As New Year 2017 Begins, Student Performance in the Minneapolis Public Schools Has Slimmer Prospects for Advancement Than at Any Previous Time in My Particularly Keen Period of Observation From June 2014 to the Present

Students in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) will see little progress in the year 2017 if key MPS officials remain in their current positions and if the prospective members of the MPS Board of Education as of 1 February 2017 do not emerge from the deep and comfortable pockets of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party/ Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.

 

There have been no significant improvements in teacher quality or student performance in the school district since I began, after many years of observing the policies, programs, and personnel of the school district, a particularly intense period of investigation from June 2014 until the present (as I write this article on the final day of December 2016).    

 

In June 2014, Bernadeia Johnson was still the superintendent, having instituted programs with considerable promise for raising the level of educational quality in the Minneapolis Public Schools.  Johnson had created the designation of High Priority Schools, in which student performance had for many years been particularly low, and she articulated policies that intensified efforts designed to promote skill acquisition of students in those schools.  Johnson had inaugurated Focused Instruction, according to which students at each grade level in all schools throughout the district would study the same academic subject (if this aspiration seems a no brainer, know that in the very strange world created by professors of education curricular consistency is actually derided).  And she had launched Shift, by which financial and human resources were to be concentrated close to the classroom and away from the central bureaucracy.

 

But Johnson lacked the physical stamina to advance her policies vigorously and resigned effective the first day of February 2015.  The Minneapolis Public Schools then languished through the tenure of Interim Superintendent Michael Goar from February 2015 through May 2016, coterminous with a misguided two-phase search for a new superintendent that resulted in the selection of the mediocre Ed Graff, whose school district of Anchorage, Alaska, evidenced no better academic performance than the Minneapolis Public Schools during his three years as superintendent---  and whose contract was not renewed by the Anchorage school board at the end of academic year 2015-2016.

 

As detailed in articles as you scroll on down this blog, the district of the Minneapolis Public Schools now has key departments and personnel who show little promise for bringing excellent education to the school district: 

 

>>>>>  Superintendent Ed Graff, Deputy Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin, Director of Teaching and Learning Macarre Traynham, and Focused Instruction point person Christina (Tina) Platt do not believe in knowledge-intensive education delivered broadly and deeply in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts;  they have been corrupted by the verbiage of education professors who deceive themselves and the teachers they train by vowing that critical thinking and lifelong learning can ensue in the absence of factual knowledge and without ever learning much in thirteen years of K-12 public education.

 

 

>>>>>    Neither Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement Michael Walker nor Director of Indian Education Anna Ross demonstrate any programmatic capability for addressing the poor academic performance of the students whose achievement is their special focus;  and Director of College and Career Readiness Terry Henry occupies an office in a school district wherein most students are neither college nor career ready.  

 

Remember now that the current membership of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education is as follows:

 

Current Membership of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education

 

District One     >>>>>        Jenny Arneson

 

District Two     >>>>>        Kim Ellison

 

District Three  >>>>>       Siad Ali

 

District  Four   >>>>>        Josh Reimnitz

 

District Five     >>>>>        Nelson Inz

 

District Six       >>>>>         Tracine Asberry

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Rebecca Gagnon

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Carla Bates

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Don Samuels

 

 

And then know that as a result of the 8 November 2016 election, the MPS Board of Education will consist of the following members: 

 

Membership of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education as of February 2017

 

District One     >>>>>        Jenny Arneson

 

District Two     >>>>>        Kerry Jo Felder

 

District Three  >>>>>       Siad Ali

 

District  Four   >>>>>        Bob Walser

 

District Five     >>>>>        Nelson Inz

 

District Six       >>>>>         Ira Jourdain

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Rebecca Gagnon

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Kim Ellison

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Don Samuels

 

 

The new school board that will take office as of 1 February 2017 will be a much less favorable assemblage than the current board.  Consider these important points toward an understanding of the current predicament of the Minneapolis Public Schools:

 

>>>>>    Carla Bates, Josh Reimnitz, and Tracine Asberry will be absent on the new board.  These are huge losses. 

