Volume V, Number 1, July 2018 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota<, Article #5 in a Multi-Article Series

Article #5

 

Associate Superintendents

Laura Cavender, Lucilla Davila, Ron Wagner, and Carla Steinbach

Overview of Effectiveness

                                           

The Associate Superintendents of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) during academic year 2017-2018 were four in number:  Laura Cavender, Ron Wagner, Lucilla Davila, and Carla Steinbach (who on some lists has the addition of –Huther to her surname).

 

The Associate Superintendents reported directly to Michael Thomas (Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning).  Thomas worked with the four associate superintendents for many years; formerly, Thomas was Chief of Schools under Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and Interim Superintendent Michael Goar, in the role of which Thomas’s prime responsibility was supervision over the associate superintendents. 

 

During those years, Thomas worked closely with Cavender, Wagner, and Davila as associate superintendents;   the latter have prime responsibility for supervising site principals of the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

Before occupying her current position as associate superintendent, Steinbach was for several years the principal of Edison High School and, just prior to taking the associate superintendent position, she was a “principal on special assignment” at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway).  Therefore, Thomas and the current associate superintendents had known Steinbach as an administrative mainstay of the district for many years.

 

Below is a presentation of the aggregate performance of the schools under the supervision of each associate superintendent. 

 

Cavender had the most challenging portfolio, with several chronically low-performing schools under her direction, the schools that during the Bernadeia Johnson administration were designated “High Priority,” for the intensity of efforts that was supposed to ensue to lift academic performance.

 

Wagner did have the chronically challenged Nellie Stone Johnson K-8 under his administrative purview, but schools such as Burroughs, Lake Harriet Upper and Lower, and Lake Nokomis have high proportions of students from affluent families.

 

Davila on the whole had a portfolio of schools that in terms of familial economic level are of middling challenge.

 

And Steinbach (-Huther) had particular responsibility for high schools, and for stand-alone middle schools (as opposed to the K-8 schools that include middle school students).

 

In future articles, derived (as are these data) from chapters in my substantially complete book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, I will focus more particularly on assessments of the performances of the individual associate superintendents.

 

For now, what should be considered is that academic performance for all of the schools has been essentially flat over the years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017---  so that whatever these associate superintendents are encouraging site principals to do is clearly not achieving the objective of raising student performance, which falls tragi-comically short of goals set in the ineffective Acceleration 2020  Strategic Plan of the MPS Board of Education.

 

Consider:

 

Academic Performance of Schools under the

Supervision of the Given Associate Superintendents

 

Laura Cavender            2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                                31%       33%      34%      34%

Reading                           29%       31%      33%      35%

Science                            20%       23%      23%      25%

 

Ron Wagner                  2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                                56%       57%      58%      56%

Reading                           51%       51%      54%      54%

Science                            44%       44%      48%      48%

               

Lucilla Davila                 2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                                41%       41%      41%      37%

Reading                           41%       39%      39%      38%

Science                            35%       33%      35%      32%

               

Carla Steinbach (-Huther)           

 

          2014     2015     2016     2017

 

Math                               45%       49%      43%      43%

Reading                          51%       48%      46%      47%

Science                           36%       46%      34%      34%

               

Schools for Which the Given Associate Superintendents are Responsible

 

Laura Cavender                                               

 

Anishinabe

Anwatin Middle School

Bethune

Green Central

Hall

Howe

Jenny Lind

Loring

Lucy Laney

Olson

Pillsbury

Sandford

Waite Park

 

Ron Wagner                      

 

Bryn Mawr

Burroughs

Hale

Jefferson

Kenny

Kenwood

Lake Harriet Lower

Lake Harriet Upper

Lake Nokomis

Lyndale

Nellie Stone Johnson

Northrop

Pratt

Sullivan

Webster

 

Lucilla Davila

 

Anderson

Armatage
Bancroft

Barton

Cityview

Dowling

Emerson

Folwell

Hmong Academy

Marcy

Seward

Sullivan

Whittier

Windom

 

Carla Steinbach (-Huther)

 

Edison High School

Henry High School

North High School

Roosevelt High School

South High School

Washburn High School

 

Wellstone International High School

 

Fair

Field

Franklin

Justice Page

Longfellow

Wellstone SWS

 

Lucilla Davila and Laura Cavender no longer work at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  They departed or were jettisoned in the aftermath of academic year 2017-2018.  One associate superintendent position was eliminated, so that the current occupants of the three positions are Ron Wagner, Carla Steinbach, and Brian Zambreno;  the latter came to MPS from the Richfield Public Schools, at which he had been a building principal and administrator.

 

As in the case of staff members at the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning, another year of ineffectiveness should induce job termination and the elimination of this position altogether.