Mar 23, 2022

Article #3 >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 10, March 2022 


Article #3

The Consequences of Academically Inept Administrators and

Teachers for African American Families Living at the Urban Core

 

Ed Graff is the Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS);  his salary is $230,000 per annum. 

Aimee Fearing is MPS Senior Academic Officer; her salary is $174,971.

Maria Rollinger is MPS Deputy Senior Academic Officer;  her salary is $146,813.

Jennifer Rose is Executive Director of the K-12 program;  her salary is $126,874.

These four officials and the 31 staff members of MPS Department of Teaching and Learning are most responsible for the abysmal academic program of the district.

But to address the particularly troubling academic proficiency levels of African American males in the Minneapolis Public Schools, an Office of Black Male Student Achievement was opened in 2014;  by the 2020-2021 academic year, the office had been renamed as the Office of Black Student Achievement.  This office also bears responsibility for low academic proficiency levels of African America youth.

Michael Walker, a former Dean of Students at Roosevelt High School, is Director of the MPS Office of Black Student Achievement.   He was a very effective Dean of Students and has enormous skills in connecting with young people and their families.  But he has no degree in a key academic subject area, and he has failed miserably in his current position.  When he took the position, Walker said that he would know that he had been successful when he had worked himself out of a job;  seven and a half years on, Walker has still not worked himself out of a job, but with a starting salary of $114,000 and a current salary of $140,577, Walker is $26,000 per year richer in 2022 than he was is 2014.

Walker’s staff includes the following  >>>>>

Office of Black Male Student Achievement Staff, Minneapolis Pubic Schools

Michael Walker, Director

Dena Luna, Educational Equity Coordinator

Nneka N. Abdullah., Queens Program

Umar Rashid, MPA Kings Program

Qiana Surrell, Program Coordinator

Jamil Jackson, Classroom Coach

Richard Magembe, Classroom Coach

Marquez Walker, Classroom Coach 

Isa Kibira, Classroom Coach

 

Graff, Fearing, Rollinger, and Rose all have weak academic training;  none holds a masters or doctorate in a key subject area.  Among the many catastrophic consequences of the anti-knowledge ideology of education professors having become dominant from the 1970s forward is witnessed in the low academic quality of central office administrators, which also pertains to staff through the bureaucracy and at the building level.

And the paramount consequence of having such low-quality administrators and classroom teachers is witnessed in the abysmal academic record of the district.  With regard to African American youth at the Minneapolis Public Schools, most of whom live in low-income families, the record that follows offers little hope for breaking cycles of multigenerational familial poverty;  for many, the chances for lives lived on mean streets leading to early death or incarceration will be high.


Consider the following dismal record    >>>>>


>>>>> 

Academic Proficiency Rates for African American Students at the Minneapolis Public Schools

Results of 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                      

2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019  2021                          

 22%  21%  21%  21%  22%  23%  19%

Mathematics

2014  2015  2016   2017  2018  2019  2021                          

 22%  23%  21%   18%  18%  18%   9%

Science

2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019  2021                          

 11%  15%  13%  12%  11%  11%  11%


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