Sep 9, 2019

The Lamentable Appointment of Shawn Harris-Berry to the Position of Associate Superintendent


For the last several years Shawn Harris-Berry has served as principal of North High School, the latter formally identified as two schools, one a communication and arts academy, the other a community school.  But in the common parlance the two schools are one;  Berry served as principal for both schools.

 

Here is the school profile:

 

North Academy of Arts and Communications

 

Academic Performance

 

Mean Score on ACT   >>>>>          15.6

 

Percentage of Students Proficient on the

Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs),

Academic Years ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018

                               

North High School                           Principal >>>>>   Shawn Harris-Berry

 

(North Academy of Arts and Science)

 

Math                     2014       2015       2016      2017      2018

 

                                 -----         16%          2%        -----          2%

 

                                (-----)    (57)         (38)      (-----)         (42)

                                                                               

Reading               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018

 

                                 23%          9%           5%         11%         2%

 

                                (66)        (57)        (36)        (66)       (55)

 

Science                  2014       2015       2016      2017      2018

 

                                 -----         10%          5%        -----         2%

 

                                (-----)    (57)         (38)          (-----)     (42)

 

Student Population

 

Enrollment:  216

 

                                                Percentage of                   Percentage of

                                                Enrollment at Site           Enrollment

Districtwide

 

Native American                        1%                                      4%

African American                    86%                                     39%

Asian American                                          3%                                      8%

Hispanic American                    2%                                    18%

White American                        8%                                    31%

 

English Learners                          3%                                   19%

Receiving Free or                     87%                                   62%

         Reduced Price Lunch

Receiving Special                     29%                                   16%

         Education Services

 

Notice the low Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) performance for students at North High School, with the academic year ending in 2018 featuring identical grade level performance rates of two percent (2%) for students taking the tests for mathematics, reading, and science.   Figures in parentheses indicate number of students taking each test.  

 

Students take the MCA Reading exam in grade 10 and the MCA Mathematics exam in grade 11;  the MCA Science exam is also taken one year during high school matriculation.  These figures indicate that only one or two students at North High School demonstrated grade level performance in reading, mathematics, or science.

 

That would be just one or two students.

 

One or two students---  got it?

 

Two percent in each category---  understand?

 

Thus, essentially no students at North High School were legitimate high school students during the academic year ending in 2018;  and the figures for the other years yield the same observation.  And no wonder:   This is a school in which classes are frequently tumultuous, many teachers are inept in their fields, and very little is conveyed in knowledge and skill sets on any given day or in the course of the academic year.   

 

North High School is a terrible high school---  comprendes tu?

 

Shawn Harris-Berry’s performance was accordingly abominable:

 

Those on the parent committee at North High School know this. 

 

Teachers with whom I have spoken bemoan conditions at North. 

 

Basketball coach Larry McKenzie and others tout graduation rates for athletes and the general student body;  however, with the indicated MCA scores and a median ACT score of 15.6 (19th percentile, meaning the lower 81 percent of those taking the  ACT nationally), this means that academic standards have been so debased that students walk across the stage to receive a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.  Such students have at best a middle school level of knowledge and skill sets;  they in no way rise to the level suggested by the absurd claim at the Minneapolis Public Schools:  “Every Student, College or Career Ready.”

 

……………………………………………………………………

 

For her abysmal performance, Harris-Berry has now been assigned to the position of associate superintendent. 

 

She has been promoted for her inept performance.

 

The Peter Principle prevails again.

 

She has been kicked upstairs.

 

Care to formulate your own expression for this wretched occurrence, consistent with a debased pattern?

 

During academic year 2018-2019, there were three of these associate superintendents: 

 

Ron Wagner

Carla Steinbach-Huther

Brian Zambreno

 

Harris-Berry and former Lake Nokomis principal Lashawn Ray have been added to this incompetent  group, which has the responsibility of supervising site principals.  Annual pay for each associate superintendent was $148,500 during academic year 2018-2019;  for academic year 2019-2020, that figure has risen to $150,896.  This means that the central office (Davis Center, 1250 West Broadway) financial burden has now risen by $301,792 with the addition of Harris-Berry and Ray, along with the additional $7,486 for the three administrators already ill-performing this job.

 

Ah, you say that once personnel are established in these sinecures, that a 2% or so annual pay hike becomes a public burden?

 

And that bureaucratic creep ever adds to that burden?

 

My word, you’re getting observant, almost astute in your analysis..

 

Harris-Berry and Ray will in all probability just plug into the currently corrupt system whereby the associate superintendents protest the sinecures of principals and other site personnel while doing nothing to raise the academic performance of students.        

 

As Malcolm X would frequently say, staring a hole into the interviewer or audience,

 

“As you can see, there’s a contradiction here.”

 

……………………………………………………………

 

Harris-Berry’s credentials fit the pattern for central office administrators.  Not many of the latter have actually acquired the doctorate, but those who have, like Harris-Berry, hold only the flimsy sort bestowed by education departments, schools, or colleges lacking anything remotely approaching academic rigor.  Here are Harris-Berry’s credentials: 

 

Academic Credentials for Shawn Harris-Berry

Minneapolis Public Schools Associate Superintendent

 

Degrees Earned                               Field in Which                             Institution at Which

               Degree Was Earned                Degree Was Earned

 

Bachelors Degree (1985)              Business Education               University of Wisconsin--- Eau Claire Masters                  (1995)             Secondary School                  University of St. Thomas

Administration             

Doctorate Degree (2005)             Educational Leadership         St. Mary’s University                    

 

Other Credentials

 

Teaching License – Business Education (7-12)  expires 6/30/2020

Administrative License – District Superintendent expires 6/30/2020

Administrative License – K-12 Principal expires 6/30/2020

Administrative License – Secondary School Principal expires 6/30/2020

 

Business education is a lightweight degree and does not pertain to key academic areas such as mathematics, English, natural sciences, or the social sciences.  Keep in view the fact that the ACT exam tests for writing, reading, English, mathematics, and science reasoning skills.

 

Degrees in elementary or secondary school administration and educational leadership are mere professional certifications for the purpose of gaining access to positions that are more lucrative than those of the classroom teachers (although the latter, too, get bumped up the step and lane system by pursuing pointless degrees in education---  rather than specific subject area discipline---  programs).

 

Harris-Berry joins a Davis Center staff on which of 456 employees not one is an academician, a true scholar:

 

Shawn Harris-Berry should not have been appointed associate superintendent: 

 

Her record was abysmal at North High School.

 

The position of associate superintendent is not effective.

 

Such an appointment adds bureaucratic financial burden.

 

Harris-Berry’s credentials are academically flimsy.

 

Thus, Harris-Berry fits the profile of academic decision-makers in the central offices of the Davis Center of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

She is another non-academician making academic decisions.

 

What is that you say, Malcolm?

 

And have you added a chorus drawn from my readers?

 

Uh-huh   >>>>>

 

“As you can see, there’s a contradiction here.”

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