The Prime Culpability of Inept Staff Members at the Davis Center for Knowledge-Deficient Curriculum and Low Teacher Quality >>>>>
Overpaid, Incompetent Central Office
Bureaucrats Should be Jettisoned and the MPS Department of Teaching and
Learning Must Be Abolished
K-12 education is key to ending
cyclical poverty and redressing the wrongs of history.
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.
4
Thus, former Federal Reserve official
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.
And at the Davis Center, the following
people are culpable for the knowledge-deficient curriculum and low teacher
quality of the district. These members
include the following:
Academic Lightweights
Responsible for the Knowledge-Deficient,
Skill-Deplete Curriculum and Low Teacher Quality in the
Minneapolis Public Schools
Superintendent of
Schools
EDWARD J
GRAFF
$230,000
Interim Senior Academic
Officer
AIMEE Y
FEARING
$159,580
Associate
Superintendent
Ron Wagner
$154,669
Associate
Superintendent
LaShawn Ray
$154,669
Associate
Superintendent
Brian
Zambreno
$154,669
Associate
Superintendent
Shawn Harris-Berry
$154,669
Staff Members Whose Effectiveness is Constrained by the
Political Ether
Senior Human Resources
Officer
Maggie
Sullivan
$158,496
Executive Officer, Superintendent
Office
Suzanne
Kelly
$190,038
Senior Accountability, Research & Equity
Officer
Eric Moore
$158,496
Executive Director,
Engagement and External Relations
CELINA S MARTINA
$118,631
Director,
Office of Black Student Achievement
Michael
Walker
$137,148
Director, Indian
Education
Jennifer Rose Simon
$112,565
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Most of the above figures are fairly
high-profile at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
This series has detailed less visible
figures who just as culpable for the low proficiency rates of students in the
Minneapolis Public Schools as are the more highly paid figures above.
None of these members of the
Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Teaching and Learning have the
qualifications to develop knowledge-intensive curriculum. Thus, first be aware of their identity:
Math
Christopher
Wernimont
Erin
Clarke
Jennifer Hanzak
Marium
Toure’
Reading
Julie Tangemann, K-5 Literacy DPF
K-5 Science DPF
Meghan Gasdick, K-5 Literacy DPF
Molly Siebert, K-5 Social Studies DPF
Molly
Vasich, 6-12 English Language Arts/Reading DPF
Science
Erin Clarke
Christen
Lish
Jenn
Ross
Julie Tangemann
Then agitate for the disbanding of the
Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Teaching and Learning.
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