Academic Rigor Throughout the K-12 Years Should Be the Guiding Policy Principle for the Minneapolis Public Schools with Regard to All Matters, Including Graduation Requirements

Anyone who reads the second edition (Volume I, No. 2, August 2014) of my new Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Articles from Minneapolis, Minnesota, can easily infer my response to the issues raised by the current review of graduation requirements at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


The responses are as follows:


1) Present a plan for phasing in over the course of the next five years or less a requirement that all high school students will take at least two full years of a foreign language (international language other than English).


2) Far from cutting the current physical education requirement from two semesters to one, expand the requirement to two full years of general physical education, with strong encouragement that students take two additional years of more specialized physical education training (aerobic exercise, track and field, weight training, and the like) as electives.


3) Revise the curriculum to include in the general physical education courses given above the essential material that typifies the currently standard health course. Much material currently covered in health courses--- which tend to be ill-taught and not taken very seriously--- is also naturally covered in the Advanced Placement Biology that all students would take according to the curriculum that I present in the second (August) edition of the new journal.


4) Pursue, under the aegis of Focused Instruction, a course of study in history and literature throughout Grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 that would enable students to opt for specialized courses in high school, including such offerings as Latin American Literature and African American History. The latter courses should be preferred over more amorphous offerings in “Latin American Culture” or “African American Culture.”


Academic rigor should be the guiding principle for all the policy initiatives that augur a promising and protracted tenure for Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson as change agent for the Minneapolis Public Schools. If policy defined by the initiatives of Focused Instruction, High Priority Schools, and Shift work as they should, students of the Minneapolis Public Schools of all demographic descriptors will receive an education from Grade K right on through Grade 12 replete with strong subject area content in the key areas of math, language arts, natural science, history, and fine arts.


Under Focused Instruction, teachers impart important skill and knowledge sets across the liberal arts curriculum, logically sequenced for acquisition at certain grade levels and consistently taught at about the same time of year at all schools encompassing the given grade levels. The curriculum imparted under Focused Instruction should be continually upgraded with the aim of bringing ever more challenging and substantive subject area knowledge to students as they progress through their K-12 years.


The experience of educators who have taught the Core Knowledge curriculum of E. D. Hirsch shows that many of the mathematical concepts now taught in middle school could be mastered by students during their K-5 years. Much more quality literature could be read at the K-5 level, preparing students for richer and richer literary experiences at the middle school and high school levels. Students could cover many concepts in biology, chemistry, and physics during the K-5 years currently not encountered until high school. Strong American and world history content could be absorbed during the K-5 years, completing a historical survey that would prepare students for more specialized courses in history at the middle and high school levels. Similarly, courses in music and art history; in music composition and instrumentation; and in a variety of techniques pertinent to painting, drawing, and sculpture could be mastered at the K-5 level, as well.


At High Priority Schools, the effort should be to bring all of this rich subject area content to all students on a foundation of particularly strong math and reading skills. A very intentional and assertive program must be implemented, utilizing all tutorial assistance and academic interventions necessary until all students are performing mathematical operations and comprehending reading selections at grade level; then all of the benefits of ever stronger subject area content under Focused Instruction should be imparted to students at schools where academic performance has languished.


And if Shift is to work as it should, the centralized bureaucracy at the Minneapolis Public Schools will be greatly streamlined, so that teachers and other educators at the school building level are supported with all necessary resources and remunerated at levels proper to increased expectations for student performance.


If students of all demographic descriptors are given the full benefit of the promising initiatives of Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson in the form of Focused Instruction, High Priority Schools, and the “Shift” of resources toward the immediate needs of the students themselves, the recommendations given at the beginning of this article become desirable, realizable, and necessary.


This superintendent, whom I greatly admire, should take note of my proposed graduation requirement adjustments that are highly consistent with her own initiatives at their best.