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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