The expressed mission and
values of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) are just verbiage, with no
grounding in reality.
The expressed mission of the
Minneapolis Public Schools is as follows:
Mission >>>>>
>>>>> We exist to ensure that
all students learn. <<<<<
The reality is that students learn very little.
Fewer the 25% of African American, Hispanic, American Indian,
Somali, and Hmong students meet state academic standards in mathematics,
reading, and science. Of the general
population of MPS students, fewer than 45% meet those standards.
Very few students can convey much factual knowledge or
understanding regarding history, government, economics, art, music, or the
highest quality world and ethnic literature.
Ask an MPS graduate t,o place the Mediterranean Sea on a map and
they most likely will look a long time and may not locate this historically
vital waterway.
Ask them to tell you what they know about the Reconstruction
amendments, Plessy v. Ferguson, or
the Great Northern Migration and you’ll probably get blank stares.
Request that they tell you something about the contrasting laws of
the universe as posited by Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein and the blankness gets
blanker.
Query them about the difference between deficit and debt, the
meaning of GDP, or the functioning of the Federal Reserve System and confusion
will reign.
Ask MPS students to identify and differentiate among the terms communist,
socialist, liberal, conservative, revolutionary, and reactionary and those blank
stares will not go away.
And
yet decision-makers and leaders at the Minneapolis Public Schools claim,
We support the growth of
students into knowledgeable,
skilled and confident citizens
capable of succeeding in their
work, personal, family and
community lives into the
21st century.
The expressed vision of the
Minneapolis Public Schools is as follows:
Vision >>>>> Every child college and career ready <<<<<
This expressed vision is also
mere verbiage.
Very few MPS graduates have
employable skills and 33% of those who matriculate on a college or university
campus need remedial coursework.
The expressed values of the
Minneapolis Public Schools are as follows:
Values >>>>>
1. Right to a quality
education
2. Importance of
family
3. Equity
4. Diversity
5. Respect for
employees
6. Partnership for
youth
7. Transparency and
accountability
8. Sustainability e
But low student achievement rates and sparse knowledge sets belie
the claim to value quality education.
Failure to provide resources and referrals to struggling families, and
to connect with them right where they live, gives the lie to the claim to value
family. The achievement rates of
students of color make the claim to value diversity just so much insidious
chatter. Failure to give teachers the retraining
that they need in view of abominable education programs undermines the claim to
respect employees. All manner of opportunities
to reach out to churches, mosques, and community associations are missed, so
that partnerships are not forged that could have had a transformative impact on
the lives of young people. The false
claims and glittering generalities in the MPS Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan, Educational Equity Framework and World’s Best Workforce plan for achievement and integration stretch
large distances away from transparency and accountability. And one would not want sustainability of a
system of education as wretched as that which prevails at the Minneapolis
Public Schools.
Decision-makers and leaders at the Minneapolis Public Schools, not
content to offer the dissembling utterances pertinent to the expressed mission,
vision, and values, go further to make a promise that they have no prospect for
keeping:
Our
Promise
Minneapolis Public Schools
promises an
inspirational education
experience in a safe,
welcoming environment for all
diverse learners
to acquire the tools and skills
necessary to
confidently engage in the
global community.
But the typical MPs student is bored, not inspired; feels alienated, not welcomed; and has few of the skills needed to go forth
as a culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally satisfied
citizen in the national community; and she
or he is certainly not prepared for interaction with the global community, of
which the MPS graduate knows so little.
A candidate for superintendent during the first-phase search in a
botched, prolonged 17-month process that ultimately yielded the starkly
mediocre Ed Graff, at one point in her interview, when given a chance to ask a
question of her own, queried the members of the MPS Board of Education,
What keeps you up at night?
Two members mustered bumbling responses; the other seven were silent.
All nine should have said collectively:
What keeps us up at night is
knowing that the
wretched quality of the
education for which we
are responsible sends our students
off to lives
that lack the cultural
enrichment, civic preparation,
or professional satisfaction
that was our
responsibility to make
possible; and that too many
of them end up navigating mean
streets to early
death, incarceration, or both.
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