Carla Bates has strong political connections to the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) but has demonstrated a propensity for independent thought and action and a deep concern for educational equity.

 

Josh Reimnitz won without DFL/ MFT endorsement in November 2012 but lost narrowly to Bob Walser (the DFL/ MFT endorsed candidate) in November 2016.  Reimnitz is a former participant in the Teach for America program who has a keen understanding of the need to upgrade teacher quality.

 

Tracine Asberry is an incisive questioner of profound moral courage who pushes district officials to account for the persistent lack of academic progress of MPS students in general and of students of color and those on free and reduced price lunch in particular.

 

>>>>>    On the current board, Rebecca Gagnon is astute as finance committee chair but is too deeply tied to the DFL/ MFT power brokers to be effective as an agent of change.

 

>>>>>    Kim Ellison presents a gentle, thoughtful demeanor, but she too is beholden to the DFL/ MFT and holds no promise as an agent of change.

 

>>>>>    Nelson Inz is the possessor of a sharp wit and current experience as a classroom teacher who understands the system as it is;  but he also is tied to the DFL/ MFT and gives evidence of doubting that genuine change is possible.

 

>>>>>    Damningly, Gagnon, Ellison, and Inz sought to oust colleagues Reimnitz and Asberry from their current positions;  all three actively recruited candidates to run against Reimnitz and Asberry, and Gagnon specifically endorsed Ira Jourdain against Asberry while Inz endorsed Bob Walser against Josh Reimnitz.

 

>>>>>    On the current board, Siad Ali is an effective representative of a heavily Somali district, but his own ties to the DFL/ MFT undermine any potential he might have as an agent of broad-based change.

 

>>>>>    Board Chair Jenny Arneson runs a good meeting and here and there articulates a concern for equity;  but she, too, is connected to the DFL/ MFT and too readily defends the current status quo mediocrity of teachers.   

 

 

>>>>>    Don Samuels is a member of the DFT, but he is a former Minneapolis City Council member and mayoral candidate who has aligned himself with the cause of education reform;  he is given to bombastic statements about the current crisis in education, so that he generates no support from either the DFL or MFT as a member of the board.

 

>>>>>    As Kim Ellison abandoned her old District 2 seat to run successfully At-Large, Kerry Jo Felder prevailed with a narrow victory in District 2 over Kim Caprini;  Caprini is the more thoughtful and broadly informed on matters pertinent to MPS of the two, but Felder’s candidacy was boosted by her DFL/ MFT endorsement.

 

………………………………………………………………………..

 

Thus, the weak MPS administration most saliently represented in the cases of Ed Graff, Susanne Griffin, Macarre Traynham, and Tina Platt;  the ineffectiveness of the programs overseen by Michael Walker, Anna Ross, and Terry Henry; and a new school board with eight members (all but Samuels) lodged deeply in the hip pockets of the DFL/ MFT will continue the status quo of mediocrity currently prevailing in the Minneapolis Public Schools in 2017.

 

I am detailing all of this in my three-part new book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospects, which will be complete by mid-February 2017.

 

 

Inadequte Administrative Changes and Unfavorable School Board Shifts at the Minneapolis Public Schools Will Mean That Our Students Will Still Be Receiving a Knowledge-Poor Education

If we are ever to overhaul K-12 education so as to achieve knowledge-intensive academic instruction, imparted by pedagogically skilled teachers of broad and deep knowledge, for all of our precious young people, we must undertake a rigorous analysis of those people and programs in place at the level of the locally centralized school district.

 

My own effort is to model in the New Salem Educational Initiative those features of K-12 education that should be extrapolated for application by the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS)---  then to induce decision-makers at MPS to make the required changes in personnel and curriculum that will be necessary to achieve educational excellence.

