This article is the second article in a series
presenting figures for programs identified by the Minneapolis Public Schools
(MPS) administration and MPS Board of Education as the key initiatives of the
MPS district to raise student achievement levels, especially those for African
American, Hispanic, American Indian (Native American), Somali, and Hmong
students, for which not even 25% meet grade level standards on the Minnesota
Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs).
Most of these programs have been in place for
many years, with meager results.
Other than these programs, the Superintendent
Ed Graff administration is placing its hopes on the training of staff and
students in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), the use of Culturally Relevant
Materials (CRM) and the implementation of a new reading curriculum for grades
PK-5.
For reasons that I have detailed in
past articles posted on this blog, none of the programs articulated by the
Graff administration and approved by the MPS Board of Education is adequate to
the task of raising student achievement levels or imparting a
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education.
That will only come with complete
curricular overhaul, comprehensive teacher retraining, highly intentional
tutoring, resource provision and referral for struggling families, and
bureaucratic trimming so as to direct resources to the students themselves.
These observations will be discussed
at length in my substantially complete book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect, for
which I will continue to post snippets in the run-up to publication this coming
May 2018.
The program under review here is the
Check & Connect Program, by which school counselors at the behest of Department
of College and Career Readiness Executive Director Terry Henry and staff track
the progress of middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grade 9-12) in
accumulating credits toward graduation.
Avowedly, the purposes of this program in meeting World’s Best Workforce regulations established by the Minnesota Department of
Education (MDE) are those for 1) Closing Racial
and Economic Achievement Gaps Closed and
assuring 2) Graduation from
High School.
If one carefully
ponders the data given below, one can imagine that progress toward high school
graduation will be abetted by the Check and Connect program; but one must conclude that for a school
district of approximately 20,000 students of color, any notion that a program
covering no K-5 students and fewer than 2,000 or so middle and high school
students is going to contribute anything of significance to raising achievement
levels is fanciful.
Consider:
>>>>>
Program for
World’s
Best Work Force (WBWF)
Alignment,
2017-2018
Major (WBWF)
Academic Program #2
Check & Connect
Projected WBWF
Goals Addressed >>>>>
Racial and Economic Achievement Gaps Closed
Graduation from High School
Budgetary Allotments, Academic Years
Ending in 2017, 2018, and 2019:
Ending in 2017, 2018, and 2019:
2017 2018 2019
Budgetary Budgetary Budgetary
Allocation Allocation Allocation
$700,000 $350,000 $350,000
Students Served (Grades 4-12)
Academic Year Ending in 2017
K-8
Midde High
Academic Year
School School
Q1 2016-2017
306 370 1,302
Academic Year Ending in 2018
K-8
Middle High Academic Year
School School 2017-2018
89 527
Students
Served by Race
(Academic Year Ending in 2018)
African American >>>>>
1,098
American Indian >>>>>
(Native American)
240
Asian >>>>>
62
Hispanic >>>>>
450
White >>>>>
128
Total >>>>>
1,978
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