommodations, please call (507) 646-4012.