Case Study: When Improvements Plateau

Case Study: Minnetonka Public Schools (St. Paul, Minn.)

How a high-performing suburban district looked to local business for a fresh approach to innovation planning

What do you do when the systems and structures you’ve used to innovate and make meaningful student learning improvements no longer work? Even those that for years did work?

This was the question that leadership in the Minnetonka Public Schools district found themselves confronting in 2009. Ideas and programs that had propelled their schools to great success had plateaued. And thanks to a culture of high expectations and a growth mindset, there was still more improvement to be achieved.

To tackle a new problem, they asked a new question: where can we turn for a fresh perspective and a fresh approach to innovation?