Ethnic Studies and Social Justice Fellows >>>>> Article #3 in a Multi-Article Series >>>>> Programs Projected to Raise Academic Achievement of Students in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- With No Viable Hope of Doing So

This article is the third 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 Ethnic Studies & Social Justice Fellows, by which decision-makers at the MPS decision-makers (Ed Graff, Michael Thomas, Cecilia Saddler, along with the associate superintendents and staff in the Department of Teaching and Learning) seem to think that emphasizing curriculum pertinent to student ethnicity and to social justice concerns is going to raise mathematics, reading, and science achievement levels;  indeed, the purposes of this program in meeting World’s Best Workforce regulations established by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is solely (among the six possible items for WBWF alignment) for Closing Racial and Economic Achievement Gaps.

 

There are many favorable effects of teaching ethnically diverse curriculum and discussing themes focused on social justice.  But there is no reason whatsoever for thinking that in a school district of approximately 20,000 students of color a program covering no K-5 students and fewer than 600 high school students---  and no K-5 or grades 6-8 students---   is going to contribute anything of significance to raising achievement levels is fanciful.

 

The impression builds with the review of each program purported to raise overall achievement levels that decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools dwell in a fantasy world, are cynical in advancing programs that they know cannot work, or are joltingly incompetent.

 

Consider now the data pertinent to Ethnic Studies and Social Justice Fellows: 

 

>>>>>   

 

Program for                                       

World’s Best Work Force (WBWF)

Alignment, 2017-2018

 

Major (WBWF) Academic Program #3

 

Ethnic Studies and Social Justice Fellows

 

Projected WBWF Goals Addressed  >>>>>

 

Racial and Economic Achievement Gaps Closed

 
Budgetary Allotments, Academic Years Ending
in 2017, 2018, and 2019:

2017                       2018                       2019

Budgetary           Budgetary          Budgetary

Allocation           Allocation          Allocation          

 

 $345,929             $236,903             $150,000            

 

Students Served (Grades 9-12)

 

Academic Year Ending in 2017                  

 

K-8          Middle        High         Academic Year

                  School        School     T1 2016-2017

                           

-----            -----            430        

 

Academic Year Ending in 2018                  

 

K-8          Middle       High        Academic Year

                  School        School     T12017-2018                        

 

                                        544

 

Students Served by Race                                                             

 

(Academic Year                Ending in 2017)

 

 

African American    >>>>>

 

378

 

American Indian     >>>>>

(Native American)

 

    6

 

Asian >>>>>

 

  19

 

Hispanic >>>>>

 

  50

 

White  >>>>>

 

  21

 

Total  >>>>>

 

474

 

 

(Academic Year                Ending in 2018)

 

African American    >>>>>

 

358

 

American Indian     >>>>>

(Native American)

 

  23

 

Asian >>>>>

 

  25

 

Hispanic >>>>>

 

  76

 

White  >>>>>

 

  62

 

Total  >>>>>

 

544