The New Salem Educational Initiative Blog: February 2022

Feb 28, 2022

Article #24 >>>>> Origin and Consequences of the Wretched System of Public Education Throughout the United States

The Consequences of the Anti-Knowledge Ideology of Education Professors Are Witnessed in the Achievement Rates of Students in Locally Centralized Schools Districts Such as the Minneapolis Public Schools, Perpetuated by Central Office Acolytes

The United States citizenry has suffered catastrophically from the anti-knowledge ideology of education professors that became embedded in our systems of public education from the 1970s forward.

The consequences of the anti-knowledge ideology of these campus embarrassments are witnessed in the skill levels of students in locally centralized systems of public education such as the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Such skill levels persist with these students right on through graduation, giving these nominal graduates (those students who do manage to shuffle through the system for thirteen years, then across a stage to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only) little chance of ending familial cycles of poverty at the urban core, but many opportunities to wander desperately on mean streets leading to early death or incarceration.

Below I give grade level proficiency rates for students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), followed by the culpable staff members in the Department of Teaching and Learning, all of whom have been intellectually corrupted by the anti-knowledge ideology of education professors whose classes they endured >>>>>

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Academic Proficiency as Indicated Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)

Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021

(Note >>>>> The MCAs were not administered for the academic year ending in 2020.)

Reading

African American

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

22% 21% 21% 21% 22% 23% 19%

American Indian

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

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

Asian/Pacific Islander

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

41% 40% 45% 41% 48% 50% 54%

Hispanic

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

23% 25% 26% 26% 27% 27% 20%

All Students

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

42% 42% 43% 43% 45% 47% 46%

Mathematics

(Note >>>>> The MCAs were not administered for the academic year ending in 2020.)

African American

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

22% 23% 21% 18% 18% 18% 9%

American Indian

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

23% 19% 19% 17% 17% 18% 9%

Asian/Islander

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

48% 50% 50% 47% 50% 47% 46%

Hispanic

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

31% 32% 31% 29% 26% 25% 12%

All Students

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

44% 44% 44% 42% 42% 42% 35%

Science

(Note >>>>> The MCAs were not administered for the academic year ending in 2020.)

African American

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

11% 15% 13% 12% 11% 11% 11%

American Indian

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

14% 16% 13% 17% 14% 17% 9%

Asian/Pacific Islander

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

31% 35% 42% 35% 37% 40% 43%

Hispanic

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

17% 18% 21% 19% 17% 16% 10%

All Students

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021

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

Department of Teaching and Learning Staff, Minneapolis Public Schools

Abdi Ogle, Cultural Facilitator

Brandy Siddiqui, K-12 Social Studies District Program Facilitator

Christen Lish, AVID Coordinator

Christina Ramsey, K-8 TD AA

Christopher Wernimont, 6-12 Mathematics District Program Facilitator

Erick Hensel, Comprehensive District Design/Magnets

Jenn Rose, K-12 Science District Program Facilitator

Jennifer Hansak, K-5 Mathematics District Program Facilitator

Julie Tangemann, K-5 Literature District Program Facilitator

K-5 Mathematics District Program Facilitator

Kelly McQuillan, 9-12 AA and K-12 International Baccalaureate Program Manager

Kristin Bauck, 6-12 English/Language Arts (ELA)/ Reading District Program Facilitator

Lori Ledoux, K-12 Arts Specialist/ Teacher on Special Assignment

Marium Toure, K-5 Mathematics District Program Facilitator

Meghan Gasdick, K-5 Literature District Program Facilitator

Melissa Damon, K-88 TD AA

Melody Lockwood, Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) Coordinator

Molly Siebert, K-5 Social Studies District Program Facilitator

Molly Vasich, 6-12 English/Language Arts/ Reading District Program Facilitator

Muhammad Tayyeb, Cultural Facilitator

Natalie Tourtelette, K-8 PYP and MYP District Program Facilitator

Nora Schull, K-12 Arts District Program Facilitator

Paula Killian, AVID Middle School Coordinator

Paulina Jacobsson, Cultural Facilitator

Tara Finne, Fine Arts Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA)

Tommy Casey, AVID Program Manager

Feb 25, 2022

Article #23 >>>>> Origin and Consequences of the Wretched System of Public Education Throughout the United States

We Pay a High Societal Price for Failing to Face the Truths About PreK-12 Education

Truth is daunting to face, so that we are forever waiting until societal dilemmas linger for decades until some social force demands the long-delayed confrontation.

Among the most important truths that we have never faced are those pertinent to preK-12 education.

Of the many articles and opinion pieces to appear in the Star Tribune during the last weeks and months, not a single one focuses on the key vexations of our wretched system of public education in Minnesota.

