Chapter Sixty >>>>> Wretched Academic Performance of the Minneapolis Public Schools as Indicated in Site by Site Profiles

Readers should be highly attentive to the wealth of information that I provide in Chapter Thirty-Eight:  School Profiles, in Part One:  Facts.  The perceptive reader will discern that the academic performance of the Minneapolis Public Schools is universally wretched, most obviously so at schools with student populations overwhelmingly on free or reduced price lunch and those bearing the burden of an abusive national history.

 

Thus a perusal reveals that a majority of students at many Northside schools such as Jenny Lind, Lucy Laney, Cityview, Nellie Stone Johnson and Bethune preK-5 schools do not evidence grade level proficiency in mathematics, reading, and science;  this is true, too, at Southside schools such as Anderson and Jefferson;  and those of Northeast Minneapolis such as Sheridan.  Students at Olson and Franklin middle school (grades 6-8) also perform far below grade level in these key skill and subject areas on objective assessments (MCA data given in Chapter Thirty-Eight are similar to performance as measured on the National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP]).  And while opt-out rates at Henry, South, and Southwest high schools skew MCA data, student academic performance on the ACT college preparedness assessment at Minneapolis Public Schools highs schools is in general abysmal, with two of the lowest performing schools located on the Northside:  The average ACT score at North High School is 15.6;  the comparable figure of 16 prevails at Henry High.  That average ACT performance hovering around 16 is witnessed also at Roosevelt and Edison, while the figures at South and Washburn tend toward a score of 20;  the top average ACT score is recorded by students at Southwest High School, where a figure of 23 pertains.  Even that score, at a school with an affluent student body, is a mere two points above the national average and specifically is at just the 60^th percentile.  For the other scores, be aware that a score of 16 is at only the 20^th percentile; that of 20 at the 55^th percentile.  For the district median of 16, this means that students perform worse that 80% of those taking the ACT assessment.

 

This objective account makes mockery of the MPS motto that every student shall be “college or career ready.”

 

And the deeper story is even worse:

 

No student at the Minneapolis Public Schools is properly educated.

 

Even the 63% who do graduate within four years walk across the stage to receive a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.  The Minnesota State Academic Standards are not being taught as required by law, so that student knowledge sets in the key academic areas of mathematics, natural science (biology, chemistry, physics), English (literature and usage), history, government, and economics are woefully inadequate.

 

Students from schools with affluent populations such as Burroughs and the Lake Harriet schools;  Armatage Middle School;  and Southwest High School evidence higher assessment scores because they hail from families with higher college and university attendance profiles, have higher exhortation to achieve well enough to gain university acceptance, and in some cases have access to professional tutoring and academic enrichment programs.  Also, since the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers maintains a teacher contingent that is not committed to students facing the greatest life challenges, more experienced teachers who may have the knowledge to teach Advance Placement (AP) courses gravitate to the mellower teaching environments.  But given the low number of masters degrees possessed by teachers in subject areas that they teach, even AP instruction in many courses at the more affluent schools lags.

 

Peruse those school profiles carefully.