Across the landscape of the
United States, locally centralized school districts deliver a terrible quality
of preK-12 education.
The conditions that make this so
are traceable to the establishment of departments, colleges, and schools of
education on university campuses, especially the Teachers College of Columbia
University, in the early 20th century:
Prior to the installation of
teacher training programs on university campuses, teachers were generally
trained in normal schools which, while varying wildly in quality, typically
proceeded on the basis of the importance of a set body of knowledge and skills
that made reference to a classic curriculum that included Latin, mathematics,
English literature and usage, the natural sciences, government, and
history. Until the very late 19th
century and early 20th century, most young people were educated in
small, often one-room grammar schools that packed in students in grades one
through eight; many students did not, in
fact, matriculate beyond the sixth grade.
But in the course of the early
20th century, students seeking a high school education became more
numerous. The first high schools
featured an elaboration upon the core classical curriculum that had long guided
private tutors and those who had presided over private high schools--- and that served as a continuation of what
grammar schools had offered via McGuffey
Readers and the like: A set body of
knowledge and skill was considered central to quality education.
But with the establishment of
teacher training programs on university campuses, the emphasis on knowledge and
skill underwent a change. Knowledge was
the purview of field specialists who were so much more erudite than education
professors, so that the latter moved toward a position in which pedagogy was
paramount and knowledge was considered unimportant by comparison to items of
classroom focus that catered to the perceptible needs of particular students,
teacher whim, and an evolving litany of thematic foci purporting to advance
desirable aims in the larger society.
The ideology of the education
professor took many decades to gain implantation into the curricula of local
school districts. Many parents,
including immigrant groups and African Americans migrating by the tens of
thousands to the major urban centers of the American North and Northeast,
wanted a substantive education for children whom they hoped would climb the
social ladder. But by the 1960s, the
ideology of the education professor was moving to the fore; this trend continued into the 1970s and then
became dominant from the 1980s forward and continues to this day in locally
centralized systems such as the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).
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In this book I convey the results
of my five-year investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public
Schools. The book proceeds in three
parts: Part One, Facts; Part Two, Analysis; and Part Three, Philosophy.
In Part One, Facts, I present
the objective reality that abides in the Minneapolis Public Schools, pertinent
to central office (Davis Center, 1250 West Broadway) administration, including
division chiefs and executive directors, and all departments; academic results over a five-year
period; academic curriculum for grades preK-5,
6-8, and 9-12; MPS Board of
Education; Minneapolis Federation of
Teachers; Acceleration 2020 Strategic
Plan; Educational Equity Framework,
Educational Diversity Impact Assessment (EDIA);
profiles of the district’s more than 70 schools; World’s Best Workforce programs; World’s Best Workforce Committee; district finances; national and state context, including No Child
Left Behind (NCLB), Every Student Succeeds (EASSA), Minnesota State Department
of Education North Star Accountability System;
Minnesota State Academic Standards, Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments
(MCAs), and teacher training programs at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg,
Hamline, Mankato, and Wisconsin institutions;
and the most recent draft for the emerging MPS Comprehensive District
Design.
In Part Two, Analysis, I examine
the effectiveness of the above and point out the particular deficiencies of the
following;
Superintendent Ed Graff
Deputy Chief of Academics,
Leadership, and Learning Cecilia Saddler
Executive Director of Teaching
and Learning Aimee Fearing
Office of Black Male Achievement
Director Michael Walker and staff
Executive Director of the Department
of Indian Education Jennifer Simon and staff
Associate Superintendents
Shawn Harris-Berry
Lashawn Ray
Ron Wagner
Carla Steinbach-Huther
Brian Zambreno
All of those ineffective school
site principals whom the above incompetent group of associate superintendents
are supposed to mentor but cannot
Michelle Wiese and Staff at the
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers
All of those classroom teachers
who hand out worksheets, packets, and show videos rather than teaching
In examining the wretched performance
of these individuals, I convey their academic credentials and explain how they
have all been adversely affected by the ideology of education professors or
have no acceptable academic credentials at all.
In Part Three, Philosophy, I
detail the history and philosophy of education in the United States, extending
the comments that opened this introductory chapter, present views counter to
those espoused by education professors, offer a complete curriculum for grades
preK-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12, and advance a plan for teacher training
within the school district that would atone for the slim training that
prospective teachers receive in departments, colleges, and schools of
education.
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This is a seminal work.
No one has examined the inner
workings of a particular locally centralized school district.
The overhaul of the locally
centralized school district is central to the development of an educated
citizenry living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and
professional satisfaction; to ending
cyclical poverty; for atoning for a
history of grave abuse of large segments of the American populace; and for laying the foundations for a society that uses
the power of knowledge to refrain from such horrible acts as now dominate the
social landscape, looking toward a societal transformation that realizes the best qualities of the human spirit, rather
than the worst.
Nothing is more important than
our young people.
Empowered by knowledge and
skill, they will create the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be.
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