Open Letters to Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett and The Minnesota Professional Ethics and Licensing Board (PELB)
The open letters covered in this article at
those for Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett and the Minnesota
Professional Ethics and Licensing Board (PELB).
Below, I provide both of these
communications >>>>>
…………………………………………………………………………….
An Open Letter to
Willie Jett >>>>> Commissioner, Minnesota Department of
Education >>>>> The Breach of Academic Practice Committed by
Natalie Rasmussen and the Committee that Passed the Wretchedly Written
Dissertation of Lisa Sayles-Adams
Willie Jett, Commissioner, Minnesota
Department of Education
Minnesota Professional Ethics and Standards
Board
April 7, 2025
Willie---
On 1 April 2025, I sent an email to
Natalie Rasmussen (Chair of the Minnesota State University/Mankato Department
of Educational Leadership; dissertation adviser and chair of the doctoral
committee for Lisa Sayles-Adams) that began
"You must issue a public apology for
having served as chair of the committee that passed the wretchedly written
dissertation of Lisa Sayles-Adams."
I entered my communication with Rasmussen as
an open letter on my blog ( http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com ), and I also entered follow-up
email communications to Minnesota State University/Mankato President
Edward S. Inch, Minnesota State University/Mankato Assistant Provost for
Research and Dean of the Graduate School Pieter de Hart; and
to Minnesota State University/Mankato Dean of the College of Education
Mwarumba Mavita on that blog. Similarly, I will be entering this email to
you on that platform, with an international viewership that includes nations as
far-flung as Russia, Germany, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Algeria,
Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Attached to this email is the March 2025
edition of my Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research
from Minneapolis, Minnesota, in which I analyze the dissertation (African
American Women Principals: A Phenomenological Study to Explore Their
Experiences in K-12 Leadership) of Sayles-Adams that astonishingly
passed the committee comprised of Rasmussen as dissertation adviser,
Candace Raskin, and Efe Agbamu.
Sayles-Adams took the highly unusual step of
putting the dissertation on “embargoed” (delayed availability to the public)
status for almost two years after publication. The dissertation became
available in November 2024. I ran a hard copy of the dissertation
(downloaded copy also attached to this email) and read that document
thoroughly, multiple times. This doctoral thesis is a confoundingly
terrible presentation of research, full of misspelled words, word usage errors,
run-on sentences, and awkward syntax. Further, the dissertation is
gravely flawed with regard to structure, presentation of findings, and analysis
of data.
The dissertation that appeared to the public
in November 2024 should have never been approved by the committee.
In my own document, commencing with
“Introductory Comments” and continuing in successive chapters, I provide a
detailed analysis of the above-mentioned flaws and others. In doing so, I
analyze each of the five chapters in the Sayles-Adams dissertation:
Chapter I (along with “Acknowledgments” and “Abstract”), “Background of the
Problem”; Chapter II, “Review of the Literature”; Chapter III,
“Methodology”; Chapter IV, “Findings”; and Chapter V,
“Discussion.”
As of November 2024, continuing into February
2025, the "embargoed" status of the Sayles-Adams’s dissertation ended
and this doctoral thesis was listed on “Cornerstone: A Collection
of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato,” at
link, https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/1266/ .
According to librarians at University of
Minnesota/Mankato, Sayles-Adams withdrew the dissertation from the Cornerstone
listing on 17 February 2025.
Readers of my blog, my Journal of the
K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and
other platforms know that they may go to the above link to observe the current
"withdrawn" status of the dissertation.
The current unavailability of the
Sayles-Adams dissertation induces grave questions as to why Sayles-Adams is
unwilling to submit her dissertation for public review. This runs counter
to the very idea of doctoral dissertations, the purpose of which is to
contribute to the intellectual universe of public knowledge.
You, as Commissioner, Minnesota Department of
Education, should be offended by the prevailing circumstances surrounding
this dissertation.
.....................................................................................................
Readers of my blog know that in African
American Women Principals: A Phenomenological Study to Explore Their
Experiences in K-12 Leadership, Lisa Sayles-Adams interviews five African
American women school principals with the objective of determining how these
principals coped with the challenges they faced because of their position at
the intersection of race and gender, especially with regard to interactions
with white men.
