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.