New Salem Educational Initiative
A Program of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church
Gary Marvin Davison, Director
November 26, 2023
Directors
Minneapolis Public
Schools
Board of Education
1250 West Broadway
Minneapolis
MN 55411
MPS Board of Education Directors:
I trust that this note
finds all of you well in the aftermath of a warm and joyful Thanksgiving with
loved ones, and that the spirit of gratitude lingers as you anticipate a very
blessed holiday season.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Attached to this email are several documents for your reference as we move forward in this week, at the end of which you will, if the schedule holds, on this coming Friday, 1 December, vote on the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).
You have bungled this search terribly.
One of the documents attached is the communication containing the notes that in autumn 2022 A. J. Crabill sent to the previous iteration of the MPS Board of Education. Mr. Crabill was invited to address that Board as a representative of the Council of Great City Schools. Seemingly against expectation of key members of that Board, though, Mr. Crabill counseled members to use a search or a law firm only for vetting and handling logistics: He conveyed his conviction that astute Boards are always in readiness when the need arises to select a new superintendent and should always be cultivating internal candidates.
The previous Board, especially as impelled by the four key members given reference above, ignored Mr. Crabill’s advice and endeavored to put in place a suggested time table for a very conventional process in selecting the next superintendent. You, the members of the current Board, in large measure followed the signals of the previous Board and charted a very conventional search, except that on 7 March 2023 you voted to extend the contract of Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox.
With that move you provided hope that you would understand the historically unprecedented nature of the extraordinary initiatives authored by the Interim Superintendent and executed brilliantly, especially by Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives Sarah Hunter, Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, Deputy Senior Academic Officer Maria Rollinger, and Senior Finance and Operations Officer Ibrahima Diop; but also by Executive Director of Engagement and External Relations Tyrize Cox, Executive Director of Equity and School Climate Derek Francis, and Executive Director of Student Support Services Meghan Hickey. Indeed, Senior Information Technology Officer Justin Hennes, Interim Senior Human Resources Officer Alicia Miller, the associate superintendents, and the Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist (ABAR) team give appearance as a nonpareil group of highly talented individuals working with extraordinary and seamless alacrity to implement a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete academic program, with abiding reference to MPS Strategic Plan values prioritizing academic achievement, student well-being, effective staff, and school and district climate.
With exceptional energy and acuity, Cox and Fearing superintended the introduction a new math curriculum (Bridges/Number Corner) that for the first time in recent memory was followed across all grade levels at all schools. And for reading/language arts, a similar uniformity of curriculum was followed in a process that will now move from Benchmark Advance to a new curriculum currently under trial. Cox and staff also moved with new vigor to ensure faithful implementation of the reading intervention programs Groves, PRESS (“Pathways to Reading Excellence”), and LETRS (“Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling”). Academic and Strategic Initiative staff introduced high dosage tutoring provided by the firms of Carnegie and Axiom, online ACT training and, most importantly, 133 three-person professional teams (one licensed teacher, two trained Education Support Professionals [ESPs]), each team responsible for addressing the academic needs of 75 students lagging below grade level and having not experienced growth in reading or mathematics skills for two successive quarters.
Remember that I have profound knowledge of the history and philosophy of education, that I have spent 52 years teaching students living at the urban core, that I have for 30 years now directed the New Salem Educational Initiative, and that I currently teach 45 students per week, with a 25-person waiting list of students living mostly in North Minneapolis who either attend or live in the attendance zone of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Take very seriously, then, this communication that conveys to you that Rochelle Cox has been in the process of leading the Minneapolis Public Schools forward toward a model for urban public school districts across the United States.
The work that Cox and staff have done to address with elevated intentionality the skill acquisition needs of students languishing chronically far below grade level has never been accomplished by any public school district serving students living at the urban core.
Never.
If you doubt this assertion, please read the Analysis and Philosophy sections of my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect, or schedule a meeting with me so that I may explain to you why you have been making history under the direction of Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Thus, you should have eleven months ago put aside conventional processes and asked Rochelle Cox to be the next long-term superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. You should never have given your decision-making responsibility to a task-force that included 14 (of the 17 total) members not elected by the voters in the district.
You could still take the initiative to decline the recommendations of the task force and offer the contract to Cox; alternatively, you could make other moves that would alter the track you are now following:
You could add Cox’s name to the list of finalists, so that the whole Board would have the ability to assess her record compared to the other candidates.