Sufficiently discerning readers of Lisa
Sayles-Adams’s dissertation will readily observe the many flaws of English
usage, the structural problems of the dissertation, the poorly executed
interviews of the participant principals, the failure to follow up with
questions that could have produced material of considerable value in
understanding the experiences of these women, and the lack of any meaningful
contribution to scholarly literature.
As readers now know, the dissertation is
replete with misspelled and misused words, including a rendering of the word,
tenet, as “tenant” two times; presentation of the word, “rein,” as
reign; and the most brain-boggling of all: the four-times
misspelled pseudonym (“Marica” rather than “Marcia) assigned to one of the five
interviewees participating in this qualitative study; Sayles-Adams also
once renders another pseudonym, Gwendolyn, as “Gwendoly.”
Natalie Rasmussen must issue a public apology
for having served as chair of the committee that passed the wretchedly written
dissertation of Lisa Sayles-Adams.
And you, as Commissioner of the Minnesota
Department of Education should also make a public statement lamenting the
bestowal of a doctorate at Minnesota State University/Mankato on the basis
of such an insubstantial and error-ridden dissertation, then take appropriate
action, calling for
dismissal of Natalie Rasmussen as Chair of the
Department of Educational Leadership at Minnesota State University/Mankato and
the resignation of Lisa Sayles-Adams as Superintendent of the Minneapolis
Public Schools.
As was the case with my email to Rasmussen and
many others pertinent to this breach of academic practice, I am entering this
communication to you on my blog as an open letter.
With best regards,
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 Condition, Future Prospect (New Salem Educational Initiative,
second edition, 2024
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, 2008)
The State of African Americans in Minnesota
2008 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2004)
Tales from the Taiwanese (Libraries Unlimited, 2004)
A Short History of Taiwan: The Case for
Independence (Praeger, 2003
Culture and Customs of Taiwan ([with Barbara E. Reed]
(Greenwood, 1998)
Agricultural Development and the Fate of
Farmers in Taiwan, 1945-1990 (Minneapolis,
Minnesota: Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1993)
A World History: Links Across Time and
Place ([with six
other authors] (McDougal Littell, 1988)
Open Letter to
Members of the Professional Ethics and Licensing Board, State of Minnesota
>>>>> The Breach of Academic Practice Committed by Natalie
Rasmussen and the Committee that Passed the Wretchedly Written Dissertation of
Lisa Sayles-Adams
April 7, 2025
Members of the Professional Ethics and
Licensing Board, State of Minnesota---
On 1 April 2025, I sent an email to
Natalie Rasmussen (Chair of the Minnesota State University/Mankato Department
of Educational Leadership; dissertation adviser and chair of the doctoral
committee for Lisa Sayles-Adams) that began
"You must issue a public apology for
having served as chair of the committee that passed the wretchedly written
dissertation of Lisa Sayles-Adams."
I entered my communication with Rasmussen as
an open letter on my blog ( http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com ), and I also entered follow-up
email communications to Minnesota State University/Mankato President
Edward S. Inch, Minnesota State University/Mankato Assistant Provost for
Research and Dean of the Graduate School Pieter de Hart; and
to Minnesota State University/Mankato Dean of the College of Education
Mwarumba Mavita on that blog. Similarly, I will be entering this email to
you on that platform, with an international viewership that includes nations as
far-flung as Russia, Germany, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Algeria,
Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. I have also now sent an email pertinent
to the Lisa Sayles-Adams dissertation to, among others, Willie Jett
(Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education.
Attached to this email is the March 2025
edition of my Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research
from Minneapolis, Minnesota, in which I analyze the dissertation (African
American Women Principals: A Phenomenological Study to Explore Their
Experiences in K-12 Leadership) of Sayles-Adams that astonishingly
passed the committee comprised of Rasmussen as dissertation adviser,
Candace Raskin, and Efe Agbamu.
Sayles-Adams took the highly unusual step of
putting the dissertation on “embargoed” (delayed availability to the public)
status for almost two years after publication. The dissertation became
available in November 2024. I ran a hard copy of the dissertation
(downloaded copy also attached to this email) and read that document
thoroughly, multiple times. This doctoral thesis is a confoundingly
terrible presentation of research, full of misspelled words, word usage errors,
run-on sentences, and awkward syntax. Further, the dissertation is
gravely flawed with regard to structure, presentation of findings, and analysis
of data.
