Assertions for Early Childhood Education as the Prime Engine of Equity is the Education Establishment’s Way of Deflecting Blame from the Entire Pre-K-12 System

There abides in the conversational ether the fallacious notion that early childhood education can be the prime agent of educational equity.  Such a fantasy jibes well with a major contention of Education Minnesota (the state teachers union) and affiliates such as the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), because the assertion deflects blame from the entire preK-12 sequence of knowledge-deficient curriculum and mediocre teaching at the median.     

 

Excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a logically sequenced, knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the preK-12 years.  An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.

 

The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) have neither knowledge-intensive curriculum nor excellent teachers at the median.

 

Some of the best teaching at MPS actually occurs in preK-grade one classrooms.  Students arrive in grade 2 having very basic reading and mathematical skills.  The key problems accrue not at the early grade levels but from grade 2 forward. 

 

Students from grade 2 forward lack knowledge that they should possess in mathematics, natural science, history, government, economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts.  They have poor vocabulary development and slim grasp of fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, and probability necessary to succeed in algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus courses.  Because of the knowledge-deficient, skill-deplete approach to curriculum and the mediocre teaching in the Minneapolis Public Schools, MPS students do not gain the necessary knowledge and skill base to achieve at a high level on the ACT college readiness exam;  in particular, students from families facing dilemmas of finance and functionality tend to record a score in the 9-14 range, not even reflecting middle school capability.

 

MPS students do not read broadly and deeply across a full liberal arts curriculum.  Students move forward from grade 5 having little knowledge of any subject area.  Curriculum and teaching is not much better in middle school and high school;  only students who take Advanced Placement (AP) courses learn anything of substance, and then only in the off-chance of getting a teacher qualified to impart college preparatory curriculum.

 

Thus, Art Rolnick has been offering a delusionary solution via the promotion of early childhood education as an engine of equity ever since his days at the helm of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.  During his four-year tenure on the MPS Board of Education, Don Samuels never addressed the key dilemmas pertinent to curriculum and teacher quality.  The Samuels-Rolnick article, “Legislature must focus on inequity’s root cause” (Star Tribune, November 29) errantly promotes early childhood education as the main driver of educational equity.

 

Provision of universal daycare with a strong educational component should be embraced as a public, governmental responsibility;  it is not, however, the prime route to educational equity.   

 

The most vexing dilemmas at the Minneapolis Public Schools are the lack of scholars among academic decision-makers;  knowledge, deficient, skill-deplete, incoherent curriculum;  and teachers lacking the subject area training to impart knowledge-intensive curriculum and failing to comprehend the life experiences of young people living at the urban core.  

 

The Minneapolis Public Schools serve no student well;  failure to provide the subject area knowledge necessary to aspire to post-secondary education hurts students mired in cyclical poverty and facing problems of familial functionality the worst.  Most of these students had the requisite rudimentary reading and arithmetic skills upon entering grade 2;  but from grade 2 forward, they never received the knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education that would maximize chances of breaking the cycle of poverty and going forth to a life founded on the three great purposes of public education:  cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.

 

Do not pretend that early childhood education is the engine of equity.

 

Do understand that educational excellence and equity will come with the overhaul of public education for the delivery of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education to all of our precious children, of all demographic descriptors.