You must always be careful to judge with circumspection any testimony on the part of members of the education establishment or putative "progressive" advocates for change in education when they appear to advocate an approach to K-12 education based on "critical thinking" and "lifelong learning."
This jargon originates in the lexicon of education professors, who for at least the last 35 years have ruined generations of teachers and others taking courses in departments, schools, and colleges of education.
Education professors as a group devalue knowledge as a basis for K-12 education.
I hope that you are taken aback by that statement, which bears repeating:
Education professors as a group devalue knowledge as a basis for K-12 education.
Know first of all that education professors are devoid of any unique field to justify their own university positions: All courses taught by education professors would be better taught by those identified with solid academic disciplines: mathematics, biology, history, economics, English literature, drama, and the like; even courses in pedagogy would be better taught by professors of philosophy, psychology, and neurobiology.
So education professors have tried to maintain some position for themselves in a university setting by maintaining degree mills for K-5 teachers and certification schemes that serve as "cash cows" for colleges and universities, which are deeply culpable in churning out poorly trained teachers.
And for at least 35 years the core message of education professors is that one can always look up facts when one needs immediate information, so that the transmission of knowledge is not an important aspect of the role of teacher. Rather, teachers should turn themselves into "guides" or "facilitators" in any student search for information, and in discussions through which students learn to think critically.
This has an immediate sound-good quality that fools many people, most disastrously most of those who now teach our children. Resort to the jargon of critical thinking and lifelong learning is just an excuse for laziness on the part of teachers. This approach to education has left our children, and indeed our citizenry (most people graduate form public schools--- and even many private schools have this intellectually impoverished approach to education) knowledge-deficient and skill-deprived.
Thus high school graduates (and the existence of so many students who cannot even meet our low academic standards for graduation is a travesty) claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only. They often cannot figure percentages or grasp the essentials of statistical probability. They could not tell you the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite, or which nations in West Asia (Middle East) are dominated by one or the other of these Muslim schools of thought and practice. They cannot tell you how the Federal Reserve System works, or the philosophical differences among Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. They cannot tell you about the genesis of the Protestant Reformation and the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation--- and how the inherent issues affect our world today. They could not compare the drama of Arthur Miller with that of August Wilson. They could not explain what distinguishes the painting of Renaissance masters from those working in the European medieval era, nor could they tell anyone anything about the work of the Song Dynasty landscape painters, or about the influence of Nigerian Ife sculptors on Picasso.
Critical thinking is only meaningful when conducted in the context of a strong knowledge base, which makes, for example, judgments about the wisdom of American military commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Syria--- or about Federal Reserve bond-buying programs--- possible.
Lifelong learning is only likely to continue or to have any discernible quality when one has learned to love knowledge in the first place.
So do not be fooled by testimonies to critical thinking and lifelong learning, both of which are excuses for laziness when mouthed either by members of the education establishment who parrot education professor-speak; or by advocates for such an approach on the part of so-called "progressive educators" who want to embrace the failure of the last 35 years by trying to do more of what has failed our children and our citizens so miserably.
Any excellence in education proceeds upon the provision of distinct knowledge and skills sets in grade by grade sequence throughout the K-12 years, imparted by teachers who are themselves knowledgeable and skilled.
Knowledge-intensive education is the foundation for critical analysis and for the love of learning one's whole life. One must start from knowledge, not from testimonies to critical thinking and to lifelong learning on the part of intellectual prevaricators who think very little and know nothing much themselves.
Dec 17, 2015
Dec 16, 2015
Message to Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>> Please Use Your Time Waiting for Resolution of the Holyoke (Massachusetts) Special Education Matter to Develop a Philosophy of Education
To members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>>
As you wait now for the investigation into treatment of special education students in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez has served as superintendent and now consultant, you should use this time to develop an abiding philosophy on the basis of which all of your decisions should be grounded.
Please read this article to completion and take note of recommended readings near the end of the article.
To firm up your philosophy of education, you should read the works of commentators of differing views and decide where you stand. As you will find at article's end, these commentators include E. D. Hirsch, William Bennett, Alfie Kohn, Howard Gardner, and Diane Ravitch.
Before you consider the works of these authors, though, please remember the following >>>>>
Remember that the vision that we should be adopting for the Minneapolis Public Schools is the following >>>>>
Teachers of highest quality shall impart an excellent, knowledge-intensive education to all students of the Minneapolis Public Schools, with the purpose of sending graduates forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
Remember also that the definition of an excellent education is as follows:
An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, grade-by-grade curriculum in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
Remember, as well, that an excellent teacher is defined as follows:
An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
And know that we must establish the purpose of an excellent education as follows:
The purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction
…………………………………..................
Now please read the following books in order, as given:
E. D. Hirsch, The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them (New York: Anchor/ Doubleday, 1996 &1999)
E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy (New York: Anchor/ Doubleday, 1987)
William Bennett, The Educated Child (New York: Free Press/ Touchstone, 2000)
Diane Ravitch, A Century of Battles Over School Reform (New York: Simon Schuster, 2001)
Alfie Kohn, The Schools Our Children Deserve (New York: Mariner, 1999 & 2000)
Howard Gardiner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 1983 [first edition] & 2011 [latest edition])
Reading the books by E. D. Hirsch and William Bennett will give you an understanding of advocacy for the knowledge-intensive education that I strongly favor.
Hirsch is a political liberal who argues that failure to give children of poverty and familial dysfunction a knowledge-intensive education is socially irresponsible. Bennett uses much of Hirsch's Core Knowledge Foundation material while embracing Hirsch's argument and also advocating for a conservative position that stresses enduring knowledge over faddishness.
Reading Diane Ravitch's book will give you an understanding of education change efforts in the 20th century. Ravitch is now a sell-out on the matter of knowledge-intensive education and is currently serving the interests of the education establishment. But the given book, written when her views were more consistent with those of Hirsch and Bennett, is an excellent account of the history of 20th century education in the United States.
Alfie Kohn gives the so-called "progressive" view that has resulted in decidedly unprogressive consequences for our students, particularly those from families that are impoverished, dysfunctional, or residentially mobile.
Howard Gardner gives the view of "multiple intelligences" that has so gripped the fascination of the education establishment. Gardener identifies learning modes such as cognitive, kinesthetic, and artistic that are reasonable enough but engages in hyperbole in labeling these modes as "intelligences."
My views are known to my readers and discernible in my comments above.
But read the books and let's have the discussion.
The future of our children is at stake.
As you wait now for the investigation into treatment of special education students in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez has served as superintendent and now consultant, you should use this time to develop an abiding philosophy on the basis of which all of your decisions should be grounded.
Please read this article to completion and take note of recommended readings near the end of the article.
To firm up your philosophy of education, you should read the works of commentators of differing views and decide where you stand. As you will find at article's end, these commentators include E. D. Hirsch, William Bennett, Alfie Kohn, Howard Gardner, and Diane Ravitch.
Before you consider the works of these authors, though, please remember the following >>>>>
Remember that the vision that we should be adopting for the Minneapolis Public Schools is the following >>>>>
Teachers of highest quality shall impart an excellent, knowledge-intensive education to all students of the Minneapolis Public Schools, with the purpose of sending graduates forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
Remember also that the definition of an excellent education is as follows:
An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, grade-by-grade curriculum in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
Remember, as well, that an excellent teacher is defined as follows:
An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
And know that we must establish the purpose of an excellent education as follows:
The purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction
…………………………………..................
Now please read the following books in order, as given:
E. D. Hirsch, The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them (New York: Anchor/ Doubleday, 1996 &1999)
E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy (New York: Anchor/ Doubleday, 1987)
William Bennett, The Educated Child (New York: Free Press/ Touchstone, 2000)
Diane Ravitch, A Century of Battles Over School Reform (New York: Simon Schuster, 2001)
Alfie Kohn, The Schools Our Children Deserve (New York: Mariner, 1999 & 2000)
Howard Gardiner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 1983 [first edition] & 2011 [latest edition])
Reading the books by E. D. Hirsch and William Bennett will give you an understanding of advocacy for the knowledge-intensive education that I strongly favor.
Hirsch is a political liberal who argues that failure to give children of poverty and familial dysfunction a knowledge-intensive education is socially irresponsible. Bennett uses much of Hirsch's Core Knowledge Foundation material while embracing Hirsch's argument and also advocating for a conservative position that stresses enduring knowledge over faddishness.
Reading Diane Ravitch's book will give you an understanding of education change efforts in the 20th century. Ravitch is now a sell-out on the matter of knowledge-intensive education and is currently serving the interests of the education establishment. But the given book, written when her views were more consistent with those of Hirsch and Bennett, is an excellent account of the history of 20th century education in the United States.
Alfie Kohn gives the so-called "progressive" view that has resulted in decidedly unprogressive consequences for our students, particularly those from families that are impoverished, dysfunctional, or residentially mobile.
Howard Gardner gives the view of "multiple intelligences" that has so gripped the fascination of the education establishment. Gardener identifies learning modes such as cognitive, kinesthetic, and artistic that are reasonable enough but engages in hyperbole in labeling these modes as "intelligences."
My views are known to my readers and discernible in my comments above.
But read the books and let's have the discussion.
The future of our children is at stake.
Dec 15, 2015
A One-Stop Health Class--- or a Very Concise Health Text
I am perpetually amazed that we go forward in life trying to address issues at the level of the symptom, rather than the cause. Because of this, we are forever trying to patch up what we did not get right in the first place.
As I have recorded in many articles posted on this blog, in education, we are forever trying to solve difficulties stemming from our failure to define an excellent education in terms of knowledge-rich curriculum and teachers who are themselves knowledgeable and pedagogically skilled.
Health is an ongoing concern of Americans, but the matter is really so simple. While a good health class and a useful health text might contain many valuable details as to anatomy, physiology, nutrition, and sexuality--- the fundamentals of good health are found in diet and exercise.
So consider the following a one-stop health class or a very concise health text--- the latter a response to all of the million-selling health fad books.
Fundamentals of Good Health >>>>>
Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Keep meat-eating to a minimum, emphasizing the many protein alternatives to be found in such foods as nuts, beans, soy products, cheese, and eggs (the latter if you do not regard them in essence as meat).
