Article #4
My Answers
to Questions Posed at the End of the
Overview of
the Tentative MPS Comprehensive
District
Design
In the
overview of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Comprehensive District Design
distributed at the MPS Board of Education gathering on Saturday, 8 September
2018, there were on the back page several very well-posed and important
questions.
Here I present those questions and my answers:
Questions to Consider
Comprehensive District Design
With the district’s challenging demographics, the value
of integration often conflicts with the value of prioritizing the enrollment of
students who live within the school’s neighborhood:
Which value should be prioritized when enrollment
decisions are made?
My Answer >>>>>
The enrollment of students who live within the school’s
neighborhood should be prioritized.
The focus should be on the provision of
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum that includes and honors all
cultures, imparted by teachers who are intimately attune to the particular
strengths and the specific life challenges brought by each student into the
classroom.
Would you support a proposal in which a percentage of
seats at a school are held at schools that are over 70% homogenous to increase
diversity?
My Answer >>>>>
No.
Provide an excellent education at every school site,
along the lines given in the question above, and people of all demographic
descriptors will seek out a school of genuine
excellence.
Would you support that magnet school enrollment must be
diverse to receive integration revenue?
My Answer >>>>>
Yes.
Make each school, including magnet schools, excellent via
the impartation of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum, delivered by
teachers of broad and deep knowledge. The idea behind magnet schools is
the attraction of a diverse student body, so that the ability to do that should
be the qualifier for receipt of integration funding. This answer is
given, then, in frank recognition of the irony that the integration of a school
on the basis of magnetically attractive excellence will then be the qualifier
for integration funds.
Would you support a proposal that adjusts attendance
boundaries to increase a school’s diversity?
My Answer >>>>>
Adjustment of boundaries to increase a school’s diversity
is acceptable but unnecessary; such adjustment should be done with
attention to geographical integrity and relentless focus on school quality as
the core of the academic appeal that will be the generator of diversity.
Providing the foundation for a well-rounded education in
elementary schools might mean lengthening the school day for elementary
students to ensure that there are enough minutes in the day to support core
instruction. Is this something that we should consider?
My Answer >>>>>
No---
but
read below carefully for nuance:
The current amount of time designated for the school day,
which is largely wasted in such ways as temporally uneconomical group projects,
overreliance on videos, teacher absences and extended leaves yielding
ineffective substitutes, ill-focused field trips with lack of student
preparation, pep rallies, “free days,” and all manner of maddening distractions;
any additional time should be used for enrichment and remedial experiences as
appropriate, rather than on the academic core. Everyone in the universe
should know by now that my priority is the academic core, so my view here is
that the currently specified classroom time should be more than sufficient if
economically used, and that any extended time should be utilized to make sure
that students have the math and reading skills necessary to properly receive
the core.
Guaranteeing a well-rounded education for all students
with enrichment opportunities could mean less autonomy for schools to make
staffing and programming decisions. Would you support this if it meant
more guaranteed access to programming supports and enrichment for all students?
My Answer >>>>>
Yes.
Knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum should be
designed at the level of the central office (Davis Center) for grade by grade
implementation in the classrooms of the individual sites.
The knowledgeable, pedagogically skilled teacher is ever
adept at working innovations upon a commonly imparted curriculum.
K-8 schools limit the experiences of their 6-8 students
because of the costs associated with programming their low enrollment.
With this in mind, would you support the District moving to K-5, 6-8,
9-12 school design so that all middle school students have equitable
programming?
My Answer >>>>>
Yes.
The properly sequenced, grade by grade K-5 curriculum
should focus on mathematics, natural science (foundations of biology,
chemistry, physics), literature and English usage, history, economics,
psychology, and the fine (visual and musical) arts.
The grade 6-8 curriculum should continue this emphasis,
with accompanying world language opportunities.
Given academic rigor at the K-5 and 6-8 levels, grade
9-12 students will be ready for Advanced Placement courses concomitantly
preparing them to take the ACT and SAT college readiness assessments; and
should also at this stage be given ample elective opportunities to pursue
personal interests in the liberal, vocational, and fine arts.
Providing predictable staffing for all schools could mean
a reallocation of resources from schools with larger budgets. Should the
District provide subsidies for small schools or schools with limited poverty to
achieve equitable staffing?
My
Answer >>>>>
Yes.
Not without much thought should resources ever be shifted
from schools with many students on Free or Reduced price lunch; but
predictable and equitable staffing is a paramount objective necessary to attain
academic excellence at each school site.
Data suggests that there are portions of the city where
parents choose to enroll outside of the District due to concerns about transportation
and walk zones, lack of culturally and linguistically specific schools, and
academically rigorous curricular offerings. Would you support a plan that
offers geographically differentiated transportation options or program choices
specifically to increase market share?
My Answer >>>>>
No.
Except for some immensely pragmatic objective to address
a highly particular situation, the emphasis should be the provision of an
excellent education as given in answers above, creating a situation in which
students and families of all demographic descriptors will seek out that school
of excellence close to the familial residence.
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