Jan 12, 2021

Message to My Friends Adriana Cerrillo and Sharon El-Amin Upon Beginning Their Tenures on the MPS Board of Education >>>>> Be Acutely Aware of the Brutal Reality as to the Actual Dilemmas of the District >>>>> Weak Curriculum, Low Teacher Quality, Lack of Remedial Instruction, Ill-Trained Academic Decision-Makers at the Davis Center, and Three Particularly Ineffective Departments and Offices

Adriana and Sharon  >>>>>

 

I will be rejoicing as the two of you assume your positions on the Minneapolis (MPS) Board of Education this evening.  But I caution you to recoil from stock phrases such as accountability and transparency and focus instead on the real dilemmas at the district.

 

Be focused like a laser on the wretched record of the Minneapolis Public Schools before and during the tenure of Superintendent Ed Graff  >>>>>

 

MPS Academic Proficiency Rates for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019

 (as indicated by Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment [MCA] results for spring of the given years)

 

Math

 

Math                     2014       2015       2016      2017      2018         2019    

 

African                  22%       23%          21%        18%       18%          18%

American

 

American             23%        19%           19%       17%        17%         18%

Indian

 

Hispanic               31%         32%          31%       29%        26%         25%

 

Asian                     48%         50%          50%       47%        50%        47%

 

White                   77%         78%          78%       77%        77%         75%

 

Free/                     26%         26%          25%       24%        22%        20%

Reduced

 

All                          44%         44%           44%     42%        42%          42%

 

Reading

 

Reading               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018       2019

 

African                  22%       21%         21%      21%       22%           23%

American

 

American             21%        20%         21%      23%        24%               25%

Indian

 

Hispanic               23%         25%          26%       26%        27%      29%

 

Asian                     41%         40%          45%       41%        48%      50%

 

White                   78%         77%          77%       78%        80%       78%

 

Free/                     23%         23%          23%       25%        25%      25%

Reduced

 

All                          42%         42%           43%     43%        45%       47%

 

Science

 

Science               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018        2019

 

African                 11%       15%         13%        12%       11%                14%

American

 

American             14%        16%        13%      17%       14%           17%

Indian

 

Hispanic               17%         18%        21%      19%       17%          16%

 

Asian                     31%         35%       42%       38%       37%          40%

 

White                   71%         75%        71%       70%       71%               70%

 

Free/                     14%         15%        17%       16%      15%          14%

Reduced

 

All                          33%        36%        35%        34%      34%                 36%

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

You will not be effective members of the MPS Board of Education if you get distracted by stock phrases and meaningless bromides.

 

Know that the actual dilemmas at the Minneapolis Public Schools are the following  >>>>>

 

>>>>>    Curriculum is abysmally weak. 

 

The problem is not lack of cultural relevance as such but overall knowledge-deficiency.  You must advocate for curricular overhaul for the logical sequencing of subject area knowledge in mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, government, economics, and world and ethnic-specific literature and fine arts from kindergarten forward through grade 5, continuing into middle and high school, with increasing emphasis also at those levels on the technological and vocational arts.

 

>>>>>  Teacher quality is low. 


Senior Human Resources Officer Maggie Sullivan must invite outside scholars to come to MPS for the development of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum and the training of teachers capable of imparting that curriculum.

 

>>>>>    There is no effective program of skill remediation for those students disastrously behind academically.


You must advocate for the development of such a program during and after the regular school day and during summers.

 

>>>>>    Superintendent Ed Graff, Interim Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, and the entire academic staff of the Department of Teaching and Learning are academic lightweights, as are Associate Superintendents Shawn Harris-Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron Wagner and Brian Zambreno; and Office of Black Student Achievement Director Michael Walker and Department of Indian Education Director Jennifer Rose Simon. 


These staff members should be jettisoned or in a few cases reassigned, while the aforementioned outside scholars must be brought in to design curriculum and train teachers.

 

>>>>>    As curriculum is redesigned and teachers retrained, the Department of Teaching and Learning and the Office of Black Student Achievement should be disbanded and the legislatively mandated Department of Indian Education reorganized for the installation of academically competent staff.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Senior Financial Officer Ibrahima Diop is one of the three best in the nation at what he does;  trust him fully and give him strong backing.  Know also that Senior Operations Officer Karen Devet, Senior Information Technology Officer Justin Hennes, and Special Education head Rochelle Cox are supreme at what they do. 

 

Senior Officer for Accountability, Research, and Equity Eric Moore is highly valuable as a gatherer and evaluator of data but has no business making overall academic decisions.  Maggie Sullivan is bright and perceptive but needs to focus more aggressively on the issue of low teacher quality.  Senior Executive Officer in the Office of the Superintendent Suzanne Kelly has good grasp of many of the abiding dilemmas but must face these more frankly or be evaluated for the propriety of her $190,000-plus salary.

 

………………………………………………………………..

 

Face the brutality of the facts.


Confront those who are culpable.

 

Doing anything else is to send forth more ignorant citizens and too many of our precious young people to early deaths or lives spent in incarceration.    

 

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