Consume dairy products in moderation: They are vitamin-rich and good sources of calcium.
Consume many foods replete with fiber every day for efficient functioning of the digestive system.
Remember that spinach, broccoli, and carrots are the nutritional powerhouse vegetables; and that the avocado (botanically a fruit) is so rich in nutrients and fiber that it is always essentially a meal in itself.
Get 20 minutes or so of cardiovascular exercise every day.
In addition to exercise, find ways to keep stress to a minimum, chiefly by embracing life as an educational opportunity leading to cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
.............................................................
Now just have the discipline to follow those simple precepts and consider all of those health fads and diets skeptically.
And if you want to help a good cause, by all means send me that million dollars for writing my antidote to all of those best-selling but ephemeral health books.
As I have recorded in many articles posted on this blog, in education, we are forever trying to solve difficulties stemming from our failure to define an excellent education in terms of knowledge-rich curriculum and teachers who are themselves knowledgeable and pedagogically skilled.
Health is an ongoing concern of Americans, but the matter is really so simple. While a good health class and a useful health text might contain many valuable details as to anatomy, physiology, nutrition, and sexuality--- the fundamentals of good health are found in diet and exercise.
So consider the following a one-stop health class or a very concise health text--- the latter a response to all of the million-selling health fad books.
Fundamentals of Good Health >>>>>
Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Keep meat-eating to a minimum, emphasizing the many protein alternatives to be found in such foods as nuts, beans, soy products, cheese, and eggs (the latter if you do not regard them in essence as meat).
Consume dairy products in moderation: They are vitamin-rich and good sources of calcium.
Consume many foods replete with fiber every day for efficient functioning of the digestive system.
Remember that spinach, broccoli, and carrots are the nutritional powerhouse vegetables; and that the avocado (botanically a fruit) is so rich in nutrients and fiber that it is always essentially a meal in itself.
Get 20 minutes or so of cardiovascular exercise every day.
In addition to exercise, find ways to keep stress to a minimum, chiefly by embracing life as an educational opportunity leading to cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
.............................................................
Now just have the discipline to follow those simple precepts and consider all of those health fads and diets skeptically.
And if you want to help a good cause, by all means send me that million dollars for writing my antidote to all of those best-selling but ephemeral health books.
Dec 13, 2015
A Note to Prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez and Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education on the Matter of a Vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools
Note to prospective superintendent Sergio Paez and members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>>
A Vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools
During interviews and related meetings for selection of a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), the matter of a vision for MPS was broached, both in the course of the interviews and in meetings that followed upon those interviews.
In the course of the interviews, candidates Sergio Paez and Charles Foust provided a sense of what they would do to improve student achievement in mathematics and reading, but the provision of a clear statement worthy of serving as a vision for the future of the Minneapolis Public Schools was lacking.
Any vision provided by these candidates, or by Interim Superintendent Michael Goar, seemed unacceptably humble to me, as if getting underachievers and historically underserved populations of students up to grade level in math and reading might constitute a significant enough goal to serve as a vision.
This goal of addressing the needs of under-performing students is indeed the direst matter facing personnel of the Minneapolis Public Schools. But this important goal does not constitute a vision.
Only the vaguest notions of excellence in the provision of K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts were offered by the candidates, including the now prospective Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, Sergio Paez.
Please scroll down to my next article on this blog for my own clear statement of the vision that should be embraced by prospective Superintendent Paez and members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
A Vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools
During interviews and related meetings for selection of a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), the matter of a vision for MPS was broached, both in the course of the interviews and in meetings that followed upon those interviews.
In the course of the interviews, candidates Sergio Paez and Charles Foust provided a sense of what they would do to improve student achievement in mathematics and reading, but the provision of a clear statement worthy of serving as a vision for the future of the Minneapolis Public Schools was lacking.
Any vision provided by these candidates, or by Interim Superintendent Michael Goar, seemed unacceptably humble to me, as if getting underachievers and historically underserved populations of students up to grade level in math and reading might constitute a significant enough goal to serve as a vision.
This goal of addressing the needs of under-performing students is indeed the direst matter facing personnel of the Minneapolis Public Schools. But this important goal does not constitute a vision.
Only the vaguest notions of excellence in the provision of K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts were offered by the candidates, including the now prospective Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, Sergio Paez.
Please scroll down to my next article on this blog for my own clear statement of the vision that should be embraced by prospective Superintendent Paez and members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
A Clear Vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools
This is our vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools >>>>>
>>>>>
Teachers of highest quality shall impart an excellent education to all students of the Minneapolis Public Schools, with the purpose of sending graduates forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
<<<<<
……………………………………
In articulating this vision, we give the following definition of an excellent education:
>>>>>
An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, grade-by-grade curriculum in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
<<<<<
.......................................................
We give the following definition of an excellent teacher:
>>>>>
An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
<<<<<<
…………………………………..
And we establish the purpose of an excellent education as follows:
>>>>>
The purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction
. …………………………………..
Following these definitions, we will do the following in matters of curriculum and teacher training:
Curriculum
>>>>>
We will define specific knowledge and skill sets that teachers will impart to students at each grade level.
At grades K-5, teachers will emphasize instruction in these key subject areas for a strong liberal arts education:
>>>>> mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (musical and visual).
At grades 6-8, teachers will instruct students according to their specialties in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts, so that students receive instruction in the following subject areas:
>>>>> mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (visual and musical); world languages; computers and technology; and industrial arts such as auto mechanics, plumbing, carpentry, construction, and electrical wiring.
At grades 9-12, teachers will instruct students according to their specialties in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts, so that students receive instruction in the following subject areas:
>>>>> mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (visual and musical); world languages; computers and technology; and industrial arts such as auto mechanics, plumbing, carpentry, construction, and electrical wiring.
Since students will have received such a knowledge-intensive education at grades K-8, students will enter high school (grades 9-12) ready to take Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses and specialized courses in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Much attention will be given to writing and research, with proper citations (footnotes, endnotes, or internal citations) given in all research papers.
Teacher Training
>>>>> We will at the level of the locally centralized school district of the Minneapolis Public Schools embrace the responsibility of training K-5 teachers as professionals of deep and broad knowledge in those subject areas of mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (musical and visual) for which they will be providing instruction to students.
>>>>> We will require that each teacher at grades 6-8 holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field of specialty (no degrees in departments, colleges, or schools of education will be accepted).
>>>>> We will require that each teacher at grades 9-12 holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field of specialty (no degrees in departments, colleges, or schools of education will be accepted), and we will encourage each high school teacher either to enter our classrooms or to acquire in the course of her or his career a Ph. D. in the field of specialty (no degrees in departments, colleges, or schools of education will be accepted).
Before presiding as teacher in a classroom of the Minneapolis Public Schools, each prospective teacher at grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 will serve a full academic year internship under the guidance of the best available teacher and will serve as practice teacher for at least two months during the spring season of internship.
>>>>>
Teachers of highest quality shall impart an excellent education to all students of the Minneapolis Public Schools, with the purpose of sending graduates forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
<<<<<
……………………………………
In articulating this vision, we give the following definition of an excellent education:
>>>>>
An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, grade-by-grade curriculum in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
<<<<<
.......................................................
We give the following definition of an excellent teacher:
>>>>>
An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
<<<<<<
…………………………………..
And we establish the purpose of an excellent education as follows:
>>>>>
The purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction
. …………………………………..
Following these definitions, we will do the following in matters of curriculum and teacher training:
Curriculum
>>>>>
We will define specific knowledge and skill sets that teachers will impart to students at each grade level.
At grades K-5, teachers will emphasize instruction in these key subject areas for a strong liberal arts education:
>>>>> mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (musical and visual).
At grades 6-8, teachers will instruct students according to their specialties in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts, so that students receive instruction in the following subject areas:
>>>>> mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (visual and musical); world languages; computers and technology; and industrial arts such as auto mechanics, plumbing, carpentry, construction, and electrical wiring.
At grades 9-12, teachers will instruct students according to their specialties in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts, so that students receive instruction in the following subject areas:
>>>>> mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (visual and musical); world languages; computers and technology; and industrial arts such as auto mechanics, plumbing, carpentry, construction, and electrical wiring.
Since students will have received such a knowledge-intensive education at grades K-8, students will enter high school (grades 9-12) ready to take Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses and specialized courses in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Much attention will be given to writing and research, with proper citations (footnotes, endnotes, or internal citations) given in all research papers.
Teacher Training
>>>>> We will at the level of the locally centralized school district of the Minneapolis Public Schools embrace the responsibility of training K-5 teachers as professionals of deep and broad knowledge in those subject areas of mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, and the fine arts (musical and visual) for which they will be providing instruction to students.
>>>>> We will require that each teacher at grades 6-8 holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field of specialty (no degrees in departments, colleges, or schools of education will be accepted).
>>>>> We will require that each teacher at grades 9-12 holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field of specialty (no degrees in departments, colleges, or schools of education will be accepted), and we will encourage each high school teacher either to enter our classrooms or to acquire in the course of her or his career a Ph. D. in the field of specialty (no degrees in departments, colleges, or schools of education will be accepted).
Before presiding as teacher in a classroom of the Minneapolis Public Schools, each prospective teacher at grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 will serve a full academic year internship under the guidance of the best available teacher and will serve as practice teacher for at least two months during the spring season of internship.
Dec 11, 2015
Nativity 2015
From the Depths
of the
Great Unknown
came the
Mighty Bang,
spewing
Primordial Soup
into a
Universe
already
full of
many marvels
at the forming
of our
Globe.
Our feet touched
Sacred Ground
fourteen billion years
into the
Great Journey,
so that we roam
today
still babes of
Existence,
feigning
Understanding.
Stumble we onward,
searching for Light,
grasping for the
Great Unknown.
Our gong is ever noisy,
our cymbal always clanging,
as we fail to fathom
the
Depths of Eternity,
the
Gift of Love.
GMD
Christmas 2015
of the
Great Unknown
came the
Mighty Bang,
spewing
Primordial Soup
into a
Universe
already
full of
many marvels
at the forming
of our
Globe.
Our feet touched
Sacred Ground
fourteen billion years
into the
Great Journey,
so that we roam
today
still babes of
Existence,
feigning
Understanding.
