A project to improve struggling north Minneapolis schools has gotten some traction, but they have a long road ahead to catch up with the rest of the district in terms of student achievement.

Before the start of the 2007-08 school year, Minneapolis closed five North Side schools and pledged to offer beefed-up programs at the remaining ones, which serve many of the district's poorest students. Reports presented to the school board Tuesday say that while the schools have made progress in many areas, including school climate and attendance rates, students expressed concerns about safety, and test results were uneven.

The findings were meant to be an update on the second year of the project, called the North Side Initiative.

"There is still significant work to be done," said Deputy Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson. "We've made some progress in the right direction, but it's not enough. We're not pleased with it."

Researchers from the University of Minnesota told the school board that the district should work to keep good teachers, improve the process it uses to totally overhaul schools and improve the school environment for students who still worry about safety.

"Disruptive student behavior can be a major deterrent to students' learning," their report says. "It is extremely important for [overhauled] schools to identify strategies that effectively address inappropriate student behavior."

According to test data presented by the district, the North Side schools' progress has been faster than the state and the school district as a whole in reading, but that's not the case in math.

Board member Lydia Lee said she thinks that math instruction needs to be more engaging for these students and that it will require a cultural shift.

"There's something in our culture that says it's OK to not be that good at math, and that needs to change," she said.

North and Patrick Henry high schools are part of the North Side Initiative, as is Olson Middle School, four K-5 schools and four K-8 schools.

School populations in this area are poor -- in many, nine out of every 10 students come from low-income families, according to the Minnesota Department of Education -- and many of the schools have very few white students.

Two of the K-8 schools, Lucy Laney and Nellie Stone Johnson, were more dramatically overhauled than others, and they have shown marked improvement in math achievement and some gains in reading.

In 2007, those schools were the first in Minnesota to be restructured under the federal No Child Left Behind law, which prescribed that treatment for schools with years of subpar test scores. They've received additional attention, such as extra teacher training and class-size reductions.

This year, students did considerably better, especially in math. At Lucy Laney, 18 percent of students were proficient in math this year, compared with 11 last year. Nellie Stone Johnson had 35 percent of students proficient in math, compared with 20 last year.

But those numbers still are really low compared with most schools in the state, and principals said they wished they had had more time to plan and develop a vision for the schools before they were overhauled.

Students at the two schools expressed concern to researchers about gang activity and bullying, both at school and en route to and from school. But in response to district surveys, North Side students reported feeling safe in their schools at higher numbers recently than they did two years ago.

"You really strip a kid of his right to an education when he is in an environment where he is afraid to go to a certain bathroom, a certain hallway, or sit next to certain kids," board member Chris Stewart said.

Across the North Side, suspensions for verbal and physical aggression were down from two years ago. But on the other hand, only 58 percent of students on the North Side attend 95 percent or more school days, according to Associate Superintendent Willie Fort.

"We need to get students to school every day, keep them there and deliver quality instruction in every area," he said.

Emily Johns • 612-673-7460