Jan 16, 2024

Introductory Comments >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< Volume X, Number Seven, January 2024

On 26 November 2024, soon after the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education announced that the Task Force was recommending two mediocre candidates, Sonia Stewart and Lisa Sayles-Adams, as finalists in the search for a new MPS Superintendent, I sent the following letter to the Board  >>>>>

 

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New Salem Educational Initiative

A Program of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church

                            

Gary Marvin Davison, Director

 

Church Address/ Academic Sessions            

2507 Bryant Avenue North                                  

Minneapolis  MN  55411     

                                 

Administrative Office/ Mailing Address

312 South Linden Place

Northfield  MN  55057

 

 

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.

 

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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 Hickley.  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 of 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.

 

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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.

 

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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) course. 

 

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.

 

https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/education/2020/02/14/sonia-stewart-candidate-green-bay-schools-superintendent-touts-focus-school-culture/4649734002/

 

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

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)

 

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At the juncture at which I sent the above letter to the Board, the directors had an opportunity to atone for the miserable decision of the Task Force.  But, although some directors had misgivings about the recommendations, not one had the courage to take the necessary action to assure that Rochelle’s Cox’s name was included among the final candidates for consideration by the entire MPS Board of Education.

 

This edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, gives details on the finalists (including the information that I sent via attachment to the Members of the MPS Board of Education), the decision-making process, and the lamentable phenomenon that was the botched search for the long-term superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, and the historic nature of this astounding missed opportunity.

 

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