Stumble we onward,
searching for Light,
grasping for the
Great Unknown.
Our gong is ever noisy,
our cymbal always clanging,
as we fail to fathom
the
Depths of Eternity,
the
Gift of Love.
GMD
Christmas 2015
Dec 10, 2015
Update >>>>> How the New Salem Educational Initiative Works: The History, Principles, and Day to Day Life of the Program
In the course of the last several weeks, as more and more readers have become interested in my blog, and I have become ever more active in efforts to overhaul K-12 education, more and more people have become interested in the New Salem Educational Initiative and inquired as to its origins and as to the day to day functioning of the program. This article constitutes an update of a similar article posted many months ago.
This update will give my many new readers a strong sense of my convictions and my efforts to revolutionize K-12 education. Herein lies a description of the history, principles, and day to day life of the program. And before I get to the program itself, I give a brief description of my own background and life as a teacher in K-12 education:
Personal Background, Trainiing, and Life as a Teacher
I attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, from the autumn of 1969 through the spring of 1973. Prior to entering SMU, I had already become intensely interested in the social revolutions (feminist, civil rights) that were taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s; my interest quickened and my activism expanded during my years at SMU. I did not march for causes very much; although I have never shied away from confrontation, I have always wanted any confrontations that I initiate to have a very specific impact, and my ongoing commitment has been and continues to be to practical action meant to advance the common good.
By the spring (1971) of my sophomore year, I had decided to be a teacher. I became active in SMU Volunteer Services and soon took on the position of coordinator for services rendered at institutions for the mentally challenged and in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). I majored in political science and had near-majors in history and psychology. I took math through calculus and pursued a broad and deep liberal arts education. I also endured the excruciatingly terrible education courses to gain certification in the teaching fields of government and history; in time, in Minnesota, that certification would come to include all of those subjects considered part of social studies.
During my junior year, I served a semester internship at L. G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas, a heavily African American ghetto. This experience solidified my dedication to the education of urban youth. I did my student teaching at another inner city school but returned to Pinkston for my first two academic years (1973-1974 and 1974-1975) as a regular classroom teacher.
During the years from 1976 through 2003, I traveled throughout the United States and most of East, Southeast, and East Asia; got an M. A. (University of Iowa, 1979) and Ph. D. (University of Minnesota, 1993) in Chinese and Taiwanese history; lived in Taiwan for a total of three and a half years, becoming fluent in Mandarin Chinese and acquiring some Taiwanese (the Minnan dialect similar to that of Fujian Province on the Chinese mainland); and teaching in almost every type of situation: English as a Second Language (Taiwan); prison (Missouri Eastern Correctional Center); instructor at the University of Minnesota (two years teaching courses in East Asian history in the late 1980s as I pursued my doctorate); a semester teaching modern Japanese history at St. Olaf College; a rural high school, a suburban alternative high school, and two different alternative high schools in Minneapolis.
This is to say, too, that my wife, Barbara Reed, and I moved to Minnesota in the late summer of 1982 as she took a position at St. Olaf College in Northfield, where she still is a professor of Asian religions with dual appointments in the Department of Religion and the Department of Asian Studies.
I have been active in K-12 education in North Minneapolis since 1991, became a member of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in 1993, and for 20 years have coordinated and taught in the New Salem Tuesday Night Tutoring Program, which currently includes five tutors in addition to myself.
Over the years from 1988 forward, I have written eight books, including a co-written book with Barbara. I researched and wrote two books for the Minneapolis Urban League (The State of African Americans in Minnesota, 2004 and 2008 editions).
From the very beginning of my academic career, I have always wanted to be a K-12 teacher who trained like a university scholar.
In addition to continuing to run the New Salem Tuesday Tutoring Program, for the last ten years I have coordinated the New Salem Educational Initiative, which incorporates the Tuesday night program but also includes a seven-day-a-week small-group program, my written output of articles on K-12 education, and activist efforts to overhaul K-12 education.
The Day to Day Functioning of the New Salem Educational Initiative
Through the Tuesday night program, the small-group program, individual studies, and continued mentorship once students start matriculating at colleges and universities, I now have 125 students in my New Salem Educational Initiative network. My most time-consuming efforts go to serving the 45 students in the seven-day-a-week small-group academic sessions.
Students now typically enter the small-group program of the New Salem Educational in Grade K (kindergarten), following older family members who have been in the program. I perform all functions in the service of these students. I generate the curriculum and compile the materials for study, do the initial enrollment, attend to all office details, write grants and raise funds. Most importantly, I talk with and counsel family members of students, transport students to and from each academic session, and teach each two-hour session personally.
The relationships that I form with students are permanent. Once students are enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative, they remain under my academic instruction and personal mentorship forever. Students who enter after a few years in school typically are functioning below grade level in math and reading when they enroll in the New Salem Educational Initiative. My first effort, then, goes toward bringing a student up to grade level in these two key skill areas. This generally happens within an academic year or two.
Once a student attains grade level competency in math and reading, she or he moves on to a college track course of study, reading and hearing about subjects across the liberal arts curriculum. Reading at that point becomes not so much a skill as a portal for advanced learning. Students in the New Salem Educational Initiative acquire full grasp of mathematics skills pertinent to the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), fractions, decimals, percentages, graphs, tables, proportions, and ratios; and they learn all skills necessary for algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.
Students also acquire strong verbal skills, learning how to write cogent essays and to read complex material with acquisition of advanced vocabulary and ever ascending levels of college preparatory reading comprehension. They read a generous number of selections from the Core Knowledge books edited by E. D. Hirsch, and they move in logical sequence through additional material chosen to impart strong knowledge sets across the liberal arts (math, natural science, history, economics, psychology, fiction and poetry, and the fine arts). Students use this strong liberal arts background in reading material from newspapers and journals, in both hard copy and online.
Middle school and high school students read Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. Students enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative all come from low-income families with multiple challenges. Currently, all of my students are African American and Hispanic. In the early years, students tended to enroll after having spent a number of years at the Grade K-5, Grade 6-8, and even the Grade 9-12 level in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- and had to make up significant and often severe academic deficits. Now, with so many younger students following older family members into the program, they tend to enroll at the Grade K (kindergarten level), and thus are always advanced for their grade levels.
Either way, the economically challenged students of the New Salem Educational initiative end up on a college track course of study far more typical for students at the middle and upper economic levels.
Principles Undergirding the New Salem Educatinal Initiative
Implicit in the above and more explicitly stated here, the principles undergirding the New Salem Educational Initiative, in accord with my views on K-12 education, are as follows:
For the United States to claim full democracy, all students should receive high quality education across the core subjects of the liberal arts curriculum. This is the same kind of education envisioned for good citizenship and high quality life by Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann, who wrote of “common schools” for all.
The abiding assumption in the New Salem Educational Initiative is that the logical acquisition of strong skill and knowledge sets promotes rich intellectual and cultural life, creates good citizens, and prepares the way for high professional and life satisfaction. Students in the New Salem Educational Initiative come alive in the world of knowledge. They don’t think twice about whether they can achieve at a high level. They can tell that I have full confidence in their academic abilities. They move through challenging material in logical sequence. They work on a task until mastery is achieved, and then they move on to the next, higher skill. They witness their own success, and they want more of the same. Just a few days into their participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative, students see themselves as successful learners, and they take off toward ascending heights of skill and knowledge.
Whatever challenges of material poverty they bring into the program, students gain a wealth of knowledge and they do not see poverty of any sort in their futures. Students know that I will never go away. They see me week after week. They feel my love. Their families feel my love. I feel the love of these wonderful people in return. We all understand that we have entered into relationships that are permanent, that endure beyond the K-12 stage, that continue through attendance at excellent colleges and universities, that will endure into the stage of adulthood.
Students in the New Salem Educational Initiative succeed, because they have all of the ability to do so, and because I will have it no other way:
I care about my students as if they were my own, and in the manner of excellent parents and teachers, I do anything necessary to assure that my students, my children, are successful. Mainly, I teach up a storm. I exert heavy-duty effort, in the application of what my West Texas pappy called “elbow grease.”
The parents of students in the New Salem Educational Initiative care deeply, as all parents do, either in manifest expression or latent potential. I guide them either productively to apply the former or to tap and activate the latter.
The overhaul of K-12 education constitutes the next stage of the Civil Rights Movement. High quality K-12 public education will end cycles of poverty and turn societal liabilities into economic and cultural assets. Through my conducting of 17 two-hour academic sessions for groups of three to five students each, I ensure that my students will become productive and happy citizens.
Through my writing, speaking, and activism, I am fully dedicated to inducing the Minneapolis Public Schools to become a model for how centralized systems can do the same.
My Current Efforts in the Overhaul of K-12 Education--- and My Vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools as a Model for Locally Centralized Schools Districts
Imagine the Minneapolis Public Schools improving so thoroughly as to become a model urban central school district that similar organizations in other cities can utilize as reference for their own overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the central school district.
In my new book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education) focused on the subject areas of economics, political science, psychology, world religions, world history, American history, African American history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics; I am providing the knowledge and skill set that would provide the essence of the curriculum productive of well-educated graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). Based on such a solid base of academic information and skills, graduates of MPS would possess knowledge that even our present version of university graduates in the United States would be happy to remember from courses in the given subject areas.
What I am doing in all aspects of the New Salem Educational Initiative--- including writing Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education; monthly production of the academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota; hosting of the television show The K-12 Revolution (every Wednesday at 6:00 PM on Channel 17, Minneapolis Telecommunications Network [MTN]); personally conducting 17 small-group college preparatory academic sessions per week in a network that includes 125 students and their family members; superintending the Tuesday Tutoring program at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church; speaking at numerous public venues (including monthly appearances during Public Comment time at the convening of the MPS Board of Education); and the posting of well over 200 articles on this blog--- is providing a vision for K-12 education and the future of North Minneapolis that encompasses what I am hoping to leave to the world when my own days on earth are numbered.
Imagine MPS extrapolating the principles of the New Salem Educational Initiative so as to design a locally centralized school system so worthy as to offer a model for the excellent liberal arts education that I am always advancing and that I am now detailing in the nearly completed book (I have finished ten out of the projected fourteen chapters). Imagine school classrooms from the K-5 level forward that are replete with academic resources of both the venerable print and the contemporary technological sort.
