Academic Failure at Folwell PreK-8, Where Controversies Abound Under Principal Lucilla Davila and the Lie is Given to Foolish Comments by MPS Board Chair Nelson Inz

Controversies are currently causing a great deal of parental consternation at Folwell PreK-8 in South Minneapolis. 

 

I am still ferreting through the current issues involving Principal Lucilla Davila, who was the subject of a prior investigation (resolved in her favor, without a great deal of publicly proclaimed information)  focused on a potential conflict of interest in after-school programming at a site under Davila’s supervision when she was an associate superintendent;  Davila had an association with the organization providing the after-school programming.

 

Superintendent Ed Graff moved both Davila and Laura Cavender to principal positions (Cavender is currently principal at Bryn Mawr) after multiyear stints as associate superintendents.  Neither school has thrived academically under their leadership.

 

Records such as the following put the lie to Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education Nelson’s Inz’s ridiculous closing statement this past Saturday (23 November) at a meeting focused on the evolving MPS Comprehensive District Design.  Inz, apparently on the basis of the two percentage point overall gain in reading proficiency across the district from academic years ending in 2018 and 2019, suggested that MPS leaders can counter the narrative of the district’s critics.  Multiple problems abide with Inz’s irresponsible statement:  That reading gain was from 45% to a still meager 47%;  math performance has remained flat at just 42% proficiency;  several demographic groups do not indicate even 20% proficiency in math, reading, or science;  overall student science proficiency is just 36 percent;  and many schools have actually witnessed proficiency declines even in the touted reading category.

 

MPS Board Chair Nelson Inz gives evidence of the three abiding characteristics of the members of the MPS Board of Education, in which they are mired in a brutal combination of

 

1  >>>>>  Ignorance

 

2  >>>>>  Denial

 

3  >>>>>  Corruption

 

So specious is the nature of Inz’s reasoning that he gives evidence of a fourth trait, which I will describe metaphorically as possessing quite a few cards short of a full mental deck.

 

With Folwell as a salient example of a school that is an abysmal academic failure belying Inz’s foolish comments, the pertinent data are given as follows  >>>>>

 

>>>>> 

 

 

Folwell

Academic Performance

 

Percentage of Students Proficient on the

Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs),

Academic Years ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019,

 

2014     2015     2016     2017       2018     2019

 

Math                       32%      29%      29%      23%           26%       17%

                                                                                                            

(570)    (566)     (532)    (558)      (554)     (553)

 

Reading                  25%     25%       26%      25%          26%       24%

 

                                 (567)   (568)      (532)    (562)      (559)    (556)

 

Science                                   18%     21%       32%       20%        18%        16%

 

 (181)     (184)     (184)    (176)     (179)    (195)