Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison Eliminates the Office of Black Male Achievement, Department of Indian Education, and the Department of College and Career Readiness on 30 August 2017

As Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), I am today announcing the elimination of the Office of Black Male Achievement, Department of Indian Education, and Department of College and Career Readiness.

 

The jettisoning of these sinecures is in line with our full focus on academic achievement in accordance with my five-point program for student educational advancement at the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

That program focuses clearly on the following:

 

1)  grade by grade knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum, linked to the Minnesota Department of Education academic standards, the Core Knowledge Foundation curriculum for grades pre-K through grade 6, and my own curriculum for grades 7-12, as detailed in the August 2014 edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota;

 

2)  vigorous and rigorous retraining of all teachers, thus prepared to impart a knowledge-intensive curriculum;

 

3)  coherent and comprehensive tutoring and academic enrichment for students, according to individual need and interests, for all students at all schools throughout the district;

 

4)  resource provision and referral to families struggling with challenges of finances and functionality;

 

5)  dramatic paring of the central school district bureaucracy, from the 500-650 staff member range that typically prevails to approximately 150, pending staff additions for tutoring, academic enrichment, and family resource provision and referral.

 

I will be evaluating all positions and departments in view of contributions to the academic program of the Minneapolis Public Schools, the latter clearly the focus of all of our efforts.

 

The following changes for the Office of Black Male Achievement, Department of Indian Education, and Department of College and Career Readiness are effective immediately:

 

These bureaucratic entities are terminated as independent agencies. 

 

All staff in these erstwhile agencies of the Minneapolis Public Schools are hereby notified that their employment at the Minneapolis Public Schools is terminated. 

 

Michael Walker, Anna Ross, and Terry Henry are invited to apply for new MPS positions, as follows:

 

Michael Walker is invited to apply for the position that I am creating that will lead program and staff in the energetic new resource provision and referral program of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

Anna Ross is invited to apply for a position subsumed under the new Department of Academic Programming and Achievement that will provide consultation on academic matters pertinent to American Indian history and culture.

 

Terry Henry will be invited to apply for a new program ensuring that students of all demographic descriptors will earn a four-year high school diploma that will allow them to go forward to post-high school training with strong knowledge and skill sets appropriate for any college, university, or other post-secondary setting.

 

These staff dismissals and newly defined positions indicate my seriousness in addressing the current knowledge and skill deficiency of all students at the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

These changes proceed in accordance with my recognition that the Office of Black Male Achievement has done nothing during the academic years ending in 2015-2017 to advance the academic progress of the approximately 7,000 African American males enrolled at the Minneapolis Public Schools, including the merely 298 students that the office has typically served annually. 

 

The changes move forward in recognition of similar failures in the Department of Indian Education, and in view of the fact that the Department of College and Career Readiness has overseen a wretched situation whereby one-third of MPS graduates need remedial instruction once matriculating on a college or university campus.

 

All staff and the public whom we serve please be aware of our clearly prioritized five-point program and the new, clearly articulated knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum that guides these staffing decisions and all of my actions as Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Pubic Schools.