 

In reading the immediately prior article, my readers should be aware that the changes made recently by Superintendent Ed Graff do little but to reorganize staff composition and structure while leaving too many of those people and programs in place that have resulted in such low quality of education at the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

Most notably among those in place are Graff himself, who comes to MPS after an undistinguished tenure as Superintendent of the Anchorage (Alaska) Public Schools;  and Susanne Griffin, who has presided over a disastrous academic program at MPS during her three and a half years as Chief Academic Officer.  And understand also that Griffin hired Macarre Traynham as Director of Teaching and Learning while leaving Christina (Tina) Platt in her position as point person for Focused Instruction:

 

None of these four people are dedicated to the kind of knowledge-intensive education that we must have at the Minneapolis Public Schools;  and none understand the precise nature of the teacher training that we must have to produce teachers of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart a knowledge-intensive education to all students.

 

So if administrative staff and teachers currently on the payroll of the Minneapolis Public Schools are not adequate for making the needed transformation, is there hope for the needed leadership on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education?

 

As you peruse the following list, note that as a result of the election of 8 November 2016, Bob Walser will as of February 2017 replace Josh Reimnitz in District 4, Ira Jourdain will replace Tracine Asberry in District 6, and Kim Ellison will replace Carla Bates as a member At-Large, and Kerry Jo Felder will move into the District 2 position vacated by Kim Ellison when the latter opted to run for the At-Large seat previously held by Carla Bates.

 

As I will discuss in detail in my next article, none of these are favorable changes.  The loss of the retiring Carla Bates is a terrible blow, and this is even more true in the cases of Josh Reimnitz, who narrowly lost to Bob Walser, and for Tracine Asberry, who lost by a similarly slim margin to Ira Jourdain.  Kimberly Caprini also lost narrowly to Kerry Jo Felder, another case of the more capable candidate losing narrowly to her opponent.

 

Examine, then, these lists of current and newly elected membership of the MPS Board of Education, with my comments above in view, as you wait for my more detailed exploration of these changes as unfortunate in my next article:  

 

Current Membership of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education

 

District One     >>>>>        Jenny Areneson

 

District Two     >>>>>        Kim Ellison

 

District Three  >>>>>       Siad Ali

 

District  Four   >>>>>        Josh Reimnitz

 

District Five     >>>>>        Nelson Inz

 

District Six       >>>>>         Tracine Asberry

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Rebecca Gagnon

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Carla Bates

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Don Samuels

 

 

Membership of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education as of February 2017

 

District One     >>>>>        Jenny Arneson

 

District Two     >>>>>        Kerry Jo Felder

 

District Three  >>>>>       Siad Ali

 

District  Four   >>>>>        Bob Walser

 

District Five     >>>>>        Nelson Inz

 

District Six       >>>>>         Ira Jourdain

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Rebecca Gagnon

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Kim Ellison

 

At-Large           >>>>>        Don Samuels

Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff's Changes in Leadership Staff and Structure Cannot Succeed in the Absence of the Needed Shift in Educational Philosophy

In the course of his first few months on the job as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools  (MPS), Ed Graff reviewed the structure and composition of top leadership at MPS and by November 2016 was making a few notable changes. 

 

At the November monthly meeting of the MPS Board of Education, I first noticed that Chief Academic Officer Suzanne Griffin was not at the table of top leaders who generally line the west wall in the room at the Davis Center (1250 West Broadway, location of the central offices of MPS) during those meetings.  Ms. Griffin had for the three years of her tenure as Chief Academic Officer sat with the other key leaders, who for many months had included Michael Thomas (Chief of Schools), Ibrahim Diop (Chief Financial Officer), and Amy Moore (General Counsel).

 

The reason for Ms. Griffin’s absence, I found out in ensuing days, was that she had been downgraded to Deputy Chief Academic Officer.  At the same time, Michael Thomas was elevated to a position with the long title of Academics, Leadership & Learning, taking on additional responsibility for overall academic development of students and for clear communication of the academic program at MPS to administrative and teaching staff.

 

For several months, the positions of Chief of Operations and Chief of Staff had been left vacant via the departure of former occupants;  this remains the case with the Chief of Operations, but as of early November the Chief of Staff position was given to Suzanne Kelly.

