The Ridiculous LEAD (Leading for Equity, Action, and Diversity for PreK-12 System-Improvement) Conference, Staged by One of the Many Highly Culpable Teacher Training Institutions, the University of Minnesota/Twin Cities College of Education and Human Development, Responsible for the Abominable Quality of Public Education
The LEAD Conference staged by the University of
Minnesota College of Human Development is an annual event whereby the clueless
education establishment gathers in the pretense of improving PreK-12 education
but each year avoids any discussion of the host institution’s role in promoting
ideologies and approaches to curriculum design and teacher training that
produce the abominable quality of PreK-12 education.
Understand that these are the academic results for
the state of Minnesota for academic years ending in 2021, 2022, 2023, and
2024
Minnesota Comprehensive
Assessments
Student Proficiency Rates
Academic Years Ending in
2012, 2022, 2023, and 2024
Math
2021 2022
2023 2024
35.5% 33.1%
35.1% 34.7%
(2,696) (3,889)
(4,175) (4,183)
Reading
45.9% 42.4%
41.4% 40.1%
(3,589) (5,169)
(5,086) (5,177)
Science
36.5% 33.4%
31.7% 31.8%
(931) (1,478)
(1,452) (1,535)
This year’s LEAD conference
places great emphasis on social and emotional learning, how properly to educate
students of various ethnic backgrounds, and how to address the dilemma of lagging
school attendance across the United States.
Considering the contrasting
approach to the concerns of the conference taken by first-rate private schools
such as Breck Academy (Golden Valley, Minnesota), St. Paul Academy (St. Paul,
Minnesota), and Westover School (Middlebury, Connecticut), the temporal
wastefulness of the LEAD conference is seen in high relief:
High-quality private schools
deliver the same rigorous curriculum to students of all ethnicities, teach
fact-based history and literary courses that are respectful of students of all
ethnicities, and are highly sought after by parents of many racial identities
who want their children to succeed as post-secondary students and in rewarding
and well-remunerated careers.
But the public education
establishment pretends that equity and diversity goals can be achieved without
frankly addressing the academic failings of the public schools.
Perusal of the educational
preparation of the keynote speakers (see Article #! In this series) and
panelists at the LEAD conference reveals that, per usual, degrees are mostly
conferred from programs in departments, schools, and colleges of education that
are the lowest-regarded and most academically insubstantial on any college or
university campus.
Beyond the intellectually
lightweight characteristics of the keynote speakers, two sessions in the
conference catch my attention for the hopelessness of any improvement in
preK-12 education that the LEAD conference has to offer:
There is panel during
1:15-2:15 PM on the first day (Tuesday, 29 July 2025) comprised of
Lieutenant Governor Peggy
Flanagan, Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams, UMN
College of Education and Human Services Dean Michael C. Rodiguez, and moderated
by UMN College of Education and Human Services Professor Lesa Clarkson.
All of these figures are
highly culpable for the dilemmas of PreK-12 education. Understanding that I am a democratic
socialist not enamored with either the DFL or the Republicans of Minnesota,
Flanagan is a member of the DFL party heavily financed by Education Minnesota
(the state teacher’s union) and ever resistant to reform efforts with prospects
for improving PreK-12 education.
Rodriguez and Clarkson labor for one of the cash-cow,
teacher-training-mill institutions most culpable for the low academic quality
of public education in Minnesota. Lisa
Sayles-Adams was trained by such people and is even worse than others in her
position for having written the worst dissertation that I have ever read and
being a particularly deceitful, mean-spirited superintended.
Be reminded that the academic
results at the Minneapolis Public Schools for the last decade are as follows,
without any expectation that the one and one-half-year tenure of Sayles-Adams
will produce better results as indicated by student performance on the MCA
(Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) that will be revealed for spring 2025 in
late August, a month after the conference takes place >>>>>
Minneapolis Public Schools
Academic Proficiency Rates
Years Ending in 2014 through 2024
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024
All
Students
Math 44% 44% 44%
42% 42% 42% 35% 33% 35%
35%
Reading 42% 42% 43% 43% 45%
47% 40% 42% 41% 40%
Science 33% 36% 35% 34%
34% 36% 36% 33% 31% 32%
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)
Student Proficiency Rates
Academic Years Ending in 2014 through 2024
Note: Data given for the academic year ending in
2024 in the category of “All Students” only; disaggregated data for that
year will be forthcoming, as will number of students tested for all categories.
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024
African
American
Math 22% 23% 21% 15% 18% 18% 9% 10% 8% 8%
Reading 22% 21% 21% 21% 22% 23% 19% 18% 16% 15%
Science 11% 15% 13% 12% 11% 11% 11% 8%
6% 6%
American
Indian
Math 23% 19% 19% 17% 17% 18% 9% 9%
10% 12%
Reading 21% 20%
21% 23% 24%
25% 20% 22%
19% 18%
Science 14%
16% 13% 12% 14% 17% 9%
9% 7% 12%
2014 2015
2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024
Hispanic/
Latine
Math
31% 32% 31% 29%
26% 25% 12% 12%
12% 11%
Reading 22%
21% 21% 21% 22%
23% 19% 18%
16% 12%
Science 17%
18% 21% 19% 17%
16% 10% 11%
9% 8%
Asian
American
Math
48% 50% 50% 49% 50%
47% 46% 39%
25% 26%
Reading 41%
40% 45% 41% 48% 50%
54% 49% 33% 31%
Science 31%
35% 42% 35% 37%
40% 43% 36% 27% 28%
White
Math
77% 78% 78% 77% 77% 75%
62% 61% 65% 68%
Reading 78% 77% 77% 78% 80% 78%
74% 71% 72% 73%
Science 71%
75% 71% 70% 71%
70% 61% 60% 59% 61%
The other session that
particularly catches my attention is also on the conference’s first day, this
one during 2:30-3:30 PM, with presenters Nate Stewart (Assistant Professor,
University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development) and Dena
Luna (Minneapolis Pubic Schools [MPS] Office of Black Student
Achievement). Luna heads and Stewart is
a firm backer of the MPS Office of Black Achievement. That office was established in 2014 but
operates on the assumption that honoring African American culture is sufficient
to advance the academic and life prospects for African American students, with
the following catastrophic results >>>>>
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)
Student Proficiency Rates
Academic Years Ending in 2014 through 2024
2014
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024
African
American
Math 22% 23% 21% 15% 18% 18% 9% 10% 8% 8%
Reading 22% 21% 21% 21% 22% 23% 19% 18% 16% 15%
Science 11% 15% 13% 12% 11% 11% 11% 8%
6% 6%
The LEAD Conference staged by the University of
Minnesota College of Human Development is one of those education establishment
events full of the very individuals who perpetuate the low quality of public
education in the city of Minneapolis, the state of Minnesota, and the nation of
the United States, sustaining cyclical poverty at the urban core and making
mockery of the avowed purposes of the LEAD conference to promote equity,
diversity, and preK-12 systemic improvement.
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