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.
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 Grow
Your Own MPS Teacher Residency, by which decision-makers at the Minneapolis
Public Schools are attempting to create a more diverse teaching force by giving
teachers’ aides and other paraprofessionals the opportunity to train to become
a teacher, particularly at the K-5 level.
Although the program proceeded her tenure, Deputy Chief of Academics,
Leadership, and Learning Cecilia Saddler (as head of the MPS Department of
Teaching and Learning) has administrative responsibility for this program.
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) to Close Racial and Economic
Achievement Gaps.
A program with
potential to create a more diverse teaching contingent has prospects for more
closely connecting students to their teachers.
But any thought that such a program has any potential to raise
achievement levels in mathematics, reading, and science is fanciful in the
absence of curricular overhaul, much more knowledge-intensive training for
prospective teachers, a comprehensive tutoring program, resource provision and
referral for struggling families, and more thorough bureaucratic trimming. There is furthermore an indication that
decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public School have become disenchanted with
the prospects or cost effectiveness of the Grow Your Own Teacher Residency
program: Budgetary allocations peaked
this academic year of 2017-2018 at $875,000 but decline to just $100,000 in
academic year 2018-2019.
The impression continues
to build with the review of each program purported to raise overall achievement
levels that MPS decision-makers 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 Grow Your Own MPS Teacher Residency:
>>>>>
Program for
World’s
Best Work Force (WBWF)
Alignment,
2017-2018
Major (WBWF)
Academic Program #7
Grow Your Own Teacher Residency
Projected WBWF
Goals Addressed >>>>>
Racial and Economic Achievement Gaps Closed
Budgetary
Allocation for Academic Years
Ending in 2017,
2018, and 2019:
2017 2018 2019
Budgetary Budgetary Budgetary
Allocation Allocation Allocation
$600,000 $875,000 $100,000
Students Served (Grades K-5)
Academic Year Ending in 2017
K-5
K-8 Middle High Academic Year
School
School 2015-2016
450 75 ----- -----
Academic Year Ending in 2018
K-5 K-8 Middle High Academic Year
School
School 2017-2018
1,174 2,520
----- -----
Students
Served by Race
(Academic Year Ending in 2017)
African American >>>>>
248
American Indian >>>>>
(Native American)
8
Asian >>>>>
16
Hispanic >>>>>
111
White >>>>>
142
Total >>>>>
525
(Academic Year Ending in 2018)
African American >>>>>
1,847
American Indian >>>>>
(Native American)
148
Asian >>>>>
63
Hispanic >>>>>
1,367
White >>>>>
269
Total >>>>>
3,694
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