 

These staff changes that have occurred during the opening months of Ed Graff’s tenure as MPS Superintendent are reflected in the list currently given on the MPS website under leadership.  According to the best information available to me, former Director of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability (REAA) Eric Moore has been upgraded to a position now identified as Chief of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability (REA).  Graff’s goal is to redesign the leadership system to emphasize the paramount importance of certain positions bearing the name “Chief” at the beginning of the title, the occupants of which will be Graff’s key advisers and policy implementers.

 

In articles to come, I will discuss the leadership positions given below and the occupants of those positions.  For now,

 

>>>>>    note that the most talented members of the leadership group given below are Michael Thomas , Eric Moore, Ibrahim Diop, and Fadi Hadhil;

 

 >>>>>   be aware that in forthcoming articles I will explain why the positions occupied by Stephen Flisk (Deputy Chief of Schools) and Suzanne Kelly (Chief of Staff) should be eliminated; 

 

>>>>>    and why Suzanne Griffin, though she possesses expertise in speech disorders and an understanding of other learning challenges that can be utilized by the Minneapolis Public Schools, is not suitable as an occupant of a position identified with responsibility for the design and implementation of the overall academic program of the school district.

 

Know also that Ed Graff is unlikely in the extreme to be the transformative superintendent needed to overall thoroughly the educational philosophy and academic redesign of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  The lack of a clear guiding educational philosophy for the Minneapolis Public Schools indeed will undercut any potential advantages that could come from the elevations of Michael Thomas and Eric Moore to enhanced positions of top leadership.

These are grave problems, so stay attentive to these identified in the above discussion as matters that I will discuss in more detail in looming articles.

 

In the meantime, with consideration of my notes on recent changes, do know that this is the current leadership given as of late December 2016 on the MPS website:         

 

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.

Chief of Academics, Leadership, & Learning  -----  Michael Thomas

The chief of academics, leadership and learning 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.

Deputy Chief of Schools  -----  Stephen Flisk

The deputy chief of schools supports 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.

Chief Operations Officer  -----  Vacant

The chief operations officer executes the operational priorities of the school district. The chief oversees key operational functions of the school district including instructional technology, facilities and operations.

Chief Financial Officer  -----  Ibrahim Diop

The chief financial officer leads the division of Finance, which is responsible for the overall fiscal management of the district. The chief provides leadership, direction and guidance in financial strategies and priorities. The Finance division umbrella includes Accounts Payable, Budget, Payroll, Purchasing, and Student Accounting Departments. Some of the responsibilities covered in these departments are monies for student-generated revenue, legislative allocations, budget accountability, annual budget tie-out process, fiscal auditing as well as grants management.

Deputy Chief Academic Officer Officer  -----  Susanne Griffin

The deputy chief academic officer oversees the academic division and implements the academic agenda to provide world-class education for all MPS students. Areas of focus include accelerated academic achievement for all students, shared accountability for student learning, professional development for teachers and principals and respectful and welcoming school environments.

Chief Information Officer  -----  Fadi Hadhil

The chief information officer is responsible for the Information Technology strategy, computer systems, infrastructure, operations and deploying solutions that align with the district goals and objectives. Areas of focus include innovative use of technology to enhance, accelerate and transform student learning and academic achievement.

General Counsel  -----  Amy Moore

The general counsel provides advice and counsel for the school board and MPS executive management on legal matters concerning the school district. The general counsel represents the school district in legal proceedings, litigation, court appearances, hearings and other disputes. The school district’s lead attorney also manages staff and contract attorneys and oversees policy development for the school district. The general counsel reports to the superintendent and school board.

Chief of Staff  -----  Suzanne Kelly

The chief of staff advises and supports the superintendent on day-to-day matters and creates a culture of high expectations that result in accelerated student achievement and improved school performance. The chief serves as a liaison between the superintendent and elected officials, stakeholders and MPS families.

Thoughts (with More Forthcoming) on Issues Related to the Superlative Contributions of Tracine Asberry as a Member of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education---- and the Ignominy of Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellison, and Nelson Inz

I have been on this planet for a long time, and along with a lot of other spectacles on my visual screen I have seen many a school board meeting.  Tracine Asberry is the best school board member whom I've ever witnessed. 

