Presentations at the 24 May 2022 Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education Committee of the Whole Meeting and the 14 June MPS Board of Education Regular Business Meeting Demonstrate the Stark Incompetence of the MPS Academic Division

Presentations made by the MPS Academic Division at Minneapolis Public School Board of Education meetings on 24 May 2022 and 14 June 2022 demonstrated clearly the stark ineptitude of those making academic decisions at the district.

 

The first meeting was a meeting of the Committee of the Whole, at which Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing took the lead in presenting the Academic Division’s  Committee of the Whole Mid-Year Data Review and Academic Updates.

 

The presentation cites data that indicates no major progress in a situation depicted by my own updated figures, as follows  >>>>>

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      

 

33%     36%   35%     34%    34%    36%   36%

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Thus, clearly, inasmuch as the midyear 2021-2022 figures provided by the Academic Division at the Committee of the Whole meeting indicate no major progress has been made in raising academic proficiency rates, the program that prevailed this academic year has been the typical failure.

 

And nothing presented by the Academic Division as a corrective to this dismal record inspires confidence.

 

In terms of literacy, Aimee Fearing and staff mainly will be relying on a Groves Literary Partnership and the pedagogical approach of PRESS (Pathway to Reading Excellence) to improve student reading. 

 

The PRESS program was developed by the Minnesota Center for Reading Research at the University of Minnesota.  The Groves Literary Partnership was developed at the University of St. Thomas.  Programs developed by education professors at these universities should come under immediate doubt.  Education professors at both of these institutions have been the very most culpable for promoting ill-conceived approaches to reading over the last several decades.  

During these decades, education professors touted the “Whole Language” approach to reading which deemphasized phonics and phonemic awareness, thus contributing heavily to the unconscionable reading proficiency levels such as we have witnessed at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  

Both of these programs now do embrace phonics and phonemic awareness,  along with fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary, as key components of reading;  but there is nothing dramatically different in either the Groves or the PRESS approaches that is likely to make much difference in advancing student reading proficiency levels.

 

Nevertheless, Fearing and staff assembled teachers and administrators mostly from Jenny Lind Elementary School to attest to the progress that they see their students making in the trial stage for the Groves program;  other participating elementary schools are Nellie Stone Johnson, Bethune, Northop, Burroughs, and Barton.  Staff at Jenny Lind conceded that they have little firm data on which to base their comments on student progress---  but they can just see favorable student response to the Groves program.

 

We have witnessed this before, this claim for the benefits of new curriculum that never materialize.

 

There is so much excess verbiage and jargon that always attends these presentations.

 

I chafe at nonsensical claims and the inevitable shibboleths that cloud these meetings and the incompetence in the Academic Division is on display.

 

Because I know that teaching students to read at grade level and beyond is easy.  Doing so is a matter of

 

>>>>>    teaching the alphabet, multiple letter word combinations, and beginning words with attention to phonics and phonemic awareness;

 

while

 

>>>>>    from prekindergarten and kindergarten forward through grades 1-12 introducing quality literature and subject area readings that expand vocabulary and comprehension.

 

Reading is thus a matter of carefully teaching the fundamentals of word sounds and then reading abundantly across many subject areas.

 

But this requires teachers who are in love with the world of knowledge and want to instill such enthusiasm for gaining knowledge and inspiration from reading.  Such teachers should be avid and adept readers themselves.  But such teachers are scarce at preK-5 and on through the system.  Such educators are absent also in the Academic Division comprising Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, Deputy Senior Academic Officer Maria Rollinger, Executive Director of the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning Jenn Rose, and the 30-member staff at the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning.

 

This is why such canned programs as Groves and PRESS are doomed to failure.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

The presentation at the 14 June 2022 meeting was just as embarrassing for the Academic Division of the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

This presentation, for which Jenn Rose took the lead, featured mainly survey data indicating community, teacher, and student favorable response to a new mathematics curriculum dubbed Bridges/Number Corner. 

