Wretched Academic Results for 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 >>>>> Ed Graff, Michael Thomas, Eric Moore, Cecilia Saddler, Carey Seeley Dzierzak, Naomi Taylor, Maureen Steiwert, Martha Amundson, Sara Stack, Amy Johnson, Michael Walker, Anna Ross, Terry Henry, Carla Steinbach Huther, Ronald Wagner, Laura Cavender, and Lucilla Davis Must Be Held Accountable for Lack of Progress More Than Halfway through Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan

The school district of the Minneapolis Public Schools is over halfway through the life of the district's Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan, meant to cover academic years ending in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.  The plan calls for five percentage point gains in mathematics and reading for the general student population and eight percentage point gains for students who were lowest-achieving at the plan’s inception. 

 

Thus, by the end of academic year 2016-2017, the general student population should have recorded 15 percentage point gains, and the lowest achieving students should have recorded 24 percentage point gains.  

 

But as the following chart (drawn from the MCA Data Report on the website of the Minneapolis Public Schools) shows, achievement levels have been essentially flat and in some cases have declined.

 

This is abysmal and must change.

 

As you scroll on down this blog, you will have a chance to observe staff members (by position and salary) most responsible for these results.  Leaders at the district should all be concerned about this  wretched academic performance;  and those (given in the title to this article) most directly responsible for developing the academic program of the Minneapolis Public Schools should feel enormous contrition for their abominable failure.

 

Decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools must move to develop and implement a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum for the delivery of an excellent education capable of moving from failure to success.

 

The time is now to change the unconscionable results for the school years ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, given as follows:

 

Summary of MCA Disaggregated Data for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017

 

Percentage of Students Recording Grade Level Performance on MCAs:

Disaggregated Data for Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017

 

Math

                                            

African American 

 

                              2014           2015        2016         2017

 

          23%            23%         21%         18%

 

Hispanic

 

                              2014           2015        2016        2017

 

        31%             32%          31%        29%

 

Native American/ American Indian

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         23%            19%         19%       17%

 

Asian/ Pacific Islander

                 

                           2014         2015        2016     2017

 

      48%         50%          50%      47%

 

White/ Caucasian

 

                              2014           2015        2016       2017

 

         77%             78%        78%      77%

 

All Students

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         44%            44%        44%      42%

 

Reading

                                            

African American 

 

                              2014           2015        2016        2017

 

         22%             21%          21%         21%

 

Hispanic

 

                              2014           2015        2016      2017

 

         23%            25%         26%       26%

 

Native American/ American Indian

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         21%            20%          21%     23%

 

Asian/ Pacific Islander

                 

                           2014         2015        2016     2017

 

       41%         40%         45%      41%

 

White/ Caucasian

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         78%             77%        77%      78%

 

All Students

 

                              2014           2015        2016      2017

 

         42%            42%         43%       43%

 

Science

                                            

African American 

 

                              2014           2015        2016       2017

 

         11%           15%          13%       12%

 

Hispanic

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         17%            18%          21%      19%

 

Native American/ American Indian

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         14%             16%        13%       17%

 

Asian/ Pacific Islander

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         31%            35%         42%       35%

White/ Caucasian

                               2014           2015        2016     2017

 

         71%              75%         71%      70%

 

All Students

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

                                33%            36%         35%      34%