Director Asberry has relentlessly addressed the first, most fundamental goal facing decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), which is to deliver a quality of education at least high enough to have children of all demographic descriptors academically achieving at grade level.

To watch Asberry and Eric Moore interacting is as close to a thing of beauty as one could ever reasonably hope to see at a school board meeting.  Moore has until recently been MPS Director of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability;  as I understand the matter, he has now been elevated to the position of MPS Chief of Accountability.

 

But isn't it a sad statement that if we just got students to grade level in math and reading we'd be leaping in the aisles?  What about true excellence with the implementation of a knowledge-intensive curriculum across all grade levels in all classrooms throughout the K-12 years---  with a genuinely excellent teacher in each and every classroom? 

I may go to my grave in the effort to make that happen, but I am as resolute about waging that struggle while I still roam the earth as were Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Mohandas Gandhi, A. Philip Randolph, Martin & Malcolm, Gloria Steinhem, and Cesar Chavez about the causes for which they committed their lives (and in the case of Steinhem the cause for which she is still committed).

The delivery of truly excellent education to all of our precious children is the goal for all who understand the nature of the Second Stage of the Civil Rights Movement, the foundation on which everything else depends.

It has been my honor to have witnessed Tracine Asberry in action.

Asberry's courage and tenacity won her the enmity of leaders at the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, who turn DFL legislators and many school board aspirants into sycophants.  I have checked and cross-checked sources that say that MPS Board of Education current members Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellison, and Nelson Inz supported the DFL-MFT establishment types against Director Asberry and against Director Josh Reimnitz in the recent school board election of 8 November.

Thus have the latter three earned themselves a position of ignominy to be recorded in my nearly complete book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, in my Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis Public Schools, and on my television show, The K-12 Revolution with Dr. Gary Marvin Davison.

Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellison, and Nelson Inz have much for which they should be ashamed.  In time I will explain how what they represent goes to the core of what is wrong with the insidious DFL-MFT endorsement process, and the nature of the cowardice and disregard for the students of the Minneapolis Public Schools that that system and these three lackeys represent.

In the meantime, let us laud Tracine Asberry for her courage and celebrate her during her last two appearances for awhile, those at the meetings of MPS Board of Education, this coming Tuesday, 13 December, and then the Tuesday of 10 January 2017.

Tracine Asberry is very likely one of the ten best school board members to found in these less than United States. 

She is not replaceable in her current position---  but she will exercise her talents in behalf of the young people about whom she cares deeply anywhere she goes. 

Conventional Training for Secondary (Grades 6-12) Teachers is Only a LIttle Better Than That for Teachers at Grades K-5

The requirement that aspiring middle school and high school teachers major in a subject such as history, economics, biology, English, mathematics, music, drama, or visual art is imposed by most colleges and universities.  There are some programs that do allow for such teacher aspirants to major in secondary education, with a concentration in social studies, English, science, or the fine arts;  in these cases, the training in the relevant discipline is not rigorous, and more courses of a pedagogical nature are taken in the department, school, or college of education.

 

The latter circumstance should never be allowed by the Minneapolis Public Schools or any school district that takes teacher training seriously.  The more common requirement for a major in a legitimate discipline is sound and a mere starting point in a robust program of teacher training.

 

In addition to taking courses leading to a bachelor’s degree (B. A. or B. S.) in a solid discipline, aspiring secondary teachers also typically must take certain courses from professors of education.  There is a certain similarity in the required courses for elementary and secondary aspirants, with both taking courses such as Educational Psychology, Diversity and Education, Theory to Practice, Schools and Society, and Exceptionality.  A key difference is that those training to become secondary teachers take a course in Teaching Literacy in the Secondary School, while those preparing to be elementary teachers additionally take courses in Teaching Social Studies [Mathematics, Science] in the Elementary School.

