A Telling Lack of Response from Nan Miller at Minneapolis Public Schools Data Requests--- with Many Additional Implicit Reasons to Vote "No" on the 8 November Referendum

On 13 October 2016 I submitted the request given below to Nan Miller and Data Requests personnel at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  No answer has been forthcoming as of the posting of this article on this blog on the late evening of 26 October 2016.


While I would be happy to have viable responses, the questions were framed in such a way as to
surmise the following:


>>>>>    Tutoring, vitally needed for students in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) who are calamitously functioning below grade level in reading and mathematics, is abominably disarticulated at MPS, not clearly accounted for in the budget, and without any single person designated for responsibility in coordinating the various inadequate efforts.


>>>>>     Outreach to struggling families of students---  so as to provide counseling, resource referral, and adjustment of life circumstances in ways vital to the academic performance of young people from families of poverty and frequent dysfunction---  is unacceptably understaffed and far down on the list of MPS priorities.


>>>>>     With the academic performance of African American males the single most prominent of many blemishes on the academic record at MPS, there still is no report extant on the progress that Michael Walker (Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement at MPS since 2014) is making addressing the pertinent issues.  Mr. Walker is a talented youth worker, but whether his talents are being fully utilized is very much in doubt, given that academic performance of African American males on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) has actually declined since 2014, with two years of the six-year Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan having already passed.


Given these observations, and assuming that my surmises are correct, this ineptitude on the part of officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools becomes part of an accumulating case for delivering a wake-up call with a "No" vote on the 8 November referendum issue.


Here is the communication of reference >>>>>



October 13, 2016


Data Requests Personnel, Nan Miller, and Pertinent Officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools---


I seek in this request confirmation for answers to questions for which I have tentatively surmised the prevailing essential facts.


The questions are these:


1) Is there a total figure that can be identified in the current budget of the Minneapolis Public Schools for all tutoring programs?


Surmised answer >>>>>


No.


We have no idea how much is spent as an aggregate figure on the various tutoring initiatives at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Please confirm or provide the relevant figure.


2) Is there a total figure that can be identified in the current budget of the Minneapolis Public Schools for all efforts to reach out to families of students facing major challenges of poverty or familial functionality?


Surmised answer >>>>>


No.


We have no idea how much is spent as an aggregate figure on such initiatives at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Please confirm or provide the relevant figure.


3) Is there any one person at the Minneapolis Public Schools whose responsibility is to coordinate and provide cohesion to the multiple tutoring programs?


Surmised answer >>>>>


No.


We have no one with this responsibility.


Please confirm or provide the name of the person.


4) Beyond what can be extrapolated from MCA and MMR data, has any report thus far been issued as to the effectiveness of Michael Walker's program at the Office of Black Male Achievement in raising the academic performance of African American males in mathematics and reading?


Surmised answer >>>>>


No.


No such report has been issued.


Please confirm or provide the report.


I am leaning toward advocating rejection of the current referendum, for which my discernment of answers to these questions weighs heavily. If I have not gotten responses from you by the morning of Tuesday, 18 October, I will assume that my tentative suppositions are correct.


I will very much appreciate your provision of answers to these questions, so that my recommendations may be as well informed with factual material as possible.


With best regards---


Gary


Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.
Director, New Salem Educational Initiative
(Cell) ~~~~~  (provided in the above communication, omitted on blog)



The lack of response to this request and to these questions---  especially assuming that my surmises are correct---  become part of the mounting case to


Vote "No" on the 8 November referendum of the Minneapolis Public Schools.