“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained, and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection... by which one class overthrows another.”
Mao Zedong
"Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan" (March 1927), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 28.*
…………………………………………………………………………
Ironically for one who vigorously advances the case for a declaration of independence by Taiwan, I continue to admire Mao Zedong’s nonpareil brilliance as a revolutionary.
As time goes by, my own stance for the overhaul of K-12 education becomes distinct from others who profess similar goals but who are too timid to take the aggressive actions necessary for transformative change.
Mao's assertion of the necessary aggressiveness lacking in mere would-be reformers suffuses the spirit in which I go about my efforts to overhaul education.
And in that regard, I am quickly jettisoning unpromising association after unpromising association at this point to stand apart from every other actor who for a time I have held out some hope for placing primary emphasis on K-12 change.
Such a spirit on my part is revealed in the following exchange with Nate Stewart, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota/Twin Cities College of Education and Human Development >>>>>
…………………………………………………………………………
August 1, 2025
Nate---
Given your note (below), I have now assigned you to a category for those I regard as uneducable on matters pertinent to K-12 education.
In all but matters of the most functional, routine sort, you should glean any further communication from me from reading my material on my blog and other platforms; I will not as a rule reply directly to you.
You live a corrupt professional life.
I wish you well in your personal life.
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)
----------
Forwarded message ---------
From: Nate Stewart <natevick7@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 29, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: Copy for Nate Stewart >>>>> Evaluation of the
Keynote Speakers and Prospects for Achieving Avowed Goals of the LEAD
Conference
To: Gary Davison <garymarvindavison@gmail.com>
Hi Gary,
Thanks for continuing to stay in dialogue on these urgent issues. I read
through your recent piece and appreciate your consistency in naming the
structural failures within our public education systems—failures that
absolutely demand accountability. I also respect that your critiques come from
a place of genuine concern for the communities most affected.
That said, I’d like to invite you to reflect beyond the surface level of the
MCA data when it comes to Black student achievement—particularly in relation to
the Office of Black Student Achievement (OBSA) in Minneapolis Public Schools.
While I agree with you that the overall numbers remain deeply troubling, there
are promising indicators once we disaggregate the data to focus specifically on
students who had at least one semester of engagement with OBSA. These students
demonstrate more positive academic, attitudinal, and school-connectedness
outcomes than what is reflected in the aggregate data.
In other words: OBSA is not a blanket fix for systemic neglect, but it is a
powerful intervention operating within what you aptly describe as “failing
public schools.” It does not operate in a vacuum—it exists amid broken funding
structures, unstable district governance, and competing visions of accountability.
Still, I’ve seen firsthand the way OBSA’s relational, culturally grounded, and
affirming approach interrupts harmful schooling logics and builds toward
dignity and self-determination for Black students.
As you know, I actually agree with some of your critiques of performative
politics and institutional inertia. I, too, am critical of equity work that
becomes branding rather than transformation. That’s exactly why I continue to
partner with practitioners who are doing the relational work of showing up for
students every day, especially through programs like OBSA that center cultural
affirmation and academic rigor. Also, our presentation is not me
presenting at all! We invited 6 MPS students to share their brilliance!
Looking forward to seeing you around!
-Nate
On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 3:04 PM Gary Davison <garymarvindavison@gmail.com> wrote:
Article #1 in a Two-Article Series
2025 LEAD (Leading for Equity, Action, and Diversity (for PreK-12 System-Improvement)/College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota/Twin Cities
Day #1 >>>>> Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Day #2 >>>>> Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Day #3 >>>>> Thursday, 31 July 2025
Keynote Speakers
Dena Simmons
Dena Simmons, EdD, is the founder of LiberatED, a collective developing school-based resources at the intersection of social-emotional learning (SEL), racial justice, and healing. Formerly the assistant director of Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, she has been an educator, teacher educator, diversity facilitator, and curriculum developer. A prominent voice on social justice and liberatory pedagogy, Simmons has spoken at the White House, the Obama Foundation Summit, the United Nations, and multiple TED events.
