Academic Stagnation and Even Decline During Ed Graff’s Tenure as MPS Superintendent Indicate Clearly That His Contract Should Not Be Renewed

Academic proficiency has been generally stagnant during the period from July 2016 through February 2019 in which Ed Graff has served as superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS);  the performance of students in a number of key demographic groups has actually declined.

 

There is no plan in effect at this time, two and a half years into the Graff administration, with any likelihood of raising academic proficiency.  Graff has wisely effectively jettisoned the hopeless Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan, but his own emphases---  Social & Emotional Learning;  Multi-Tiered System of Support;  Literacy;  and Equity [the latter just verbiage in the absence of effectiveness in the former three])---  are woefully inadequate as foundation for a viable academic program.

 

Ed Graff should be thanked for his work in slimming the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) bureaucracy and for giving the highly adept Chief Financial Officer Ibrahima Diop the opportunity vastly to improve matters of budget and finance at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  But Graff is a failure as to the chief mission of any locally centralized school district:  providing excellent education to the students who are the district’s only reason for being:

 

His three-year contract should not be renewed.

 

Were the even more incompetent members of the MPS Board of Education not so wrenchingly negligent in embracing their own responsibilities, they would then bring in a true scholar as the new superintendent.   To induce such an action, great community pressure must be aroused and pressed upon the members of this board to bring in the quality of leadership needed to design and implement a program of academic excellence.

 

Here are the brutal figures that show the academic situation that Ed Graff inherited and the lack of progress during his tenure:

 

MPS Academic Proficiency Rates for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, & 2018

 

Math                     2014       2015       2016      2017      2018

 

African                  23%       19%            19%      16%       17%

American

 

American             23%        19%           19%       16%        17%

Indian

 

Hispanic               31%         32%          31%       29%        26%

 

Asian                     48%         50%          50%       44%        46%

 

White                   77%         78%          78%       77%        77%

 

Free/                     26%         26%          25%       24%        22%

Reduced

 

All                          44%         44%           44%     42%        42%

 

Reading               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018

 

African                  22%        21%          21%      21%       21%

American

 

American             21%        20%           21%       22%        23%

Indian

 

Hispanic               23%         25%          26%       26%        27%

 

Asian                     41%         40%          45%       38%        44%

 

White                   78%         77%          77%       78%        80%

 

Free/                     23%         23%          23%       25%        25%

Reduced

 

All                          42%         42%           43%     43%        45%

 

Science                 2014       2015       2016      2017      2018

 

African                 11%          15%         13%      11%       10%

American

 

American             14%          16%           3%       16%        13%

Indian

 

Hispanic               17%         18%          21%       19%        17%

 

Asian                     31%         35%          42%       31%        34%

 

White                   71%         75%          71%       70%        71%

 

Free/                     14%         15%          17%       16%        15%

Reduced

 

All                          33%         36%           35%     34%        34%