Historical Context
In 1918, Teachers College/Columbia University Professor William Heard Kilpatrick published his The Project Method asserting a view of education as driven by student interest and pursued by related projects in the absence of a sequenced curriculum of knowledge and skill sets. Colleague William C. Bagley nobly countered with the opposing view that broad knowledge was vital for a well-educated, well-informed citizenry, but in 1924 Harold Rugg reinforced the Heard approach with his The Child-Centered School. From the 1920s forward this approach gradually became imbedded in schools, colleges, and departments of education throughout the United States. Although touted by professors of education who appropriated the term “progressive,” in fact the lack of rigor in the approach was in large measure undergirded by racist and nativist assumptions about the intellectual abilities of African American and immigrant children from southern and eastern European countries.
The free-wheeling, knowledge-bereft approach was resisted for many decades by parents of these immigrant and African American children who had come northern cities of the United States seeking the sort of opportunities for their children that a substantive education could provide. But the “progressive” approach jibed with the zeitgeist of the 1960s, took hold in public education systems across the United States during the 1970s, and has continued to the present year of 2025.
The historical timing was terrible.
Ironically, the civil rights (1964 Civil Rights Act; 1965 Voting Rights Act), fair housing, and equal employment legislation of the 1960s made possible a reach for the American dream by African Americans and other historically abused ethnic groups who now found university education and suburban home ownership within their reach. But as Black middleclass flight accompanied white flight from the urban core, left behind were those who continued to live with the challenges of life in the central cities. In 1980, crack cocaine hit the streets, gang activity proliferated, and amidst these challenges urban public school systems such as the Minneapolis Pubic Schools were overwhelmed.
Knowledge-deficient curriculum offered little hope for those seeking to end familial cycles of poverty and take their place as fully prepared citizens, so that the “progressive” moniker appropriated by education professors became a cruel joke with most unprogressive consequences.
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Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition
No hope currently exists for the design and implementation of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum in behalf of the students in the Minneapolis Public Schools. For all students, this means the lack of education necessary to be culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally satisfied citizens. For those living in circumstances of cyclical poverty, the consequences are too often witnessed on mean streets leading to death or incarceration.
The Minneapolis Public Schools constitute a salient public school district in which incompetence at the lower levels induces a layering of even greater incompetence at putatively higher levels in the district bureaucracy:
>>>>> Teacher training in colleges, schools, and departments of education is abominable, so teachers at the median are mediocre; many are incompetent.
>>>>> Principals typically train first as teachers and then receive masters and sometimes doctoral degrees in those same wretched colleges, schools, and departments of education; they officially have responsibility for teacher and programmatic academic quality at school sites--- but they are at least as inept at delivering quality education as are teachers.
>>>>> Because neither principals or teachers are effective in implementing a high-quality academic program, the position of associate superintendent is created for the mentorship of principals; but these associate superintendents have the same disastrous training as do principals and teachers, so they, too, are incapable of implementing high-quality curriculum or improving principal and teacher quality.
At no level in the educational bureaucracy of the Minneapolis Public Schools is one likely to find anyone who has a graduate degrees in an academically relevant discipline: Overwhelmingly, degrees are received in the same terrible programs of colleges, schools, and departments of education, so that no teacher or administrator has any advanced training in a key subject area (mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, government, or literature).
This lack of rigorous academic training of Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent is witnessed in the training of all of those in the MPS Academic Core and Instruction Department; the Office of Black Student Achievement; the Office of Latine Student Achievement; the Department of Indian Education; and among central office administrators Deputy Superintendent Ty Thompson, Senior Academic Officer Melissa Sonnek, and Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams.
Thus, in this latter case, the very person--- Lisa Sayles-Adams--- whose primary responsibility is to assure the educational quality in the district is most responsible for abysmal student academic proficiency in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Consider the academic preparation of these MPS central office (Davis Center, 1250 West Broadway), noticing that at most all of these administrators and staff members have an undergraduate degree in a key subject area; that all graduate degrees are received from schools, colleges, and departments of education; and that many of these administrators and staff members have not even an undergraduate degree in an academically substantive discipline.
