At the meetings that I attended,
Executive Director Anna Ross and other staff from the MPS Department of Indian
Education reported on developments at MPS schools that serve heavily American
Indian populations. These schools
include Anishinabe Elementary, NaWayEE Center School, American Indian
OIC/Takoda Academy, and Tatanka Academy.
Be reminded of these data from Part
One, Facts:
MPS Proficiency Rates for American
Indian Students, Academic Years ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, & 2018
Math 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018
American 23% 19% 19% 16% 17%
Indian
Reading 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018
American 21% 20% 21% 22% 23%
Indian
Science 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018
American 14% 16% 13% 16% 13%
Indian
Performance and profile for Anishinabe
Elementary is as follows:
Percentage of Students Proficient on the
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs),
Academic Years ending in 2014, 2015, 2016,
2017, and 2018
Anishinabe Elementary School Principal
>>>>> Laura
Sullivan
Math 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018
6% 12% 8% 8% 8%
(186) (172)
(156) (156) (98)
Reading 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018
7% 9% 9% 6% 16%
(186) (172) (156) (156)
(98)
Science 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018
1% 7% 2% 2% 14%
(69) (59)
(45) (44)
(21)
Student Population
Enrollment:
not tabulated as yet by MPS officials
Percentage
of Percentage of
Enrollment
at Site Enrollment
Districtwide
Native American 78% 4%
African American 10% 36%
Asian American 0%
6%
Hispanic American 10% 20%
White American 2%
34%
English Learners 1% 24%
Receiving Free or 97% 63%
Reduced Price Lunch
Receiving Special 18% 14%
Education Services
Contact Information
3100 E. 28th Street
Minneapolis
MN 55406
Grades PreK-5
Principal:
Laura Sullivan
Hours:
8:40 AM-3:10 PM
Phone:
612-668-0880
FAX:
612-668-0890
Website:
anishinabe.mpls.k12.
District information on the academic
performance at American Indian/OIC is sketchy.
The reading proficiency rate in academic years 2013-2014 and 2016-2017
was fourteen percent (14%); The science
proficiency rate in academic year 2015-2016 was seventeen percent (17%). Data for other categories and in other years
is missing, raising questions regarding attendance and fulfillment of
assessment obligations.
Staff at Takoda Prep/American Indian
OIC assert that the school is “focused on helping all students make advances in
reading, writing, and mathematics while making a strong connection to American
Indian culture.” Those at NaWayEE School
seek to serve at-risk students as described in MN Statute 126.22.
The Department of Indian Education
identifies the following as four key services provided by staff members:
1)
Support for Instruction;
2)
Support for Family involvement;
3)
College Readiness
4)
Advocacy for Families
The Mission of the Department of
Indian Education is given as follows:
Improve
Native American achievement and graduation rates through academically rigorous
culturally responsive instruction, family and student engagement, and
collaborative partnerships with schools and communities.
The Vision of the Department of Indian
Education is given as follows:
All
American Indian students are empowered as lifelong learners to be fully engaged
leaders, stewards, and citizens.
National American Indian/OIC
President/CEO Joe Hobot received press coverage on 29 June 2017 for his touting
of Takoda Prep’s success in closing the achievement gap. But as in similar claims regarding bridging
of that gap, reality confronts verbiage.
The claim had little to do with academic performance: The only achievement cited was implicit in a
comparison with graduation rates at the Minneapolis Public Schools for Native
American students as a whole with those at Takoda Academy; for MPS Native American students as a whole,
the graduation rate in 2017 was
thirty-six percent (36%); for Takoda Academy,
the corresponding figure was eighty-five percent (85%). In the Minneapolis Public Schools, graduating
students lack proper academic preparation for postsecondary education; this is even truer for alternative
schools: Graduation rates do not equate
with academic achievement.
………………………………………………………………………………..
With this background information at
the forefront of my consciousness, I entered each of these meetings vainly
hoping to hear something encouraging from the academic programs serving American
Indian students in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
But what I heard concerned cultural
programming and successful efforts to connect with the American Indian families
and communities served by each of the schools.
