Associate Superintendents Laura Cavender, Lucilla Davila, Ron Wagner, and Carla Steinbach (-Huther) >>>>> Overview of Effectiveness

The Associate Superintendents of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) are four in number:  Laura Cavender, Ron Wagner, Lucilla Davila, and Carla Steinbach (who on some lists has the addition of –Huther to her surname).

 

The Associate Superintendents report directly to Michael Thomas (Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning).  Thomas has worked with the four associate superintendents for many years; formerly, Thomas was Chief of Schools under Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and Acting Superintendent Michael Goar, in the role of which Thomas’s prime responsibility was supervision over the associate superintendents.  During those years, Thomas worked closely with Cavender, Wagner, and Davila as associate superintendents;   the latter have prime responsibility for supervising site principals of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  Before occupying her current position as associate superintendent, Steinbach was for several years the principal of Northeast High School and, just prior to taking the associate superintendent position, she was a “principal on special assignment” at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway).  Therefore, Thomas and the current associate superintendents have known Steinbach (-Huther) as an administrative mainstay of the district for many years.

 

Below is a presentation of the aggregate performance of the schools under the supervision of each associate superintendent. 

 

One should be careful in comparing the performance of these associate principals on the basis of these data. 

 

Cavender has the most challenging portfolio, with several chronically low-performing schools under her direction, the schools that during the Bernadeia Johnson administration were designated “High Priority,” for the intensity of efforts that was supposed to ensue to lift academic performance.

 

Wagner does have the chronically challenged Nellie Stone Johnson K-8 under his administrative purview, but schools such as Burroughs, Lake Harriet Upper and Lower, and Lake Nokomis have high proportions of students from affluent families.

 

Davila on the whole has a portfolio of schools that in terms of familial economic level are of middling challenge.

 

And Steinbach (-Huther) has particular responsibility for high schools, and for stand-alone middle schools (as opposed to the K-8 schools that include middle school students).

 

In future articles on this blog, derived (as are these data) from chapters in my substantially complete book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, I will focus more particularly on assessments of the performances of the individual associate superintendents.

 

For now, what should be considered is that academic performance for all of the schools has been essentially flat over the years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017---  so that whatever these associate superintendents are encouraging site principals to do is clearly not achieving the objective of raising student performance, which falls tragi-comically short of goals set in the ineffective Acceleration 2020  Strategic Plan of the MPS Board of Education.

 

Consider:

 

Academic Performance of Schools under the

Supervision of the Given Associate Superintendents

 

Laura Cavender      2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                          31%       33%      34%      34%

Reading                     29%       31%      33%      35%

Science                      20%       23%      23%      25%

 

 

Ron Wagner            2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                          56%       57%      58%      56%

Reading                     51%       51%      54%      54%

Science                      44%       44%      48%      48%

               

Lucilla Davila          2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                         41%       41%      41%      37%

Reading                    41%       39%      39%      38%

Science                     35%       33%      35%      32%

               

Carla Steinbach (-Huther)           

 

    2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                      45%       49%      43%      43%

Reading                  51%       48%      46%      47%

Science                   36%       46%      34%      34%

               

               

Schools for Which the Given Associate Superintendents are Responsbie

 

Laura Cavender                                               

 

Anishinabe

Anwatin Middle School

Bethune

Green Central

Hall

Howe

Jenny Lind

Loring

Lucy Laney

Olson

Pillsbury

Sandford

Waite Park

 

Ron Wagner                      

 

Bryn Mawr

Burroughs

Hale

Jefferson

Kenny

Kenwood

Lake Harriet Lower

Lake Harriet Upper

Lake Nokomis

Lyndale

Nellie Stone Johnson

Northrop

Pratt

Sullivan

Webster

 

Lucilla Davila

 

Anderson

Armatage
Bancroft

Barton

Cityview

Dowling

Emerson

Folwell

Hmong Academy

Marcy

Seward

Sullivan

Whittier

Windom

 

Carla Steinbach (-Huther)

 

Edison High School

Henry High School

North High School

Roosevelt High School

South High School

Washburn High School

 

Wellsone International High School

 

Fair

Field

Franklin

Justice Page

Longfellow

Wellsone SWS