Below is set
of questions for Minneapolis Public Schools Executive Director of Teaching and
Learning Macarre Traynham,
who heads a department of 51 people. Traynham receives a salary of $117,000; the staff
salary total for Department of Teaching and Learning is just under $3,000,000.
This is the third set of questions that I am
posting on my blog, one of several that I have submitted to officials at the
Davis Center, 1250 West Broadway, housing the central offices of the
Minneapolis Public 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. Traynham:
For Minneapolis Public Schools Executive
Director of Teaching and Learning Macarre Traynham
1.
Please state as succinctly as possible the philosophy of K-12 education
that drives programming under your direction.
As Executive
Director of the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Minneapolis Public
Schools, your philosophy of education should undergird your communications to
the staff under your direction for developing academic programming 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 question #1 is 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.
You know from our discussions that my own views are similar to 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.
You may or may not know that in The Schools Our Children Deserve
(1999), Alfie Kohn wrote a detailed counterview to that espoused by Hirsch in 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, “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.
For your
reference, my own answer to question #1 is as follows:
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.
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?
As you know,
my attraction to Focused Instruction is the program’s promise as a conduit for
knowledge- intensive education of the Core Knowledge type:
Is this you vision for Focused
Instruction? If not, please be clear
about your non-agreement with me.
If you were to express agreement with me,
please explain what you have done to develop an understanding of Hirsch’s Core
Knowledge program. My previous meetings
with you have indicated to me that you were not at all familiar with Core
Knowledge.
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 African American, Hispanic, and American Indian students; and students on Free and Reduced Price
Lunch; at 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.
What actions are now being take by those
under your direction to elevate student performance in accordance with the
goals of the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan?
Please be as clear in your answer to this
question.
4.
Do you have plans for developing and overseeing a district-wide program
of tutoring for 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 as clear in your answer to this
question.
5.
Do you have a plan to provide thorough training of teachers to assure
that a competent (and, as we look toward the future, truly excellent) teacher occupies
each classroom of the Minneapolis Public Schools?
People in
many positions at the Minneapolis Public Schools clearly acknowledge that
teacher quality is a problem in your school district. I have in many places given evidence for my
view that the reason for the mediocrity of teachers lies in the low level of
training and expectations inherent in the programs of departments, colleges,
and schools of education.
Providing
teacher training--- not really
retraining or mere “professional development,” but the main training that
teachers should receive before ever taking positions in the classroom--- will be expensive and require great skill
and subject area knowledge on the part of those doing the training.
Do you acknowledge the problem of teacher
quality?
If so, what is your plan for providing the
necessary training for prospective teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools?
The “Grow Your Own” program seems
inadequate to the severity of the problem.
Do you agree?
Please be very clear in your answer to this
question.
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