These conditions will not be present as
long as Superintendent Ed Graff and Executive Director Aimee Fearing are the
key academic decision-makers, as long as the Department of Teaching and
Learning is staffed with academic lightweights whose undergraduate degrees are
largely and graduate degrees are entirely received from education programs
rather than from college and university departments representing key academic
disciplines in mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, literature, fine
arts, and vocations. Associate Superintendents
(MPS officials who have the responsibility to oversee school principals).
Shawn Harris-Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron
Wagner, and Brian Zambreno are similarly academic lightweights with no capacity
to implement a viable academic program, even if such were not absent from the
current MPS Comprehensive District Design.
Student enrollment figures for key
junctures in the history of the Minneapolis Public Schools are given as
follows:
Year Number
of Students Enrolled
(nearest thousand)
1937 80,000
1967 73,000
1985 40,000
2000 50,000
2008 34,000
2015 40,000
2019 34,000
Nothing in the MPS Comprehensive Design
will entice students back to the district.
The most compelling features of the Design
are centralization of sites for magnet schools, changes in sites for the
provision of multilingual programs, emphasis on neighborhood schools, and redesign
of transportation routes (powerfully abetted by those foregoing features). A rationalized transportation system has the
capacity to save many thousands of dollars and to place students in settings
that would be most conducive for learning if there were any viable academic
program awaiting them at their schools.
But, aside from the areas of special
education (overseen by Rochell Cox) and career and technical education (led by
Sara Etzel), sections in the MPS Comprehensive Design pertinent to academics is
full of jargon common to education professors and those trained by them; and
devoid of specificity for fulfilling to make good on the Every Student Succeeds
Act mandate to provide a well-rounded education.
Curriculum at pre-K-5 (elementary) schools should
emphasize mathematics through algebra I and geometry, natural sciences
(biology, chemistry, physics, health), social sciences and humanities
(government, history, geography, economics, psychology), English literature and
usage, and fine arts (visual and musical).
Curriculum at grades 6-8 (middle schools)
should continue that sequence by providing mathematics instruction through
algebra II, trigonometry, and statistics;
natural sciences courses that complete standard secondary training in
biology, chemistry, physics, and health;
social science and humanities courses that complete the impartation of
broad and deep knowledge in government, American history (with due attention to
specific ethnic histories), world history, economics, and psychology; English literature and usage; advanced experiences in the fine (visual and
musical) arts; and multiple options in
foreign languages, vocational arts, and physical education.
Curriculum at grades 9-12 (high school)
should emphasize advanced placement courses in calculus, United States government,
American history, world history, economics, psychology, English, and fine
arts. Particularly during the last two
years of high school, students should have access to an array of electives in
the liberal, technological, vocational arts;
so that upon graduation students are prepared to pursue driving interests
into secondary education and go forth to lives as culturally enriched,
civically engaged, and professionally satisfied citizens.
…………………………………………………………………………………
If leaders at the Minneapolis
Public Schools were able to promise the knowledge-intensive, skill-replete,
post-secondary preparatory education given above, students and families would
eagerly seek enrollment in MPS schools for which secure learning environments
are also provided.
But MPS is embarrassingly
devoid of academicians capable of designing and implementing knowledge-intensive
curriculum. College, university, and
independent scholars should be engaged by the district to design the needed
post-secondary preparatory curriculum.
Failing to provide an
education of excellence in secure environments will find enrollment of the
district of the Minneapolis Public Schools declining to 25,000 by the year 2025,
so that the survival of MPS would be doubtful.
Officials at the Minneapolis
Public Schools must face their own academic deficiencies, seek the help they
need, or understand that some mix of ignorance and obstreperousness will mean that
the locally centralized school district in Minneapolis will cease to exist.
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