Appointment of Rochelle Cox as Minneapolis Public Schools Interim Superintendent is a Very Favorable Development

The announcement by the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education yesterday (Thursday, 5 May 2022) that the district is forwarding a tentative appointment of Rochelle Cox as MPS Interim Superintendent for a formal vote at the next regular board meeting, on Tuesday, 10 May, is a very favorable development.

Rochelle Cox is one of those few capable staff members at the Minneapolis Public Schools with a connection to the Academic Division.  As a rule, the Academic Division, led by Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, is an ironic disaster, given that the provision of the academic program is the chief function of any locally centralized school district;  departments under Fearing’s oversight prominently include the Department of Teaching and Learning, Office of Black Student Achievement, and Department of Indian Education---  all of which are ineffective in the extreme.

But in her leadership positions in special education, Cox endeavored to challenge the students under her purview to achieve as much as they could academically, and she was a solid advocate for knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education.  She is now in a position to advocate for academically substantive education throughout the Minneapolis Public Schools---  in her position as Interim Superintendent and in overseeing the process whereby a supporter of knowledge-focused education and high teacher quality is selected as long-term superintendent.

Cox is in her twenty-fifth year at the district, beginning as a member of the early childhood special education department, going on to serve as MPS Special Education and Health Executive Director, then becoming a member of Superintendent Ed Graff’s cabinet as Associate Superintendent of Special Education and Health;  most recently, Cox became Associate Superintendent with responsibility for mentoring principals and overseeing academic progress at nineteen different schools, as indicated below  >>>>>

>>>>> 

Associate Superintendent, PK-8

Rochelle Cox

612.668.0140

Fax: 612.668.0145

Schools Assigned: Armatage, Bancroft, Barton, Cityview, Dowling, Emerson, Folwell, Hiawatha, Hmong Academy, Howe, Lake Harriet Lower, Lake Harriet Upper, Marcy, Metro Programs*, Pillsbury, Riverbend*, Seward, Sheridan, Webster, Whittier, Windom

Associate Superintendent, MS/Contract Alt.

<<<<< 

Now understand the opportunity afforded by Ed Graff’s resignation, Rochelle Cox’s appointment, and the process that must now ensue in the search for a new superintendent.

>>>>> 

Seizing the Unprecedented Opportunity Presented in the Selection

of a New Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools

 

Ed Graff’s resignation as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) presents an unprecedented opportunity to overhaul curriculum and teacher quality at a locally centralized school district that can serve as model for other districts throughout the nation.

To achieve the needed overhaul we must move logically from a vision of excellence in education, toward the succession of steps that must be taken as the search process ensues.  Accordingly, the categorical considerations are as follows:

 

Understanding the Meaning of Excellent Education

Excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, logically sequenced curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the preK-12 years.

An excellent teacher is a professional academician of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, logically sequenced curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts to students of all demographic descriptors.

 

Understanding the Needed Qualities in a Superintendent---  and in the Senior Academic Officer

Because certain certifications and licensures are required by the state of Minnesota for the position of superintendent, and because institutional credits leading to those certifications and licensures must be acquired through matriculation in academically insubstantial programs taught by education professors who are not subject area specialists, any candidate for superintendent will be unsatisfactory.

The challenge, then, will be to select the least objectionable candidate for Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

The position would ideally be occupied by a scholar in a key academic area, but given the formal requirements set by the education establishment, the chance of getting such a scholar is slim in the extreme.  The next best alternative, therefore, is to select a superintendent who is atypically receptive to the momentous changes needed for instituting knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, logically sequenced curriculum and training the teachers needed to impart such a curriculum. 

Since a superintendent possessing education establishment credentials will almost certainly not possess the scholarly credentials necessary to oversee the needed overhaul, a new senior academic officer will be needed.  A senior academic officer does not need any administrative certifications and can thus be a university-based or independent scholar possessing a Ph.D. in a key subject area.

These two elements of the superintendent search, then are critical to the needed overhaul for the attainment of academic excellence:

>>>>>   selecting a superintendent willing to take the steps necessary to achieve the needed overhaul in curriculum and teacher quality, including;

>>>>>     bringing on staff a scholar possessing a Ph.D. in a key subject area (mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, political science, economics, English or world literature) to serve as senior academic officer.

