Michael Walker is a Talented Youth Worker, But His Approach in the Office of Black Male Achievement is Ineffective and Deeply Flawed >>>>> Another Reason to Vote "No" on the MPS 8 November Referendum

As you scroll on down this blog, you will read many articles arguing for a "No" vote on the 8 November referendum of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) seeking renewal of the current tax levy that would yield $74 million in the current academic year of 2016-2017, constituting 13% of an operations  budget total of about $580 million---  and keep such funding in place for anther nine-year period.


My message is that officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools need a wake-up call that will jerk them into a sense of urgency for addressing the many unsatisfactory features of the current MPS approach, involving matters of curriculum, teacher quality, academic remediation (tutoring), family and community outreach, and bureaucratic paring.


In the article immediately below as you scroll on down the blog, you'll witness an admission on the part of MPS officials that there is no coherent approach to tutoring and no single individual with responsibility for administering tutoring programs.


The lack of such tutorial cohesion is calamitous, impeding elevation of academic performance in a school district in which fewer than 46% of students achieve at grade level.


Now consider this question that I recently posed for response by personnel in the Office of Black Male Achievement >>>>>


>>>>>  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.






The confirmation of my supposition was, unfortunately, given in this reply from the Office of Black Male Achievement  >>>>>


The graduation data reported by MinnPost [which cited a slight rise in grade point averages (still languishing in the low "C" range) for participating students but with no reference to MCA testing data] is the only metric that we can presently provide. However, what Michael [Walker] would point out is that we are not solely focused on the math and reading scores, we are focused on racial identity, which directly correlates to academic self-concept of students. As they move through their journey and along the continuum, their academic self-concept increases which will mean higher GPAs. And we’re only 2 years into the program, so it’s early to have produced those kinds of outcomes.


Office of Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker is an extremely adroit youth worker, assigned to head this office that was initiated in 2014.  But two years into the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan, which forecasts an annual rise of 8 percentage points in the academic performance (linked to scores on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments [MCAs]) for underachieving students, no such improvement has occurred.  And, as observe in the following data, for African American males achievement has actually declined    >>>>>




Percentage of Students Recording
Grade Level Performance on MCAs:


Disaggregated Data for Academic Years
Ending in 2014, 2015, and 2016


                   
Math                 


                                                           


African American                  2014       2015      2016 




Male                                         20.8%    22.0%    19.1%




Female                                     21.2%    20.7%     20.5%


Reading                 


                                                           


African American                  2014       2015      2016 




Male                                        18.8%     18.5%   18.2%


Female                                     24.0%     24.5%   23.4%




Thus do we arrive at the year 2016 with African American male academic performance on the decline, with below 23% achieving at grade level for mathematics and reading considered together.


Michael Walker's program at present involves cultural identity consciousness raising for 175 students, with plans for system-wide expansion.  But that system-wide implementation should have already occurred, if the program is to be effective in achieving the goals of the 2020 Plan.  More seriously, the current plan actually has no chance of succeeding in academic terms:  Improvement in cultural self-concept will not alone raise achievement to grade level;  such improvement will only occur with an explicit program of tutorial assistance for the acquisition of the requisite mathematics and reading skills.  


In the failure to implement a program that would meet the goals of the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan and actually raise the achievement of African American males, we witness another example of  ineptitude piled on ineptitude at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Record your disgust at the inability of officials at MPS to address any of the most critical needs of the students they have in their trust   >>>>>


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