Perpend >>>>>
The Lack of Academic Substance in the Training of Central Office Administrators and Staff in the Minneapolis Public Schools
Lisa Sayles-Adams
Ed, D., Educational Leadership (2022)
Minnesota State University/Mankato
M.A., Curriculum and Instruction (2002)
University of Minnesota/Twin Cities
B.A. Political Science (1992)
University of Minnesota/Twin Cities
Shawn Harris-Berry (Associate Superintendent)
Ed.D., Educational Leadership
St. Mary’s University, 2005)
M. Ed., Secondary School Administration
(University of St. Thomas, 1995)
Bachelor’s Degree, Business Education
(University of Wisconsin/Eau Claire WI, 1985)
Yusuf Abdullah (Associate Superintendent)
Academic Degree/Credential
Superintendent License/Educational Leadership (General)
(St. Cloud State University, January 2022-August 2022)
Educational Administrator License
(St. Cloud State University, 2008-2010)
M.Ed. Urban Education and Leadership
(University of Minnesota/Duluth, 1999-2006)
Bachelor of Applied Science, Health and Physical Education
(University of Minnesota/Duluth, 1994-1999)
Lametria Eaddy (Associate Superintendent)
Academic Degree/Credential
Ph. D., Educational Leadership & Administration, General
(Western Michigan University, 2019)
M.A. Curriculum & Instruction
(Saginaw Valley State University, 2006-2009)
B.A., English
(Howard University, 1993-1996)
Liz Keenan (Associate Superintendent)
Academic Degree/Credential
Ph. D., Educational Leadership, General
(Marian University of Fond du Lac, August 2006-May 2013)
M.Ed., Special Education Director
(St. Cloud State University, September 1997-2000)
…………………………………………………………………………..
Ty Thompson (Deputy Superintendent)
M.Ed., Leadership in Education
(University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, 2013)
B.A.
(Occidental College, 1999-2003)
Melissa Sonnek (Senior Academic Officer)
M.S., Education
(Winona State University, 2013)
B.A., Elementary Education
Maria Rollinger (Executive Director)
M.Ed., Educational Leadership & Administration
(Hamline University, August 1998-May 2001
Brandon Button, Director, Literacy and Humanities
M.Ed.
(Harvard University, 2015-2016)
M.S., Education
(Winona State University, June 2009-August 2010)
B.A., English & Elementary Education
(St. Olaf College, September 2004-June 2008
Sizi Goya, Director Math and Sciences
M. A., Education
(Augsburg University, 2016-2020)
B.S., Mathematics
(Texas A&M University, 2001-2005)
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Anna Baumann Smith, Social Studies Content Lead
M.Ed.., English/Language Arts Teacher Education
(2013-2015)
B.A., Women’s Studies
(Warren Wilson College, 2001-2005)
Casey Strecker, College Programs Content Lead
Education Specialist Degree,
(Concordia University/St. Paul, 2014-2020)
M.Ed., Educational Leadership & Administration, General
(Concordia University/St. Paul, 2012-2014)
B.A., Secondary Education & Teaching
(University of Wisconsin/Madison, 2004-2009)
Chas Thomsen, Science Content Lead
Jennifer Hanzak, Math K-5 Content LeadK-45
Jessica Rose, K-5 Literacy Content Lead
M. A., Education Curriculum
(University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign, 1989-1991)
B. A., Religious Studies
(St. Olaf College, 1985-1989)
Jordan Coliman, 6-12 Literacy Intervention Content Lead
Julie Ripplinger, Literacy K-5 Content Lead
Reading Specialist Certification
(California State University/East Bay, 2013-2014)
B. S., Elementary Education & Teaching
(Minnesota State University/Moorehead, 2013-2014)
Kelsie Leonard, 6-12 Math Content Lead
Kristin Caquelin, STEM District Program Facilitator
Lori Ledoux, Arts Content Lead
Education Specialist Degree
(Minnesota State University/Mankato)
M.A.
B.A., Dance
(University of Minnesota/Twin Cities)
Mandy Bellm, K-12 Library/Media Content Lead
Education Specialist Degree, K-12 Principal
(Minnesota State University/Mankato, May 2022-December 2023)
Marie Olson, K-5 Literacy Intervention Content Lead
M.Ed.
(University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, 1998-2003)
B. S., Elementary Education, 5-8 Math
(University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, 2002)
Rachel Grayson, 6-12 English/Language Arts Content Lead
M.A., Teaching Leadership
(American College of Educatio, July 2020-September 2021)
B.A., Secondary Teacher Education
(University of Minnesota/Duluth, 1998))
B.S., Communications
(University of Minnesota/Duluth, 1998))
Rodert Kohnert, Concurrent Enrollment
Ed.D., Educational Leadership & Administration, General
(Minnesota State University/Mankato, July 2020-September 2021)
M.A., American History
(Pace University, 2019-2021))
M.Ed.., Social Studies Teacher Education
(University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, 2008-2009)
B.A., History
(University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, 2004-2008)
Stephen Montgomery, Ethnic Studies Content Lead
Education Specialist Degree, Educational Administration and Supervision
(St, Mary’s University of Minnesota, January 2023-May 2025)
M.Ed.., Urban Education/Teacher Education
(University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, 2008-2009)
Masters of Public Administration (Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General
(Arkansas State University, 2015-2016)
B.A., Communications
University of Minnesota/Twin Cities 2011-2014)
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