A close look at Strategic Plan: Acceleration
2020 of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) reveals the document’s stark
deficiencies as a guide for excellence in K-12 education.
This document was approved at a September 2014
meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education. Via the program advocated in the pages of the
work overseen by then Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and Chief Executive
Officer Michael Goar, the public schools of Minneapolis were to advance
educational excellence and equity for all students enrolled in the district.
Six high-level goals were given in the
document: 1) Improved Student
Outcomes; 2) Equity; 3)
Family and Community Partnership;
4) Effective Teachers, School Leaders, and Staff; 5) Stewardship; and 6) Resources for Students and Schools.
Goals offered in what was termed the “big,
bold spirit of the 5-8-10 plan” included the following, to be attained in the
run-up to year 2020:
>>>>> 5
percent annual increase in students overall meeting or exceeding state
standards in reading
and math;
>>>>> 8 percent annual increase in students meeting
or exceeding state standards in reading
and math for MPS’s lowest performing students;
>>>>> 10 percent annual increase in the four-year
graduation rate
Officials at MPS declared that
“Our targets are intentionally
high to reignite a sense of urgency in the system and ensure that everyone is
operating with growth mindset. Meeting these targets is absolutely
possible. Under this plan, we will
achieve our vision of every child graduating college and career ready.”
The
enormous amount of jargon and generality contained in Strategic
Plan: Acceleration 2020 is instructive for the
similarity to the verbiage encountered in the new Minneapolis Public Schools Comprehensive District Design.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number One,
Improved Student Outcomes, officials at MPS stressed that teachers at
Grades Pre-K through Grade 3 should have routines in place for development of
student reading and language skills;
that teachers at Grade 4 through Grade 12 and for adult learners should
abet the development of such skills via guided academic conversations and “close
reading”; and that teachers at Grade 6 through Grade 12 and for
adult learners develop students’ math and science vocabulary and content
knowledge using “literacy strategies.”
Also stressed were core instruction for all categories of learners; personalized learning opportunities; readiness at key points of transition from
one major age grouping to another;
behavioral interventions that minimize suspensions; and the availability of ethnic studies
courses in high school.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Two,
Equity, officials at MPS emphasized the use of student data as examined and
then acted upon by Professional Learning Communities of teachers at each site,
problem-based learning and critical thinking;
multiple pathways to graduation via dual enrollment, Post-Secondary
Options (PSEO), credit recovery, community-based GED and literacy programs, and
online learning; and availability of
world languages. Associate
Superintendents were to monitor progress toward the goal of equity and the
given sub-goals; and staff at all
schools are to be given proper supports, with enhanced supports at High
Priority Schools and Focus Schools.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number
Three, Family and Community Partnership, officials at MPS underscored the
importance of engagement with families of students, with appropriate language
translation and interpreting services, with training for teachers in
communication with families, and with great effort made to provide accessible
locations and temporally flexible times for familial participation. They also stressed increases in corporate
support, grant funding, and volunteers---
with ongoing monitoring of community partnerships for effectiveness.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Four,
Effective Teachers, School Leaders, and Staff, officials at MPS emphasized
the need for diversity in hiring, identification and placement of individuals
particularly suited for teaching and staff roles to meet the needs of students
at certain schools, and the provision of training and supports for staff in
performing to expectation. There was
also emphasis placed on providing leadership training and career advancement
opportunities; and on implementing
Quality Compensation (Q-Comp) to promote staff retention and career
development.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Five,
Stewardship, officials at MPS stressed accountability on the part of
administrators at all levels for the implementation of Strategic Plan: Acceleration
2020 via ongoing assessment of effectiveness and adjustment of strategies
as necessary; use of the Baldrige
Criteria for Education Organizations as a guide to ongoing staff training
in planning, management, decision-making and data collection and
utilization; and central office
adjustments to abet increased school autonomy.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Six,
Resources for Students and Schools, officials at the district MPS
emphasized “zero-based budgeting” to assure that funds are used where they are
truly needed, with allocations prioritized for the classroom, and with
attention to services pertinent to transportation, food security, instructional
technology, school environment, and athletics that have a direct impact on
students’ lives.