 

The Need for an Unconventional Superintendent Search

The Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education is likely to turn to an expensive search firm in seeking candidates.  This is a waste of money.  Such firms can never find suitable candidates, because they focus on those with the formalistic but unsatisfactory credentials put in place by the education establishment.  There are at least two staff members at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) who have the formal credentials but who would be willing to seek the necessary senior academic officer for overseeing the requisite overhaul in curriculum and teacher quality.

Ideally, the MPS Board of Education would decide not to hire a professional research firm but, rather, select from the in-house candidates, in consultation with the MPS Department of Human Resources.

The Board may not have the courage to bypass the engagement of the conventional search firm, though, opting for reasons of public posture to hire such a firm.

In that case, enormous activist pressure will need to be exerted on the firm and the board to select a superintendent with the inclinations stipulated above, including the willingness to engage the services of a scholarly senior academic officer.

 

The Need for Fierce Resolve in Bucking the Enormous Opposition that Will Ensue from the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Many Central Office Staff Members with Vested Interests in the Existing System

The steps recommended above for the superintendent search will engender fierce opposition from the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and from many MPS central office staff members.  Further, for reasons that will be detailed in subsequent articles, the specific changes needed to implement the overhauled program designed by the new senior academic officer will also be vehemently opposed by the MFT and others with vested interests in the current system.

As the overhaul ensues and the new program for knowledge-intensive curriculum and excellent teacher quality is moving toward implementation, the Department of Teaching and Learning and the ineffective Office of Black Student Achievement will be jettisoned and staff members of the legislatively mandated Department of Indian Education will be replaced with academicians dedicated to the impartation of academically substantive education to Native American students.  Those staff members affected by these moves will rise in heated oppositions, as will many in the leadership and rank and file of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.

Community activists will need to be vigilant in their insistence on the needed transformation, willing to meet the opposition of those with vested interests with superior energy and commitment.

 

Other Considerations   

Considerations for the New Superintendent and Senior Academic Officer

In achieving the transformation indicated above, the new superintendent and senior academic officer will need to make certain other initiatives in support of the overhauled curriculum and teacher quality.

At the preK-5 level, an hour a day should be devoted to academic enrichment, giving those few students operating at grade level the opportunity to explore driving interests---  and those in the majority functioning below grade level the opportunity to acquire grade-level skills in mathematics and reading.  Similar opportunities and assistance should be provided to students in grades 6-8 and 9-12 to ensure that all students are prepared to benefit from the new academically substantive curriculum.

Great thoughtfulness should be applied to administrative reorganizations at the Davis Center.  Those now serving in positions as senior finance, operations, and information technology officers are highly adroit at their positions;  and many others outside the academic division are quite competent.  But, with newly retrained principals and teachers obviating the excuse for many existing positions, academic division staff should be mostly dismissed, along with the position of associate superintendent.

And, though the overwhelming inclination should be toward bureaucratic diminution, one new department, a Department of Resource Provision and Referral should be established, staffed with those comfortable on the streets and in the homes of students from families struggling with issues of finances and functionality.

Considerations for the Public

To seize the opportunity afforded by Ed Graff’s resignation and move forward along the course indicated above, the public will have to become informed and engaged.

An activist contingent will need to embrace and agitate for the overhaul indicated above.

And the activist members of the public will need to be aware of looming important decisions by the MPS Board of Education.

At the Tuesday, 10 May, regular meeting of the MPS Board of Education, members will also

>>>>>   explain the 12-to-15 month-long process by which a new superintendent will be selected;

and

>>>>>   vote, supposedly after discussion among all board members of applications, for the at-large board position from which Josh Pauly resigned, on the candidate put forward to fill that position.

The current board consists of

>>>    District members Nelson Inz (District 5), Kim Caprini (at-large), Jenny Arneson (District 1), and board chair Kim Ellison (at-large), who as a group are resistant to change, heavily connected to the MFT, and concerned primarily with controlling board decisions for maintenance of the current system;  all of their manipulations should regarded as suspect;

>>>    District members Adriana Cerrillo and Sharon El-Amin, who are independent voices inclined toward the existing system;  their actions and comments should be taken with utmost seriousness;

>>>    District members Siad Ali (District 3) and Ira Jourdain (District 6), who may be ready to move toward the positions of Cerrillo and El-Amin. 

Thus, the selection of a board member to replace Josh Paul is highly important, inasmuch as the current board can be regarded as consisting potentially of a 4-4 alignment that could move either way, according the stance of the new member.

Be attentive to all of my comments along the way as we seek to bring knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, logically sequenced curriculum and elevated teacher quality to the long-suffering students of the Minneapolis Public Schools.