May 1, 2020

Article #2 in a Series >>>>> Dismissals and Overhaul That Must Ensue in the Central Offices (Davis Center) of the Minneapolis Public Schools >>>>> MPS Teaching and Learning Department and Staff Must Be Respectively Abolished and Terminated, Replaced with Scholars to Oversee Curricular Overhaul and Teacher Training

The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Department of Teaching and Learning is an embarrassment;  staff members in this department are ill-trained and feature no scholars.



 

The very existence of a Department of Teaching and Learning attests to the abysmal nature of teacher training. 

 

No four-year college or university would have such a department: 

 

Professors walk onto campus and into classrooms with curriculum embedded in their brains. 

 

Because preK-12 teachers are so insubstantially trained, the perception abides that an department must abide to give them academic support to atone for their deficiencies.  But those in departments such as Teaching and Learning at the Minneapolis Public Schools are just as slimly trained as are classroom teachers

 

MPS superintendent Ed Graff has mercifully trimmed a department that once billowed to 42 staff members down to the current twenty-two (22).  But this is 22 too many.  Although staff members fill roles that seemingly denote academic expertise, the subject area training that members of the Department of Teaching and Learning receive is meager in the extreme.

 

The MPS Department of Teaching and Learning has seven staff members who are not identified with a major academic field;  one is an executive assistant, the other six are science materials handlers who serve an important function but could perform their roles outside a Department of Teaching and Learning.

 

Fifteen members of the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning have some function avowedly pertinent to academics.  None of these department members has a master’s or doctoral degree bestowed by a college or university department representing a major academic discipline.  Even many bachelor’s degrees received by staff members in this embarrassing assemblage of non-scholars were received from education programs rather than from key academic departments.  

 

On the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning staff are two members with roles pertinent to mathematics:

 

Marium Toure is K-5 Math District Program Facilitator (DPF) at the Davis Center;  she holds only a B.A. in Education and an M.A that is also in Education.

 

Chris Wernimont is 6-12 Math DPF;  he holds a B. A. in the important academic discipline of Economics but his M.A. is in Mathematics Education , rather than the much more demanding discipline of mathematics.

 

There are no staff members in the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning in the important academic discipline of English/World Literature.  There are two staff members who are billed as literacy specialists:

 

Sara Naegli (K-8 Literacy) has a B. A. in Education and an M.A. that is also merely in Education.

 

Hibaq Muhamed (6-12 Literacy DPF) holds a B.S. in English Teaching snd an M.A. in Education.

 

Two members of the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning occupy positions with some relevance to natural science: 

 

Jennifer Rose, who now seems to lead the department, received a B.A. in the academically important field of Biology but her M.A. is in Science Education. 

 

Julie Tangeman (K-5 Literacy, Science DPF, Davis Center) has a B.A. in Education and an M.A. that is also in Education.

 

One staff member represents social studies (an ungainly amalgam of history and the social sciences): 

 

Lisa Purcell, K-12 Social Studies DPF has a B.A. in Social Sciences and History (from an education program, too broad as to denote any expertise in history, political science, economics, psychology, sociology, or anthropology) and an M.A. in Education.

 

Nora Schull K-12 Arts DPF is the lone representative for the arts;  she holds a B.S. in Dance and the Arts. 

 

Sara Loch (K-12 Health/Physical Education DPF) solely represents health and physical education;  she received a B.A. in Physical Education and Coaching and an M.A. in Education.

 

Ashley Krohn (K-12 Library Media Information DPF) alone represents library science and media;  she has a B.S. in Film and Television and an M.A. in Education.

                                 

Within the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning, three members represent an ineffective program purporting to prepare students for college and university attendance.  This program, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), teaches students notetaking skills, provides assistance in making college applications, and takes students on field trips to college and university campuses;  but any academic training, including ACT preparation, tends toward zero.  The slim academic qualifications of the three AVID staff members indicate why the latter is lamentably so:

 

Tommie Casey (AVID Program Manager) has a B.A. in Education, an M.A. in Education, and an Education Specialist certification (gained in insubstantial academic programs that nevertheless promote advancement in administrative roles).

 

Christen Lish (K-8 AVID Coordinator) has a B.A. in Education and an M.A. in Science Education.

 

Paula Kilian (6-12 AVID Coordinator) holds a B.S. Education and another B.S. in Psychology.

 

Two members of the the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning are identified with the Gifted and Talented program:

 

Kelley McQuillan (9-12 Talent Development and Advanced Academics) topped out with an M.A. only in Education.

 

I am still seeking information on Christina Ramsey (K-8 Talent Development and Advanced Academics) as to degrees held.

 

…………………………………………………………………….

 

Readers must note the insubstantial academic preparation of the above members of the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning.

 

Education programs do a great deal of pedagogical harm to prospective teachers and impart very little subject area knowledge.  These are the programs that have overwhelmingly produced the above staff members.

 

The staff of the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning should be dismissed and the department dismantled.

 

After ridding the school district of this staffing burden, independent and university scholars, each holding a Ph.D. in a key academic discipline, should be hired to design a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum, logically sequenced across the preK-12 years;  and to train teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum.

 

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