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%
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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.
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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.
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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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