Article #4 in a Series >>>>> The Attempt on the Part of the Minnesota Department of Education to Mask Failure with the Pretensions of the North Star Accountability System and other Public Deceptions >>>>> World’s Best Workforce as Salient Empty Jargon from the Minnesota Legislature and the Minnesota Department of Education During the Mark Dayton/ Brenda Cassellius Tenures

Last spring 2018 I demonstrated in an exhaustive examination of the programs offered by the Minneapolis Public Schools as World’s Best Workforce (WBWF) submission that most of these programs serve very few students and none of them are very promising for raising academic performance;  they are submitted only to meet Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) requirements under the 2013 WBWF  law passed in the Minnesota Legislature.

World’s Best Workforce is more silly jargon for a program that has no chance of success, as underscored by the dismal academic results that have been reported every year that Mark Dayton has served as governor and Brenda Cassellius has occupied the sinecure of MDE Commissioner of Education.

Examine critically the description below, as given at the World’s Best Workforce portal of the MDE website:

What is the World’s Best Workforce?

The World’s Best Workforce bill was passed in 2013 to ensure every school district in the state is making strides to increase student performance. Each district must develop a plan that addresses the following five goals:

•     All children are ready for school.
•     All third-graders can read at grade level.
•     All racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed.
•     All students are ready for career and college.
•     All students graduate from high school.

Why is Minnesota focused on this idea?

For Minnesota to be competitive, we must have students who are college and career ready, students who are poised to lead the state’s workforce. This is important for a number of reasons:
 

•     Our population is aging.
•     Seventy percent (70%) of jobs will require more than a high school diploma by 2018.
•     We don’t have qualified candidates to fill many good-paying jobs.
•     The fastest growing segment of our future workforce is students of color, and they currently   have the state’s lowest graduation rate.
•     Minnesota has one of the worst black-white achievement gaps in the country.

How will we measure progress?

Each district will create their own plan to align curriculum and instruction so that students are college and career ready. The success of each plan will be measured by:
 

•     Closing the gap by student group
•     MCA scores
•     High school graduation rates
•     Career and college readiness