Michael Walker (Director for the Office of Black Male Achievement ) >>>>> Questions as I Work Toward The Conclusion of My New Book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect

A Note to My Readers

Below is a set of questions that I sent to Michael Walker, Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).  Walker receives a salary of $119,000.

 

Mr. Walker, a former dean of students at Roosevelt High School, was hired at the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year;  thus, his tenure as MPS Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement is now two and one-half years.

 

This the sixth 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), and Director of the Department of College and Career Readiness Terry Henry.

 

Those administrators given immediately above have responsibility for the general population of students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools and are listed in Part One of these questions or MPS administrators.

 

The questions posed to Michael Walker represent the first example of queries sent to MPS administrators with responsibility for specific student populations and are given under Part Two;  MPS Director of Indian Education Anna Ross will 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 Two, those posed to Mr. Walker also bear very particularly on his responsibility for achievement of the approximately 7,000 African American male 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 Mr. Walker:

 

Part Two

 

Questions for Those with Responsibility for Specific Student Populations  

 

For Director of the Minneapolis Public Schools Office of Black Male Achievement Michael Walker

1.  Please state as succinctly as possible the philosophy of K-12 education that drives programming under your direction as Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement at the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

As Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement for the Minneapolis Public Schools, your philosophy of education should undergird your communications to the staff under your direction for developing academic programming for African American males 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 African American Males should receive the sequenced, grade by grade, knowledge-intensive education advocated by Hirsch 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 African American males 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 African American male 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, which in view of your particular responsibility addresses the lagging academic performance of African American males in the Minneapolis Public Schools?

 

Please be very clear in your answer to this question.

 

5.  Please confirm that as of second semester of the 2016-2017 academic year, your program for African American males is still focused on 175 students in eight middle schools.

 

Please update or correct that number as appropriate.

 

What plans to you have for serving the other 7,000 or so (please specify the current number if the given number is incorrect) African American males enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools?

 

Please be very clear in your answer to this question.

 

6.  Is your approach as Director of the MPS Office of Black Male Achievement 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.