 

There was very little presented as to the substance of the Bridges/Number Corner curriculum. 

 

The entire presentation emphasized the enthusiasm for Bridges/Number Corner as revealed in survey data across ethnic group, year in school, and professional position (teacher or administrator) within the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Again, as is the case for reading, most mathematics curricula are adequate for the purposes of the adroit teacher, who merely utilizes any particular curriculum to get across the concepts that preK-5 students and then their middle school counterparts should master.  But tor the adept teacher, much needs to be disregarded in the wasteful games, group exercises, and manipulatives touted by mathematics education professors (not to be confused with typically brilliant mathematics professors) for grades preK-5.  Mathematics education professors have made an industry out of a field that should be very straightforward but which they obscure by pretending to be grand philosophers asking students to engage in “metacognition” and such persiflage.  

Mathematics education professors typically have very much less to say as mathematics becomes more complex in the ascent through Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry, Statistics, and Calculus because mathematics education professors are not particularly skilled in middle range and certainly higher-level mathematics.  They, therefore, exercise their harmful pretensions on elementary age students, contributing heavily to the wretched proficiency rates that we witness year after year.

 

The truth is that before the mid-range difficultly of courses at the late middle school and high school levels, fundamental mathematics consists of

 

>>>>>   the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division;

 

>>>>>   fractions, decimals, and percentages;

 

>>>>>   ratios, proportions, and simple probability;

 

>>>>>   fundamental tables, charts, and graphs.

 

 

That’s all. 

 

Straightforward teaching of those concepts, including applications to life circumstances is all that is necessary.

 

But many elementary school teachers are math phobic.

 

Not many mathematics teachers at the middle school or high school level are excellent teachers or adroit mathematicians.

 

Such teachers have been trained by the same ilk of education professors as train those in the Academic Division.

 

Only improvement in teaching quality will result in higher proficiency rates for the long-suffering students of the Minneapolis Public Schools and other locally centralized school districts.

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Presentations such as those made by the Academic Division at the 24 May 2022 Committee of the Whole and the 14 June regular meeting of the MPS Board of Education are embarrassments demonstrating just how inept is the Academic Division and members of the Board, who very seldom ask any incisive question of the miserable Academic Division staff.

 

Thus, overhaul of the Academic Division, the MPS Board of Education, and the entire academic program of the Minneapolis Public Education is a paramount task if we hope that graduates forth to lives of knowledge and skill, living lives as culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally satisfied citizens on this one earthly sojourn.

Candidates Running for Seats on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education in the 9 August 2022 Primary--- with Comments

The website at https://vote.minneapolismn.gov/candidates/candidate-filings/#heading-121415 gives all of those candidates who will be running for seats on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education in the 9 August 2022 primary.  The site seems accurate but features some surprising omissions and withdrawals.

The list includes filing dates (which I note parenthetically) and gives the candidates as follows;  asterisk indicates DFL endorsement, according to my information immediately after the endorsing convention;    >>>>>

I was a bit surprised that Kim Caprini seemingly waited to determine if she received the DFL endorsement to file---  and then, when she lost that endorsement to Collin Beachy, apparently did not file.  

This means that of the terrible foursome (Nelson Inz/Kim Caprini/Kim Ellison/Jenny Arneson), only Ellison will remain as of January 2023.  That much is blissful, but any return of Keri Jo Felder would be a nuisance.  She is so offensive that she alienates everyone, so she is not likely to be part of  a terrible foursome-type bloc, but her opposition to the Comprehensive District Design (a mostly a wise document in non-academic features) would be a pain, as would her presence on the board generally.  

Since District 1 and District 3 seem set, we'll just have to do the best we can with those members. 

I'm going to be checking out the alternatives to Felder for At-Large.  

A priori, I'll be assuming the worst about DFL endorsee Collin Beachy for At-Large and DFL endorsee Lori Norvell for District 5---  but I'm going to make an effort to meet with all of these candidates to give us the best chance possible to promote knowledge-intensive curriculum as actually imparted in the classroom and training of teachers capable of delivering such curriculum.

