Decision Itself Is Fine, But Explanations of Ed Graff and the MPS Board of Education for Trimming the School Year by Two Days Are Facile and Illogical

Star Tribune staff writer Beena Raghavendran’s article, “Minneapolis School Board Trims Calendar by Two Days” (10 January 2018), reveals numerous examples of the intellectual disarray that describes the administrative leadership of the Minneapolis Public Schools, led by Superintendent Ed Graff.  

 

By extension, this failure in reasoning capacity also is evident in the membership of the MPS Board of Education, which signed off on the decision of reference, as is typically the case for a board that may discuss agenda items at length but tends to assent to administrative proposals.

                                                         

There is another, more invidious, possibility, that administrator and board reasoning is consciously specious, offered to achieve whatever momentary objective is sought, with any reasons tendered considered fine as long they effectively move the proposal toward adoption.  

 

Consider Raghavendran’s article in its entirety, interspersed with my own comments following certain paragraphs considered together:

 

>>>>>       Paragraphs One through Five

 

Minneapolis school board members voted Tuesday night

to scrap the last two days of the school year.

 

School officials note that even though the district has the

longest school year in the metro area, its student academic

outcomes haven’t improved.

 

With its 176 school days, Minneapolis has the longest school

year of any public school district in the metro area.  Dropping

two days makes the district’s school year as long as South

Washington County and St. Anthony-New Brighton’s, according

to state data documenting last school year’s lengths. 

 

Charter schools still boast the longest school years, with some

calendars close to 200 instructional days.

 

Officials said that they wanted to see if a longer school year--- 

11 days above the state minimum---  would push test scores

higher.  Instead, Minneapolis’s achievement gap has persisted.

 

Comment:

 

Are we then to assume that there is a correlation between lengthening the school year and poor academic outcomes?   Students in the geopolitical entities (e. g., Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Shanghai [China] in East Asia;  Finland, Germany, and Poland in Europe;  and in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) who score highest on the PISA (Program of International Student Assessment) have many more days and hours of instruction time than do students in the Minneapolis Public Schools and other locally centralized school districts of the United States.  The real problem is that quality of teaching in the Minneapolis Public Schools is on average at best mediocre, so that whether the number of instructional days is increased, reduced, or remains the same, outcomes are unlikely to improve.  

 

 

<<<<< 

 

 

>>>>>       Paragraphs Six through Eight

 

Superintendent Ed Graff said in December that

cutting school days could save $1 million per day.

 That could help the district with a projected $33

million budget deficit for the next school year.

 

After opposition arose from teachers, Graff and

his administration cited other reasons.  They say

they saw an uptick in student and staff absences

as the school year trailed later into June.

 

Summer temperatures heat up buildings that

aren’t air conditioned.  And the district heard

from parents that student learning fell as the

year pressed further into the summer.  The

change will “solely address the student calendar

and the expectations of the students,” Graff

said at Tuesday’s meeting.

 

Comment:

 

Graff and staff give the appearance of caring not about the exact reasons offered;  they seem merely intent on achieving the objective of the proposal to cut two school days:

If you don’t like the idea that cutting school days won’t hurt academic performance, because MPS students hadn’t thrived academically with a longer school calendar, then consider the cost savings of $1 million per day. 

But, whoops, that was in December, before the opposition from teachers (almost all of whom belong to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers [MFT]).

So maybe you’ll be convinced by the student and teacher absences that registered an observed uptick when days were added, extending the academic year farther into June.

Or, let’s go back to costs and consider those darn hot summer months;  expensive air conditioner use increases.

Oh, and parents say that student learning fell;   by what measure we do not know, but that’s what moms and dads are supposed to have said.

<<<<< 

>>>>>      Paragraphs Nine through Eleven

 

The issue has divided parents and district employees. 
In an online survey from mostly white parents and
employees, respondents supported the shorter calendar.

But respondents of color weren’t as supportive.

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers said in a
bargaining update in October that a shorter year would
mean a 1 percent pay cut to teachers this school year. 
“It’s becoming clear that administration is failing to
understand the value of its educators,” MFT wrote in
its update.