 

The required education courses are similar from institution to institution.  Elementary level aspirants at the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development take courses called Social Studies [Language Arts, Mathematics, Science] Instruction in the Elementary Grades that parallel those given, for example, at Hamline University.  Courses at the University of Minnesota also include Schools and Society and those that incorporate matters of educational psychology, exceptionality [individual differences], and diversity.  For both elementary and secondary teaching aspirants, a semester of student teaching is required, and courses include additional hours in the field, visiting and assisting in classrooms.

 

For people matriculating at the University of Minnesota, those aspiring to be high school teachers first get a bachelor’s degree in a major disciplinary field such as math, biology, physics, anthropology, or English.  Then, upon graduating, students must enter the master’s degree program, which runs three semesters in duration.  The first two semesters feature coursework with a mostly pedagogic emphasis.  The third semester finds the prospective teacher in a fulltime internship (practice teaching), taking just a course or two (typically online).  Upon successfully completing this program, the person is granted both a master’s of education (M. Ed.) degree and a teaching license.

 

Such a master’s degree should never be accepted by the Minneapolis Public Schools.  This sort of master’s degree is what C. Emily Feistreitzer (CEO of the National Center for Education Information) has called a “cash cow” for universities:  Students pay thousands of dollars for these easily earned master’s degrees, notably lacking in rigor but gaining a bump up the “lane” portion of the traditional “step and lane” system of teacher remuneration (“step” for each year of experience;  “lane” for additional graduate hours or degree).

 

Thus, unlike the situation pertinent to teacher training for Grade K-5 teacher aspirants, the traditional program for those proposing to teach at Grades 6-8 or Grades 9-12 has aspects suitable for the requirements of the program presented herein for teachers at the middle school and high school levels.  But for a Minneapolis Public Schools teacher in a revolutionized program of excellent K-12 education, those suitable aspects are insufficient and must be incorporated into fully realized training capable of producing the level of professional whom we should want to preside in a classroom where our precious children await the education denied to them for so long.

 

Understanding Why Our K-5 Teachers are So Abominably Trained--- and Comprehending the Flawed Conceptualization of Our Middle Schools

The high schools of the Minneapolis Public Schools are lousy, but K-5 and middle schools face certain systemic challenges pertinent to  teacher training and conceptualization that make the chances of attaining an acceptable quality of knowledge-intensive education at those levels particularly remote.     

Here's why:

The Currently Abysmal Training of Prospective Teachers for Grades K-5

    

There is a rough similarity among the major teacher preparation programs offered by colleges and universities in the Twin Cities.  Programs that train large contingents of prospective teachers include the University of Minnesota/ Twin Cities, Augsburg College, and the Universities of Concordia, Hamline, St. Catherine, and St. Thomas.  At most of these institutions, prospective Grades K-5 teachers major in elementary education.  Hamline is unique among the metro area institutions offering teacher preparation programs in requiring its aspiring Grades K-5 teachers to get a degree in a discipline other than education. 

 

At Hamline, both prospective Grades K-5 and Grades 6-12 teachers get majors in subjects such as economics, psychology, chemistry, math, or English literature while also getting a co-major in education.  Required education courses for Grades K-5 teachers at Hamline include Educational Psychology, Diversity and Education, Theory to Practice, Schools and Society, and Exceptionality.  Teachers aspiring to teach Grades K-5 additionally take courses in Teaching Social Studies [Mathematics, Science] in the Elementary School.  In the other institutions, any route similar to the one pursued at Hamline would come through the attainment of a double major, but this is not required.  

 

With regard to education courses, though, there is great similarity in the various teacher training programs.  Grades K-5 teacher aspirants at the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development, for example, take courses called Social Studies [Language Arts, Mathematics, Science] Instruction in the Elementary Grades that parallel those given for Hamline.  Courses at the University of Minnesota also include Schools and Society and those that incorporate matters of educational psychology, exceptionality [individual differences], and diversity.  Teaching aspirants for Grades K-5 and Grades 6-12 both observe a semester of required student teaching, and in the course of their programs they spend additional hours in the field, visiting and assisting in classrooms.

