At
6:00 PM on Monday, 24 September, in Conference Center B at the Minnesota Department
of Education (MDE), Brenda Cassellius’s aide Michael Diedrich went for the
nearest security guard after I raised tough questions and the meeting veered out
of control of MDE staff attempting to defend the indefensible.
I
waited through two prior question and answer sessions as the presenters went
through three phases in an effort to explain the new North Star Accountability System
(described in full as you scroll down through previous recent entries on this
blog). This is the system of purported
accountability now being foisted on the public in the latest failed proclamation
hailing a program that nevertheless has no chance of raising academic performance
of Minnesota students.
Of
the approximately 2,000 schools in Minnesota, 485 of them have failed to demonstrate
acceptable performance according to at least one of several indicators: graduation rates, attendance, academic
progress for English learners, general academic progress, and proficiency as
demonstrated on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs). Note that the latter indicator, which is the
only measure that reveals the actual proficiency levels of students in a given
academic year, now is a mere inclusion in an array of indicators. Much mention was made of schools now having multiple ways of demonstrating that they are
making progress; the matter of academic
performance is not clearly in focus, as was the case during 2002-2016 before
Congressional jettisoning of No Child Left Behind and the passage of the new
Every Student Succeeds Act. The Every
Student Succeeds Act and the North Star Accountability System designed by staff
at the Minnesota Department of Education allow for considerable more wiggle
room for failing schools to claim some level of success:
Perpend,
on the latter matter: One MDE
presenter gave his approval to a case in which a school has done a particularly
good job of cleaning up around and plugging bullet holes; this was offered illustratively as a case of what MDE staff is
touting as “Quick Wins,” complete with categorical capitals. I (Gary Marvin Davison) kid you not. And some members in the audience comprised
heavily of people from MDE staff and Minnesota public school systems gave
verbal expressions of approval. I kid
you not on that, as well.
After
the meeting had transpired through three presentations and the clock indicated
that we had rolled past the one-hour point in the meeting, with less than
thirty minutes to go (even though the meeting was announced as providing two
hours for presentations and discussion), I raised the following question, with
introductory comments as follows:
“There
are to be six Regional Centers of Excellence, staffed with a total of 45
members, so that each center will have seven or eight people providing assistance.”
“That’s
about right,” the presenter responded.
I
continued: “Back in the late 1990s and
very early 2000s in the time of the Minnesota Basic Skills Test, the school
systems of Minnesota demonstrated that they could not even educate an
acceptable percentage of students at a grade 8 level. Then we had No Child Left Behind and more
embarrassing academic results, at that time with the MCAS; No
Child Left Behind was attacked by the left (Education Minnesota, Minneapolis
Federation of Teachers, DFL) and right (when the right figured out, ‘Oh, yeah,
these are central government mandates’), so that we then had the murky Multiple
Measurement Rating System, the Every Student Succeeds Act and with it the even
murkier current North Star Accountability System.
“My
question to you, then, is: Do you at the
Minnesota Department of Education live in a fantasy world, or are you knowingly
perpetrating this hoax on the students of Minnesota?”
The
presenter stammered that answering that question would take a lot of unpacking.
I
said, “Sure would. Go ahead and unpack
it.”
“Not
now,” he said.
And
I then responded, “Well then, would you meet me in a public debate?"
“No,
I wouldn’t,” he said.
“Of
course, you wouldn’t,” I asserted, “because you don’t have the ability.”
Members
of the audience, all of those retorting representing either Minnesota school
districts or the MDE, then began to issue rejoinders to me. That was great. I wanted to rouse this audience of automatons
and dissemblers to life. Voices got
loud, including my own. I challenged two
more MDE members and one school district representative to a refereed public
debate, with of course no takers from people of this ilk, caught in the act of
attempting to defend the indefensible.
As
voices rose, one of the previous presenters came to the fore and threatened to
call a security guard.
“And
on what basis would you do that?” I asked.
“Disturbing
our meeting,” came the reply.
As
Michael Diedrich hastened out of the room to summon the nearest security
guard, I just laughed.
As
the last presenter made one more lame presentation, Diedrich returned with the
security guard as both remained at the back of the room (I was sitting right up
front, contently silent). The presenter
concluded, called for questions, there were no takers, and the meeting was
over.
I
rose slowly but was the first to stride up the aisle. I expected a few people to meet me in the
eye, casting mostly mean eyes given the dominant composition of the crowd
representing the state department and the school districts culpable for the
academic results that have no more than sixty percent (60%) of our students
reading and performing mathematical tasks with grade level proficiency.
But
not a single person met my eyes.
Cowards
all.
I
continued my trip up the aisle, staring a hole in Michael Diedrich’s
prevaricating back-of-the-room countenance.
But
I turned amiably to the security guard and said, “Hey, good to see you, man.”
“Yup,”
he mumbled as he shook my proffered hand.
I
strode out the door smiling at the stupidity that I had witnessed on the part MDE
staff and audience members at this charade of a meeting.
But
I had three attending thoughts as I strode to my Toyota Matrix and drove home.
With
regard to public and official attitudes about K-12 education, people variously
>>>>> are dimwitted on the issues;
>>>>> are dissembling officials or their sycophants;
or
>>>>> just don’t care.
Closing
message to Brenda Cassellius, Michael Diedrich, and anyone else willing to
expose your lack of knowledge on the history and current circumstance of public
education in Minnesota and the United States:
Meet
me in that formal refereed debate under formal rules of disputation.
Or
admit you fall short on matters pertinent to the most important endeavor imaginable
and cheat our precious young people every day your feet hit the ground.
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