His cabinet of leaders continues to feature a number of capable officials, but the most talented have nothing to do with mainline academic decision-making. Aimee Fearing remains mystifyingly in her role as a mere Interim Senior Academic Officer; she is an academic lightweight who should have long since been removed from the position and replaced by a scholar with a Ph. D. in a key subject area discipline. Associate Superintendents Shawn Harris Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron Wagner and Brian Zambreno similarly have no advanced training in a key academic area; their $150,000 positions, which involve mentoring principals, should be terminated as principals are properly trained to rise above the current level of mediocrity.
To his cabinet Graff has added Ryan Strack in his role as Administrator for the Board of Education and Government Relations and Celina Martina as Executive Director of Engagement and External Relations. Strack is a capable official who has coordinated successful efforts pertinent to referenda issues; he is, though, not a scholar has nothing to do with academic decision-making. Martina is also capable, but she bears the stain of moderating most of the community engagement sessions as the MPS Comprehensive District Design (CDD) was under consideration; she ran a highly controlled event that dodged tough questions having to do with any academic improvement likely to occur upon CDD implementation; Martina, who is also not a scholar or involved in academic decision-making, came across as a Graff sycophant in those CDD engagement sessions.
Other changes at the Davis Center also have little prospects for improving academic performance at the district. There now exists an Equity and Integration Department, for which Candace Logan serves as executive director. Jason Bucklin serves as Out4Good (advocating for LGBTQ students) director in the department; Christina Benz, Roi Kawai, and Betsy Ohrn serve as equity coordinators. Julie Young-Burns acts as bullying prevention coordinator and also takes the lead on the implementation of Social/Emotional Learning (SEL). Ann Viveros and Jewel Reichenberger serve as SEL facilitators. In the Positive School-Wide Engagement program, Faiza Holmes, Vince Jackson, and Matthew Myvold serve as District Program Facilitators.
All of these positions and programs represent the typical bureaucratic response to a very real problem, with little prospect for addressing the issue; the perceived need for such a response necessarily calls into question the capability of school site staff on the relevant issues. None of these newly assigned staff members are likely to have an impact on student academic performance or the imperative to impart knowledge-intensive, skill replete education that is at the core of the mission of any public school system. Just as for six years of its existence the Office of Black Male Student Achievement (now dubbed Office of Student Achievement) and for much longer a Department of Indian Education have had no impact on abysmal student achievement rates, these bureaucratic initiatives will likely end up being boondoggles for those occupying the newly created sinecures.
Rather than creating a bureaucratic position to pretend that an issue is being addressed, or to provide cover for site staff who should be but are not culturally and socially sensitive to student needs, teachers, principals, and other on-site staff should be thoroughly trained (far beyond the level of typical professional development, “PD” in education establishment jargon) and great care should be taken with new hires.
In the case of teachers and principals, the training should not be just in matters pertinent to cultural and social sensitivity. Given the woeful nature of teacher and administrator training at colleges and universities, teachers and principals need to undergo rigorous academic training by scholars of academic disciplines assembled to provide subject area knowledge and skill sets from a new curriculum of scholarly design.
There is no evidence, four years now into his tenure, that the academically lightweight Graff has any idea as to how to proceed with regard to curriculum design and teacher training. He is a capable administrator who supports talented staff members such as Ibrahima Diop (Senior Financial Officer), Karen Devet (Senior Operations Officer), Justin Hennes (Senior Information Technology Officer), and Rochelle Cox (head of Special Education). But none of these officials are key to the design of the main academic program of the district.
Graff places a great deal of emphasis on “alignment” of staff according to functions important to the district. But when there is no one on staff of scholarly merit, no “alignment” can address the woeful academic record of the Minneapolis Public Schools. To meet the needs of the district relevant to curriculum and teacher quality, staff with scholarly credentials will need to be brought in.
If Graff does not do this, then he should depart the Minneapolis Public Schools and a new MPS Board of Education (that includes prospective 3 November victors Sharon El-Amin, Adriana Cerrillo, and Michael Duenes) should hire a scholar in his stead.
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