Mar 9, 2018

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Department of Funded Programs, March 2018 >>>>> Incorporation into the Office of General Counsel, with Full Focus on Academic Mandates


The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) lists four staff members working out of the Department of Funded Programs, as follows:

 

 

Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Funded Programs Staff Members

 

(March 2018)  >>>>>

 

Staff Member                                    Position

 

1)            Jennie Zumbusch                    Director, Research

                                                                          and Accountability         

2)            Anne Richardson                     Office Specialist,  Senior     

3)            Brigid Butler                             School Improvement Specialist           

4)            Sofie Pilhofer                            Evaluation Specialist,

                                                                                Title I Compliance          

 



Staff members at the MPS Department of Funded Programs vow that "Our focus is Student Achievement," then express their vision and mission as follows:

 

MPS VISION:


Every child college and career ready.

 



FUNDED PROGRAMS MISSION:


We provide leadership and support to schools and district staff to ensure Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funds are used to maximize student achievement and increase equitable educational opportunities.
                   

FUNDED PROGRAMS:

We oversee the Federal Title Programs and support schools and district staff with compliancy requirements. The purpose of ESEA is to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility and choice, so that no child is left behind. We are to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state academic standards and state academic assessments. Most importantly, Funded Programs must ensure ESEA funds are used within the intent of the law as well as to meet MPS goals.

……………………………………………………..

 
MPS Funded Programs has failed in all of its avowed goals  >>>>>




>>>>>     Most students are not achieving;  fewer that half meet Minnesota state achievement standards;  fewer than 25% of African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Somali, and Hmong students are meeting those standards.


>>>>>     Thus, not only is the vision to ensure that every child is college and career ready just so much verbiage, the reality is that very few students in the Minneapolis Public Schools are college or career ready;  even among those who graduate, 33% need remedial coursework once matriculating on college and university campuses.


>>>>>     And the essential responsibility of Funded Programs to use federal title programs to maximize student achievement is not gaining fulfillment;  most tellingly, the academic achievement rates indicate stark failure to assure equity, which goes to the core intent of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 


As the K-12 Revolution sweeps the halls of the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway), the Department of Funded Programs will no longer be a separate bureaucratic entity.  Staff members will be moved into the office of the General Counsel.  Under the purview of the General Counsel, compliance with federal government Title I and other programs will be strictly monitored for full focus on the allocation of funds to raise student achievement levels.   

 

The new superintendent will work closely with Funded Programs staff to facilitate closer links to personnel at school sites so as to intensify unified focus on student academic achievement.

 

In the context of the transformation of curricula and teacher quality, Minneapolis Public Schools students of all demographic descriptors will meet state standards in mathematics, reading, and science;  and they will graduate with an abundance of knowledge in history, economics, literature, and music, as well as the visual, vocational, and technological arts. 

 

Federally funded programs will be utilized with heightened intentionality to abet academic achievement for students of all demographic descriptors.    

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