Hold in your consciousness an image of classroom walls and hallways filled with maps of continents, nations, and ecosystems from throughout the world; and with prints of great works of art and visual representations (paintings, photographs, and sculpture) of historical personages of great thought and accomplishment. Consider the transformative lifetime impact on young people who fully function at grade level in mathematics and reading and then follow academically committed teachers on a journey through the exciting world of knowledge.
Think about the effects on the lives of our precious young people, alive in the world of knowledge and excited by the banter of teachers who truly love them and effortlessly blend academic, comedic, and culturally attuned comments into their verbal expressions, their communications, their teaching.
Imagine schools as genuine places of knowledge acquisition that welcome students, their families, and community members to the sites and into the hallways of learning and ethics. Into these hallways would come experts from the realms of academia, business, government, social service, and theology to talk to MPS students and their families in a setting alive with the love of knowledge and ethical action--- and to engage in lively intellectual encounters with teachers capable of exchanging informed views with people of enormous information bases and great expertise.
Ethics would be an important topic for discussion in the schools of the future for MPS, with powerful conversations flowing in consideration of ethical precepts from the world's great religious traditions, applied in the context of an extensive knowledge base acquired both through dedicated academic study and active engagement with the workaday world: Young people and their families would be invited to participate in discussions focused on the nature of the good, the beautiful, and the empathic--- for the express purpose of advancing human understanding and promoting peaceful, productive relationships among people.
Imagine beckoning rooms in our schools from the K-5 level forward that are packed with great classic and contemporary works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; performance stages; technological resource area; media center; kitchen for student use; along with conventional classrooms used for traditional purposes and as centers for discussion, lectures, and speeches. Imagine schools from the K-5 level forward that include spaces for instruction in the vocational and technical arts, arranged for particular students upon expressed interest, so that the transmission of liberal arts knowledge would flourish alongside instruction that could include auto repair, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, and various other vocational arts.
Minneapolis in general and North Minneapolis specifically would become much better places for our young people and their families to dwell--- very much including those who are my personal passion: those who have been mired in cyclical familial poverty for generations. Schools would become tangible expressions of the joy of knowing and understanding the great world and universe, centers of information and wisdom in the midst of a community that radiates love of knowledge, ethical conduct, human beings.
I am developing the New Salem Educational Initiative as a vanguard community, formed by the 125 students and family members in my network, with the view of educating hordes of others interested in increasing their knowledge in all manner of subjects and coming to a place where ethics and moral conduct are treated as cherished guides to human action and interaction.
A very definite component of my vision is the transformation of the image of the North Minneapolis community that I love, from the perception of a place of destitution and violence to the recognized center of advanced academic knowledge and elevated ethical conduct.
This can and must happen in the future overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the locally centralized school district, with the Minneapolis Public Schools serving as model to a world that must thrive on the basis of knowledge and ethics, rather than perishing for a lack thereof.
This update will give my many new readers a strong sense of my convictions and my efforts to revolutionize K-12 education. Herein lies a description of the history, principles, and day to day life of the program. And before I get to the program itself, I give a brief description of my own background and life as a teacher in K-12 education:
Personal Background, Trainiing, and Life as a Teacher
I attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, from the autumn of 1969 through the spring of 1973. Prior to entering SMU, I had already become intensely interested in the social revolutions (feminist, civil rights) that were taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s; my interest quickened and my activism expanded during my years at SMU. I did not march for causes very much; although I have never shied away from confrontation, I have always wanted any confrontations that I initiate to have a very specific impact, and my ongoing commitment has been and continues to be to practical action meant to advance the common good.
By the spring (1971) of my sophomore year, I had decided to be a teacher. I became active in SMU Volunteer Services and soon took on the position of coordinator for services rendered at institutions for the mentally challenged and in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). I majored in political science and had near-majors in history and psychology. I took math through calculus and pursued a broad and deep liberal arts education. I also endured the excruciatingly terrible education courses to gain certification in the teaching fields of government and history; in time, in Minnesota, that certification would come to include all of those subjects considered part of social studies.
During my junior year, I served a semester internship at L. G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas, a heavily African American ghetto. This experience solidified my dedication to the education of urban youth. I did my student teaching at another inner city school but returned to Pinkston for my first two academic years (1973-1974 and 1974-1975) as a regular classroom teacher.
During the years from 1976 through 2003, I traveled throughout the United States and most of East, Southeast, and East Asia; got an M. A. (University of Iowa, 1979) and Ph. D. (University of Minnesota, 1993) in Chinese and Taiwanese history; lived in Taiwan for a total of three and a half years, becoming fluent in Mandarin Chinese and acquiring some Taiwanese (the Minnan dialect similar to that of Fujian Province on the Chinese mainland); and teaching in almost every type of situation: English as a Second Language (Taiwan); prison (Missouri Eastern Correctional Center); instructor at the University of Minnesota (two years teaching courses in East Asian history in the late 1980s as I pursued my doctorate); a semester teaching modern Japanese history at St. Olaf College; a rural high school, a suburban alternative high school, and two different alternative high schools in Minneapolis.
This is to say, too, that my wife, Barbara Reed, and I moved to Minnesota in the late summer of 1982 as she took a position at St. Olaf College in Northfield, where she still is a professor of Asian religions with dual appointments in the Department of Religion and the Department of Asian Studies.
I have been active in K-12 education in North Minneapolis since 1991, became a member of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in 1993, and for 20 years have coordinated and taught in the New Salem Tuesday Night Tutoring Program, which currently includes five tutors in addition to myself.
Over the years from 1988 forward, I have written eight books, including a co-written book with Barbara. I researched and wrote two books for the Minneapolis Urban League (The State of African Americans in Minnesota, 2004 and 2008 editions).
From the very beginning of my academic career, I have always wanted to be a K-12 teacher who trained like a university scholar.
In addition to continuing to run the New Salem Tuesday Tutoring Program, for the last ten years I have coordinated the New Salem Educational Initiative, which incorporates the Tuesday night program but also includes a seven-day-a-week small-group program, my written output of articles on K-12 education, and activist efforts to overhaul K-12 education.
The Day to Day Functioning of the New Salem Educational Initiative
Through the Tuesday night program, the small-group program, individual studies, and continued mentorship once students start matriculating at colleges and universities, I now have 125 students in my New Salem Educational Initiative network. My most time-consuming efforts go to serving the 45 students in the seven-day-a-week small-group academic sessions.
Students now typically enter the small-group program of the New Salem Educational in Grade K (kindergarten), following older family members who have been in the program. I perform all functions in the service of these students. I generate the curriculum and compile the materials for study, do the initial enrollment, attend to all office details, write grants and raise funds. Most importantly, I talk with and counsel family members of students, transport students to and from each academic session, and teach each two-hour session personally.
The relationships that I form with students are permanent. Once students are enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative, they remain under my academic instruction and personal mentorship forever. Students who enter after a few years in school typically are functioning below grade level in math and reading when they enroll in the New Salem Educational Initiative. My first effort, then, goes toward bringing a student up to grade level in these two key skill areas. This generally happens within an academic year or two.
Once a student attains grade level competency in math and reading, she or he moves on to a college track course of study, reading and hearing about subjects across the liberal arts curriculum. Reading at that point becomes not so much a skill as a portal for advanced learning. Students in the New Salem Educational Initiative acquire full grasp of mathematics skills pertinent to the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), fractions, decimals, percentages, graphs, tables, proportions, and ratios; and they learn all skills necessary for algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.
Students also acquire strong verbal skills, learning how to write cogent essays and to read complex material with acquisition of advanced vocabulary and ever ascending levels of college preparatory reading comprehension. They read a generous number of selections from the Core Knowledge books edited by E. D. Hirsch, and they move in logical sequence through additional material chosen to impart strong knowledge sets across the liberal arts (math, natural science, history, economics, psychology, fiction and poetry, and the fine arts). Students use this strong liberal arts background in reading material from newspapers and journals, in both hard copy and online.
Middle school and high school students read Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. Students enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative all come from low-income families with multiple challenges. Currently, all of my students are African American and Hispanic. In the early years, students tended to enroll after having spent a number of years at the Grade K-5, Grade 6-8, and even the Grade 9-12 level in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- and had to make up significant and often severe academic deficits. Now, with so many younger students following older family members into the program, they tend to enroll at the Grade K (kindergarten level), and thus are always advanced for their grade levels.
Either way, the economically challenged students of the New Salem Educational initiative end up on a college track course of study far more typical for students at the middle and upper economic levels.
Principles Undergirding the New Salem Educatinal Initiative
Implicit in the above and more explicitly stated here, the principles undergirding the New Salem Educational Initiative, in accord with my views on K-12 education, are as follows:
For the United States to claim full democracy, all students should receive high quality education across the core subjects of the liberal arts curriculum. This is the same kind of education envisioned for good citizenship and high quality life by Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann, who wrote of “common schools” for all.
The abiding assumption in the New Salem Educational Initiative is that the logical acquisition of strong skill and knowledge sets promotes rich intellectual and cultural life, creates good citizens, and prepares the way for high professional and life satisfaction. Students in the New Salem Educational Initiative come alive in the world of knowledge. They don’t think twice about whether they can achieve at a high level. They can tell that I have full confidence in their academic abilities. They move through challenging material in logical sequence. They work on a task until mastery is achieved, and then they move on to the next, higher skill. They witness their own success, and they want more of the same. Just a few days into their participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative, students see themselves as successful learners, and they take off toward ascending heights of skill and knowledge.
Whatever challenges of material poverty they bring into the program, students gain a wealth of knowledge and they do not see poverty of any sort in their futures. Students know that I will never go away. They see me week after week. They feel my love. Their families feel my love. I feel the love of these wonderful people in return. We all understand that we have entered into relationships that are permanent, that endure beyond the K-12 stage, that continue through attendance at excellent colleges and universities, that will endure into the stage of adulthood.
Students in the New Salem Educational Initiative succeed, because they have all of the ability to do so, and because I will have it no other way:
I care about my students as if they were my own, and in the manner of excellent parents and teachers, I do anything necessary to assure that my students, my children, are successful. Mainly, I teach up a storm. I exert heavy-duty effort, in the application of what my West Texas pappy called “elbow grease.”
