Jan 15, 2020

Jennifer Rose Has Much to Prove as New Executive Director of MPS Department of Teaching and Learning >>>>> Her Record to Date is Abysmal and the Company She Keeps is Wretched


In yet another reshuffling of his leadership staff, Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff has now moved Aimee Fearing to an Interim Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning position while tapping longtime Department of Teaching and Learning staff member Jennifer Rose to replace Fearing as Executive Director of that department.


 

Rose has much to prove in her new position.

 

Inasmuch as she has been a part of a department stocked full of academic lightweights whose utterances inevitably parrot the education professors who have ruined generations of teachers and administrators, her appointment does not bode well for the needed overhaul of curriculum for knowledge intensity at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  The Department of Teaching and Learning is an embarrassment and a constant drag on highly trained and innovative staff in the departments and divisions of Information Technology, Finance, and Operations.

 

Rose is a bit better trained than some of her generally academically insubstantial fellow staff members in the Department of Teaching and Learning.  Rose does at least have a bachelor’s degree in a major discipline, having received a degree in biology from Drake University.  But as is typically the case in a department that lacks serious academicians, her master’s degree is in science education:  Rose opted for that easy route to a bump up the step and lane system, rather than getting a degree in biology, chemistry, or physics as would a serious scientist (a master’s degree in biology would have been the scholar’s option for Rose, if she had followed up on her bachelor’s degree in that field).

 

Rose’s credentials are as follows:

                                                                                                       

Jennifer Rose                   

Degrees Earned                                        Institution at Which Degree Was Earned

 

M.A., Science Education                     University of Iowa

B.S., Biology                                             Drake University

 

Licensures:

Life Sciences

Science 5-8

 

Before gaining appointment to her new position as head of Teaching and Learning, Rose had been director of science programming at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  Hence, since she has had responsibility for MPS student proficiency, her record has been abysmal.

 

Perpend:

 

MPS Academic Proficiency Rates in Science for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019

  

Science               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018        2019

 

African                 11%       15%         13%      11%       10%                  11%

American

 

American             14%        16%        13%      16%       13%           17%

Indian

 

Hispanic               17%         18%        21%      19%       17%          16%

 

Asian                     31%         35%       42%       31%       34%          40%

 

White                   71%         75%        71%       70%       71%               70%

 

Free/                     14%         15%        17%       16%      15%          14%

Reduced

 

All                          33%        36%        35%        34%      34%                 36%

Rose’s failures to date and her questionable academic preparation are all the more disturbing since Superintendent Graff and Interim Chief of Academics, Leadership and Learning Aimee Fearing feature even slimmer academic qualifications.

Consider:

Ed Graff               (Superintendent)

 

Degrees Earned                                                Institution at Which Degree Was Earned

 

M. A., Education Administration    University of Southern Mississippi

             (online degree)

 

B. A., Elementary Education            University of Alaska, Anchorage

Other Credentials

Professional Licensures

District Professional Administrator, District Superintendent

District Professional Administrator, Principal K-12

DHR International                          

 

Aimee Fearing   (Interim Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning)

 

Degrees Earned           Field in Which              Institution at Which             

                                        Degree Was Earned    Degree Was Earned

 

Bachelor’s Degree          ESL Education            University of Northwestern

 

13 May 2000

 

Master’s Degree             Education                      Hamline University

 

23 May 2003

 

Doctoral Degree             Education                    Hamline University

 

30 April 2015

 

Professional Licensures

 

K-12 Principal Licensure

Expiration, 30 June 2023

 

K-12 ESL Licensure

Expiration, 30 June 2023

 

5-12 Communication Arts Licensure

 

Expiration, 30 June 2023

 

Thus, neither Graff nor Fearing have any degree, even a bachelor’s, in the core subject areas of mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, government, economics, geography, English literature, or fine arts.  Graff’s online graduate degree from the low-tier University of Southern Mississippi is particularly embarrassing.

 

The driving concern of the Minneapolis Public Schools Comprehensive District Design should be the improvement of academic proficiency rates, overhaul of curriculum, and the training of teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum.

 

Despite admirable features pertinent to rationalization of transportation routes, immersion and dual language programming with sequenced progression from preK-5 to grades 6-8, and focus on community schools, the positive impact of all such favorable features will be undermined by the jargon-infested academic portion of the design and---  given leaders of such slim academic training as Rose, Graff, and Fearing---  any prospects for overhaul of curriculum and a newly trained teacher force are dim in the extreme.

 

Rose has much to prove in her new position as MPS Department of Learning Executive Director.

 

Her record is abysmal and the company she keeps is wretched.

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