The article given below is the same as the first version, with the exception of the corrected typos:
>>>>>
Here is a summary of the current situation at the Minneapolis Pubic Schools (MPS), with a comment on the themes that are emerging in my nearly complete new book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect >>>>>
We are nine months into the tenure of Superintendent Ed
Graff. The new superintendent’s most
favorable moves have occurred in the area of personnel. Very notably, Graff (in consultation with
Michael Thomas and Eric Moore) has made decisions with results as given below:
>>>>>
Very early on, Graff and advisers decided that new leadership was needed
in academics; Susanne Griffin was
dismissed and Michael Thomas, who had been in the position of Chief of Schools
(overseeing the associate superintendents, who in turn have responsibility for
the performance of site principals), now took on the duties that had been
assigned to Ms. Griffin as Chief Academic Officer; Thomas’s new title became Chief of Academics,
Leadership, and Learning.
>>>>>
Graff restructured the leadership group, with an emphasis on positions bearing
the title of “chief,” the occupants of which effectively became the
superintendent’s cabinet.
Michael Thomas and Eric Moore became the two most important
advisers to Graff; Moore was elevated
from his position as Executive Director of Research, Evaluation, Assessment,
and Accountability to Chief of Accountability, Innovation, and Research.
Suzanne Kelly was hired as the new Chief of Staff and Tonya
Tennessen was hired as Chief of Communications but has now been dismissed in a
general disassembly of the Department of Communications.
Maggie Sullivan (Chief of Human Resources) and Fadi Fahill
(Chief Information Officer) continue to occupy their positions in the cabinet
of chiefs.
Amy Moore (General Counsel) and Jesse Winkler (Administrator
to the MPS Board of Education), though not chiefs, also occupy prime roles in
the current MPS leadership scheme.
>>>>> Graff and key advisers have moved to
completely disassemble the Department of Communications and the Department of
Student, Family, and Community Engagement;
according to the best information available to me, this is true also of
the Department of Teaching and Learning, whose erstwhile executive director
(Macarre Traynham) was recently dismissed from that position and is no longer
with the district.
These are favorable moves:
>>>>> Thomas
and Moore are very talented and fully understand the most grievous problems
facing the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The other chiefs are capable enough, although I see no absolute
necessity for the position of Chief of Staff.
Amy Moore and Jesse Winkler are quite effective in their positions.
>>>>> Griffin
is a nice person with favorable career experience and desire to see student
progress, but I ultimately found her dedication to knowledge-intensive
education weak and her hiring of Traynham most unfortunate.
>>>>> Slimming
of the central bureaucracy is a highly important tenet in the overhaul of K-12
education in the Minneapolis Public Schools, a salient iteration of the locally
centralized school district.
…………………………………………………………………..
The current membership of the Minneapolis Public Schools
Board of Education is not capable of leading the district toward better
academic performance--- so Graff, with
the able assistance of Chief Thomas and Chief Moore, will have to finesse the
school board on many issues.
The Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan is
merely an exercise in goal-setting, undergirded by a “school as the unit of
change” credo evaluated unfavorably and discredited by consultant Michael
Casserly (Executive/ CEO of the Council of Great City Schools) in August 2016.
Three years into the projected six-year term of the
strategic plan, there has been no academic progress except a slight uptick in
graduation rates. For many categories,
academic results have worsened rather than improved, and improved graduation
rates are not very impressive in the context of weakened graduation
requirements.
Of the current members on the MPS Board of Education,
KerryJo Felder, Siad Ali, Nelson Inz, Rebecca Gagnon (chair), Kim Ellison
(vice-chair), Bob Walser (clerk), Jenny Arneson (treasurer), and Ira Jourdain
all have strong ties to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL)/Minneapolis
Federation of Teachers. Only Samuels
(although a member of the DFL) has not been endorsed by the DFL/MFT lobby; lamentably, he is not an effective member of
the school board, verbalizing bombastically at times but doing very little.
Siad Ali is a good listener who cares about the education of
his Somali community and the general student population. The same may be said of Ira Jourdain, a
Native American. Jenny Arneson is not as
objectionable as the remainder of the school board, according to my current
evaluation.
But >>>>>
>>>>> KerryJo
Felder has shown little promise as occupant of the position she has held since
election in November 2016.
>>>>> Bob
Walser is the silliest, most trivial member I have ever seen on a school board.
>>>>> Rebecca
Gagnon, Kim Ellison, and Nelson Inz are irresponsible connivers who maneuvered to
secure slim victories for Felder, Walser, and Jourdain in the November 2016
election; in the cases of Walser and
Jourdain, victories came respectively against Josh Reimnitz and Tracine Asberry,
along with Carla Bates (who did not run for reelction) the two most independent-thinking
proponents of accountability on the previous school board assemblage.
Citizens who care about knowledge-intensive K-12 education
should work particularly hard to defeat Gagnon, Ellison, Inz, and Walser in the
coming elections. Ellison has huge name
recognition as the former wife of U. S. Congressional Representative Keith
Ellison, and Gagnon is a savvy politician with important connections that run wide
and deep, so their defeat will require enormous effort; Inz is more vulnerable, Walser very much more
vulnerable.
………………………………………………………………..
The current assemblage of school board members is inclined
against standardized testing, which ironically is necessary to measure student
progress projected in the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan. The biggest
culprits in this contradiction are Walser, Inz, and Gagnon--- thus providing more reasons for their defeat
in future elections.
Graff, despite his favorable moves in recognizing the talents
of Chief Thomas and Chief Moore and reorganizing the leadership group, has yet
to articulate support for a skill replete, knowledge-intensive education,
seemingly over-relying on social and emotional learning to abet student progress.
I currently intend to continue to refine my already advanced
draft of Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect in
the course of this coming summer 2017, with final draft ready for publication
in September 2017.
My current themes will include the following:
>>>>> the
need for a five-point guiding program of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete
curriculum; training of teachers capable of imparting that curriculum; coherent program of skill remediation for
students struggling below grade level; greatly
expanded outreach and provision/referral of services to struggling families;
and slimming of the central bureaucracy;
>>>>> the
imperative to elect new school board members dedicated to such a program;
>>>>> the
need for a new strategic plan of action that will replace the Acceleration
2020 Strategic Plan so as to advance the indicated five-point guiding
program indicated above and detailed in many places on this blog;
>>>>> the
need of Ed Graff to follow his reorganization successes with a clear statement
of his educational philosophy, which must be consistent with the
knowledge-intensive approach to K-12 education given in my five-point guiding program.
My book will be the seminal guide to the inner workings of a
locally centralized school district, objectively examining the facts in part
one, analyzing those facts in part two, and presenting a fully developed philosophy
for knowledge-intensive education in part three.
To achieve academic excellence consistent with the
philosophy detailed in part three of the book, the current membership of the
Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will have to change.
Michael Thomas and Eric Moore have the potential to promote
a program of academic excellence.
Ed Graff’s ability to embrace and promote a
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete program of academic excellence will
determine his fate as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
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