With regard to my comments about DFL endorsees, remember that I am a radical leftist who typically favors DFL candidates over much worse Republican opponents;  but DFLers are bought and paid for by teacher union entities such as Education Minnesota and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), which do what good unions do in advocating for fair remuneration and working conditions but always oppose any moves to make to needed overhaul in curriculum as actually imparted in the classroom and the training of teachers capable of delivering such curriculum.

Perpend  >>>>>

>>>>>

At-Large

*****Keri Jo Felder  (5/17/2022)

*****Collin Beachy (5/17/2022)

Sony Emerick  (5/24/2022)

Jaton White  (5/24/2022)

Harley Meyer  (5/26/2022)

Lisa Skjefte  (5/27/2022)

Comment   >>>>>    

Note the absence of Caprini---

District 1

*****Mary Jo McCollow  (5/17/2022)-----     withdrew 6/2/202

Abdul Abdi (5/27/2022)

Comment     

McCollow withdrew, even after receiving the DFL endorsement.  I am now working to determine whether Abdul Abdi, a late filer, received any de facto DFL endorsement and if McCollow's withdrawal was the result of some sort of political deal. 

District 3

*****Fathia Feerayarre  (5/17/2022)

Comment---      Karn Engelsgjerd seemed poised to run, even without DFL endorsement, which he lost after one ballot;  he never filed, apparently waiting to observe the results of endorsement.

District 5

*****Lori Norvell  (5/17/2022)

Lorraine Spies (5/18/2022)

Leslie Haugland-Smith  (5/24/2022)

Laurelle Myhra  (5/24/2022)

Elena Codos  (5/31/2022)

Comment    >>>>>    This district featured no surprises for me.

Incompetence of the Education Establishment Seen Clearly in Erin Adler's >Star Tribune< Article (17 June 2022) Focused on a Commissioned Report on American Indian Education in Minnesota

Unwittingly, methinks, Erin Adler in her “Schools lack skills, tools on Native topics” (Star Tribune, June 17, 2022) presents to the careful reader all of those flaws that produce the massive incompetence of the public education establishment.

 

Adler’s focus is on a new report commissioned by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC), which found that two-thirds of teachers who completed surveys for the report do not feel confident teaching subject matter pertinent to Native Americans and cite lack of curricular resources as the top challenge.  Odia Wood-Krueger, author of the report, laments that nothing in the teaching of American Indian culture and history is working particularly well.

 

Surveys conducted for the report indicate that educators want to improve;  similarly, a previous SMSC survey found that 90 percent of Minnesotans support teaching additional Native American content in K-12 classes.  But, Krueger says, we unfairly ask teachers why they are not teaching Native content while not supporting them in ways that allow them to feel confident and knowledgeable in imparting relevant information to their students.  Thirty-seven percent of those teachers surveyed say that they have never received professional development relevant to teaching subject matter relevant to Native American studies.

 

Teachers thus have not been teaching much about Native American history or culture, despite the fact that a 2010 Minnesota law requires that Dakota and Ojibwe language and culture be taught across all subjects in the state’s public schools.  Ramona Kitto Stately, chair of the Minnesota Indian Education Association, interprets the survey as indicating that teachers are “really afraid of teaching the wrong thing.”

 

Recommendations in the report include creating professional development sessions and accessible curriculum, expanding opportunities for Native experts to visit classrooms, involving tribal members  in creating new materials, and developing  a repository for teaching resources and an online “Indian Education for All” program.  The survey and report are part of the SMSC’s Understand Native Minnesota philanthropic campaign that was launched in 2019 and now has $5 million to fund educational resources and training for teachers and administrators on Native American content.

 

I happened to encounter this article just after having reread Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970) , Anton Treuer’s Atlas of the Indian Nations (2013), and Native American Almanac (2016)

(cowritten by Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder, and Shannon Rothenburger Flynn).   My most intense academic investigation prior to rereading those books was a multi-reference review of algebraic series and sequences, graphing of complex equations, and division of polynomials for more efficient instruction of my several Algebra II students in the New Salem Educational Initiative. 

