Feb 1, 2018

Demonstration of Massive Incompetence on the Part of Superintendent Ed Graff, Davis Center Staff, and the MPS Board of Education >>>>> Finance Committee Meeting, 30 January 2018

A 4:00-5:30 PM, 30 January 2018, meeting of the Finance Committee of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education revealed the massive incompetence that abides in Superintendent Ed Graff, Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) staff, and the MPS Board of Education.  Representing Davis Center staff at the meeting were Ed Graff, Eric Moore (Chief of Research, Innovation, Assessment, and Accountability), Ibrahima Diop (Chief of Finance), and Jennifer Lindquist (Administrative Assistant to the MPS Board of Education);  representing the MPS Board of Education were Finance Committee members KerryJo Felder, committee chair Jenny Arneson, Nelson Inz, and Bob Walser;  Student Representative Ben Jaeger and District Member Kim Ellison were also in attendance, as were numerous members of the Davis Center staff.

 

Discussion on the general financial condition of the Minneapolis Public Schools was satisfactory.  As usual, the solid professionalism and candor of Finance Chief Diop was manifest.  This comment should also engender a note that MPS Board of Education Administrative Assistant Jennifer Lindquist and her colleague Jesse Winkler (Administrator to the MPS Board of Education, who was not in attendance at this meeting) are also very able.

 

The problem lies with the academic program decision-makers in the Davis Center and the members of the MPS Board of Education.  The two main foci of the meeting became Goals of Achievement and Integration Funding;  and a community survey conducted by Eric Moore and his staff.

 

Goals of Achievement and Integration Funding must align to World’s Best Workforce goals of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), which are five in number:  1) school readiness, 2)third grade student readiness to read, 3) closing of achievement gaps, 4) college and career readiness, and 5) increased high school graduation rates.  To meet these goals, Graff, his staff, and the school board are offering six Achievement and Integration Strategies:  1) innovative and integrated learning environment, 2) family engagement, 3) professional development, 4) career and college readiness, 5) recruitment and retention of diverse teachers and administration, and 6) equitable access to effective and diverse teachers.

 

With purported aspiration to meet these goals and implement these strategies, MPS staff and board are emphasizing the following programs, with budgetary allocations for 2017-2018 given also as follows:

 

Program for                                        2018 MPS Budgetary Allocation               

World’s Best Work Force

Alignment, 2017-2018

 

AVID                                                                      $3,042,040

(Advancement Via

Individual Determination)

 

Check and Connect                                                $350,000

 

 

Ethnic Studies and                                                 $236,903

Social Justice Fellows

 

Fast Track Scholars                                                  $13,000

 

Grow Your Own                                                     ---------------

Teacher Residency

 

Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG)                  $200,000

 

LearningWorks                                                        $25,000

 

MTSS/ Culturally                                               $1,520,000

Relevant Materials 

 

Office of Black Male Achievement                   $320,000

 

Project Success                                                     $110,000

 

RIS

(Racialy Integrated Schools)                          $1,800,000

Direct Support                 

 

Spring and Winter Academy                               $60,000

 

Urban Debate Academy                                    $119,000

 

In articles to come, I will be analyzing the above programs individually, and I will be including this analysis in my substantially complete book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect.

 

For now, understand this essential truth:  

 

Most of the above programs have been in existence for many years and have proven ineffective in raising achievement rates at the Minneapolis Public. Schools.

 

After these budgetary allocations for achievement and integration were presented, discussion turned to Eric Moore’s presentation of the results of a survey to community members.  Some questions focused on matters pertinent to student behavior, mental health, diversity of cultures and languages, marketing to increase student enrollment, free transportation to out-of-residential-area and magnet schools, monitoring of federal and state law compliance, cleaning of schools, keeping low-enrollment schools open, athletic programming, college preparatory programs, and school calendar (elimination of last two days of academic year 2017-201 and post-Labor Day start for academic year 2018-2019).  

 

In future articles, I will give detailed results as to responses to questions focused on these matters.  My essential statement on the responses given to these matters is that there tended to be low community consensus on the pertinent issues, there were notable differences between responses to an online survey (for which respondents were mostly white and higher income) and a phone survey (for which respondents were mostly people of color and lower income).  My interpretation of the responses given is that

 

>>>>>    community interest in these issues is limited; 

 

>>>>>    what community members really await is a viable academic program, delivered by consistently high-quality teachers.

 

More important, and more disturbing, are those interview items which focused on the six goals of the


MPS Strategic Plan:  Acceleration 2020, which are as follows:

 

Goal Number One, Improved Student Outcomes

 

Goal Number Two, Equity

                                                                                                                                                   

Goal Number Three, Family and Community Partnership

 

Goal Number Four,  Effective Teachers, School Leaders, and Staff

 

Goal Number Five, Stewardship

 

Goal Number Six, Resources for Students and Schools

 

Results of the survey indicated that community members prioritize these goals as follows:

 

  1. Improved Student Outcomes
  2. Equity
  3. Effective Staff
  4. Resources for Students and Schools
  5. Engagement
  6. Stewardship

 

 

…………………………………………………………

 

My Essential Statement Regarding

the Two Main Topics for Discussion

at this Meeting of the Finance Committee

 

The first three goals prioritized by the community, which quite interestingly are those most pertinent to academic achievement among those set in the MPS Strategic Plan:  Acceleration 2020, have no chance of being met under the current program of the Ed Graff administration:

 

The district is unclear as to what specific goals in math and reading are to be achieved and is even more vague as to the means for achieving these goals.  Staff in the administration and most members of the current MPS Board of Education know that their strategic plan is a mere exercise in goal-setting, with no means of raising student achievement, even if there were an abiding definition of how that achievement will be manifested, and on exactly which objective assessment achievement will be measured.  Avowedly, the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) are the key devices for measurement, but MPS teachers are not preparing students for the MCAs, and the MCAs have been vitiated by Minneapolis Federation of Teachers opposition and the irresponsible opt-out movement, especially at South and Southwest high schools.

 

MPS staff and board should take a long break from doing community surveys:

 

Try to grasp the absurdity of the survey summarized above by imagining physicians and attorneys asking the public what medical and legal treatments and strategies should be used to serve patients and clients.  Members of the latter two professions would only be inclined to administer such a survey after detailing with clarity the specific treatments and strategies available.

 

As Graff faces his waning hopes of enduring as MPS superintendent, the program that he must offer must focus on the 1) overhaul of curriculum;  2) retraining of teachers;  3)  provision of tutoring to academically struggling students;  4) outreach and resource provision to struggling families;  and 5) great paring of the central bureaucracy.

 

MPS Superintendent Ed Graff should then go to community members with his program and ask for their likely avid approval.

 

Or he himself should go,

 

along with key Davis Center decision-makers,

 

and the present membership of the MPS Board of Education.  

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