Jan 16, 2020

Priority in the PreK-12 Revolution Must Be to Oust Interim Academics Chief Aimee Fearing; Associate Superintendents Shawn Harris-Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron Wagner, and Brian Zambreno; and the entire staff at the Department of Teaching and Learning; then Evaluate Superintendent Ed Graff for His Ability to Replace These Academic Lightweights with Scholarly Academicians


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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