Academic Inequities Are the Result of Structural Problems Unrelated to Pre-K Education

Low academic proficiency levels among public school students in Minnesota occur due to structural problems in our educational system that are unrelated to pre-K education. 

 

By tapping into the public ether of erroneous presumptions pertinent to the wonders of pre-K education, the editorial board of the Star Tribune (“Fulfilling the promise of pre-K education,” December 2, 2019) repeats proclamations that have no grounding in reality and if used as a guide to primary policy initiatives will cause profound disappointment.  
 
I direct a small-group tutorial program for young people from pre-K through grade twelve (weekdays after school, all day Saturday, Sunday afternoon into evening) that serves students who either are or started as students in the Minneapolis Public Schools;  and for college students and adults who have various educational objectives.  I am a strong supporter and stringent critic of the Minneapolis Public Schools and other locally centralized school systems.  I try, often unsuccessfully, to convince parents whose children I teach to keep them enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

Additionally, I have for five and a half years conducted a scholarly investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  My research findings, observations over a 48-year career teaching young people living at the urban core, and daily interactions with public school students in Minneapolis yield the following analysis.  My immediate frame of reference is the district of the Minneapolis Public Schools, for extrapolation to the dilemma of K-12 education in Minnesota and the United States.

 

In reality, K-2 education is a strength of the Minneapolis Public Schools in the provision of fundamental instruction in mathematics and reading.  Students come to me with alphabets learned, with phonemic awareness, phonics skills, and vocabulary necessary to read grade appropriate material at the K-2 level.  Via the K-2 mathematics sequence, they can add, subtract, and apply math skills to their lives.

 

The problem begins in grade three.  From that time through grade twelve, students are the recipients of a curriculum that is knowledge-deficient and skill-deplete, imparted by teachers who are ill-trained.  Subject area information formally required by the Minnesota State Academic Standards is absent at the K-5 level.  Students graduate from grade five mostly devoid of any knowledge of natural science, history, government , economics, fine art (visual and musical), and quality literature (classical mythology and works of Western authors;  works from the African American, African, American Indian, Hmong, Hispanic, and world traditions).  Middle school is also a vast academic wasteland that still suffers from a creed that prioritizes socialization over academics.  At the high school level, masters degrees held by teachers are overwhelmingly received from education rather than discipline-specific programs;  very few teachers are capable of providing academically rigorous instruction demanded in Advanced Placement courses.

 

We must, following the above discussion, abandon the notion that anyone enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools and other locally centralized school systems receives an excellent or even good education.  Readers can easily access information from the works of George Mason University Professor Rick Shenkman,  Pew Research, and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to discover the appalling knowledge-deficiency of Americans, most of whom matriculated in public schools.  Academically insubstantial public education falls hardest on students receiving free and reduced price lunch, and those from populations that have been historically abused;  such students typically do not benefit from familial histories of formal education and home-based discourse that promotes college preparatory vocabulary development.

 

Academic decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools and other locally centralized public education systems must recognize the subject area deficiency in their own professional preparation and make the break-through move to employ college and university-based scholars to develop knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum;  and to train teachers who themselves are knowledgeable enough to impart such a curriculum throughout the K-12 years.  Highly intentional tutoring must be provided by students languishing academically below grade level.  An environment must be created in which teachers seek rather than avoid positions in schools with high populations of students facing the gravest life challenges.

 

Only these systemic initiatives will provide an education of excellence to all students and eliminate the current inequities pertinent to academic proficiency levels.  In Minnesota, the key problem lies not in early childhood and K-2 education but rather in a system of teacher training, curriculum design, and skill remediation from grade three forward that denies students an equitable education of excellence.