All of these goals were to be attained in the
context of an inclination toward school autonomy and upon the conviction that
the individual site--- the
school--- is the meaningful unit of
change and that school staff members should have flexibility to meet the needs
of their particular student population.
………………………………………………………………….
Stating that the school is the unit of change,
with attention to the needs of particular populations, is one of those
expressions that can float into the ears of people without giving offense and
even seeming favorable--- but actually
may be harmful, depending on those devils called details.
In reality, in the United States the locally
centralized district itself must be the unit of change. At that level, we must specify a knowledge-rich
curriculum for implementation throughout the schools of MPS, for impartation by
knowledgeable teachers trained by the school district itself. With the definition of an excellent
education, the identification of a knowledge-rich curriculum, and the training
of knowledgeable teachers accomplished, then most functions of the central
bureaucracy could be moved out to the individual sites, with principals and
teachers given responsibility for implementation. With the central bureaucracy having acted
meaningfully as the original unit of change, the sites will then become
subsidiary units of change.
Remember that an
excellent
education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive,
logically seqauenced curriculum in the liberal (mathematics, natural science,
history, economics, literature, fine arts), technological, and industrial arts
to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
And
remember that
an
excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the
pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
Remember also that the
purpose of
an excellent K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts
is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the
likelihood of going forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation,
and professional satisfaction.
With those succinct definitions and
observations, I have provided more detail in my vision of an excellent
education than officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools have given in their
entire Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 document--- or that they give in the projected academic
program in the Minneapolis Public Schools
Comprehensive District Design
In the Strategic
Plan: Acceleration 2020, the most
specific statements were those pertinent to goals for student achievement; and those identifying the school as the unit
of change. But those statements seem to
assume that annual increases in math and reading skills (5% annually for the
general student population, 8% for
previously lowest-performing students),
and 10% annual increases in the four-year graduation rate; can be attained without highly specific
approaches for achieving results. And
MPS officials focus measurable goals on basic skills, while relying on
site-based school innovation, multiple pathways, and linguistic and advanced
course opportunities to forge a path to excellence.
Relying on site-base innovation is a “Hail Mary”
approach that the Minneapolis Public Schools Comprehensive District Design seems to
counter with a properly centralized plan auguring consistency and continuity from
school to school. But, lamentably, the
jargon-infested generality of the Design will
still find officials yelling, “Hail Mary”---
hoping for the best in a program wherein curriculum remains weak,
teachers ill-trained, and the academic and life struggles of students with
familial challenges of poverty and functionality go unaddressed.
We will achieve educational excellence for all
of our precious children when we specify a knowledge-rich curriculum for
implementation in grade by grade sequence throughout the K-12 years. Teachers of such an information-heavy
curriculum must have a much stronger knowledge base than they have now.
As I have detailed in other chapters, the
knowledge base of our K-5 teachers is particularly wretched and must be
rectified via mandatory acquisition of a challenging Masters of Liberal Arts
degree for knowledge mastery in math, natural science, history, economics,
literature, English usage, and the fine arts---
with a required master’s thesis and a full year of internship served
under the guidance of the best teacher available; this Masters of Liberal Arts degree must be
superintended at the central school district (MPS) level, with instruction
provided by professors and other experts in their fields of instruction.
Secondary (Grade 6 through Grade 12) teachers
should possess an academic master’s degree (granted in legitimate disciplines,
not from faculty composed of education professors) and serve the same full year
of internship as given for K-5 teachers.
This level of specificity for achieving excellent
education, detailed in part Three, Philosophy, is what was missing from
the Strategic
Plan: Acceleration 2020 document of
MPS, and from the Minneapolis Public
Schools Comprehensive District Design.
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