On the Abysmal Reasoning of Former Minneapolis Federal Reserve Leader Art Rolnick and Bombastic Former Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Member Don Samuels >>>>> Early Childhood Education Can Never Be the Prime Agent of Equity

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 have neither knowledge-intensive curriculum nor excellent teachers at the median.

 

In my college preparatory program for students living at the urban core, young people come to me from the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) already having very basic reading and mathematical skills, acquired at levels preK through grade 1.  My students range from age 4 through adult, from the early grades through high school graduation and into post-secondary experiences.  Their key problems accrue not at the early grade levels but from grade 2 forward. 

 

Students from grade 2 forward come to me absent of knowledge that they should possess in mathematics, natural science, history, government, economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts.  I immediately (having written a book for the purpose) fill in knowledge gaps in those fields and provide reading and discussion experiences designed to build vocabulary and establish the foundation in the four basic operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, and probability necessary to succeed in algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus courses.  By the time a student has gained the necessary knowledge and skill base, she or he continues to build on that base and to train explicitly for the skills necessary to achieve at a high level on the ACT college readiness exam.

 

This training that I provide is invariably lacking in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) and other locally centralized school systems, of which I am an incisive critic because I am such a strong supporter.  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 made many a bombastic statement but 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.   

 

My six-year investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Pubic Schools reveals the most vexing dilemmas to be

 

>>>>>    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 students experiencing numerous life challenges at the urban core 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 curriculum to all of our precious children, of all demographic descriptors.