The central problems at the Minneapolis
Public Schools (MPS) are a politically corrupt MPS Board of Education; and the paucity of scholarly academicians at
the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) and throughout the
corps of building principals and teachers who plague the district.
Next November, anyone who wants to bring
the needed change to our local iteration of the public school district must
have recruited candidates to replace Bob Walser, KerryJo Felder, and Kim
Ellison, having found out also if Ira Jourdain can define himself in terms of
his better instincts or if he, too, should be ousted.
In the meantime, we must work to clear the
Davis Center of all of the academic lightweights who with each day their feet
hit the ground impede the development and implementation of
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education in behalf of the students at this
district’s abysmal schools.
The Department of Teaching and Learning,
the sort of organizational entity that no college or university would have
because professors carry the curriculum in their brains by the nature of their
training, is charged with a responsibility that forlorn staff have no vision of
fulfilling and could not do so if they did.
So ruined by education professors is this group of academic lightweights
that all they can do is mumble jargon and dither: They have little knowledge themselves, do not
think that knowledge is important, and
have no intent to construct the curriculum needed.
This entire department should be
jettisoned.
Associate Superintendents Shawn
Harris-Berry (a failed principal at North High School who was rewarded for her
failure with a position in the Davis Center), LaShawn Ray (also a former
principal with an undistinguished record), and holdovers Ron Wagner and Brian
Zambreno have no advanced credentials in a key subject area and feature even
undergraduate degrees in education rather than in key disciplines:
Perpend:
Shawn Harris-Berry (Associate Superintendent)
Degrees Received
Field in Which
Institution at Which
Degree Was Received
Degree Was Received
Bachelors Degree
(1985) Business
Education
University
of Wisconsin--- Eau Claire Masters (1995)
Secondary School University
of St. Thomas
Administration
Doctorate Degree
(2005) Educational
Leadership St. Mary’s University
Other Credentials
Teaching License – Business
Education (7-12) expires 6/30/2020
Administrative License –
District Superintendent expires 6/30/2020
Administrative License – K-12
Principal expires 6/30/2020
Administrative License –
Secondary School Principal expires 6/30/2020
LaShawn Ray (Associate Superintendent)
Degrees Received
Field
in Which
Institution at Which
Degree Was Received Degree Was Earned
Bachelors Degree (1994)
Social Sciences University
of Wisconsin – River Falls
Master’s Degree (year
2006)
Education St.
Cloud State University
Superintendent’s
(2018) Minnesota
State Mankato
Other Credentials
Teaching License – EBD (K-12)
expires 6/30/2023
Administrative License – K-12
Principal expires 6/30/2023
Superintendent –
6/30/2023
Ron Wagner (Associate Superintendent)
Degrees Received Institution
at Which Degree Was Received
Education Specialist Degree University of St. Thomas
M.A., Education Ball State University
B.A. or B.S., Education Ball State University
Licensures:
Elementary Education
English/ Language Arts
Mathematics
District Superintendent
K-12 Principal
Brian Zambreno (Associate Superintendent)
Degrees Received Institution
at Which Degree Was Received
Doctorate (PhD), Education
St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
Education Specialist
Degree University of St. Thomas
M.A., Education Hamline University
B.A. or B.S., Liberal
Arts University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Licensures:
District
Superintendent
K-12 Principal
English as Second Language
…………………………………………………………………………….
Supertintendent Ed Graff is an
academic nonentity in the exteme, having maxed out with an online degree in
education administration from the low-tier University of Southern Mississippi.
Aimee Fearing attended the academically
low-rated University of Northwestern in St. Paul (not to be confused with
esteemed Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois), then secured
insubstantial education degrees at Hamline University. Anyone who addresses her as “Doctor” is perpetuating
a cruel joke: Her dissertation focused
on public school administrators, asking the laughable question as to whether
and how much they now utilize their training in education schools.
Please ponder that one for
full farcical effect.
………………………………………………………………………..
Superintendent Ed Graff,
despite his slim academic qualifications, has proven himself to be adept in judging
talent at finance, information technology, and operations. But his MPS Comprehensive District Design,
while featuring admirable elements with regard to magnet school centralization,
transportation route rationalization, and emphasis on community schools; bears the grave and probably fatal flaw of
presenting a jargon-infested, academically insubstantial section for the
improvement of academic achievement.
Graff must oust those at the
Davis Center who have responsibility for the academic program but manifest no
credentials or ability to develop knowledge-intensive, skill replete
curriculum.
If Graff does not do this, he
himself must go.
Ouster of the Davis Center
staff of academic lightweights must begin, even as we wait to replace the inept
current membership of the MPS Board of Education.
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