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 the superintendent
capable of gaining 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-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 regular meeting
of the MPS Board of Education, three important decisions will be made >>>>>
>>>>> The board
will 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.
>>>>> The board will also vote on the interim
superintendent position, which will be critical to the search for a new,
long-term superintendent. This candidate
should not be a member of the intellectually corrupt Minnesota Department of
Education (MDE); rather, as with the
long-term position, the interim superintendent position should go to a current
staff member at the Davis Center, a person who understands the current
financial and academic condition of the district and is prepared to seek the
qualities needed in the long-term superintendent and senior academic officer
positions.
Watch for and be ready
to rise in opposition if the Inz/Caprini/Arneson/Ellison contingent maneuvers
to install and MDE or other outside candidate.
>>>>> Also at the meeting of 10 May 2022, the
board will vote on the interim superintendent position, which will be critical
to the search for a new, long-term superintendent.
Even as I tap out this
article, I am getting reports that the likely candidates put forward, especially
by the Inz/Arneson duo of the Inz/Caprini/Ellison/Arneson contingent are in
fact candidates outside the current Davis Center administration of the
Minneapolis Public Schools.
Neither of the proposed
candidates for whom Inz and Arneson are lobbying heavily are ideal.
One is better than the
other.
An in-house candidate,
as discussed above, would be much better.
But be alert to my
recommendations as to the better of the two candidates if Inz and Arneson
succeed with their maneuvers---
and 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.
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