I find odd the circumstance that the task force did not recommend three candidates rather than just two:
While Cox has never publicly stated that she submitted an application, there is a high degree of probability that she did so and could have had her name forwarded to the Board, along with those of Sonia Stewart and Lisa Sayles-Adams. You members of the Board--- and the public--- should have the opportunity to assess the candidacies of Stewart and Sayles-Adams along with the accomplishments of Cox.
………………………………………………………………………………………………...
As you ponder these recommendations, please read the documents that I have attached to this email.
I am also going to embed in this email (see below) a mostly objective assessment of the candidacies of Sonia Stewart and Lisa Sayles-Adams. This combines much information from the presentations on the MPS Board of Education website with objective information from my own investigations, especially including data on the demographics and academic progress for the Hamilton County Schools, where Stewart has served as Deputy Superintendent; and the Eastern Carver County Schools, where Sayles-Adams has most recently served as Superintendent.
Be attentive, though, in the information provided for Stewart that a controversy arose over her claims of academic progress at Pearl-Cohn High School, in view of policies of her initiation that seemed to make failing courses impossible and rewarded students excessively, giving any student an “A” who merely took an Advanced Placement (AP) exam.
Please read the article (see link directly below) by Samantha West (“Meet Sonia Stewart, One of Two Finalists for the Green Bay Area Public School District,” Green Bay Press Gazette, May 12, 2023), pertinent to the questions that have been raised about Sonia Stewart’s policies while at Pearl-Cohn High School.
Stewart has written a book, All Our Children Are Our Children: A Pearl at the Heart of the City that is inspiring at many junctures (I ordered and read this book on Saturday, 25 November) but makes highly exaggerated claims for the academic achievements of students at Pearl-Cohn High School, given that U. S. News and World Report data indicates that only 3% of students at Pearl-Cohn are proficient in math, only 12% in reading, that 35% of students at the high school take at least one Advanced Placement (AP) course but that not one--- not one--- passed (score of at least 3 out of 5) in the year ending in 2022 covered by the U. S. News and World Report presentation, and that college readiness for Pearl-Cohn seniors is only 8.7 (eight and seven-tenths) on a scale of 0 to 100.
As to the record of students in the Eastern Carver County Schools where Sayles-Adams has been serving as superintendent, the data observed is not very impressive, given that this district serves middle class students and only 9.2% (nine and two-tenths percent) of students are on free/reduced price lunch. Also, the word I have from my sources in the St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) is that administrators regarded Sayles-Adams as not being ready to take a head superintendent role when she assumed the position in Eastern Carver County Schools. The latter district serves just 9,377 students, casting doubt as to whether this stronger of the two candidates recommended by the task force is actually prepared to lead the Minneapolis Public Schools, with 48% of 29,000 students on free/reduced price lunch; at many MPS schools the figure for those receiving free/reduced price lunch is at 85% or more).
Consider my comments and information provided herein very seriously, and read carefully the attached documents.
I will be attending the events for the upcoming week and will be highly available for any discussion or questions.
Do go ahead and consider the information below.
With my very best wishes---
Gary
Gary
Marvin Davison, Ph.D.
Director,
New Salem Educational Initiative
2507
Bryant Ave North
Minneapolis MN 55411
http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com
Author,
Understanding
the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Gary Condition,
Future Prospect (New Salem Educational Initiative, second edition,
2023)
Foundations
of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education (New Salem
Educational Initiative, 2022)
A
Concise History of African America (Seaburn, 2004)
The
State of African Americans in Minnesota 2004 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2004)
The
State of African Americans in Minnesota 2008 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2008)
A
Short History of Taiwan: The Case for Independence (Praeger,
2003)
Tales
from the Taiwanese (Libraries Unlimited,
2004)
Culture
and Customs of Taiwan ([with Barbara E. Reed]
Greenwood, 1998)
Sonia
Stewart
Deputy Superintendent
Hamilton County Public Schools (HCPS)
45,176 students
As Deputy Superintendent
of the Hamilton County Public Schools, Sonia Stewart has responsibility for the
departments of Teaching and Learning, School Leadership, Opportunity and
Access, and Social Emotional and Academic Development. Her initial position
at HCPS was Community Superintendent for the MidTown Learning Community.
Prior to her three and
one-half years at HCPS, Stewart spent 13 years in the Nashville Public Schools,
where she became Executive Officer of Organizational Development after serving
as Math Teacher and Head Girls Basketball Coach, Freshman Academy Administrator
at Glencliff High School, and then an eventful tenure as Executive Principal at
Pearl-Cohn High School. This latter position created a high profile media
story of success but has brought negative reflections from some of her HCPS
colleagues who say that testing policies at Pearl Conn inflated test scores and
prohibited giving students failing grades.