The parents of students in the New Salem Educational Initiative care deeply, as all parents do, either in manifest expression or latent potential. I guide them either productively to apply the former or to tap and activate the latter.
The overhaul of K-12 education constitutes the next stage of the Civil Rights Movement. High quality K-12 public education will end cycles of poverty and turn societal liabilities into economic and cultural assets. Through my conducting of 17 two-hour academic sessions for groups of three to five students each, I ensure that my students will become productive and happy citizens.
Through my writing, speaking, and activism, I am fully dedicated to inducing the Minneapolis Public Schools to become a model for how centralized systems can do the same.
My Current Efforts in the Overhaul of K-12 Education--- and My Vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools as a Model for Locally Centralized Schools Districts
Imagine the Minneapolis Public Schools improving so thoroughly as to become a model urban central school district that similar organizations in other cities can utilize as reference for their own overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the central school district.
In my new book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education) focused on the subject areas of economics, political science, psychology, world religions, world history, American history, African American history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics; I am providing the knowledge and skill set that would provide the essence of the curriculum productive of well-educated graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). Based on such a solid base of academic information and skills, graduates of MPS would possess knowledge that even our present version of university graduates in the United States would be happy to remember from courses in the given subject areas.
What I am doing in all aspects of the New Salem Educational Initiative--- including writing Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education; monthly production of the academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota; hosting of the television show The K-12 Revolution (every Wednesday at 6:00 PM on Channel 17, Minneapolis Telecommunications Network [MTN]); personally conducting 17 small-group college preparatory academic sessions per week in a network that includes 125 students and their family members; superintending the Tuesday Tutoring program at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church; speaking at numerous public venues (including monthly appearances during Public Comment time at the convening of the MPS Board of Education); and the posting of well over 200 articles on this blog--- is providing a vision for K-12 education and the future of North Minneapolis that encompasses what I am hoping to leave to the world when my own days on earth are numbered.
Imagine MPS extrapolating the principles of the New Salem Educational Initiative so as to design a locally centralized school system so worthy as to offer a model for the excellent liberal arts education that I am always advancing and that I am now detailing in the nearly completed book (I have finished ten out of the projected fourteen chapters). Imagine school classrooms from the K-5 level forward that are replete with academic resources of both the venerable print and the contemporary technological sort.
Hold in your consciousness an image of classroom walls and hallways filled with maps of continents, nations, and ecosystems from throughout the world; and with prints of great works of art and visual representations (paintings, photographs, and sculpture) of historical personages of great thought and accomplishment. Consider the transformative lifetime impact on young people who fully function at grade level in mathematics and reading and then follow academically committed teachers on a journey through the exciting world of knowledge.
Think about the effects on the lives of our precious young people, alive in the world of knowledge and excited by the banter of teachers who truly love them and effortlessly blend academic, comedic, and culturally attuned comments into their verbal expressions, their communications, their teaching.
Imagine schools as genuine places of knowledge acquisition that welcome students, their families, and community members to the sites and into the hallways of learning and ethics. Into these hallways would come experts from the realms of academia, business, government, social service, and theology to talk to MPS students and their families in a setting alive with the love of knowledge and ethical action--- and to engage in lively intellectual encounters with teachers capable of exchanging informed views with people of enormous information bases and great expertise.
Ethics would be an important topic for discussion in the schools of the future for MPS, with powerful conversations flowing in consideration of ethical precepts from the world's great religious traditions, applied in the context of an extensive knowledge base acquired both through dedicated academic study and active engagement with the workaday world: Young people and their families would be invited to participate in discussions focused on the nature of the good, the beautiful, and the empathic--- for the express purpose of advancing human understanding and promoting peaceful, productive relationships among people.
Imagine beckoning rooms in our schools from the K-5 level forward that are packed with great classic and contemporary works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; performance stages; technological resource area; media center; kitchen for student use; along with conventional classrooms used for traditional purposes and as centers for discussion, lectures, and speeches. Imagine schools from the K-5 level forward that include spaces for instruction in the vocational and technical arts, arranged for particular students upon expressed interest, so that the transmission of liberal arts knowledge would flourish alongside instruction that could include auto repair, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, and various other vocational arts.
Minneapolis in general and North Minneapolis specifically would become much better places for our young people and their families to dwell--- very much including those who are my personal passion: those who have been mired in cyclical familial poverty for generations. Schools would become tangible expressions of the joy of knowing and understanding the great world and universe, centers of information and wisdom in the midst of a community that radiates love of knowledge, ethical conduct, human beings.
I am developing the New Salem Educational Initiative as a vanguard community, formed by the 125 students and family members in my network, with the view of educating hordes of others interested in increasing their knowledge in all manner of subjects and coming to a place where ethics and moral conduct are treated as cherished guides to human action and interaction.
A very definite component of my vision is the transformation of the image of the North Minneapolis community that I love, from the perception of a place of destitution and violence to the recognized center of advanced academic knowledge and elevated ethical conduct.
This can and must happen in the future overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the locally centralized school district, with the Minneapolis Public Schools serving as model to a world that must thrive on the basis of knowledge and ethics, rather than perishing for a lack thereof.
Dec 8, 2015
Sergio Paez is the Prospective New Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools
On Monday evening, 7 December 2015, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education voted in a 6-3 decision to make Sergio Paez the prospective new Superintendent of MPS, pending contract negotiations.
As a schedule for those negotiations is being established, two or three members of the school board will be traveling to Holyoke, Massachusetts, to conduct a site visit, with the implied intent of ensuring that there is no compelling information in terms of professional conduct that would argue against the board’s decision in Paez’s favor. This sort of site visit in the aftermath of hiring decisions is less common now as a follow-up procedure by school boards than was the case two decades or so ago, but such visits are still made at the discretion of school board members. Members of the MPS Board of Education decided to make such a visit at the urging of board member Carla Bates.
As detailed in recent articles on this blog, board members made their decision on the prospective new Superintendent from a list of finalists that included current Interim Superintendent Michael Goar, Houston Independent School District Assistant Superintendent for School Support Charles Foust, and Paez. In the 6-3 outcome of the vote taken Monday evening, board members Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellison, Jenny Arneson, Nelson Inz, Tracine Asbury, and Don Samuels voted for Paez. Members Siad Ali, Carla Bates, and Josh Reimnitz voted for Goar.
The most persistent comments in Goar’s favor were made by Bates and Ali:
For Bates, Goar’s role in helping to forge Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 was decisive. In her view, the notion of schools as the unit of change lies at the core of that plan, with the board’s approval of four Community Partnership Schools, acting much like charter schools in receiving a high degree of autonomy in exchange for accountability, providing follow-up commitment to the site-based model. Bates argued forcefully that Goar is fully behind the site-based model and the concept of Community Partnership Schools. Knowing that Tracine Asbury and other board members perceived that too little progress had been made in implementing the strategic plan, Bates cited successes in graduation rates at Harrison School and academic progress at Heritage Academy of Science and Technology as evidence of progress to date--- and she expressed confidence that Goar would form a supportive cabinet in a tenure as permanent Superintendent that would bring further success.
Siad Ali cited Goar’s commitment to English Language Learner (ELL) students and to the notion of student-based allocation of funds among his reasons for admiring Goar as a leader. Ali appreciates Goar’s emphasis on giving students the opportunity to speak a world language other than their native language, and he admires Goar’s courage as a leader, demonstrated in his cutting of 120 staff positions at the central office building, thereby reducing central office staff from 651 to 531.
Many board members praised the energy, charisma, and inspirational qualities that Charles Foust would bring to the position of Superintendent. Don Samuels offered the most frequent praise of this sort, saying that he had become a real fan of Foust and found him mesmerizing. Rebecca Gagnon extolled Foust’s emphasis on forging close relationships with students and families. She and Josh Reimnitz also stressed Foust’s ability to bring teams of stakeholders together and to move human beings forward in a common endeavor, for which Foust gave several examples during interviews.
But, while board members seemed to agree that Foust had a star quality that would bring him future success as a school district administrator and probable superintendent in some setting, the overall view of Foust was that he is not yet experienced enough to take on the challenges at the level of superintendent of a major urban school district. There was also concern that Foust had moved quickly from position to position, and that his commitment to Minneapolis might not be as enduring as would be the case for Goar and as could prove the case for Paez.
Decisively, Gagnon, Ellison, Arneson, Inz, Asbury, and Samuels found much to recommend the candidacy of Paez. Gagnon found his experience with budgets and knowledge of school finance compelling. Samuels mentioned Paez’s astute political sensibility, saying that he “walks easily in the political waters, with a statesmanlike quality.” Paez also received high marks for his commitment to equity, his sensitivity to the needs of ELL students, and his grasp of pedagogy, the latter far exceeding the other candidates in the evaluation of Nelson Inz and other supporters of Paez.
Paez is currently a consultant with the City of Holyoke on matters pertinent to the city school system, a position that he has held for two years. Prior to serving as consultant, Paez served as Superintendent of Schools for the City of Holyoke. His tenure as Superintendent for Holyoke came during a troubled time, during which the city’s schools were under the threat of being taken over by the State of Massachusetts. Paez could not prevent Holyoke schools from such a fate: They did eventually go into receivership. Paez, however, inaugurated policies that brought favorable responses from decision-makers at the state level; he continues to help the district implement those policies in his current role as consultant. In addition to his experience in Holyoke, Paez spent seven years in Worcester, Massachusetts, first as ELL Director (2007-2011) and then as Assistant Superintendent (2011-2013). Prior to service in Worcester, Paez served in Leominster, Massachusetts as Language Acquisition Director (2000-2007); and in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, first as an Elementary Teacher (1995-1999), then for one year as Assistant Principal (1999-2000).
Sergio Paez holds a Superintendent Professional License in the State of Massachusetts that will expedite his licensure in Minnesota. He holds a BA in Sociology from Fitchburg State College, an MA in School Administration from Harvard University, and an EdD from Boston College.
There was a substantial contingent in the audience on Monday evening that held signs expressing the view that none of the candidates was qualified and that the search process should be restarted. Al Flowers, a frequent attendee of school board meetings, was demonstrably upset by the decision and held a sign at meeting’s end expressing his displeasure.
