On this evening of 10 January 2017 those of you attending the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will be confronted with a brutal reality.
Three new members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will take the positions to which they were elected on 8 November 2016.
>>>>> Ira Jourdain will replace Tracine Asberry as the board member from District 6.
>>>>> Bob Walser will replace Josh Reimnitz as the board member from District 4.
>>>>> Kerry Jo Felder will replace Kim Ellison as the board member from District 2.
Also note that
>>>>> Kim Ellison will replace Carla Bates as one of the three At-Large members of the board;
she ran for the seat vacated by Bates, who did not seek reelection.
Hence, until this evening those of you who have attended school board meetings have observed the following members at the monthly assemblages:
School
Board Members:
Jenny Arneson, Chair (District 1)
Kim Ellison, Vice Chair (District 2)
Rebecca Gagnon, Treasurer (At-Large)
Josh Reimnitz, Clerk (District 4)
Directors:
Siad Ali (District 3)
Tracine Asberry
(District 6)
Carla Bates (At Large)
Nelson Inz (District 5)
Don Samuels (At-Large)
Now, for at least two years, barring any resignations or unexpected events, you will be witnessing these individuals in action at the monthly meetings:
School
Board Members:
Siad Ali (District 3)
Jenny Arneson (District 1)
Kim Ellison (At-Large)
Kerry Jo Felder (District 2)
Rebecca Gagnon (At-Large)
Nelson Inz (District 5)
Ira Jourdain (District 6)
Don Samuels (At-Large)
Bob Walser (District 4)
Now understand these elements of a brutal reality as you peer at the current school board membership seated on either side of new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools Ed Graff on this very evening of 10 January 2017:
>>>>> Ed Graff is a mediocre product of those wretched education professors who churn out similarly philosophically corrupted superintendents throughout the United States; the school board of Anchorage, Alaska, did not renew Graff's contract after three years of a tenure that produced results similar to these that now prevail in the Minneapolis Public Schools:
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%
African (Somali, Ethiopian, Liberian---
(late 20th/early 21st century immigrant populations)
2014 2015 2016
Male 24.2% 25.0% 23.6%
Female 24.1% 25.9% 21.5%
Hispanic 2014 2015 2016
Male 32.1% 33.5% 32.1%
Female 29.4% 30.3% 30.4.%
Native American/ 2014 2015 2016
American Indian
Male 19.9% 16.5% 16.0%
Female 25.0% 21.9% 21.3%
Asian 2014 2015 2016
Male 44.1% 47.4% 45.4%
Female 51.3% 53.4% 54.1%
White/ Caucasian 2014 2015 2016
Male 76.7% 78.4% 77.4%
Female 77.0% 77.9% 78.4%
All Students 2014 2015 2016
Male 43.1% 44.3% 42.9%
Female 43.9% 44.5% 44.4%
Percentage of Students Recording Grade Level Performance on MCAs:
Disaggregated Data for Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, and 2016
Reading
African American 2014 2015 2016
Male 18.8% 18.5% 18.2%
Female 24.0% 24.5% 23.4%
African (Somali, Ethiopian, Liberian---
late 20th/early 21st century immigrant populations)
2014 2015 2016
Male 18.8% 19.3% 20.4%
Female 27.6% 24.3% 23.2%
Hispanic 2014 2015 2016
Male 22.0% 22.9% 24.7%
Female 24.5% 26.6% 27.6%
Native American/ 2014 2015 2016
American Indian
Male 18.3% 13.9% 15.3%
Female 23.6% 26.1% 25.9%
Asian 2014 2015 2016
Male 36.0% 35.8% 38.8%
Female 44.7% 44.1% 50.6%
White/ Caucasian 2014 2015 2016
Male 75.3% 74.3% 74.0%
Female 81.0% 80.2% 80.0%
All Students 2014 2015 2016
Male 39.2% 38.7% 39.6%
Female 45.3% 45.1% 45.8%
Graff's main philosophical emphasis is on social and emotional learning, which he will use to try to distract observers from the brutal facts of student academic achievement given in the above table of results from spring 2016.
>>>>> Ira Jourdain and Bob Walser, in replacing Tracine Asberry and Josh Reimnitz, will be tools of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL)/ Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) establishment that impedes any genuine movement for change and used funding and organizational clout to defeat Asberry and Reimnitz.
>>>>> Kerry Jo Felder presents herself as an advocate for students of color and has an irascibility and edginess that offer some promise; but she, too, was endorsed by the DFL/ MFT establishment in narrowly defeating Kimberly Caprini and would have to risk defeat four years from now if she raises the same issues of teacher quality and lack of student progress to which Reimnitz and Asberry courageously gave voice.
>>>>> Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellison, and Nelson Inz worked to defeat Reimnitz and Asberry, two of their three most able colleagues (the other was the retiring Carla Bates) in the 8 November election and thus revealed themselves to be tools of the DFL/ MFT; Gagnon has ambitions to be school board chair as additional motivation for her irresponsible endorsement of Jourdain over Asberry.
All of this makes my forthcoming book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect all the more important. That book will proceed in three parts, the first an entirely objective presentation of the leadership, organization, and academic results of the Minneapolis Public Schools; the second my analysis of that presentation; and the third my philosophical views as to how we move toward overhaul of this iteration of the locally centralized school district.
The above comments make clear that you will not get the needed change from Graff or the new school board members.
This will mean that you will have to be part of a ground-based, elbow-greased movement to replace the superintendent, many other staff in this school district, and the abiding philosophy that emanates from the education professors who have vitiated K-12 academic progress for many decades.
The overhaul of K-12 education is the second, harder phase of the Civil Rights Movement.
This movement will require committed citizen activists.
You will have every reason to be proud if you become one of these committed activists.
You will have no reason to complain, and every reason to be ashamed, if you do not.
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