 

In the latter program I meet with my students in weekly two-hour sessions each to provide instruction that they either do not get or is ineptly provided by the teachers of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  I teach all grades (preK-12 and a number of college and university students, including adults seeking to resume their education).  I do any research that I need to do across all subjects to provide my students with a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education.  I have always considered the acquisition of a firm knowledge base as an imperative at the many levels and across the many fields I have taught over a 51-year career, including twenty-nine years as the director of the New Salem Educational Initiative.

 

I have maintained this ethic ever since I first stepped into a classroom where I taught world history, American history, and government at L. G. Pinkston High School near the public housing projects on the Westside of Dallas, Texas.  But I have discovered over my years of teaching, and in my many years now of researching the history and philosophy of American education, that this ethic is counter to that of the public education establishment in the United States, wherein I toiled for much of my career.

 

The counter-ethic of the public education establishment is revealed in the Adler article.  Clearly, teachers have worked with a knowledge-deficient curriculum as actually implemented in the classroom, whatever state laws may mandate.  We observe that teachers gained certification after matriculation in college and university training programs that left them deficient in subject area knowledge.   Despite the “critical thinking” and “lifelong learning” mantras of anti-knowledge education professors, we observe that the students whom these campus embarrassments produce are not adept at lifelong learning enough to gain through reading or research the information that they need, in this case on Native American history and culture, to confidently present the pertinent material to their students.  And we must conclude that upon such thin knowledge bases as the teachers surveyed possess, they cannot engage their students in the critical analysis that the Native American experience certainly requires.

 

And we surveys conducted that are not likely to result in action.  We witness the call for better professional development (“PD,” in the parlance of the education establishment), which is inevitably an inept exercise, similar to the experiences teachers collect in pursuing meaningless master’s degrees in education (rather than in subject area disciplines) that move them further along the “step and lane” sequence toward higher pay for no additional knowledge acquired.

 

And we have millions of dollars that could be saved if teachers were comfortable making trips to public libraries to do the reading and research necessary for absolutely no cost at all.

 

Through academic year 2018-2019, Odia Wood-Krueger was a District Program Facilitator (DPF) in the legislatively mandated Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Department of Indian Education, a chronically ineffective bureaucratic entity that for that year failed to promote curriculum and teacher training sufficient to avert wretched academic proficiency rates for Native American students in reading (25% proficient), mathematics (18%), and science (17%).

 

Perhaps, instead of authoring reports unlikely to produce any improvement of curriculum as actually delivered, she should return to the MPS Department of Indian Education to inspire and seek teachers who are readers and researchers capable of accessing information available for free to any lifelong learner.  

 

A Challenge to My Readers to Determine What This Article Reveals About the Incompetence of the Education Establishment

A note to my readers   >>>>>   Analyze this article (Erin Adler, “Schools Lack Skills, Tools on Native Topics” [Star Tribune, 17 June 2022] for what is conveyed about the education establishment, predicting insofar as you are able what my own analysis will reveal   >>>>>

>>>>> 

Erin Adler, “Schools Lack Skills, Tools on Native Topics” (Star Tribune, 17 June 2022)

Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux hope $5 M campaign will give

Minnesota Teachers resources to expand indigenous content.

 

A new report commissioned by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) found that most K-12 Minnesota teachers don't have the confidence or tools needed to teach about Native Americans — and that the resources available vary widely in quality.

"Nothing that we're doing is working particularly well," said Odia Wood-Krueger , author of the report and a teacher in Saskatchewan and Minneapolis for more than two decades. "We need to do better."

The survey and report are part of the tribe's Understand Native Minnesota philanthropic campaign, a $5 million effort to fund educational resources and training for teachers and administrators on Native American content that began in 2019.

On the positive side, educators want to improve, the report said.