My own view is that the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education did an exceptionally careful job in seeking candidates through HYA Executive Search (represented by Ted Blaesing at meetings for selecting semifinalists and finalists); were extraordinarily fair and professional in conducting interviews of the candidates; and came to a well-reasoned decision in opting for Paez.
For my own support of the candidacy of Charles Foust, whose compelling qualities dissuaded me from an original propensity to back Goar, please scroll on down to articles giving my own reasoning. And please stay alert to the many articles to come on this blog giving my own vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools and my efforts to induce the new superintendent and the MPS Board of Education to consider the importance of defining an excellent education, identifying knowledge and skill sets for grade-by-grade acquisition, and training teachers of genuine excellence.
For now, let us praise Chairperson Jenny Arneson and her Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education colleagues for a conscientious job well done in the process that led to the selection of Sergio Paez as new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
As a schedule for those negotiations is being established, two or three members of the school board will be traveling to Holyoke, Massachusetts, to conduct a site visit, with the implied intent of ensuring that there is no compelling information in terms of professional conduct that would argue against the board’s decision in Paez’s favor. This sort of site visit in the aftermath of hiring decisions is less common now as a follow-up procedure by school boards than was the case two decades or so ago, but such visits are still made at the discretion of school board members. Members of the MPS Board of Education decided to make such a visit at the urging of board member Carla Bates.
As detailed in recent articles on this blog, board members made their decision on the prospective new Superintendent from a list of finalists that included current Interim Superintendent Michael Goar, Houston Independent School District Assistant Superintendent for School Support Charles Foust, and Paez. In the 6-3 outcome of the vote taken Monday evening, board members Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellison, Jenny Arneson, Nelson Inz, Tracine Asbury, and Don Samuels voted for Paez. Members Siad Ali, Carla Bates, and Josh Reimnitz voted for Goar.
The most persistent comments in Goar’s favor were made by Bates and Ali:
For Bates, Goar’s role in helping to forge Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 was decisive. In her view, the notion of schools as the unit of change lies at the core of that plan, with the board’s approval of four Community Partnership Schools, acting much like charter schools in receiving a high degree of autonomy in exchange for accountability, providing follow-up commitment to the site-based model. Bates argued forcefully that Goar is fully behind the site-based model and the concept of Community Partnership Schools. Knowing that Tracine Asbury and other board members perceived that too little progress had been made in implementing the strategic plan, Bates cited successes in graduation rates at Harrison School and academic progress at Heritage Academy of Science and Technology as evidence of progress to date--- and she expressed confidence that Goar would form a supportive cabinet in a tenure as permanent Superintendent that would bring further success.
Siad Ali cited Goar’s commitment to English Language Learner (ELL) students and to the notion of student-based allocation of funds among his reasons for admiring Goar as a leader. Ali appreciates Goar’s emphasis on giving students the opportunity to speak a world language other than their native language, and he admires Goar’s courage as a leader, demonstrated in his cutting of 120 staff positions at the central office building, thereby reducing central office staff from 651 to 531.
Many board members praised the energy, charisma, and inspirational qualities that Charles Foust would bring to the position of Superintendent. Don Samuels offered the most frequent praise of this sort, saying that he had become a real fan of Foust and found him mesmerizing. Rebecca Gagnon extolled Foust’s emphasis on forging close relationships with students and families. She and Josh Reimnitz also stressed Foust’s ability to bring teams of stakeholders together and to move human beings forward in a common endeavor, for which Foust gave several examples during interviews.
But, while board members seemed to agree that Foust had a star quality that would bring him future success as a school district administrator and probable superintendent in some setting, the overall view of Foust was that he is not yet experienced enough to take on the challenges at the level of superintendent of a major urban school district. There was also concern that Foust had moved quickly from position to position, and that his commitment to Minneapolis might not be as enduring as would be the case for Goar and as could prove the case for Paez.
Decisively, Gagnon, Ellison, Arneson, Inz, Asbury, and Samuels found much to recommend the candidacy of Paez. Gagnon found his experience with budgets and knowledge of school finance compelling. Samuels mentioned Paez’s astute political sensibility, saying that he “walks easily in the political waters, with a statesmanlike quality.” Paez also received high marks for his commitment to equity, his sensitivity to the needs of ELL students, and his grasp of pedagogy, the latter far exceeding the other candidates in the evaluation of Nelson Inz and other supporters of Paez.
Paez is currently a consultant with the City of Holyoke on matters pertinent to the city school system, a position that he has held for two years. Prior to serving as consultant, Paez served as Superintendent of Schools for the City of Holyoke. His tenure as Superintendent for Holyoke came during a troubled time, during which the city’s schools were under the threat of being taken over by the State of Massachusetts. Paez could not prevent Holyoke schools from such a fate: They did eventually go into receivership. Paez, however, inaugurated policies that brought favorable responses from decision-makers at the state level; he continues to help the district implement those policies in his current role as consultant. In addition to his experience in Holyoke, Paez spent seven years in Worcester, Massachusetts, first as ELL Director (2007-2011) and then as Assistant Superintendent (2011-2013). Prior to service in Worcester, Paez served in Leominster, Massachusetts as Language Acquisition Director (2000-2007); and in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, first as an Elementary Teacher (1995-1999), then for one year as Assistant Principal (1999-2000).
Sergio Paez holds a Superintendent Professional License in the State of Massachusetts that will expedite his licensure in Minnesota. He holds a BA in Sociology from Fitchburg State College, an MA in School Administration from Harvard University, and an EdD from Boston College.
There was a substantial contingent in the audience on Monday evening that held signs expressing the view that none of the candidates was qualified and that the search process should be restarted. Al Flowers, a frequent attendee of school board meetings, was demonstrably upset by the decision and held a sign at meeting’s end expressing his displeasure.
My own view is that the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education did an exceptionally careful job in seeking candidates through HYA Executive Search (represented by Ted Blaesing at meetings for selecting semifinalists and finalists); were extraordinarily fair and professional in conducting interviews of the candidates; and came to a well-reasoned decision in opting for Paez.
For my own support of the candidacy of Charles Foust, whose compelling qualities dissuaded me from an original propensity to back Goar, please scroll on down to articles giving my own reasoning. And please stay alert to the many articles to come on this blog giving my own vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools and my efforts to induce the new superintendent and the MPS Board of Education to consider the importance of defining an excellent education, identifying knowledge and skill sets for grade-by-grade acquisition, and training teachers of genuine excellence.
For now, let us praise Chairperson Jenny Arneson and her Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education colleagues for a conscientious job well done in the process that led to the selection of Sergio Paez as new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Dec 7, 2015
Charles Foust Can Be the Critically Needed Agent for Cultural Change and Academic Acceleration as the New Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools
Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education please strongly consider this message:
Failing to opt for Charles Foust as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools would be a missed opportunity with serious implications:
Foust can be the needed agent for cultural change and acceleration of student progress in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In his appearances during the semifinalist and finalist phases in the selection process for Superintendent, Foust radiated fervor for academic transformation in the lives of struggling students, with a proven record of turning schools around. He was very specific as to how he has accomplished the considerable feat of moving students from sub-grade level performance in math and reading to sustained grade level or better performance as principal at Fondren Middle School and now at seven middle schools in the Houston Independent School District.
Foust emphasized highly aggressive tutoring for skill acquisition, with an extra hour a day and ten extra days on the calendar so as to serve students having such needs. He superintended close monitoring of student performance as students began to improve, phasing out the intensive tutorial program as students sustained grade-level or better performance over a period of months. In securing the shifts in the school calendar, working with local landlords to better match lease contracts to the schedules of the students and their families, Foust demonstrated an admirable ability to innovate and to pursue logical action to create a context that maximized chances for student success.
In overseeing needed changes in order to induce student progress, Foust manifested the critical ability to recognize immediate needs, aggressively address those needs, and pursue logical courses of action that abetted the program for achieving results. He learned the importance of buy-in on the part of teachers and staff, carefully developing the course of action in consultation with those people most responsible for implementing the plan, listening to accounts of challenges along the way, evolving strategies with stakeholders for overcoming obstacles, then insisting that each person designated for particular roles--- and agreeing to assume those roles--- did the job that she or he said that the person could do.
There was a telling moment at a community gathering for asking questions of the candidates at Webster Elementary School on the evening of Wednesday, 2 December 2015, just after I had asked Charles Foust if he believed in objective testing as a measure of student progress, in the manner of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) and the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Perceiving that I opposed such testing, he challenged me with a countering question:
“Well let me ask you: Do you believe in the SAT [for college readiness]?”
“Yes, I do,” I said. “And I believe in the MCAs.”
“Oh, well, then we agree,” Foust replied.
This was enormously impressive:
Foust did not shrink from my question when he thought that I opposed objective testing, asking instead a superbly posed inquiry that I myself in fact often ask people. Objective testing of student progress is not only the most reliable way of determining progress in mathematics and reading--- and the development of other knowledge and skill sets. It also is a fact of student life, so that test-taking is itself a skill that students need to develop as they anticipate taking the SAT or ACT for college entrance.
Charles Foust manifests an ability to engage, trade ideas, differ or agree as the case may be, demonstrating candor and conviction while listening carefully to the other person. He does this with a smile on his face, as if he enjoys hearing what other people have to say, even giving them a chance to change his own ideas, but ultimately stating forthrightly his understanding of the truth.
Everything about Foust’s manner and his proven track record suggests that this is a person who can make change happen.
He is a teacher and loves teachers.
Foust told me that as a teacher he believes that these vital classroom presences are not just facilitators guiding students toward information: They are imparters of information from their own mental stores of knowledge and providers of life wisdom as elders who have experienced the world.
“So, you believe,” I asked Foust, “in imparting particular knowledge sets in grade by grade sequence, so that by the time our students go across the stage at graduation they know, for example, how the Federal Reserve System works; why Reconstruction failed and the consequences of that failure; the difference in the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner?”
“Yes. We must teach the whole child. We need to conduct objective testing so that we know exactly how students are performing in math and reading. And we must have academic standards. But we must go beyond testing and the standards to teach the whole child. We must go deeper. Our children deserve a full and varied education across many subject areas, including history, science, the arts--- and many other areas for giving our students the best education for life that they can have.”
