A Note to My Readers
Below is a set
of questions that I sent to Anna Ross,
Director of the Department of Indian Education at the Minneapolis Public
Schools (MPS). Ross receives a salary of $106,000.
Ms. Ross
oversees a department of about 20 staff members, who provide an array of
programs focused on Native American customs and culture.
This is the seventh set of questions for MPS
administrators that I am posting on my blog, examples of several such sets of
questions that I have submitted to officials at the Davis Center, 1250 West
Broadway, housing the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools. Scroll on down to see the questions that I
have sent, and then posted on this blog, to Superintendent Ed Graff, Deputy
Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning
Macarre Traynham, Focused Instruction Project Manager Christina (Tina) Platt), Director
of the Department of College and Career Readiness Terry Henry, and Office of
Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker.
Of those
administrators given immediately above, all but Michael Walker have responsibility for the general
population of students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools and are
listed in Part One of these questions for MPS administrators.
The questions
posed to Anna Ross represent the second example of queries sent to MPS
administrators with responsibility for specific student populations and are given
under Part Two; questions posed to
Michael Walker at the MPS Office of Black Male Achievement and previously
posted on the blog also fall in this category of questions.
Thus, while
many of the questions concerning philosophical matters are similar to those
posed to administrators in Part One, those posed to Ms. Ross also bear very
particularly on her responsibility for achievement of the approximately 1,300 American
Indian students enrolled in the Minneapolis Pubic Schools.
Please continue to look for articles
such as this one, in which I pose questions for Minneapolis Public Schools
personnel as I work toward the conclusion of my new book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future
Prospect.
Following
are the questions for which I have requested answers from Ms. Ross:
Part Two
Questions
for Those with Responsibility for Specific Student Populations
For Director of the Minneapolis Public
Schools Department of Indian Education Anna Ross
1.
Please state as succinctly as possible the philosophy of K-12 education
that drives programming under your direction as Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Director of
Indian Education.
As Director
of the Department of Indian Education for the Minneapolis Public Schools, your
philosophy of education should undergird your communications to the staff under
your direction for developing academic programming for American Indian students
at the Minneapolis Public Schools. Thus,
your answer to this question is of great importance as a matter of public
information.
For your
reference, my own answer to that question would be as follows:
My philosophy of education in
its most succinct rendering is that the purpose of K-12 education should be to
give students the opportunity to go forth at graduation to experience lives of
cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.
Undergirding
this philosophy are definitions of an excellent K-12 education and the
excellent teacher as follows:
An excellent K-12 education is a
matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive curriculum in the
liberal, technological, and vocational arts to all students in grade by grade
sequence throughout the K-12 years.
An excellent teacher is a
professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical skill to impart
that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.
My own views are similar to those
of those of E. D. Hirsch. In my nearly
complete book, Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, the
curriculum that I present is a logical follow-up to Hirsch’s Core Knowledge course of study,
emphasizing grades pre-K through grade six.
My own book presents compact courses in economics, psychology, political
science, world religions, world history, American history, African American
history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry,
and physics for high school students, college students, and adult readers.
In his book, The Schools Our Children Deserve
(1999), Alfie Kohn wrote a detailed counterview to that espoused by Hirsch in
the volume, The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them (1996). Kohn and other so-called “progressive education”
proponents maintain that the key components of an excellent education are
“critical thinking skills” and motivation to become a “lifelong learner”; such advocates convey the view that a
sequentially, systematically accumulated body of knowledge is not important,
because as to any factual information needed in a given situation, “You can
always look it up.”
In your reply to my question, please honestly and clearly tell me with
whom you agree most, Hirsch or Kohn.
There is a heavy tendency to waffle on this question by blending the two
views. I am always doubtful of such
waffling. My own statement would be the
following:
I heavily favor the
knowledge-intensive education advocated by Hirsch: Genuine critical thinking must proceed upon a
firm knowledge base, and the propensity for lifelong learning most likely
occurs in those who in childhood and adolescence developed a respect for
factual knowledge.
Do you believe that American
Indian students should receive the sequenced, grade by grade,
knowledge-intensive education advocated by Hirsh and myself, or do you embrace
the approach advocated by Alfie Kohn?
Please be as clear in your
answer to this question as I have been in stating my own views.
2.
What is your vision for the Focused Instruction program that began
during the tenure of Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson?
I am of the
view that Focused Instruction languished under Interim Superintendent Michael
Goar and that new Superintendent Ed Graff will not be inclined toward
reinvigoration of this program.
Would you confirm those observations?
My
attraction to Focused Instruction is found in the program’s promise as a
conduit for knowledge- intensive education of the Core Knowledge type:
Is this your vision for Focused
Instruction? If not, please be clear
about your non-agreement with me.
And whether or not you do agree, please
give me a clear account of your vision for Focused Instruction and your plan of
action for completely implementing the program.
Please be as clear in your
answer to this question as I have been in stating my own views.
3.
Please explain what you are doing to address the abysmal academic
performance of American Indian students in the Minneapolis Public
Schools--- as similarly revealed in the
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP), and the Multiple Measurement Rating System MMRS).
Two and
one-half years into the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan of the Minneapolis
Public Schools, performance of these students is generally flat or getting
worse, despite the goal of the strategic plan that the percentage of these
chronically low-performing students improving so as to attain grade level
performance shall rise eight (8) percentage points per year.
Clearly,
whatever you are doing is not yet working.
What actions are now being taken by those
under your direction to elevate student performance in accordance with the
goals of the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan?
Please be very clear in your answer to this
question.
4.
What role does tutoring in mathematics and reading have in your plan of
action for American Indian students who are not according to MCA, NAEP, and
MMRS results performing academically at grade level?
Answers to
questions that I have posed to staff at the Minneapolis Public Schools confirm
that there is no staff member with specific responsibility for developing and
overseeing a district-wide program of tutoring for students who are not
performing at grade level. Those answers
also confirm that such tutoring as is provided is rendered by several different
organizations and is not consistent from school to school.
Do you have plans to designate a person
with overall responsibility for tutoring, and to develop a well-articulated,
coherent tutoring program that is consistent from school to school?
Please be very clear in your answer to this
question.
5. Is your approach as Director of the Department
of Indian Education synchronous with that of Teaching and Learning Director
Macarre Traynham, which emphasizes Culturally Responsive Teaching?
If so, please explain if you
view that approach as consistent with or at odds with the Core Knowledge
approach for which I have asserted that Focused Instruction can be a conduit.
6. How many students does the MPS Department of
Indian Education serve?
There are approximately 1300 American Indian Students enrolled in the
Minneapolis Public Schools (please specify the current number if the given
number is incorrect) .
Do you now serve all of those
students, or do you aspire to do so in the future?
Please be very clear in your answer to this
question.
No comments:
Post a Comment