With regard to
questionable policies that Stewart may have utilized, former Pearl Cohn
guidance counselor Kelly Brown conveys her view that success at Pearl-Cohn
maneuvered to make standardized test scores look better than they
were. A Nashville television report in 2015 revealed that Pearl-Cohn
had implemented a policy prohibiting giving students a grade below a
60--- even if all the student did was “wad up the test and throw it back
at the teacher. A district spokesperson
at the time defended Stewart by saying that Metro Nashville Public Schools had
implemented a controversial policy two years earlier that no student could get
a grade below a 50 and that Stewart had simply misinterpreted that policy.
Brown also criticized a
policy at Pearl-Cohn that automatically gave an A to any student who took an
Advanced Placement exam — even if they slept through it. She also claimed
that under pressure from the district’s central office to improve test scores,
just before students were to take end-of-course exams for which they had not
done well on practice exams, Stewart pressured counselor Brown to transfer
students from their classes. The district said in a statement that such an
action was in violation of district policy that may not have been clearly
communicated to principals, and Stewart vigorously denied the accusations.
Before those 13 years in
the Nashville Community Public Schools, Stewart
taught math in Los Angeles, California and served as the Founder and Executive
Director of The Oaks Community Development Corporation in Chicago, building a
network of parents, community leaders, and partner organizations for bringing
educational reform to a neighborhood at the urban core.
Stewart has written a
book, All Children Are Our Children: A Pearl at the Heart of the
City (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform), based on her
experiences at Pearl-Cohn.
Stewart’s academic
credentials are as follows >>>>>
Ed, D., Education,
Leadership, and Policy
Vanderbilt University
(Nashville, Tennessee)
M. Ed.
Trevecca Nazarene
University (Nashville TN)
B.S., Mathematics
Biola University (La
Mirada CA).
U.S. News and World
Report data on public school districts
indicates the following for Hamilton county Schools >>>>>
Hamilton County Schools
79 schools; 22
high schools
Student enrollment
45,176
White
47.6%
African
American
25.6%
Hispanic
17.9%
2 or more
ethnicities 6.9%
Asian/
1.8%
Pacific Islander
American
Indian/ 0.0%
Alaska Native
Native
Hawaiian/
0.0%
Other Pacific
Islander
Free/Reduced Price Lunch 46.7%
English Language Learners 6.0%
I am working on
obtaining information on percentage of students who receive Free/Reduce Price
Lunch; the N/A given in the typically copious U.S. News and World
Report data is highly unusual.
Academic Proficiency
Math
Reading
Elementary
39%
35%
Middle
School 26%
26%
High
School
21%
42%
College
Readiness
18.3 (Rated on scale of 0-100)
Graduation
Rate
86.5%
Lisa
Sayles-Adams
Superintendent
Eastern Carver County Schools
9,379 students
Lisa Sayles-Adams began
her career in education at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) from 1996
to 2004 as a teacher and eventually served as principal at an MPS contract
alternative school in the organization The City, Inc.
Sayles-Adams then worked
from 2004 until 2012 in the 52,000-student district of Clayton County Schools
in Georgia, serving as high school principal and principal for two elementary
schools.
Next, Sayles-Adams moved
to the St. Paul Public Schools in 2012, holding positions as middle school and
elementary school principal before serving for five years as an assistant
superintendent. Then, in 2020, she moved into the same position in the
Eastern Carver County Schools; she was selected as superintendent for the
2021-2022 academic year.
Sayle-Adams's academic
credentials are as follows >>>>>
Ed, D., Educational
Leadership (2022)
Minnesota State
University/Mankato
M.A., Curriculum and
Instruction (2002)
University of
Minnesota/Twin Cities
B.A. Political
Science (1992)
University of
Minnesota/Twin Cities
U.S. News and World
Report data on public school districts
indicates the following for Eastern Carver County Schools
>>>>>
Eastern Carver County
Schools
21 schools; 6 high schools
Student enrollment 9,379
White
74.6%
Hispanic
10.4%
African
American
5.4%
Two
or
5.2%
more ethnicities
Asian/
3.9%
Pacific Islander
American
Indian/ 0.3%
Alaska Native
Native
Hawaiian/ 0.1%
Other Pacific Islander
………………………………………………….
Free/
9.2%
Reduced Price
Lunch
English
5.6%
Language Learners
Academic Proficiency
Math
Reading
Elementary
64%
63%
Middle
School
42%
59%
High
School
56%
67%
Graduation
Rate
69.5%
College
Readiness
45.2 (scale of 0-100)
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