“And you believe that teachers themselves should know these things and are able to impart this information--- that in addition to developing the critical thinking skills of students, and beyond the role of classroom facilitators guiding students toward information, teachers are themselves knowledgeable people who share their expertise with students?”
“Yes. I’m a teacher,” Foust replied.
………………………………………………....
In giving honest testimony to his love of teachers and wanting to give them opportunities for buy-in to any program of action for accelerating student progress, Foust exhibits qualities that can be all important in moving Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 forward with strategies that work and that are embraced by teachers.
Indeed, many of these approaches will be derived from those used by teachers who have achieved the best results. Foust will listen to what teachers have to say. He will offer his own considerable wisdom on the best plan for action. And in a spirit of collaboration, teachers will be motivated to fill their students’ brains with the knowledge and skill sets vital not just to function but to prosper in the world beyond their K-12 years. Instruction will be differentiated as necessary and appropriate to the learner, but common results in the form of shared knowledge and skill sets will be expected for all children.
Consistent with this firm, but flexible as appropriate, approach Foust said that expectations for special education students should be kept high but realistic--- and that while most students should prove that they possess certain knowledge and skill sets via objective testing, with portfolios supplementary demonstrations of student progress, special education students provide the case wherein the portfolio approach can be of value as the prime means for demonstrating progress.
Charles Foust has an amazing ability to communicate:
His views have a big-tent quality capable of uniting people with disparate ideas as to what constitutes an excellent education. Under his leadership, I--- who am ever dubious as to whether people arising from the education establishment actually believe in knowledge-intensive education imparted by appropriately knowledgeable teachers--- can with great conviction foresee students graduating from the Minneapolis Public Schools as led by Charles Foust possessing the knowledge and skill sets upon which critical thinking and lifelong learning are most likely to proceed.
……………………………………………………………..
Everything about the record, philosophy, style, personality, and energy level of Charles Foust suggests strongly that he can make ambitious academic goals such as those in Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 happen:
He believes in the learning capacity of students. He is knowledgeable and believes in knowledge-intensive education. He values excellent teachers. He is an excellent communicator who listens empathetically to struggles in the achievement toward a goal, making adjustments as necessary, but holds firmly to the goal and expects results.
Charles Foust is a leader, a communicator with the ability to achieve unity amidst diversity, the change agent that the locally centralized school district of the Minneapolis Public Schools needs at this critical juncture.
Under his leadership, the culture of the school district will be transformed:
Teachers and staff will come to believe in the learning capacity of students of all demographic descriptors, and they will pursue courses of action that make knowledge and skill acquisition on the part of all students a reality.
Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should seize this opportunity to embrace a person whom they called into their midst, who demonstrated the qualities for which they were and should be searching, and did it all with manifested love and spirit for the job for which he was being interviewed.
Charles Foust should be the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Failing to opt for Charles Foust as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools would be a missed opportunity with serious implications:
Foust can be the needed agent for cultural change and acceleration of student progress in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In his appearances during the semifinalist and finalist phases in the selection process for Superintendent, Foust radiated fervor for academic transformation in the lives of struggling students, with a proven record of turning schools around. He was very specific as to how he has accomplished the considerable feat of moving students from sub-grade level performance in math and reading to sustained grade level or better performance as principal at Fondren Middle School and now at seven middle schools in the Houston Independent School District.
Foust emphasized highly aggressive tutoring for skill acquisition, with an extra hour a day and ten extra days on the calendar so as to serve students having such needs. He superintended close monitoring of student performance as students began to improve, phasing out the intensive tutorial program as students sustained grade-level or better performance over a period of months. In securing the shifts in the school calendar, working with local landlords to better match lease contracts to the schedules of the students and their families, Foust demonstrated an admirable ability to innovate and to pursue logical action to create a context that maximized chances for student success.
In overseeing needed changes in order to induce student progress, Foust manifested the critical ability to recognize immediate needs, aggressively address those needs, and pursue logical courses of action that abetted the program for achieving results. He learned the importance of buy-in on the part of teachers and staff, carefully developing the course of action in consultation with those people most responsible for implementing the plan, listening to accounts of challenges along the way, evolving strategies with stakeholders for overcoming obstacles, then insisting that each person designated for particular roles--- and agreeing to assume those roles--- did the job that she or he said that the person could do.
There was a telling moment at a community gathering for asking questions of the candidates at Webster Elementary School on the evening of Wednesday, 2 December 2015, just after I had asked Charles Foust if he believed in objective testing as a measure of student progress, in the manner of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) and the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Perceiving that I opposed such testing, he challenged me with a countering question:
“Well let me ask you: Do you believe in the SAT [for college readiness]?”
“Yes, I do,” I said. “And I believe in the MCAs.”
“Oh, well, then we agree,” Foust replied.
This was enormously impressive:
Foust did not shrink from my question when he thought that I opposed objective testing, asking instead a superbly posed inquiry that I myself in fact often ask people. Objective testing of student progress is not only the most reliable way of determining progress in mathematics and reading--- and the development of other knowledge and skill sets. It also is a fact of student life, so that test-taking is itself a skill that students need to develop as they anticipate taking the SAT or ACT for college entrance.
Charles Foust manifests an ability to engage, trade ideas, differ or agree as the case may be, demonstrating candor and conviction while listening carefully to the other person. He does this with a smile on his face, as if he enjoys hearing what other people have to say, even giving them a chance to change his own ideas, but ultimately stating forthrightly his understanding of the truth.
Everything about Foust’s manner and his proven track record suggests that this is a person who can make change happen.
He is a teacher and loves teachers.
Foust told me that as a teacher he believes that these vital classroom presences are not just facilitators guiding students toward information: They are imparters of information from their own mental stores of knowledge and providers of life wisdom as elders who have experienced the world.
“So, you believe,” I asked Foust, “in imparting particular knowledge sets in grade by grade sequence, so that by the time our students go across the stage at graduation they know, for example, how the Federal Reserve System works; why Reconstruction failed and the consequences of that failure; the difference in the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner?”
“Yes. We must teach the whole child. We need to conduct objective testing so that we know exactly how students are performing in math and reading. And we must have academic standards. But we must go beyond testing and the standards to teach the whole child. We must go deeper. Our children deserve a full and varied education across many subject areas, including history, science, the arts--- and many other areas for giving our students the best education for life that they can have.”
“And you believe that teachers themselves should know these things and are able to impart this information--- that in addition to developing the critical thinking skills of students, and beyond the role of classroom facilitators guiding students toward information, teachers are themselves knowledgeable people who share their expertise with students?”
“Yes. I’m a teacher,” Foust replied.
………………………………………………....
In giving honest testimony to his love of teachers and wanting to give them opportunities for buy-in to any program of action for accelerating student progress, Foust exhibits qualities that can be all important in moving Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 forward with strategies that work and that are embraced by teachers.
Indeed, many of these approaches will be derived from those used by teachers who have achieved the best results. Foust will listen to what teachers have to say. He will offer his own considerable wisdom on the best plan for action. And in a spirit of collaboration, teachers will be motivated to fill their students’ brains with the knowledge and skill sets vital not just to function but to prosper in the world beyond their K-12 years. Instruction will be differentiated as necessary and appropriate to the learner, but common results in the form of shared knowledge and skill sets will be expected for all children.
Consistent with this firm, but flexible as appropriate, approach Foust said that expectations for special education students should be kept high but realistic--- and that while most students should prove that they possess certain knowledge and skill sets via objective testing, with portfolios supplementary demonstrations of student progress, special education students provide the case wherein the portfolio approach can be of value as the prime means for demonstrating progress.
Charles Foust has an amazing ability to communicate:
His views have a big-tent quality capable of uniting people with disparate ideas as to what constitutes an excellent education. Under his leadership, I--- who am ever dubious as to whether people arising from the education establishment actually believe in knowledge-intensive education imparted by appropriately knowledgeable teachers--- can with great conviction foresee students graduating from the Minneapolis Public Schools as led by Charles Foust possessing the knowledge and skill sets upon which critical thinking and lifelong learning are most likely to proceed.
……………………………………………………………..
Everything about the record, philosophy, style, personality, and energy level of Charles Foust suggests strongly that he can make ambitious academic goals such as those in Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 happen:
He believes in the learning capacity of students. He is knowledgeable and believes in knowledge-intensive education. He values excellent teachers. He is an excellent communicator who listens empathetically to struggles in the achievement toward a goal, making adjustments as necessary, but holds firmly to the goal and expects results.
Charles Foust is a leader, a communicator with the ability to achieve unity amidst diversity, the change agent that the locally centralized school district of the Minneapolis Public Schools needs at this critical juncture.
Under his leadership, the culture of the school district will be transformed:
Teachers and staff will come to believe in the learning capacity of students of all demographic descriptors, and they will pursue courses of action that make knowledge and skill acquisition on the part of all students a reality.
Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should seize this opportunity to embrace a person whom they called into their midst, who demonstrated the qualities for which they were and should be searching, and did it all with manifested love and spirit for the job for which he was being interviewed.
Charles Foust should be the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Dec 4, 2015
Charles Foust Should Be the New Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools
Charles Foust should be the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).
Throughout interviews with the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education, Foust revealed himself to be a person of great knowledge as to Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 of MPS, the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools specifically, key factors in managing a large urban school district in general, and key actors in the greater community whose support and assistance can be a great asset in building public schools of genuine excellence.
Foust currently serves as an assistant superintendent in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and is School Support Officer for Secondary Transformation of Schools for that district, the seventh largest in the nation. Raised in North Carolina and educated at the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels at universities in that state, he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Houston; for the latter, his course work is complete, and he is currently at work on his dissertation.
Foust began his career in his home state, leading Brooks Global Studies to status as a top performing school of Guilford County. He moved to Houston as a turn-around specialist, transforming Fondren Middle School to become one of the top Apollo Middle Schools within the HISD. While serving as principal at that school, he sought and received authorization for Fondren to become an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle School, so that the school moved from its quandary as an academically struggling school to status as a fully accredited IB school within three years.