Her work has been featured in Education Week, HuffPost, NPR, and PBS’s MAKERS: Women Who Make America. A recipient of numerous fellowships, including Truman, Fulbright, Soros, and Pahara-Aspen, she earned her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on teacher preparedness, culturally responsive pedagogy, and the intersection of equity and SEL to foster justice and safe learning environments.
Education
Ed.D., Health Education & Behavioral Studies
(Teachers College/Columbia University, 2009-2014)
M.A., Health Education & Behavioral Studies
(Teachers College/Columbia University, 2009-2014)
M.S., Early Childhood Education
(Pace University, 2006-2008)
B.A., Spanish and Teacher Education
(Middlebury College, 2001-2005)
High School Diploma
(Westover School/Middlebury CT, 1997-2001)
Ann M. Ishimaru
Ann M. Ishimaru, EdD, is the Killinger Endowed Chair and Professor of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Policy at the University of Washington’s College of Education. Her work in P–12 educational leadership focuses on building collective leadership among youth, families, communities, and educators to advance dignity, justice, and well-being in schools. Her research is grounded in two core ideas: that leadership is key to addressing racial injustice in education, and that those most affected by inequities should help shape solutions. She works to disrupt power imbalances by fostering equitable collaboration between system leaders and racially minoritized communities. As a community-based researcher and director of multiple leadership initiatives, she explores practices that support cross-racial solidarity and community-driven educational change. Her books include Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families & Communities (2020) and the forthcoming "Doing the Work” of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change (2025).
Education
Ed.D., Health Education & Behavioral Studies
(Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2005-2011)
B.A., Human Biology
(Standford University, 2001-2005)
Yvette Jackson
Yvette Jackson is a lifelong teacher. She is the winner of the 2019 GlobalMindEd Inclusive Leader 2012 ForeWord Reviews’ Silver Book Award, for her seminal work, The Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools. She is internationally recognized for her drive to provide and promote pedagogy that supports and celebrates educators fulfilling their commitment as “gifted” teachers and administrator leaders to elicit high intellectual performances and engagement from ALL their students. Drawing from neuroscience, gifted education, literacy, and the cognitive mediation theory of Jean Piaget’s mentee and her mentor, Dr. Reuven Feuerstein, she developed the assets-focused High Operational Practices to inspire and cultivate students’ strengths for learning, self-determination, and personal achievement. She has been the CEO of the National Urban Alliance, adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and visiting lecturer at the Graduate Schools of Education at Harvard, Stanford, Rutgers, and St. Thomas Universities. Jackson holds multiple degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a BA from Queens College, CUNY.
Ed.D.
(Teachers College/Columbia University)
B.A.
(Columbia University)
Sarah Winchell Lenhoff
Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, PhD, is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and the Leonard Kaplan Endowed Professor in Wayne State University’s College of Education. Lenhoff began her career as a New York City public school teacher, and she led the research and policy division of the non-profit The Education Trust-Midwest for four years. Her research focuses on education policy implementation and access to equitable educational opportunities, with a focus on how collaborative research with practitioners and community members can facilitate systemic improvement. Her recent research has examined district and school infrastructure to support school improvement; the effects of school choice policy on equitable opportunities for students; and the causes of and practices to reduce student absenteeism. She currently co-leads a study on the educational impact of neighborhood transformation through Detroit's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in Corktown. She is the faculty director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research (Detroit PEER), a research-practice partnership with Detroit schools and community-based organizations working to equitably improve student attendance and engagement in Detroit. She is the author of the new book, Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism: Why Schools Can’t Solve It Alone, now available.
Ph.D., Educational Policy
(Michigan State University, 2013)
M.A., Health Education & Behavioral Studies
(Teachers College/Columbia University, 2009-2014)
M.S., Teaching, Adolescent Education
(Pace University, 2006)
B.A., English and Women’s Studies
(University of Georgia, 2004)
Article #2 in a Two-Article Series
2025 LEAD (Leading for Equity, Action, and Diversity for PreK-12 System-Improvement) Conference/College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota/Twin Cities
The Ridiculous LEAD (Leading for Equity, Action, and Diversity for PreK-12 System-Improvement), 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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