What We Really Need from a New Superintendent in Order to Address the Structural Impediments and Philosophical Deficiencies That Have Produced the Terrible Quality of Education at the Minneapolis Public Schools

The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education is now considering three viable candidates for the position of Superintendent.  Any one of them most likely could lead MPS competently: 


Michael Goar deserves front-runner status, having graduated from Washburn High School, served as the Director of Labor Relations and Human Resources for MPS, held the position of Chief Executive Officer under Bernadeia Johnson, and functioned as Interim Superintendent since Johnson stepped down about a year ago.  He brings business acumen to the position, demonstrated in his 18% staff reduction of central office staff;  this was an advancement in the Shift program begun in the Johnson administration.  Goar clearly cares about lifting the academic performance of children from economically challenged and frequently dysfunctional familial situations, and in attaining educational equity across racial and ethnic lines;  improvements in student performance at the High Priority Schools (also a Johnson initiative) manifest that concern.


Sergio Paez brings a proven record of turning an academically terrible school district (in Holyoke,  Massachusetts) around, and he has a very broad grasp of the issues pertinent to running a school district with a diverse student population in which many of the young people face linguistic and economic challenges.  He has a passion for the job and a candor that impels him to say that imparting high quality public education to historically underserved populations is a matter of acknowledging the need for "Reparation."


Charles Foust is a resourceful administrator from the Houston Independent School district who is talented at reaching out to the community in which students are embedded.  He insists that people do the job to which they have been assigned and that they have said that they can do.  Foust has a very dynamic personality and youthful energy that strongly suggest an ability to inspire school personnel and to connect with students.


A case can be made that all of these candidates have most of the desired qualities that the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education have identified as desirable for a superintendent.  These characteristics focus on the ability to connect with the community, teachers, parents, and students;  to improve the academic performance of historically underserved populations;  to grasp current research relevant to the professional educator;  to understand the challenges facing a large urban school district and demonstrate likelihood of effectively leading such a school district; 
and to signal commitment to leading the district over a long period of time.


But no individual possessing this array of characteristics would necessarily be positioned to improve the terrible quality of education currently prevailing in the Minneapolis Public Schools.  A superintendent could have all of those characteristics and still lead a school district in which graduates have no knowledge of the way in which the Federal Reserve Board of Governors controls money supply in the United States;  could not tell you the difference in the psychological approaches of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner;  could not explain how Sunni Muslims differ from Shi'ite Muslims and which nations are dominated by one or the other of the major sectarian groups;  could not demonstrate understanding of the difference between the theory of communism as postulated by Karl Marx and communism historically in practice in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China;  and could not explain how the physics of Albert Einstein described the functioning of the universe encountered by astronauts in a way that the physics of Isaac Newton could not.


Students of the Minneapolis Public Schools are abominably ignorant as they walk across the stage at graduation to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.  And no wonder:  They are taught by teachers who have themselves been abused by education professors serving at the behest of departments, schools, and colleges of education that are degree mills producing knowledge-deficient teachers ill-equipped to deliver an excellent education to students of all demographic descriptors.


For reasons detailed in many articles posted on this blog, any incoming superintendent---  whether that person's name be Goar, Paez, or Foust---  must overhaul curriculum for knowledge-intensity and logical sequence across the K-12 years;  and oversee the training the teachers needed to impart such a knowledge-intensive curriculum.


Without achieving the needed overhaul of curriculum and teacher training, even a superintendent who connects with all relevant parties in the community and in the schools;  or manages to raise basic math and reading skill levels of historically underserved populations; will fail to send students across the stage at graduation any better equipped for lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction than they are now.


To be successful, the new superintendent will have to oversee the overhaul of curriculum and teacher training.


Otherwise, graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools will still walk across that stage as abominably ignorant young people claiming a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.


And any superintendent that would lead such a school district would similarly be an educator in name only.