Among the sixteen (16) superintendents who headed the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) from 1980 through June 2022, Richard Green and Carol Johnson are remembered favorably or are the subject of favorable accounts rendered by education establishment entities such as the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and the Department of Teaching and Learning (the latter a perpetually failed cog in the unwieldy bureaucratic machinery of the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway).
But the acceleration of the decline of the Minneapolis Public Schools occurred during the tenure of Green, and the academic performance of students during the Carol Johnson tenure was abysmal, belying the cheerful obliviousness of the superintendent and her retinue.
A certain pretense at corporate efficiency effected during the Peter Hutchinson tenure brought no favorable academic results. The get-tough rhetoric of Thandiwe Peebles was in the end just talk as her short tenure ended ignobly.
The best of the sixteen superintendents from 1980 through 2022 was Bernadeia Johnson, who promoted such promising initiatives as Focused Instruction, High Priority Schools, and systematic teacher evaluation; but the bureaucratic burden grew in the form of an overstaffed Davis Center during her tenure, and she was not able to prevail in confronting tremendous opposition to her most promising initiatives from the MFT and many members of the MPS Board of Education. And, though striking an assertive reformist posture, Bernadeia Johnson did not address the key issues of the K-12 Revolution: the need for knowledge-intensive curriculum at all grades and across the liberal, technological, and vocational arts; and the training of teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum.
The need, then is for a superintendent who understands the need for curriculum overhauled for knowledge intensity and logically sequenced presentation throughout the preK-12 years and for training teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum. Such a superintendent would recognize the need to enlist the services of a university-based or independent scholar to oversee the needed changes in curriculum and teacher quality.
Rochelle Cox as MPS Interim Superintendent (served 1 July 2022 through 4 February 2024) made many favorable moves (Intervention Triads, ACT tutoring, high-dosage tutoring, and move toward knowledge-intensive curriculum as advanced by researcher Natalie Wexler in speaking to MPS teachers) by the MPS Board of Education. She represented unique hope among an inevitably weak pool of superintendent candidates.
But the corrupt Superintendent Tasl Force headed by MPS Board of Education Director Lori Norvell did not report out the up to three candidates (that should have included Cox, who applied for the superintendent position) )that fell within their purview as finalists for consideration by the Board. Instead, that abominable 17-member Task Force was cowed by two loud voices into reporting out only the weak candidates of Lisa Sayles-Adams and Sonia Stewart. Sayles Adams won on an 8-1 vote, bring to the Minneapolis Public Schools a mean-spirited, insecure superintendent who terminated Rochelle Cox (who briefly move back to associate superintendent) and courageous Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, then went on to nix all of the promising initiatives of Cox and Fearing while dithering on the issues of building usage that should witness the closing of six schools and the repurposing of two.
In the interest of the future of our children, we must do much better than did the superintendents given below who, with the exception of Rochelle Cox, failed the young people of the Minneapolis Public Schools so miserably >>>>>
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1980-2022
Richard R. Green (June 24, 1980-Feb. 26, 1988)
(Acting, for 1st week)
William C. Phillips (Interim) (March 1-July 31,
1988)
Robert Ferrera (Aug. 1, 1988-Feb. 2, 1993)
Mitchell Trockman (Interim) (Feb. 2-March 8, 1993)
John B. Davis (Interim) (March 8-Aug. 1993)
Mitchell Trockman (Acting) (Aug.-Dec. 1993)
Peter Hutchinson (Dec. 14, 1993-May 27, 1997)
Katrina Reed (Acting) (May 29-Sept. 2, 1997 ñ
Carol R. Johnson Aug. 30, 1997-Sept. 30, 2003)
David M. Jennings (Oct. 1, 2003-June 30, 2004)
Mitchell Trockman (Interim) (July 1-19, 2004)
Thandiwe Peebles (July 20, 2004-Jan. 26, 2006)
William Davis "Bill" Green (Interim Jan.
26, 2006-Feb. 13, 2007) (Feb. 13, 2007-June 30, 2010)
Bernadeia Johnson (July 1, 2010-December2015)
Michael Goar (Interim, January 2015-May 2016)
Michael Thomas (Acting, June 2016
Ed Graff (July 1, 2016-June 30, 2022)
Rochelle Cox (Interim, July 1, 2022-February 4,
2024)
Lisa Sayles-Adams (February 5, 2024- present
[September 2025 at the time of this article’s publication])
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