The contract that will be signed according to negotiations between officials in the central administration (Davis Center) of the Minneapolis Public Schools and the unions (Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals) will raise teacher and education support professional pay, reduce some class sizes, and provide more counseling and psychological support, but will not promote knowledge-intensive curriculum, acceptable teacher quality, or any effort to address current skill deficiencies or connections to families struggling with dilemmas of functionality.
Academic excellence was not the goal and cannot be the
result of the new contracts.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Between autumn 2019 and autumn 2021, 4,811 students departed the
Minneapolis Public Schools to seek education elsewhere, the result of a drop in
enrollment from 33,500 to 28,689.
Poignantly, very few of those students found better education in
the near suburbs, charter, or parochial schools; public education is
rarely good and most often terrible >>>>>
Students at the preK-5 level, wherever they matriculate, are
likely in the extreme to 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-deficient. 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 do not possess the requisite knowledge base.
Administrators and teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools are
themselves ill-educated and poorly positioned to signal any reason why students
should not seek any other options, as forlorn as are the alternatives.
Remember these proficiency rates
>>>>>
Academic Proficiency Rates as Indicated by Minnesota Comprehensive
Assessments (MCA)
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 42%
2015 42%
2016 43%
2017 43%
2018 45%
2019 47%
2021 46%
Mathematics
2014 44%
2015 44%
2016 44%
2017 42%
2018 42%
2019 42%
2021 35%
Science
2014
33%
2015
36%
2016 35%
2017 34%
2018 34%
2019 36%
2021 36%
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The overhaul at the Minneapolis Public Schools must
include
>>>>> the design of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum;
>>>>> the training of
teacher capable of imparting such curriculum;
>>>>> intensive skill remediation (one hour set aside each day for individual
advancement [either enrichment or remediation] for all students at grades K-5; and at grades 6-12, an hour a day as necessary
for those still needing to gain grade level proficiency);
and
>>>>> the creation of a Department
of Resource Provision and Referral staffed with people comfortable on the
streets and in the homes of those students from families struggling with dilemmas
of finances and functionality.
If the district does not take these steps, the following
morally reprehensible proficiency rates will continue to be recorded year after
year >>>>>
>>>>>
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%
White
2014 2015
2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
78% 77% 77% 78% 80% 78% 74%
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%
White
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
71% 75% 71% 70%
71% 70% 61%
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%
White
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
71%
75% 71% 70%
71% 70% 61%
All
Students
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
33% 36% 35% 34% 34% 36% 36%
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Neither administrators at the Davis Center nor
teachers and education support professionals are primarily concerned with
academic quality.
Such quality will only be brought to the
long-suffering students of the Minneapolis Public Schools when administrators
and teachers come under severe pressure, such as will come with the
ever-widening circulation of my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public
Schools: Current Condition, Future
Prospect and the activist energy represented and promoted by the book.
Remember that I am in the process of taking this district
apart piece by piece and rebuilding according to the four-point program
indicated above.
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