Those vexations are knowledge-deficient curriculum and abysmal teacher training.

Coverage in the Star Tribune has focused on the challenges posed by the resurgence of Covid-19 in the forms of delta and omicron variants, including the struggles with online learning; exacerbation of the bus driver shortage; and angry standoffs between those supportive of Covid mitigation policies and those against masks or vaccinations.

The proposed new social studies standards have induced negative comment from guest writers for being too focused on the abuses perpetrated by populations of European provenance upon those of African and American Indian ancestry, inducing in turn rebuttals from those who tout those standards for telling truths that have often been absent from curricula.

We have also had paeans to teachers from writers Sarah Haugen and Tracy Lysne, who urge us to be empathetic to those who feel burned out due to Covid-19 exigencies, which have worsened a situation already grave due to abiding systemic pressures (“Teacher burnout isn’t new, only worse,” Star Tribune, January 23, 2022); and Al Zdon, who tells us to discuss the standards from both sides vigorously but ultimately have faith in “highly qualified teachers” in local schools to implement the standards (“Debate the standards, but trust the teachers,” Star Tribune, February 7, 2022).

We have Jeffrey Aaron Snyder (“Conservatives are the new ‘discomfort’ police,” Star Tribune, February 1, 2022) cautioning us that bans on books and speakers have been urged by those of the left as well as the right on the political spectrum, so that both sides threaten intellectual freedom. Others have advocated for state and federal funding for early childhood as key to assuring that young people of all economic classes prosper academically.

Now we have the possibility of teacher union strikes in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with demands (psychological support staff, smaller class sizes, increased remuneration) that have nothing to do with the key vexations.

Here are the undiscussed truths and those aspects of our system of public education that sustain abominable academic quality:

Students at the preK-5 level master no rigorous, systematically imparted knowledge sets pertinent to natural science, history, government, geography, quality literature, or the fine arts. Middle school features more courses in those areas but those courses are knowledge-deficit. At the high school level, only Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses have the potential for academic substance but are often taught by teachers who not possess the requisite knowledge base.

None of the key figures in public education at the federal, state, or local levels are well-educated enough to make the needed changes. Inspect the academic preparation of United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Minnesota Commissioner of Education Heather Mueller, St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Joe Gothard, and Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff and you’ll find that not one has received a graduate degree in a key subject area discipline. Similarly, teachers have since the 1990s been induced to seek advancement on the “step and lane” system via lightweight graduate programs in education.

Knowledge-deficient curriculum and abominable teacher quality at the median yield graduates (those who manage to graduate) who walk across the stage to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only, bequeathing to us the ignorant body politic that our incompetent public education establishment produces.

We have no hope of healing our suffering society until we face the truths pertinent to the key vexations in our wretched system of public education: knowledge-deficient curriculum and woeful teaching at the median.

Feb 24, 2022

Article #22 >>>>> Origin and Consequences of the Wretched System of Public Education Throughout the United States

The Internally Perpetuating Nature of the Education Establishment as a Consequence of Anti-Knowledge Ideology that Took Hold in Departments, Schools, and Colleges of Education by the 1970s >>>>>

The Insubstantial Academic Credentials of Those Who Preside in the Classrooms of the Teaching and Learning Program in the Education Department at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota as Salient Example

By the 1970s, the anti-knowledge ideology emanating from William Heard Kilpatrick and others at Teachers College/Columbia University had taken hold in the programs of all departments, schools, and colleges of education in the United States, so that all public school administrators and teachers trained in these programs enter our schools unprepared to deliver the abundant knowledge and skill sets that would give our students and our body politic the opportunity to live lives as culturally enriched, civically engaged, professionally satisfied citizens.

We bear the consequences for wretched public education throughout the United States as demonstrated in a bevy of anti-scientific, irrational, and irresponsible behaviors.

And of elevated importance as a consequence of the anti -knowledge ideology that took hold by the 1970s is the low intellectual quality of education professors who have themselves trained in the programs of departments, schools, and colleges of education and go forth to perpetuate the ideology and to produce knowledge-deficient administrators and teachers.

Remembering the vacuous curriculum inflicted on students in the M. Ed. Teaching and Learning program of the education department at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, recorded in Article #18 of this series, inspect this list of those who teach in this program, giving attention to the low level of their own academic preparation; note that there are very few holders of doctorates, and understand that an M.Ed., the highest degree held by most of these staff members, is academically insubstantial, as is an Ed. D. >>>>>

M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning Staff at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota

Megan Troje, M.A.

Lead Field Specialist

Admission - SGPP

LaSalle Hall - TC Campus, LSH 114

Faculty

Tracy Lysne, M.Ed.

Program Director