Feb 9, 2018

Project SUCCESS >>>>> Article #11 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 eleventh 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 Project Success, a program connected to a 501(c)3 that serves approximately twenty schools and as many as 13,000 middle school and high school students of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  The program’s aim is to engage students in activities that help them form a realistic and optimistic vision of their post-K12 futures in college, in the meantime lifting academic performance and encouraging positive behaviors.  The organization sends facilitators into every English and arts classroom at grades 6-12 to run goal-setting workshops and on other occasions takes students to stage theater performances, college tours, art museums, and camping expeditions.

 

The purposes of this program in meeting World’s Best Workforce (WBWF) regulations established by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) (among the six possible items for WBWF are to Close Racial and Economic Achievement Gaps, ensure that students are Ready for Career and College, and maximize chances for Graduation from High School.

 

But diffuse goals of Project Success do not result in a sustained academic focus, limiting the program’s  effectiveness in raising achievement levels in mathematics, reading, and science.  Thus, the program becomes another among many that have worthy objectives that nevertheless do not go to the core of student need for knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education.

 

The Project Success program does nothing to avert the impression that builds 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 Project Success:     

 

>>>>>   

 

Program for                                       

World’s Best Work Force (WBWF)

Alignment, 2017-2018

 

Major (WBWF) Academic Program #11

 

Project Success

 

Projected WBWF Goals Addressed  >>>>>

 

Racial and Economic Achievement Gaps Closed

 

Ready for Career and College

 

Graduation from High School

 

2017                            2018                      2019

Budgetary           Budgetary          Budgetary

Allocation           Allocation          Allocation          

 

 $275,000             $110,000             $110,000            

 

Students Served (Grades 6-12)

 

Academic Year Ending in 2017                  

 

  K-8       Middle        High         Academic Year

                  School        School       2016-2017

                           

 625          3,354           8,703

 

Academic Year Ending in 2018                  

 

K-8         Middle        High         Academic Year

                  School        School       2017-2018

                           

1,448       3,413          10,362

 

 

Students Served by Race                                                             

 

This program by definition is exclusively for African American males:

 

(Academic Year                Ending in 2017)

 

African American    >>>>>

 

4,832

 

American Indian/

Native American

                                   

445

 

Asian

 

933

 

Hispanic

 

2,179

 

White

 

3,743

 

Total  >>>>>

 

12,142

 

 

(Academic Year                Ending in 2018)

 

African American    >>>>>

 

6,439

 

American Indian/

Native American

                                   

618

 

Asian

 

992

 

Hispanic

 

3,054

 

White

 

4,120

 

Total  >>>>>

 

15,223

No comments:

Post a Comment