As readers absorb the next five articles in scrolling on down the
blog, they should remember that in writing this series, “Dismissals and Overhaul
That Must Ensue in the Central Offices (Davis Center) of the Minneapolis Public
Schools,” that I am not suggesting that these dismissals and overhaul ensue:
I am demanding that these dismissals and overhaul begin with all
due speed.
And I will be taking the Minneapolis Public Schools apart piece by
piece.
Staff members at MPS must be evaluating their own career paths and
deciding whether they can comprehend and advance knowledge-intensive,
skill-replete curriculum, developed by genuine subject area scholars and imparted
by retrained teachers capable of delivering the requisite knowledge and skill
sets in grade by grade sequence throughout the preK-12 years.
Those staff members who do not embrace logically sequenced knowledge
as the philosophical core of an excellent education and commit themselves to
making this reality at the Minneapolis Public Schools must find another place
to work--- for they will have opted for
a course that has witnessed the exit of former Chief of Academics Susanne
Griffin, Department of Teaching and Learning Executive Director Macarre Traynham,
Deputy Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning Cecilia Saddler, and many former occupants of sinecures as
inept staff members of the MPS Teaching and Learning. These former MPS staff members were
prevaricators who had been philosophically poisoned by education professors and
could not rid themselves of the ideological disease with which they were
infected.
The next articles respectively analyze the deficiencies of current
Interim Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, the entire staff of the MPS
Department of Teaching and Learning, the conventional school site associate
superintendents, staff members of the Office of Black Male Student Achievement,
and those of the Department of Indian Education.
1 >>>>>
Aimee Fearing holds a bachelor’s
degree in English as a Second Language and master’s and doctoral degrees in
education; the latter two degrees have
no status on any college or university campus and have not improved Fearing’s knowledge in any key academic area. Fearing was also a medicre principal at
Wellstone International and gives every evidence of ideological taint. If she has a role at the Minneapolis Public
Schools, the position would be pertinent to the needs of English Language
Learners.
2 >>>>> There are no scholars in the Department of
Teaching and Learning. Many hold even
their bachelor’s degrees in education and not a single staff member of this
longtime ineffective department has a graduate degree in an academic discipline. Particularly tragi-comic is the fact that any
college preparatory or advanced student development pretensions harbored by those
identified with AVID and Advanced Learner programs have very slim academic
credentials and could never be able to train students at the necessary level to
perform well on the ACT college readiness exam.
The Department of Teaching and Learning must be dismantled and staff
dismissed.
3 >>>>>
Associate Superintendents Shawn Harris-Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron Wagner,
and Brian Zambreno are similarly academic lightweights: any advanced degrees and most bachelor’s
degrees for this inept group are in education rather than a key academic
discipline. The very position exists because
the principals whom the pretend to mentor are so poorly trained, with the
absurd solution being to inflict the ideological corruption of Harris-Berry,
Ray, Wagner, and Zambreno on them, thus deepening the intellectual mire in
which they found themselves after having endured courses mis-taught by
education professors. Harris-Berry, Ray,
Wagner, and Zambreno should be dismissed and the position of associate superintendent
abolished. Principals must be retrained
by independent and university scholars and then report directly to the
superintendent.
4 >>>>> The
seven staff members of the Office of Black Male Student Achievement have
insubstantial academic credentials. Director
Michael Walker is trained in physical education and counseling. He and other staff members of this department
would be effective in a new Department of Resource Provision and Referral for
interacting with students and families living at the urban core. They must move into this new department as
the Office of Black Male Student Achievement is dismantled and African American
Students given the benefit of curriculum and teachers trained by independent
and university scholars.
5 >>>>> The Department of Indian Education exists
by Minnesota legislative mandate, so it cannot be dismantled. But Jennifer Simon must be terminated as
director for her slim academic credentials;
she could be moved into a role similar to that occupied by most of this
department, focused on cultural programming and family interactions. For Native American students to succeed academically,
though, they must have culturally sensitive teachers who are convinced that
they can master the same knowledge-intensive curriculum for conveyance to students
of all demographic descriptors.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Aimee Fearing cannot be the leader needed in a school district
that will now be focused on knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum. Staff members of the Department of Teaching and
Learning must be dismissed and the department dismantled; neither the existence of that department nor the
role now identified for the associate superintendents will be defendable once
teachers and principals are retrained by independent and university scholars. Staff members of the Office of Black Male
Student Achievement are not suited to the goal suggested by the department’s
title but would be of great value in a new Department of Resource Provision and
Referral. Staff members of the Department
of Indian Education have valuable cultural experience and many are
compassionate communicators with Native American students and families; but with regard to academics, American Indian
students will be the beneficiaries of the new knowledge-intensive curriculum
imparted by culturally sensitive teachers who will deliver this curriculum to students
of all demographic descriptors.
The dismissals and overhaul summarized above and detailed in the
succeeding five articles are not options.
They must ensue.
Remember that I will be drawing upon my exhaustive research,
thorough knowledge of the inner workings of this district, expertise in
teaching impoverished students living at the urban core, and firm philosophical
vision, so that
I will be taking the Minneapolis Public Schools apart piece by
piece
and
creating this locally centralized school district anew.
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