 

Students at the University of Minnesota who aspire to teach, both at Grades K-5 and Grades 6-12, must get a master’s degree.  Students in the college of education typically do their coursework during the summer and fall terms;  they student teach in the spring, also taking two education courses online.  The route to the Masters of Education degree takes just three semesters.

 

Once the college or university certification program is complete, prospective teachers must take exams that include a basic skills exam, a content-focused pedagogic exam, and a mathematics exam.  Upon passing these exams, licensure is granted.  The license is permanent, given the teacher’s ongoing demonstration of professional development through certified participation in teacher-in-service days, workshops, conferences, and the like;  and with the option to pursue an advanced degree, typically a Masters of Education in teaching elementary education (remembering that a master’s degree is embedded in the program leading to teacher certification via the schedule of courses at the University of Minnesota).

 

                                ………………………………………………………………………………………….....................

Nothing in this training is designed to prepare scholars with a broad and deep knowledge of substantial liberal arts content matter in the subjects of mathematics, natural science, history, literature, and the fine arts.  Education professors cling to the constructivist creed that includes the notion of teacher as “facilitator.”  They also spout slogans such as “lifelong learning” and “critical thinking” that are consistent with the notion that education is about inspiring a student to engage in personal exploration, reflecting and commenting critically on select topics, and settling in for a lifetime in which any desired factual information can be looked up as the occasion requires.

 

This is vapid training of the worst sort, a smokescreen for intellectual laziness and professional procrastination.  Teachers rarely follow up in challenging students to “think critically.”  Indeed, students are hard-pressed to think critically when they have such a slim knowledge base on which to analyze subjects and engage in robust discussion.  And there is little to suggest that students in our current K-5 schools have much ambition for lifelong learning when they haven’t been taught to respect knowledge, and when their fundamental skills are so underdeveloped.  Teachers maintain an illusion of themselves as “facilitators” when in fact they facilitate very little except the maintenance of a status quo that gives our students very little to show for thirteen (13) years in the classroom.

 

The Advent of the “Middle School”

This transition began in the middle reaches of the 20^th century and accelerated during the 1960s and 1970s.  As the student population grew, and as Grade K (kindergarten) became more of an exercised option, decision-makers in many school districts across the nation moved Grade 6 into the junior high with Grade 7 and Grade 8.  Either by changing the name, or putting the designation on a new building, those making decisions increasingly opted for the appellation of “middle school,” rather than “junior high school.”

 

And these changes coincided with an ideological movement among educators and those who took some sort of elevated interest in public education.  By that time, there was a burgeoning “Middle School Movement” that was an offshoot of the so-called “progressive” approach to education that envisions many purposes of education aside from the impartation of knowledge from teacher to student.  The progressive creed that had taken hold at departments, colleges, and schools of education values process of delivery and the manner of information acquisition over the systematic dispensation of knowledge from teacher to student;  the constructivist approach, which is a subset of the progressive creed, eventually came into particular favor among professors of education.

 

Thus it was that standards had already been lowered by the 1970s, when the Middle School Movement took off.  People who belonged to the National Middle School Association took the lead in this movement, the adherents of which argued that the main task of educators in the middle school context was to assist students in developing socialization skills and negotiating the emotions and physical changes of early adolescence.  By the early 1980s, this movement was taking hold among decision-makers in locally centralized school districts, and by the early 1990s the notion of middle school purpose as socialization dominated the thought of middle school public educators. 

 

The rise of the middle school was accompanied by an increasingly popular theory holding that human brain development plateaus during ages 12-14, and that the brain at this point should not be overburdened with a lot of new information.  By the early to middle 1990s this theory had been thoroughly debunked by the preponderance of neuroscientific evidence, but its popularity did not abate among middle school educators.  Thus, for two decades, students had undergone a boring and unchallenging middle school education, impelling many parents to move students into suburban, private, and charter schools in search of more rigor (rarely finding it in charter schools).

 

The standards movement that inspired No Child Left Behind legislation undercut the socialization-as-purpose premise, but middle school education has not recovered from the errant curricular approach of the Middle School Movement.