Comment:

 

That sure is a shaky excuse for a survey.

 

Students of color dominate enrollment in the Minneapolis Public Schools, so a survey of parents that was not effective in reaching them would indicate lack of proper sampling. 

 

And though “employees” were deemed supportive of shortening the school year, those “employees” apparently did not include the teachers, who feel undervalued because of the 1 percent in cut in pay that results from axing two days from the academic calendar.    

 

<<<<< 

 

>>>>>       Paragraphs Twelve and Thirteen

District officials now say the decision to shorten
the school year for students is separate from plans
with employee bargaining groups around the total
number of staff workdays.

The district foreshadows more potential changes
on the horizon, like snipping off the first few days
of the 2018-19 year to begin school post-Labor Day. 
School officials have batted around other possible
saving spots to deal with its finance woes, such as
pitching a $30 million referendum to voters in
November.  Final decisions will surface in coming
weeks.

 

Comment:

So, hey, teachers, know now that we say that whatever costs we save may not be at your expense.  That wasn’t our line in December, but remember that our reasoning is of an extremely flexible and prevaricating sort.  Because while achieving savings at the expense of your paychecks may have been implied in our prior statements, we now maintain that trimming the school days for students does not necessarily mean cutting your own work days.

So we may have to do some other stuff.

And, naturally, the public will now be so impressed with the cogency of our reasoning processes that they may give us $30 million dollars to cope with our financial mismanagement.

>>>>>       Paragraphs Fourteen and Fifteen

As if an afterthought, Raghavendran notes at article’s end:

Also Tuesday, the Minneapolis school board elected Nelson Inz as chairman.

Across the river in St. Paul Tuesday, Zuki Ellis, a first-term school board member, moved from vice chair to board chairwoman.

Comment:

 

I’ll reserve judgment for now as to the portent of the change in school board chair for the St. Paul Public Schools.

 

But the change in the position of chair at the Minneapolis Public Schools is most certainly of high significance, signaling a diminution in the luster of Rebecca Gagnon’s formerly bright star---  covered in an article as you scroll on down this blog.

 

…………………………………………………………………………

 

Summative Comment:

 

The request to trim two days from the school calendar is fine.  About nine months of well-used instructional time is sufficient.  Although I admire many features of the East Asian educational systems, I have never advocated the adoption of a lengthy school calendar such as those prevalent in East Asia.  Quality of curriculum and teaching is what is important---  not quantity.

But in advancing reasons for trimming the school calendar, Graff and staff reveal themselves to be

variously illogical, fickle, specious, and cynical.   

The Ed Graff administration at the Minneapolis Public Schools has little idea what it is doing.  The modus operandi appears to be to please as many constituents as possible so as to protect staff positions that for upper-level administrators yield salaries ranging from approximately $145,000 upward to Graff’s own $225,000.  Thus, we have the survey approach and informal collections of anecdotal information as to prevailing community, staff, and student opinions.

 

There is no viable driving philosophy of education from which policy decisions are made.  The best that Graff has offered is an assertion of the importance of social and emotional learning and the adoption of a new reading curriculum. 

 

But what is needed is the overhaul of curriculum for knowledge and skill intensity in grade by grade sequence;  training of teachers capable of imparting that curriculum;  highly intentional tutoring for those lagging below grade level (along with academic enrichment opportunities for those achieving at grade level and above);  direct resource provision and referral for families struggling with dilemmas of poverty and dysfunction;  and substantial additional trimming of central office positions and those that have little to do with the academic achievement of students or support of families.         

 

 

In the absence of a driving philosophy and a viable program to advance student achievement, Graff and staff are forever holding their proverbial fingers in the proverbial wind, hanging on, trying to survive, explaining themselves in any way that stands some chance of advancing their ill-conceived policies.

 

This must change.

 

We need a new membership for the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.

 

And unless Chief of Leadership and Learning Michael Thomas (along with his lieutenant, Assistant Chief of Leadership and Learning Cecilia Saddler) and Chief of Research, Innovation, and Accountability Eric Moore fully grasp my message and induce Graff to implement the necessary policies to advance knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education---

 

I’ll be calling for an overhaul at the administrative level, as well.