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

Introductory Comments:  Conditions at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Have Reached a Nadir under Sub-Mediocre New MPS Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams

 

Conditions at the Minneapolis Public Schools(MPS) have reached a nadir for the period of June 1914 through June 2024 of my intensive investigation into the inner workings of this school district.

 

The superintendent selection process that I witnessed during the 2015-2016 academic year was a two-stage debacle that lamentably resulted in the selection of lackluster Ed Graff;  but the superintendent search of this past 2023-2024 academic year resulted in a vote for an even worse candidate after the most corrupt selection process in the history of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

The corruption and ineptitude of the current iteration of the MPS Board of Education in conducting the most recent superintendent search are magnified when one considers that Board members bore witness to the most effective leadership that MPS has ever had during the time span (July 2022 through December 2023) in which Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox led the district.  

 

During this period, Board members were blessed with a relentless focus on academics in presentations at monthly regular business and Committee of the Whole meetings.  Cox nurtured the talent of Senior Academic Office Aimee Fearing;  together, Cox and Fearing oversaw the implementation of promising programs pertinent to Intervention Triads, online high-dosage tutoring, online ACT tutoring, as well as nascent efforts to implement in-house teacher training and to advance knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum sequenced grade by grade over the preK-12 years.

 

But rather than selecting Rochelle Cox as the long-term superintendent, MPS Board of Education members variously led or relented to the corrupt selection process that resulted in the selection of a sub-mediocre, mean-spirited superintendent in Lisa Sayles-Adams, who has ousted her rival Cox and also dismissed Fearing---  both of whom quickly moved to the Fridley Public School District.

 

In this edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution, I examine the membership that oversaw the disastrous process that resulted in the selection of hapless Lisa Sayles-Adams as superintendent, then I present the Davis Center (MPS central offices) staff most responsible for the wretched academic proficiency rates of students at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  The combination of a corrupt and inept MPS Board of Education and academic departments that have no hope of improving under the sub-mediocre Lisa Sayles-Adams put the Minneapolis Public Schools in the worst position that I have witnessed in the course of my ten years of intensive investigation into the inner workings of this particular example of a wretched urban school district.