An (Unfavorable) Evaluation of Ed Graff's Prospects as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools

Ed Graff is Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, earning a salary of $225,000 annually.


In a portal of the website of the Minneapolis Public Schools that cites the duties of staff members in leadership positions, the description of the fundamental responsibilities of MPS Superintendent (Ed Graff, as of 1 July 2016) goes as follows  >>>>>


Superintendent Ed Graff


>>>>>    The superintendent of schools is responsible for leading all functions and processes for the school district. The superintendent is charged with working with all internal and external stakeholders to implement and execute core strategies that produce results across the school district. The superintendent sets the academic priorities of the school district and serves as the primary decision-maker and spokesperson for Minneapolis Public Schools.


I have compiled from various sources this brief-form curriculum vitae or resume of the new superintendent   >>>>>



Superintendent Ed Graff




Academic Credentials


Post-Master's Degree work in curriculum, educational leadership, and instruction


Master's Degree in Educational Administration, University of Southern Mississippi


Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education, University of Alaska Anchorage


Experience


2013 - Spring 2016  Superintendent of the Anchorage School District (ASD) in Alaska


1991 - 2013    Various positions in the ASD, including the following;


                                       ASD Chief Academic Officer
                                       ASD Chief Academic Officer                        
                                       elementary school principal
                                       elementary school teacher


Evaluation


The strength of Ed Graff's qualifications as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools lies in his experience at all major positions typical of the locally centralized school district:  teacher, principal, and central office positions leading to superintendent.


According to those who visited Anchorage when Graff became a finalist for the superintendent position in Minneapolis, he had many supporters in that city and district who considered him to be an approachable and dedicated educator.


Cited prominently in the bio-sketch provided by Graff when he became a candidate for the Minneapolis position was his having received (earlier in this year of 2016) the Exemplary Social and Emotional Learning Award from the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, "demonstrating Mr. Graff's leadership and vision for Social and Emotional Learning."


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There are many factors, though, that do not augur well for Graff becoming the transformative superintendent needed at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Many of these factors lie in his apparent strengths. 


Here I provide a brief version of observations that I have often detailed in multiple articles on this blog:


Before the long and sluggardly search for a superintendent began, I counseled members of the MPS Public Schools Board of Education to go in-house, as the board had done in the case of Bernadeia Johnson---  the best MPS Superintendent I have witnessed during my 34 years in Minnesota. 


I told the school board directors that the system producing superintendents does not result in many able candidates, that political or personal struggles tend to limit their tenure to 3 to 5 years, and that the most important task for this particular school board was to identify those within the existing Bernadeia Johnson administration who could pursue her promising initiatives, dubbed Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction.


And indeed, the laborious, error-laden, 17-month odyssey that was the superintendent search featured only one candidate truly above the norm;  failing to grasp that opportunity, the board moved forward on an ungainly course that culminated in this very conventional candidate-become-superintendent, Ed Graff.


Consider:


>>>>>     Social and Emotional Learning is one of those feel-good approaches offered by education professors, the latest iteration of many such schemes promoted in the absence of any reference to academic skills and knowledge.


>>>>>     Like most people trained for educational administration, Graff's university training lacks much substantial training in legitimate subject area disciplines (i.e., mathematics, chemistry, history, English literature, drama).


>>>>>    When I questioned Graff multiple times as to his educational philosophy, he declined to give a clear answer;  what can be gleaned from his comments suggests strongly that he believes that development of the "whole child" does not necessitate the establishment of specific knowledge and skill sets as the goal toward with social and emotional learning leads.


>>>>>    Similarly, what can be gleaned thus far from Graff's comments at various meetings and gatherings strongly suggests that he is not inclined to oversee the establishment of the kind of comprehensive, cohesive approach to tutoring that our academically lagging students must have to achieve grade level performance.


>>>>>   Nor does Graff grasp the need for curriculum overhaul, teacher retraining, extensive family and community outreach, or central bureaucratic paring that (along with well-articulated tutoring ) are among the five most needed initiatives in a program designed to achieve excellence in K-12 education.  


>>>>>   The Anchorage school board elected not to renew Graff's contract when his three-year stint came to a close in spring 2016;  he left behind him academic achievement levels (see the Anchorage School District website) as low as, very similar to, those now prevailing in the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Graff's contract became effective on 1 July 2016 and will last for three years. 


The prospects for these three years are


>>>>>   that the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) will continue their vitiation as  measurement tools as various forces continue to mount opposition to these well-constructed assessments in the absence of any clear alternative;


>>>>>   that the only goal in the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan for which there will be any kind of progress will be improved graduate rates---  not due to academic progress but rather to the "multiple pathway" approach that will proceed in an atmosphere of diminishing academic rigor.


>>>>>   and that the Graff response, consistent with an education establishment that is always moving the target so as to forestall and explain away the lack of any academic progress, will be essentially, "but hey, I said that academics is not our only goal here---  because we are concerned for the whole child."


Thus it will be, come 2019, that people will again wring their hands and profess not to understand why we are as stuck as the proverbial tire spinning in the proverbial mud.


One-third of our students who attempt college and university matriculation will continue to need remedial instruction, even if they are among the 50% or so who actually graduate.


Very few of our students will carry knowledge and skill sets into the world as culturally enriched, civically prepared, professionally promising citizens.  Most will not give evidence of the Minneapolis Public Schools claim, "every student college and career ready."


After his three-year tenure, Graff will pack away his $700,000 or so (the accumulation of his $225,000 or more per year salary, perks, and adjustments), head for other school district terrain, and leave the mission of providing excellent education to all of our precious children abominably and immorally unfulfilled.


This will all happen, that is if you and I do not act ever more vigorously to promote an education of excellence at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


I'm all in.


How about you?