Jan 10, 2020

>Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume VI, No. 7, January 2020 >>>>> Article #5 >>>>> PreK-12 Revolution at the Minneapolis Public Schools Must Include Overhaul of Staff at the Davis Center

As we begin New Year 2020, the following staff at the Davis Center (Minneapolis Public Schools [MPS] central offices, 1250 West Broadway) should be put on notice that their employment will be terminated or their job descriptions altered dramatically within one month:

Associate Superintendents

Shawn Harris-Berry

LaShawn Ray

Ron Wagner

Brian Zambreno

 

Department of Teaching and Learning

 

Aimee Fearing, Executive Director

Ashley Kohn, K-12 Library Media Information DPF

Christen Lish, K-8 AVID Coordinator

Christina Ramsey, K-8 Talent Development and Advanced Academics

Chris Wernimont, 6-12 Math DPF

Donell Shinder, Science Materials Handler

Hibaq Muhamed, 6-12 Literacy DPF

Jeanne Lacy, Executive Assistant

Jeff C. Carlson, Materials Coordinator

Jennifer Rose, K-12 Science DPF

Julie Tangeman, K-5 Literacy, Science DPF, Davis Center

Katie MacDonald, Materials Handler

Kelley McQuillan, 9-12 Talent Development and Advanced Academics

Lisa Purcell, K-12 Social Studies DPF

Marium Toure, K-5 Math DPF, Davis Center

Mark Berg, Science Materials Handler

Nora Schull, K-12 Arts DPF

Paula Kilian, 6-12 AVID Coordinator

Sara Naeglie, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network

Sara Loch, K-12 Health/Physical Education DPF

Tara Newhouse, Senior Handler of Living Organisms

Timothy Lilla, Senior Materials Handler

Tommie Casey, AVID Program Manager

 

Office of Black Male Achievement

 

Michael Walker, Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement

Andria Daniel, Family and Community Inclusion Specialist

Cierra Burnaugh, Office Specialist, Senior

Richard Magembe, Teacher, Social Studies

Jamil Jackson, Community Expert Classroom Coach

 

Department of Indian Education Staff, September 2019

 

1.  Jennifer Simon, Director

(Cheyenne River Lake)

2.  Diane Leskey, Office Senior Specialist

3.  Jodi Burke, Counselor on Special Assignment

4.  TBD, Counselor on Special Assignment

5.  Tracy Burke, Counselor on Special Assignment

6.  Alicia Garcia, Social Worker

(Taos Pueblo)

7.  Braden Canfield, Social Worker

8.  TBD, TOSA, Special Education

9.  Anjanette Parisien, District Program Facilitator

(Turtle Mountain)

10.  Gary Lussier, District Program Facilitator

(Red Lake)

11.  TBD, District Program Facilitator

12.  Shane Thompson, School Success Program Assistant

(Seneca)

13.  Christine Wilson, Family Engagement Specialist

(White Earth)

14.  Miskwa Mukwa Desjarlait, Youth Engagement Specialist

(Red Lake)

 

In the case of staff members in the Office of Black Male Achievement and the Department of Indian Education, many of these have skills that can be utilized in the new Department of Resource Provision and Referral.  But their ineptitude as academic decision-makers may be xeen by reviewing the following proficiency rates for academic years ending in 2014 through 2019:

 

 

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

 

Math                     2014       2015       2016      2017      2018       2019        

 

African                  23%       19%         19%      16%          17%        18%

American

 

Reading               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018       2019 

 

African                  22%       21%         21%      21%         21%        23%

American

 

Science               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018        2019

 

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

American

 

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

 

Math                     2014       2015       2016      2017      2018         2019    

 

American             23%        19%           19%       16%        17%         18%

Indian

 

Reading               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018       2019

 

American             21%        20%         21%      22%        23%               25%

Indian

 

Science               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018        2019

 

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

Indian

 

Given the training that will be provided to produce a professionalized teacher corps, the Department of Teaching and Learning will be jettisoned.  Four-year colleges and universities have little use for any such department, since professorial scholars have the curriculum in their fields embedded in their brains.  This will be true now of the professionalized teacher corps with legitimate master’s degrees acquired in subject area disciplines rather than education;  moreover, pedagogical excellence will have been demonstrated over the academic year that each candidate for a teaching position in the Minneapolis Public Schools will now spend in an internship.

 

Superintendent Ed Graff must also recognize his deficiencies as an academic decision-maker and bring in college, university, or independent scholars to redesign curriculum and provide teacher training.  If he does not do this, public pressure will mount for him to count his successes in matters of finance and bureaucratic rationalization and then resign in favor of an academically inclined superintendent.  Such a candidate will be hard to find but an unprecedented, seminal search for a new type of superintendent will be among those features that will make the Minneapolis Public Schools a national model for the locally centralized school district.

 

1  >>>>>     curriculum overhaul for knowledge-intensity

 

2  >>>>>      training to secure knowledgeable, pedagogically adept teachers

 

3  >>>>>      new Department of Resource Provision and Referral       

 

4  >>>>>      highly intentional skill acquisition for student languishing below grade level      

 

5  >>>>>      overhaul of the Davis Center (central office) bureaucracy, with the jettisoning of the

Associate Superintendent positions, the Department of Teaching and Learning, and the

Office of Black Male Achievement;  and the redesign of the legislated mandated

Department of Indian Education, with possible reassignment of staff in the latter two

corners of the bureaucracy to positions in the Department of Resource Provision and

Referral.

 

All efforts made within the Minneapolis Public Schools will henceforth embody seriousness about knowledge and skill acquisition.  The five programmatic features above should guide reworking of the academic portion of the MPS Comprehensive District Design.  

 

Provision of an academic curriculum is the core mission of any locally centralized school district, with knowledge and skill sets conveyed in grade by grade sequence across the preK-12 years in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts.

 

Major changes in staffing at the Minneapolis Public Schools will be necessary to realize the district’s core mission.

 

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