Ineffectiveness and Incompetence of the MPS Department of College and Career Readiness Provide Additional Impetus to Vote "No" on the MPS 8 November Referendum

The Department of College and Career Readiness is the bureaucratic sinecure at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) that nominally captures the current MPS slogan, “Every Student College or Career Ready”--- and features programming intended to abet the process of making declarative shibboleth match evidential reality.


In that goal, the failure of the Department of College and Career Readiness is stark. The department has 15 staff members, as follows:




Department of Career and College Readiness


1. Terry Henry, Executive Director


2. Colleen Kaibel, Account Specialist


3. Heidi Olson, WWYB Associate Educator


4. James (Jim) Bierma, District Q-Comp Counselor


5. Jennifer Ennen, Office Specialist


6. Jenni Yang, Gear Up Program Manager


7. Jodi Danielson, District My Life Plan Counselor


8. Kelsey Clark, District Middle School/ High Schools Counselor


9.  Jill Bjorklund, STEM/ CTE Project Coordinator


10. Michael (Mike) Ash, Account Specialist


11. Paul Klynn, Career Development Coordinator


12. Quyen Phan, ALC 9-12 Manager


13. Sara Etzel Director, CTE/ STEM


14. Tamala Washington-Green, Office Manager


15. Vanessa Moe JAG Coordinator




Note that the Department of College and Career Readiness has three (3) office support staff, typical bureaucratic overextension that stands out in high relief in a small department of just 15 staff members.


Given that the MPS Human Resources staff list features several people connected to Q-Comp (a failed attempt to bring merit pay to school districts of Minnesota), what exactly a Q-Comp person is doing ensconced in the Department of College and Career Readiness is one of the many murky mysteries in the bureaucratically bulimic central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Otherwise, the Department of College and Career Readiness presents the typical polyglot programming that is rampant at MPS. Given the low credibility of Davis Center (MPS central office) staff among people working at the school building level, the effectiveness of the Gear Up, JAG (a Junior Achievement initiative), and My Life Plan programs; and of central oversight concerning career development and secondary counseling; is very questionable.


The role of associate educators found in this and other MPS offices and departments is nebulous in the extreme. And positions connected to STEM and the ALCs (Alternative Learning Centers) are duplicative of positions found in other departments at the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Director Terry Henry has supervisory responsibility for staff members in the Department of College and Career Readiness who have been unsuccessful in ensuring that students are college and career ready. Quite the contrary, evidence from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), the Multiple Measurement Rating, and high school graduation rates demonstrates that Terry Henry and staff have not met the demands of the tautology implied by the name of the department and student outcomes.


Confucian reasoning includes a concept called “rectification of names.” In this department, there is no rectification: Confucius would not be pleased.


And the fact is that we have here a case of MPS officials, with the approval of the MPS board of Education, establishing a department to present the façade of action in the absence of action.


Ensuring college and career readiness will be achieved with the implementation of knowledge-intensive curriculum; rigorous and intentional training of teachers capable of implementing such a curriculum; tutoring to prepare every student to receive knowledge-intensive, college preparatory instruction; outreach to connect all families to a viable educational program and vision for futures of success; and bureaucratic paring so that resources may be directed to the first four areas of prime importance.


Implementing this five-point program would obviate the necessity of the Department of College and Career Readiness.


Indeed, Terry Henry and staff have already obviated their necessity via a record of ineffectiveness and incompetence.


This ineffectiveness and incompetence of the Department of College and Career Readiness at the central offices (Davis Center, 1250 West Broadway) of the Minneapolis Public Schools bolster the abundant evidence impelling citizens to vote on “No” on the MPS 8 November referendum.