Chief of Schools Michael Thomas is a Potential Candidate as the Next MPS Superintendent But Owes the Public a Number of Explanations

Michael Thomas is Chief of Schools at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), earning a salary of $151,000 annually.


A portal at the MPS website describes the responsibilities of Chief of Schools as follows  >>>>>


Chief of Schools Michael Thomas
The chief of schools manages operational connections to support associate superintendents, principals and teaching staff in accelerating student achievement and overall school improvement that is aligned to the core values and academic goals of Acceleration 2020.


Mr. Thomas's academic credentials, provided to me upon request, are given as follows  >>>>>




Michael Thomas, Chief of Schools


Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, University of St. Thomas (anticipated)
Superintendent and Administrative Licensures, University of St. Thomas


MSW, University of Minnesota


B.A.: Social Work, University of St. Thomas


An examination of Michael Thomas's job description and academic credentials impel me toward the following comments:


The prime function of the six associate superintendents (Celia Saddler, Jackie Hanson, Paul Marietta, Ron Wagner, Laura Cavender, and Lucilla Davila [Yira]) who work under Mr. Thomas's supervision is to support building principals (75 in number, including those heading 60 conventional elementary, middle, and high schools;  and 15 heading other, nonconventional schools).  "Support" effectively means to retrain principals who gained certification and degrees in one of the wretched departments, schools, or colleges of education that produce almost all of our teachers and administrators.  The associate superintendents each receive $141,500 annually;  this yields a figure of $849,000 for all of the associate superintendents and combined with Mr. Thomas's salary of $151,000 totals exactly $1,000,000.


That is a lot of money to spend in frank recognition that principals are so poorly trained in the first place:


Sixteen additional teachers or thirty-two teachers aides, for example, could be hired to provide classroom instruction to students;  well-trained teachers' aides working assiduously to remediate skill deficits for students functioning below grade level would be of enormous value in addressing the most immediate needs of students.


That $1,000,000 might be worth the price, though, if student outcomes had improved over the course of the last several years. 


But the academic performance of students in the Minneapolis Public Schools is abysmal:


The MPS Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan promises a growth of five (5) percentage points in overall student achievement and a growth of eight (8) percentage points for lowest performing students.  The plan took effect at the onset of the 2014-2015 academic year and runs through the 2019-2020 academic year.  But two years into the plan, MPS student scores on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) are essentially flat, and fewer than 28% of African American (both those speaking and those not speaking English at home), American Indian, and Hispanic students are meeting grade level standards.


The 2020 Plan focuses on six goals:  improved student outcomes;  equity;  family and community partnerships;  effective teachers, school leaders, and staff;  stewardship;  and resources for students and schools.  Stewardship refers to overall wise use of funds;  resources for students and schools
promises budget prioritization for use of funds at the level of the classroom and other areas with direct impact on students. 


But with reference to those six goals, student outcomes have not improved, and as long as that is true there cannot be equity;  in the absence of equity and academic excellence there is logically a lack of effective teachers, school leaders, and staff and a failure to utilize family and community partnerships so as to improved student academic performance; and failure to meet any of these four goals means that stewardship has fallen far short and resources for students and schools have not been utilized effectively where they are most needed.


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If, as Chief of Schools, Michael Thomas is supposed to manage "operational connections to support associate superintendents, principals and teaching staff in accelerating student achievement and overall school improvement that is aligned to the core values and academic goals of Acceleration 2020," he has a great deal of explaining to do.  If students in the Minneapolis Pubic Schools are faltering and Mr. Thomas is Chief of Schools, he is heavily implicated in the failure.  If none of the six goals of the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan are gaining attainment, he bears major responsibility, along with Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin.


And yet Michael Thomas in my observation understands that neither teachers nor principals come to the Minneapolis Public Schools with the training they need to provide an education of excellence.  Understanding that fact is the first step in doing something about it.  My observation is that the associate superintendents understand the same reality and go forth at Mr. Thomas's direction to improve the situation, specifically in the case of the building principals.  They are making an assiduous effort to guide principals toward what they understand to be effective strategies for addressing skill deficiencies in mathematics and reading.  The efforts are not yielding results, but the associate superintendents are trying hard.


Mr. Thomas also gives evidence of being an effective public presence:


When half a decade ago the Minneapolis Foundation was touting its RESET campaign (for what evidentially proved a failed effort to induce reform in K-12 education), Mr. Thomas was the good soldier sent forth by Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson to mount an articulate army of words in defense of the indefensible:  the implementation of strategies at the Minneapolis Public Schools for achieving academic excellence. (Note: There were in fact viable strategies in Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction, but the energy and organization behind the strategies were insufficient;  the failure was in the ultimately paramount matter of implementation.).


And in the aftermath of the superintendent search debacle, when an awkward few weeks ensued after Interim Superintendent Michael Goar resigned and new Superintendent Ed Graff's term began, Michael Thomas became for that brief interlude the Interim Superintendent.    He presided over meetings with considerable grace, eloquence, and efficiency---  and handled several dicey personnel issues with aplomb.


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Given his recognition of key problems, genuine efforts to address those problems, and leadership qualities germane to the role of public schools superintendent, Michael Thomas deserves consideration as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools in the aftermath of Ed Graff's likely failure.


Thomas should be thinking hard and getting good advice.  He should strongly consider the five most critical points (curriculum overhaul, teacher retraining, effective tutoring, family outreach, and bureaucratic paring) pertinent to a program for the needed transformation of the Minneapolis Public Schools. 


He needs that advice:


Thomas's academic training is not impressive.  His bachelor's and master's degrees are both in social work, an admirable but not academically rigorous field of study (students often flock to social work when they have failed in other majors);  and his training otherwise is of the sort that produces unprepared and frequently inept teachers, principals, and superintendents.  Thomas should read everything ever written by E. D. Hirsch (founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation), internalize the need for knowledge intensity, and consult with those who can envision for him how to implement the five-point program for making the Minneapolis Public Schools a model for K-12 education.


In my observation, Michael Thomas is the most promising candidate as the superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, unless Houston (Texas) Independent School District turnaround specialist Charles Foust could be induced to give MPS another chance.


But Thomas carries a lot of baggage over many years of student failure in the Minneapolis Public Schools.


He needs to study hard, consult heavily, find his way toward the knowledge-intensive approach to education.  He'll have to commit himself to a program of retraining of teachers and principals that prepares them thoroughly before they ever inhabit classrooms or school buildings (thus replacing the current conscientious but ineffective and expensive efforts of the associate superintendents).


Michael Thomas has potential to be the leader needed to superintend the overhaul of the Minneapolis Public Schools.


But he's got


studying,


consultation,


and


explaining


to do.