The Next Step and the Next Big Question in Selecting One of the Three Finalists for Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools

On the evening of 18 November 2015, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education selected three candidates as finalists in the search for the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).


The six semifinalists were interviewed this week on Monday (16 November 2015) and Tuesday (17 November 2015).


Those semifinalists included Michael Goar, who has served as Interim Superintendent since taking over for Bernadeia Johnson last January 2015; Jinger Gustafson (Associate Superintendent, Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota), Charles Foust, (Assistant Superintendent, Houston [Texas] School District), Sergio Paez (a former superintendent in Holyoke, Massachusetts), Kenneth Spells (superintendent in Alton, Illinois), and Jesse Rodriguez (Regional Superintendent, Milwaukee Public Schools).


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I spoke with each of the candidates and in the case of those three candidates interviewed on Tuesday evening had the chance to sit down for substantial conversations.


Yesterday I made my recommendations in favor of Michael Goar, Charles Foust, and Sergio Paez, so for my reasoning scroll on down to the relevant article.


Those three were in fact the candidates chosen as finalists, with the school board members evidencing considerable agreement on the strength of Goar and Paez, and selecting Foust after further discussion of his candidacy.


The main point of my own reasoning that differed from members of the board at this stage concerned the candidate who would be fourth for consideration as the new superintendent. Although a calm and confident rather than charismatic person, Jinger Gustafson was the only candidate to mention Focused Instruction, which I see as a conduit for the full implementation of a knowledge-rich, logically sequenced, grade-by-grade curriculum of the Core Knowledge type advocated by E. D. Hirsch--- that excellence of education that would give all of our precious children the K-12 education that they must have to graduate from high school with great potential for post-secondary academic success and for lives as citizens who are culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally accomplished.


Members of the school board made little mention at the Wednesday, 18 November, meeting of either Gustafson or Rodriguez. They came to a fairly clear decision in favor of Foust as number three after a detailed discussion of his strengths by comparison with those of Spells. The vote for Foust as third finalist was seven (7) to two (2). I would have cast the vote for Foust but would have offered the comparison of Gustafson as my own candidate for fourth consideration.


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Bottom line, then, the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education and I are in agreement on the three most deserving candidates for consideration as finalists for the position of Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. The decision now comes down to the candidacies of Michael Goar, Charles Foust, and Sergio Paez.


Do scroll down to read my comments on these candidates in previous articles.


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What we have now is the great question, not yet posed by the members of the school board, and not broached by the candidates  >>>>>


What is an excellent education?


Some member of the school board should ask that question of candidates, and they should all ask that question of themselves.


Whenever I ask people that question, including those who make their living in education or advocate for change in K-12 education, they typically start stammering and improvising awkwardly.


How amazing that we propose to rush forward rapidly toward excellence in education without ever defining what we mean by an excellent education.


Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that in many places I have been clear that


An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-rich curriculum in the liberal, industrial, and technical arts in logical, grade-by-grade sequence throughout the K-12 years.


You know, too, that I have defined an excellent teacher as follows:


An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.


For reasons that I have also discussed in many articles, those definitions are contentious. They confront education professors and other members of an education establishment who are knowledge-averse and too often themselves knowledge-poor.


For that very reason, we may not ever get to the most important question that should be posed to any superintendent candidate who proposes to oversee the impartation of an academically excellent experience for students of all demographic descriptors.


But members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will be very remiss if they do not ask, and the three finalists to not answer or broach, the most important question of all  >>>>>


What is an excellent education?