Feb 7, 2018

Grow Your Own MPS Teacher Residency>>>>> Article #7 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 seventh 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. 

 

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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