Ed Graff is Clearly in Over His Head as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools

Yesterday (Thursday, 22 February 2018) at the beginning of the Finance Committee meeting of the Minneapolis (MPS) Board of Education, Superintendent Ed Graff wasted everyone’s time by lauding the members of this stunningly ineffective iteration of the school board.  Graff’s was a dissembling bromide delivered with obligatory reference to National School Boards Week. 

 

Graff may be unaware that this formulation of the MPS Board of Education has become a running joke with key leaders of the school district, who squirm and remain facially impassive amidst inner expressions of disgust at the silliness, prevarication, and political expediency that they witness at school board meetings.  Or, just as likely, Graff, who in my observation is often himself irritated by the mental density and moral dishonesty on display, was just giving his own version of political expediency manifested before board members who have the power to renew or terminate his contract.  

 

The stark truth, though, is that Graff is at least as incompetent and ill-suited for his current post as the members of the school board are wildly out of their depth:

 

Ed Graff is clearly in over his head As Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  

 

He has no training in a key university academic discipline:

 

 

Ed Graff               (Superintendent)

 

Degrees Earned                                                                Institution at Which Degree Was Earned

 

M. A., Education Administration                              University of Southern Mississippi

                                        

B. A., Elementary Education                                       University of Alaska, Anchorage

 

 

Graff’s emphasis on “Social and Emotional Learning” as framed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is as close to a philosophy of education that he has expressed as MPS superintendent.  But the performance of students during Graff’s tenure as superintendent in Anchorage, Alaska, for three academic years (2013-2014, 2014-2015, and 2015-2016) produced results similar to the disastrous results for students in the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

A look at the Anchorage figures strongly suggests why Graff’s contract was not renewed by the school board in that district, and the reason why that school board was less than impressed with the Social and Emotional Learning strategy as utilized by Graff:  

 

Results for Academic Year 2014-201

All Grade Levels

 

Language Arts

 

Does Not      Partially       Meets         Exceeds

Meet             Meets           Standard    Standard

Standard      Standard

 

Student

Categories

 

African                                   35.1%             42.1%         20.5%              2.3%

American

 

White/                   13.3%            33.7%            44.3%            8.5%

Caucasian

 

Hispanic                28.3%            42.3%          26.9%              2.5%

 

 

Alaska                     42.4%            37.5%          18.1%              1.9%

Native

American/

American

Indian

 

All Grade Levels

 

Mathematics

 

Does Not      Partially       Meets         Exceeds

Meet             Meets           Standard    Standard

Standard      Standard

 

           

 

Student

Categories

 

African                                   29.5%             51.3.%        16.9%              2.3%

American

 

White/                   12.9%             39.7%            36.5%        10.9%

Caucasian

 

Hispanic               23.4%             50.9%            21.8%         3.9%

 

 

Alaska                   29.0%               50.3%         18.2%          2.5%

Native

American/

American

Indian

 

All High School Mathematics Students

 

Does Not      Partially       Meets         Exceeds

Meet             Meets           Standard    Standard

Standard      Standard

 

Student

Categories

 

African                                  48.6%             36.7%             13.5%          1.2%

American

 

White/                 26.5%             35.4%             31.3%          6.8%

Caucasian

 

Hispanic              47.8%            35.4%           15.2%            1.6%

 

 

Alaska                   46.0%             35.4%           17.5%            1.0%

Native

American/

American

Indian

 

Grade 10 Mathematics Students

 

Does Not      Partially       Meets         Exceeds

Meet             Meets           Standard    Standard

Standard      Standard

Student

Categories

 

African                                  69.5%             24.7%            ---------                       ---------

American

 

 

White/                 36.9%             30.6%            25.6%         6.9%

Caucasian

 

Hispanic              61.3%             23.2%              14.4%         1.1%

 

 

Alaska                   69.4%             24.5%           ---------                     ---------

Native

American/

American

Indian

 

All                          48.7%            27.9%         19.4%          3.9%

Students

 

Grade 10 Engllish/ Language Arts

 

Does Not      Partially       Meets         Exceeds

Meet             Meets           Standard    Standard

Standard      Standard

 

 

Student

Categories

 

African                                  35.9%              53.3%          ---------                        ---------

American

 

 

White/                 12.5%             44.7%            39.7%           3.1%

Caucasian

 

Hispanic              28.6%             50.5%          ---------                        ---------

 

 

Alaska                   47.3%              40.5%          ---------         ---------

Native

American/

American

Indian

 

All                          23.9%             46.6%           27.7%            1.8%

Students

 

 

Composite Achievement Gaps (All Grade Levels)

 

 

English/          Mathematics

Language

Arts       

 

Student

Categories

 

African                                    30.0%              28.2%

American                                                                                                 

vs.

White/ Caucasian                           

 

Alaska                      32.8%              26.7%

Native

American/

vs.

White/ Caucasian

 

Asian                        22.4%             12.5%

vs.

White/ Caucasian

 

Native                   40.2%              32.5%

Hawaiian/

Other Pacific Island

vs.

White/ Caucasian

 

Hispanic                23.4%              21.7%

American

vs.

White/ Caucasian

 

Two or More        15.9%              13.7%

Ethnicities

vs.

White/ Caucasian

 

These abysmal results are similar to but actually worse than the abominable achievement levels of students in the Minneapolis Public Schools during a period that includes an academic  year (2016-2017) under the Graff administration;  furthermore, evidence suggests that the second year of Graff’s tenure as MPS superintendent is on course toward familiar terrible student achievement rates.

 

Compare the results for Anchorage with these figures for Minneapolis:

 

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

 

    31%        35%       42%     35%               

 

               2014         2015        2016     2017

 

White/ Caucasian

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

   71%        75%       71%      70%

 

All Students

 

                              2014           2015        2016     2017

 

    33%       36%        35%     34%

 

 

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Ed Graff is not an academician or a scholar.

 

The current superintendent has little in the way of a philosophy of education;  what little he expresses as to philosophy has a track record of failure in application.

 

Many staff members at the Davis Center have lost faith in Superintendent Graff;  they are as disenchanted with him as they are the members of the MPS Board of Education that Graff lauded in such clueless or dissembling manner at the 23 February MPS Board of Education Finance Committee meeting.

 

Ed Graff is clearly in over his head and always has been in the role of superintendent, both at Anchorage and now in Minneapolis.

 

Graff should find a vocation for whatever talents he can muster as he heads out the door of the Davis Center, clutching a severance but relieving the district of the $225,000 in salary with which the citizens of Minneapolis have been burdened for two academic years.