Viewpoints expressed by the Star
Tribune Editorial Board in “Online Learning Can Help Close Gaps” (May 6,
2020) feature reference to unreliable sources, specious reasoning, and errant
claims for the potential efficacy of online learning to close achievement
gaps. The errant remarks in the
editorial recall the programmatic ineptitude of those who wrote the academic
portion of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Comprehensive District Design
that most likely will be approved this month by the MPS Board of Education.
The Editorial Board relies on a tragi-comic cast for source
material in the article of reference.
Neither R. T. Rybak nor the Minneapolis Foundation that he now leads
have any credibility as sources of ideas for improving academic proficiency of
students living at the urban core. A few
years back, under the leadership of former President and CEO Sandra Vargas, the
Minneapolis Foundation sponsored speakers and authored tracts vowing to “RESET
Education” in Minnesota. That effort
never gained traction or made any difference as to the quality of urban
education in the state. Rybak made a lot
of noise as head of Generation Next before moving to the better paying President
and CEO post at the Minneapolis Foundation;
researchers for Generation Next took a long time to find scientific
substantiation for the obvious need to teach all students to read by grade 3
and then vowed to attract a passel of tutors in an effort that fell far short
and has now disappeared as quickly as did the RESET project.
The editors convey that a new study indicating promise for online
learning as a means of closing the achievement gap builds on ‘’Reimagine
Minnesota” work led by school superintendents and the Association of
Metropolitan School Districts since 2016.
Reimagine Minnesota represents an effort by superintendents to escape
impact of the Cruz-Guzman v. State of
Minnesota for failure of Minnesota school districts to raise academic
proficiency levels for students in key demographic categories. Meetings to gather the information mentioned
in the editorial were held as “World Cafes.”
These meetings were structured so as to limit incisive criticism and
direct suggestions for improvement favored by school superintendents; not surprisingly, such suggestions tended
toward the sort of online, personalized learning both advocated by education
professors who trained these administrators and by the study commissioned by
the Minneapolis Foundation. And the education
professors are of the type who work for the University of Minnesota College of
Education and Human Development, campus embarrassments who have ruined
generations of educational administrators and teachers.
Contrary to the claims of this tragi-comic, inept group referenced
by Star Tribune editors, online
learning is not effective as a chief means of educating students from families
struggling with dilemmas of poverty and functionality. Many do not have the necessary
technology. Such students need personal
interaction with teachers who understand their life circumstances and are
physically present to explain concepts, impart knowledge-intensive information,
develop vocabulary, provide instruction in research techniques, and very
explicitly train students to master the academic and test-taking skills
necessary to perform well on ACT and SAT college readiness exams. Students from affluent families frequently get
such preparation from well-regarded suburban schools, private schools, and
expensive tutors. Students living at the
urban core need such training from their public schools.
Such an education for inner city youth will only be available with
the overhaul of curriculum for the impartation of key knowledge and skill sets
provided in grade by grade sequence throughout the preK-12 years, delivered by
retrained teachers capable of conveying information in the key subject areas of
mathematics, natural science, social science, history, literature, and the
fine, technological, and vocational arts
to students of all demographic descriptors.
Knowledge-deficient curriculum, lack of aggressive skill
remediation, and mediocre teacher quality are the key problems vexing locally
centralized school districts such as the Minneapolis Public Schools. These key problems are not addressed by
either the Star Tribune editorial of
reference, nor by the academic portion of the MPS Comprehensive District
Design. They can only be addressed by
independent and university scholars who dwell outside of the thought-world in which
the education establishment resides.
Those genuinely interested in the fate of students living
challenged lives at the urban core must have the courage and the tenacity to
work for a quality of change unrecognized either by those responsible for the
MPS Comprehensive Design or the misguided editors of the Star Tribune.
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