I was the only person at either of
these two gatherings to ask any questions focused on academic progress. Minneapolis Public Schools Board members Kim
Ellison, Bob Walser, and Ira Jourdain (the latter himself a member of the Red
Lake band of Anishinabe/ Ojibway) attended the meeting in spring 2018; board members Kim Ellison, Bob Walser, Ira
Jourdain, and Jenny Arneson attended the meeting in spring 2019. Superintendent Ed Graff also attended the
2019 meeting. Neither Graff nor the
board members asked even one question regarding academic programming for the
purpose of raising American indian student achievement.
In the first meeting, my own questions
were posed to the principal of Takoda Academy.
Memorably, I asked him what the range and median ACT scores of students
at Takoda Academy were. He nervously
uttered that he had seen everything from 14 to 28, to which I replied,
“Someone scored a 28 [a very high
score out of 36 that would place such a student at the 89th
percentile]? Oh, really? And what is the median score for students at
Takoda Academy?”
“Well, I really don’t…”
“The median is 21,” broke in Anna
Ross, perhaps doing a quick calculation to split the difference between a score
of 14 and a score of 28.
“The median at Takoda Academy is 21?”
I queried.
“Yes,” came her terse reply.
I later checked this fantasy figure
out, knowing that achievement rates did not support such a claim. The actual figure is 16, at the 20th
percentile, well below the 21 figure, which is the national average (50th
percentile).
Ms. Ross had engaged in quite a bit of
prevarication.
………………………………………………………………………………..
Leaders of the schools at the second
meeting again touted cultural programming and familial connections. I asked each one of them about academic
progress. There was none of the Anna
Ross prevarication, but not a single leader could offer much that promised
academic progress. There was, though, a
hopeful moment when a dedicated and adroit English teacher at South High School
conveyed her difficult but ultimately successful struggle to gain interest and
then avid participation in the generation of creative work for and publication
of a splendid book of poetry by American Indian students. I lauded her for this very piece of artful
teaching.
…………………………………………………………………………….
Anna Ross announced at this last
gathering in spring 2019 that she was leaving the department.
Ross’s salary increased from $116,509
in December 2017 to $119,422 in February 2019, a hefty sum for such dismal
results in academic achievement for American indian students. He replacement, Jennifer Rose Simon, will be
receiving $109,273 in salary.
Perusal of staff information for the
Department of Indian Education indicates a program heavy on cultural and social
workers but sparse approaching zero as to subject area scholars:
Staff Member
Position
1) Anna Ross Director
2) Terrell Bignell School Success
2) Terrell Bignell School Success
Program Assistant
3) Jodi Burke Counselor
on Special
Assignment
4) Tracy
Burke Counselor
on Special
Assignment
5) Braden Canfield Social
Worker
6) Miskwa-Mukwa Desjarlait Youth Engagement Specialist
6) Miskwa-Mukwa Desjarlait Youth Engagement Specialist
7) Ida Downwind District
Program Facilitator
8) Alicia Garcia Social
Worker
9) Tami Johnson Counselor on Special
9) Tami Johnson Counselor on Special
Assignment
10) Elaine Kopischke Office
Specialist
11) Gary Lussier District Program Facilitator
11) Gary Lussier District Program Facilitator
12) James Vukelich School Success
Program Assistant
13) Christine Wilson Family
Engagement Specialist
14) Odia Wood-Krueger District
Program Facilitator
The Department of Indian Education
exists by Minnesota legislative mandate;
hence, the department, unlike the Office of Black Male Achievement, must
abide. But the department must be transformed
for focus on academic achievement. Staff
should be evaluated. The cultural
programming is laudable and those who are effective in this capacity should be
maintained in their positions. But
academics is the main reason for any locally centralized school district. The students themselves are fully capable,
and their lives depend on going forth as culturally enriched, civically
prepare, and professionally satisfied adults.
Only a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education will facilitate the
realization of those aims; accordingly,
staff retained or added to the Department of Indian Education should work
closely with thoroughly retrained teachers to impart an academically ambitious education
of the sort that must be delivered by the Minneapolis Public Schools to
students of all demographic descriptors.
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