In the aftermath of the
election, the community will still be abysmally represented by (in order of
offensiveness) Nelson Inz, Jenny Arneson, Kim Caprini, Ira Jourdain, Siad Ali,
Josh Pauly; but Walser’s merciful
decision not to run and the other two candidacies opens the way for Sharon
El-Amin to replace KerryJo Felder (District 2), Adriana Cerrillos to win the
seat mercifully abdicated by Walser, and Michael Dueñes to gain the At-Large seat
currently occupied by ineffective politico Kim Ellison.
El-Amin, Cerrillos, and Dueñes will bring fresh perspectives
and an openness to their membership on the MPS Board of Education. As they move through the campaign season and
prepare to take their seats, they should be aware of the actual problems of the
district and the program for remedy of existing ills:
Teacher Quality
As a matter of forward-looking
policy, El-Amin, Cerrillos, and Dueñes must require Superintendent Ed
Graff, Chief of Staff Suzanne Kelly, and other top decision-makers at the
Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) to oversee thorough training of all teachers
to ensure that they have the requisite subject area knowledge, pedagogical
skill, and sensitivity to students of all demographic descriptors necessary for
the level of teaching excellence that MPS students must have: Teacher training in departments, schools, and
colleges of education underprepares teachers and makes district-provided
training necessary.
On the foundation of such
training, teachers should then be given substantial pay raises, while the
positions of the 22 staff members in the Department of Teaching and Learning,
the seven-staff member Office of Black Student Achievement, and four Associate
Superintendent positions can be eliminated.
Curriclum Overhaul
Curriculum needs to be
completely overhauled for the delivery of logically sequenced, grade by grade
impartation of knowledge sets in mathematics, natural science, history,
government, economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts from
kindergarten throughout the K-12 years.
Teachers retrained in the manner indicated above will be prepared to
ensure that all students have the knowledge and skill sets they must have
across a broad liberal arts curriculum that is sensitive to all cultures,
delivered with full faith that all students can thrive academically. At the K-5 level, one hour a day should be
designated for enriched learning experiences, entailing either intensive skill
remediation or additional time for exploration of subjects of driving personal
interest, as appropriate to the individual student.
Academic Overhaul That Must Be Detailed in the
Comprehensive District Design (CDD)
The emphasis of the
Comprehensive District Design (CDD) on community schools, geographic
centralization of magnet schools, and rationalized transportation, all of which
will capture additional resources, are all positive features of this new plan
for the district approved by the MPS Board of Education in May 2020.
But nothing changed in mainline
academic programming in the CDD: What
was offered was merely the typical jargon.
Thus, MPS decision-makers must
work to design the approaches to teacher training and curricular overhaul
indicated above, so as to deliver rigorous, knowledge-intensive curriculum to
students of all demographic descriptors to achieve the equitable education
avowedly at the core of the CDD, consistent with the stipulations of the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Defeating Felder and Ellison and
replacing Walser, so as to bring Sharon El-Amin, Michael Dueñes onto the board will improve
prospects for the provision of excellent education to MPS students of all
demographic descriptors.
These new board members then
must recognize priorities for overhaul of staff and curriculum; and the need for a vigorous and ambitious
program for retraining teachers.
Voters must be alert to the
opportunity before them on 3 November, then they must stay alert to ensure that
the needed transformation at the Minneapolis Public Schools occurs.
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