This sort of work is that which Foust now pursues with a passion in a network that includes seven middle schools in Houston. In public interviews with the MPS Board of Education, Foust gave indications of major factors in his success as a turn-around specialist that would translate well as Superintendent of MPS:
He emphasizes his ability to listen empathetically to people who are endeavoring to achieve objectives but are falling short, working to assist the person in making adjustments that lead to success; but if the person of note just does not seem up to the task, then Foust’s insistence that the professional do what she or he said that person could do becomes paramount, so that she or he is replaced with someone more likely to be successful in serving the students at the school or the schools for which the service under discussion is rendered.
Foust has inaugurated an aggressive tutorial program in a situation wherein 80% of students were found to need such tutoring, and he successfully sought and obtained an extra hour a day and ten extra days on the calendar so as to serve students having such needs. With continued monitoring as students began to improve, the students eventually moved out of the intensive tutorial program and manifested sustained grade-level or better performance. In securing the shifts in the school calendar, Foust worked with the local landlords to better match lease contracts to the calendric schedules of the students and their families.
In personal conversations with me, Foust demonstrated outstanding knowledge of those politicians, business leaders, pastors, and leaders in many other community positions of importance--- and an awareness of whom he would be similarly building relationships with in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the Twin Cities Metro. To this endeavor, as in his interaction with teachers, central office staff, members of the school board, and me while he was in Minneapolis, Foust radiated enormous personal charm, charisma, and energy:
After the most recent four-day round of interviews and public appearances, and in his concluding conversation with me, Foust gave no indication of nervousness or fatigue. He seemed as if he could go right in again for another demanding session of school board or public give and take, relishing the opportunity to do so. He gave evidence of having made such a promising beginning in getting to know teachers, students, and staff of MPS that he would be ready, with full energy, to begin his service as Superintendent that very afternoon. Foust was one of the few candidates to ask questions of the MPS Board of Education, and his inquiries were the most incisive.
In the round for semifinalists, he asked board members how they knew that Acceleration 2020 would work. Tracine Asberry smiled at the kind of question that she is always asking, but no school board member offered a verbal response. In the final interview, Foust asked the board a series of questions focused on their relationship with the Superintendent and with each other. Remarkably, this stimulated some spirited discussion among school board members, with Tracine Asberry, Rebecca Gagnon, Carla Bates, and Jenny Arneson all taking part.
Of high importance to me, my personal discussions with Foust revealed him to be a supporter of grade by grade academic standards (or standards for grade groupings such as Grades 9-12) such as we have in Minnesota, with objective testing to measure student progress, such as we have for with the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs). Foust stressed, though, that he believes in educating the whole child and offering students a well-defined knowledge-rich curriculum beyond those topics and skills covered on tests.
Foust recognizes that we must work much harder to implement the goals of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020. In his thorough tour of the schools and talks with teachers, principals, and staff, Foust found that very few had much idea as to how they were to help achieve majestic goals such as 5% annual growth in students registering grade level performance, a comparable 8% growth for students in categories of those who have been historically underserved, and 10% annual growth in the four-year graduation rate. He indicated support for the plan and energetic work toward its goals, with emphasis on the buy-in that he would be seeking among stakeholders, and with better articulation of a program for actually achieving the plan's lofty goals.
Charles Foust is an indefatigable and knowledgeable person with numerous qualities indicating likelihood of success as an empathic listener, excellent communicator, successful administrator, and fervent actor in the cause of excellence and equity in education. He should be the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Scroll on down for my previous comments on the other candidates, and look for an expansion of this article in the next day or two. Sergio Paez demonstrates many of the compelling qualities manifested by Foust. Michael Goar, to whose candidacy I was inclined at the beginning of the interview process, has experience with the Minneapolis Public Schools and great knowledge of the community; but he was not able to articulate a compelling vision of excellence in his appearances during the process, and his answers to questions in any public setting were imprecise.
So, for now, I want my readers to look to my other articles for information on the other two finalists-- knowing that Charles Foust should be the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Throughout interviews with the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education, Foust revealed himself to be a person of great knowledge as to Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 of MPS, the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools specifically, key factors in managing a large urban school district in general, and key actors in the greater community whose support and assistance can be a great asset in building public schools of genuine excellence.
Foust currently serves as an assistant superintendent in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and is School Support Officer for Secondary Transformation of Schools for that district, the seventh largest in the nation. Raised in North Carolina and educated at the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels at universities in that state, he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Houston; for the latter, his course work is complete, and he is currently at work on his dissertation.
Foust began his career in his home state, leading Brooks Global Studies to status as a top performing school of Guilford County. He moved to Houston as a turn-around specialist, transforming Fondren Middle School to become one of the top Apollo Middle Schools within the HISD. While serving as principal at that school, he sought and received authorization for Fondren to become an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle School, so that the school moved from its quandary as an academically struggling school to status as a fully accredited IB school within three years.
This sort of work is that which Foust now pursues with a passion in a network that includes seven middle schools in Houston. In public interviews with the MPS Board of Education, Foust gave indications of major factors in his success as a turn-around specialist that would translate well as Superintendent of MPS:
He emphasizes his ability to listen empathetically to people who are endeavoring to achieve objectives but are falling short, working to assist the person in making adjustments that lead to success; but if the person of note just does not seem up to the task, then Foust’s insistence that the professional do what she or he said that person could do becomes paramount, so that she or he is replaced with someone more likely to be successful in serving the students at the school or the schools for which the service under discussion is rendered.
Foust has inaugurated an aggressive tutorial program in a situation wherein 80% of students were found to need such tutoring, and he successfully sought and obtained an extra hour a day and ten extra days on the calendar so as to serve students having such needs. With continued monitoring as students began to improve, the students eventually moved out of the intensive tutorial program and manifested sustained grade-level or better performance. In securing the shifts in the school calendar, Foust worked with the local landlords to better match lease contracts to the calendric schedules of the students and their families.
In personal conversations with me, Foust demonstrated outstanding knowledge of those politicians, business leaders, pastors, and leaders in many other community positions of importance--- and an awareness of whom he would be similarly building relationships with in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the Twin Cities Metro. To this endeavor, as in his interaction with teachers, central office staff, members of the school board, and me while he was in Minneapolis, Foust radiated enormous personal charm, charisma, and energy:
After the most recent four-day round of interviews and public appearances, and in his concluding conversation with me, Foust gave no indication of nervousness or fatigue. He seemed as if he could go right in again for another demanding session of school board or public give and take, relishing the opportunity to do so. He gave evidence of having made such a promising beginning in getting to know teachers, students, and staff of MPS that he would be ready, with full energy, to begin his service as Superintendent that very afternoon. Foust was one of the few candidates to ask questions of the MPS Board of Education, and his inquiries were the most incisive.
In the round for semifinalists, he asked board members how they knew that Acceleration 2020 would work. Tracine Asberry smiled at the kind of question that she is always asking, but no school board member offered a verbal response. In the final interview, Foust asked the board a series of questions focused on their relationship with the Superintendent and with each other. Remarkably, this stimulated some spirited discussion among school board members, with Tracine Asberry, Rebecca Gagnon, Carla Bates, and Jenny Arneson all taking part.
Of high importance to me, my personal discussions with Foust revealed him to be a supporter of grade by grade academic standards (or standards for grade groupings such as Grades 9-12) such as we have in Minnesota, with objective testing to measure student progress, such as we have for with the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs). Foust stressed, though, that he believes in educating the whole child and offering students a well-defined knowledge-rich curriculum beyond those topics and skills covered on tests.
Foust recognizes that we must work much harder to implement the goals of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020. In his thorough tour of the schools and talks with teachers, principals, and staff, Foust found that very few had much idea as to how they were to help achieve majestic goals such as 5% annual growth in students registering grade level performance, a comparable 8% growth for students in categories of those who have been historically underserved, and 10% annual growth in the four-year graduation rate. He indicated support for the plan and energetic work toward its goals, with emphasis on the buy-in that he would be seeking among stakeholders, and with better articulation of a program for actually achieving the plan's lofty goals.
Charles Foust is an indefatigable and knowledgeable person with numerous qualities indicating likelihood of success as an empathic listener, excellent communicator, successful administrator, and fervent actor in the cause of excellence and equity in education. He should be the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Scroll on down for my previous comments on the other candidates, and look for an expansion of this article in the next day or two. Sergio Paez demonstrates many of the compelling qualities manifested by Foust. Michael Goar, to whose candidacy I was inclined at the beginning of the interview process, has experience with the Minneapolis Public Schools and great knowledge of the community; but he was not able to articulate a compelling vision of excellence in his appearances during the process, and his answers to questions in any public setting were imprecise.
So, for now, I want my readers to look to my other articles for information on the other two finalists-- knowing that Charles Foust should be the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Dec 2, 2015
Important Upcoming Events Pertinent to the Selection of a New Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools
All of my readers please be aware that the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education is currently in the final stage of the selection process for the new Superintendent of MPS. The candidates who emerged as finalists are Michael Goar (now presiding as Interim Superintendent of MPS); Sergio Paez (former superintendent of public schools in Holyoke, Massachusetts--- and currently a consultant to the school district in Holyoke); and Charles Foust, an assistant superintendent focused on academic progress of middle school students in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District.
These candidates will be appearing today (Wednesday, 2 December 2015) from 6:30 until 8:30 PM at a community reception at Webster Elementary (located at 425 5th Street NE in Minneapolis) to meet and answer questions from parents, students, MPS teachers & staff, and other community members.
Tomorrow (Thursday, 3 December 2015) members of the MPS Board of Education will be interviewing the candidates at the central office building of MPS located at 1250 West Broadway. The interviews will take place between 8:30 AM and 2:30 PM, then there will be a Public Comment time at 5:30 PM for community members to express views as to the selection of the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- and only on this matter of selection of the new Superintendent.
Members of the school board will decide the matter of the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools on Monday, 7 December 2015.
Please scroll down for the many articles that I have recently posted giving my views on matters relevant to the future of the Minneapolis Public Schools and pertinent to the selection of the Superintendent of MPS, and be aware that some time after the interviews and public comments on Thursday, 3 December 2015, and before the school board makes its decision on Monday, 7 December 2015, I will post an article on this blog indicating my recommendation as to which candidate would best serve as the new Superintendent.
So please be aware of these important meetings, and of my forthcoming comments on selection of the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- and the reasoning behind my recommendation.
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