Terry Henry (Director for the Department of College and Career Readiness) >>>>> 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 Terry Henry, Director of the Department of College and Career Readiness at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  Henry receives a salary of $100,000.

 

Henry oversees a staff of about 20 people, who have responsibility for a variety of programs, identified in the questions below.  My questions for Henry are in part of the philosophical sort that I have asked other leaders, but then in large part are queries very specific to the number of students served in the various programs emanating from the Department of Teaching and Learning, and the effectiveness of those programs.

 

This the fifth 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.  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, and Focused Instruction Project Manager Christina (Tina) Platt).

 

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. Henry:

 

For Director of the Minneapolis Public Schools Department of College and Career Readiness Terry Henry

 

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 the Department of College and Career Readiness.

 

As Director of the Department of College and Career Readiness for the Minneapolis Public Schools, your philosophy of education should undergird your communications to the staff under your direction for developing academic programming for 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.

  

2.  Do you believe that students of the Minneapolis Public Schools 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.

  

3.  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 vison 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.

 

4.  Please explain what you are doing to address the abysmal academic performance of 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.

 

5.  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?

 

Please be very clear in your answer to this question.

 

6.  Is your approach as Director of the Department of College and Career Readiness 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.

 

7.  How many total students does the MPS Department of College and Career Readiness serve?

 

How many MPS students are served by each of the following programs?

 

AVID   (Advancement Via Individual Determination)

Check and Connect

Gear Up  (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs)

 JAG   (Jobs for America’s Graduates)

 

WWYB   (We Want You Back)

 

PLTW     (Project Lead The Way)

 

My Life Plan

 

 

6.  How do you plan better to fulfill your responsibility to ensure that all students of the Minneapolis Public Schools are college and career ready?

 

Presently, one-third of those students who graduate from the Minneapolis Public Schools and matriculate at colleges and universities require remedial instruction.  Fewer than 50% of African American males enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools graduate, and the overall graduation rate is less than 70%.

 

Such a situation does not suggest college and career readiness.

 

Please explain how you are going to remedy this situation in the future, so that the students of the Minneapolis Public Schools are in fact career and college ready. 

 

Please be very clear in your answer to this question.

 

 

7.  Do you consider your responsibility to be to ensure that all MPS students are both college and career ready, or do you consider your obligation fulfilled if students are prepared for either college or a career?

 

That is, do you endeavor to give all the students the excellence of education that will allow them to be ready either for college or the work force, depending on their inclinations at the time of graduation?

 

Please be very clear in your answer to this question.