The dissertation that appeared to the public
in November 2024 should have never been approved by the committee.
In my own document, commencing with
“Introductory Comments” and continuing in successive chapters, I provide a
detailed analysis of the above-mentioned flaws and others. In doing so, I
analyze each of the five chapters in the Sayles-Adams dissertation:
Chapter I (along with “Acknowledgments” and “Abstract”), “Background of the
Problem”; Chapter II, “Review of the Literature”; Chapter III,
“Methodology”; Chapter IV, “Findings”; and Chapter V,
“Discussion.”
As of November 2024, continuing into February
2025, the "embargoed" status of the Sayles-Adams’s dissertation ended
and this doctoral thesis was listed on “Cornerstone: A Collection
of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato,” at
link, https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/1266/ .
According to librarians at University of
Minnesota/Mankato, Sayles-Adams withdrew the dissertation from the Cornerstone
listing on 17 February 2025.
Readers of my blog, my Journal of the
K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and
other platforms know that they may go to the above link to observe the current
"withdrawn" status of the dissertation.
The current unavailability of the
Sayles-Adams dissertation induces grave questions as to why Sayles-Adams is
unwilling to submit her dissertation for public review. This runs counter
to the very idea of doctoral dissertations, the purpose of which is to
contribute to the intellectual universe of public knowledge.
You, members of the Minnesota State
Professional Ethics and Licensing Board, should be offended by the prevailing
circumstances surrounding this dissertation.
.....................................................................................................
Readers of my blog know that in African
American Women Principals: A Phenomenological Study to Explore Their
Experiences in K-12 Leadership, Lisa Sayles-Adams interviews five African
American women school principals with the objective of determining how these
principals coped with the challenges they faced because of their position at
the intersection of race and gender, especially with regard to interactions
with white men.
Sufficiently discerning readers of Lisa
Sayles-Adams’s dissertation will readily observe the many flaws of English
usage, the structural problems of the dissertation, the poorly executed
interviews of the participant principals, the failure to follow up with
questions that could have produced material of considerable value in
understanding the experiences of these women, and the lack of any meaningful
contribution to scholarly literature.
As readers now know, the dissertation is
replete with misspelled and misused words, including a rendering of the word,
tenet, as “tenant” two times; presentation of the word, “rein,” as
reign; and the most brain-boggling of all: the four-times
misspelled pseudonym (“Marica” rather than “Marcia) assigned to one of the five
interviewees participating in this qualitative study; Sayles-Adams also
once renders another pseudonym, Gwendolyn, as “Gwendoly.”
Natalie Rasmussen must issue a public apology
for having served as chair of the committee that passed the wretchedly written
dissertation of Lisa Sayles-Adams.
You, as members of the Professional
Ethics and Licensing Board, State of Minnesota, should investigagte the
bestowal of a doctorate at Minnesota State University/Mankato on the basis
of such an insubstantial and error-ridden dissertation, then take appropriate
action, calling for the dismissal of Natalie Rasmussen as Chair of the
Department of Educational Leadership at Minnesota State University/Mankato and
the resignation of Lisa Sayles-Adams as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public
Schools.
As was the case with my email to Rasmussen and
many others (including my communication sent to Minnesota Department of
Education Willie Jett) pertinent to this breach of academic practice, I am
entering this communication to you on my blog as an open letter.
With best regards,
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 Condition, Future Prospect (New Salem Educational Initiative,
second edition, 2024
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, 2008)
The State of African Americans in Minnesota
2008 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2004)
Tales from the Taiwanese (Libraries Unlimited, 2004)
A Short History of Taiwan: The Case for
Independence (Praeger, 2003
Culture and Customs of Taiwan ([with Barbara E. Reed]
(Greenwood, 1998)
Agricultural Development and the Fate of
Farmers in Taiwan, 1945-1990 (Minneapolis,
Minnesota: Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1993)
A World History: Links Across Time and
Place ([with six
other authors] (McDougal Littell, 1988)
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