Myron Medcalf returned with a column in today’s edition of the Star Tribune, after quite a few weeks giving readers a break from his uncreative, cowardly journalistic fare. He delivered the typical liberal’s identification of an important societal dilemma (as opposed to the radical call for action needed) that presumably makes his meager following and himself feel oh so very noble but offers nothing that can actually impel the needed on-the-ground activism needed for change.
Only when we address a wretched system of public education that shortchanges those historically abused populations most catastrophically will we actually arm those populations with the knowledge and skills needed for advocacy and systemic overhaul.
Medcalf and other liberal do-gooders should give full focus to the following brutal realities concerning academic proficiency rates, abysmal performance of schools that serve Native American populations, and the staff members culpable for their particular ineptitude while gaining remuneration within a system that abuses American Indian student populations so immorally.
Perpend >>>>>
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The Department of Indian Education at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is legislatively mandated, so that unlike the MPS Office of Black Male Achievement, this academically hopeless entity cannot be disbanded. But the 15-member department should be overhauled for focus on academic achievement, so that most of the current staff is dismissed, to be replaced by scholarly academicians whose unrelenting mission is to provide the knowledge and skills sets that American Indian students need to go forth in the world as culturally enriched, civically engaged, and professionally satisfied citizens.
A retrained MPS teaching staff, including those at schools such as Anishinabe Academy and South High School with high percentages of Native American students, should be especially attentive to the literature and history of American Indians while imparting the knowledge and skills sets to be received by all MPS students in the overhaul of curriculum at the district.
Remember that the 31-member staff of Teaching and Learning and the following staff members at the Minneapolis Public Schools are most culpable for the knowledge-deficient, skill-deplete curriculum that academically abuses MPS students >>>>>
>>>>>
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.
But Department of Indian Education Director Jennifer Rose Simon, who receives an annual salary of $115,379, and the department’s other staff members, whose salaries total approximately $1,300,000, are also deeply culpable for the academic abuse specifically heaped on Native American students.
Proficiency rates for American Indian students for years ending in
2014-2021 are given as follows, succeeded by a list of staff members of the MPS
Department of Teaching and Learning >>>>>
>>>>>
Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Indian Education
Academic Proficiency for American Students,
as Indicated by Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)
Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and
2021
(Note >>>>> No MCAs were administered during the academic year ending in 2020.)
Reading
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
21% 20% 21% 23% 24% 25% 20%
Mathematics
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
23% 19% 19% 17% 17% 18% 9%
Science
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
14% 16% 13% 17% 14% 17% 9%
Department of Indian Education Staff, Minneapolis Public Schools
Jennifer Simon, Director
(Cheyenne River Dakota)
Diane Leaskas, Account Specialist
Christina Wilson, Family Engagement Specialist
(White Earth)
Alexis Dauenhauer, School Success Program Assistant
(Standing Rock)
Patrick Engrav, School Success Program Assistant
(Bois Forte)
David Stier, School Success Program Assistant
Leo Baker, School Success Program Assistant/ Senior Graduation
Coach
(Upper Sioux Community)
Jodi Burke, Counselor on Special Assignment
Tracy Burke, Counselor on Special Assignment
Branden Canfield, Social Worker
Jennifer Weber, Special Education District Program Facilitator
(Oklahoma Choctaw)
Anjanette Parisien, District Program Facilitator
(Turtle Mountain)
Mathew La Fave, Ojibwe Language Teacher
(Fon Du Lac)
Shiela Zephler, Dakota Language Teacher
(Oglala Sioux, Turtle Mountain)
Tate Wilson, Social Studies Teacher
(Sisseton Wahpeton)
Tatanka Academy
Reading
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
17% 0% ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
(12) (6) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---)
Math
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
17% 0% ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
(12) (6) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---)
Science
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
----- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- -----
(---) (---) (---) (---)
(---) (---) (---)
American Indian AOC
Reading
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
14% ----- ----- 14% ----- ----- -----
(7) (---) (---) (7) (---) (---) (---)
Math
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
0% 0% ----- 0% ----- ----- -----
Science
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
----- -----
19% ----- -----
11% -----
Anishinabe
Reading
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
7% 9% 9% 6% 16% 12% 15%
(186) (175) (154) (157) (99) (111) (54)
Math
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
6% 12% 8% 8% 8% 11% 5%
(186) (172) (156) (156) (98) (109) (53)
Science
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
1% 7% 2% 2% 14% 8% 5%
(69) (59)
(45) (44) (21)
(36) (19)
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