"I'm really excited about this report. It was a long time coming," said Rebecca Crooks-Stratton, secretary-treasurer of the SMSC, based in Prior Lake. The tribe owns and operates Mystic Lake Casino Hotel.

Crooks-Stratton said she was happy to see that there's an appetite among educators for quality, vetted curriculum. There are some good resources out there, she said, but more are needed and they must be age-appropriate and aligned to state standards.

Wood-Krueger's survey, which was given to educators, curriculum leaders and educational organizations via e-mail in 2021, received 617 responses, 542 from educators.

"This is the first of its kind ever to be created in Minnesota," Wood-Krueger said.

Two-thirds of the educators who completed the survey don't feel confident teaching Native content and said the top challenge was a lack of curricular resources.

Many educators — some 37% — had never attended professional development related to teaching Native topics, the report said.

"We're asking teachers to do things that they're not supported to do ... and then we're like, why aren't you teaching Native content?" Wood-Krueger said.

The general public wants more Native American-related subject matter taught in school. Data from a previous SMSC survey indicates that 90% of Minnesotans support teaching additional Native American content in K-12 classes.

Combating Native American erasure

One impetus for the report and evaluation of resources is the erasure of Native Americans in American society generally and in school curriculum, the report said.

"So many people don't realize that Native Americans still exist," Wood-Krueger said.

That's despite the fact that a 2010 Minnesota law requires that Dakota and Ojibwe languages and culture be taught across all subjects in Minnesota public schools, said Ramona Kitto Stately , chair of the Minnesota Indian Education Association and project director of We Are Still Here Minnesota, a network of Native American leaders that breaks down negative narratives about Native Americans.

"This survey is about spotlighting what teachers really need," Stately said. "They're really afraid to do the wrong thing."

The results weren't a surprise, Stately said, but data was needed to move efforts forward.

The report also offers recommendations for improving access to and training about Native American content. They include creating professional development sessions and accessible curriculum that meets state standards, expanding opportunities for Native American experts to visit classrooms and for tribal involvement in creating new materials.

They also suggest creating an online repository for teaching resources and an online "Indigenous Education for All" program covering Minnesota-specific Native American subject matter for adults and children.

"I can't think of a better time than now to be more inclusive of the true history of our state," Stately said.

The Understand Native Minnesota campaign is moving into the grantmaking phase, Crooks-Stratton said, during which a team will evaluate curriculum and training proposals and decide which ones to fund.

"This report is going to be a big piece in deciding what projects we fund in the granting phase, which ones are going to give us the most bang for our buck," Crooks-Stratton said.

Front Matter and Contents >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota<, Volume VIII, Number 12, June 2022

Volume VIII, No. 12                                              

June 2022

 

Journal of the K-12 Revolution:

Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota        

 

A Publication of the New Salem Educational Initiative

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Editor     

 

 

Selecting a New Superintendent

For the Minneapolis Public Schools:

 

Unprecedented Opportunity for the Transformation of Public Education

 

A Five-Article Series         

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

 

New Salem Educational Initiative

Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

Selecting a New Superintendent

For the Minneapolis Public Schools:

 

Unprecedented Opportunity for the

Transformation of Public Education

 

 A Five-Article Series      

 

Copyright © 2022

 

Gary Marvin Davison

New Salem Educational Initiative

 

Contents

 

Introduction                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Seizing the Unprecedented Opportunity                                                      

Presented in the Selection of a New

Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools

 

Article #1                                                                                                                                                                                             

Facing the Dilemma of Ineptitude in the

Public Education Establishment

 

Article #2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Overhauling Curriculum

 

Article #3                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Overhauling Teacher Quality

 

Article #4                                                                                                                   

 

The Impediment to Intellectual Quality Presented

by the Legislatively Mandated Requirements for

Superintendent Licensure in Minnesota       

 

Article #5                                                                                                               

 

Characteristics Mandatory for the New Superintendent and

New Senior Academic Officer of the Minneapolis Public Schools

 

Concluding Comments                                                                                      

 

Ancillary Measures Needed for the Transformation