Note to My Readers >>>>>>>
After reading this note, please scroll on down to the next two articles, intended as a tandem.
In the first article, "Inadequacy of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 of the Minneapolis Public Schools," I discuss the lack of specificity as to the constituent elements of an excellent education--- and how to achieve educational excellence--- in the document that officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) have generated to guide policy of the school district through year 2020.
In the second article, "Envisioning a Better World, with the Minneapolis Public Schools Leading the Way," I offer a vision for educational excellence, consistent with the principles and the program of the New Salem Educational Initiative, which when embraced by officials of MPS will become a model for education imparted by a locally centralized school district. The edifices of such an overhauled source of K-12 education would become the sites of an institution wherein knowledge and ethics are so valued as to become a matter of community pride and the basis for a new community identity in Minneapolis generally and North Minneapolis specifically.
Please scroll on down to the next two articles,therefore, for an analysis of current deficiencies in the Minneapolis Public Schools and a vision for transformation of that very school district into a world-renowned center of knowledge and ethics.
Nov 30, 2015
Inadequacy of >Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020< of the Minneapolis Public Schools
A close look at Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) reveals the document’s stark deficiencies as a guide for excellence in K-12 education.
This document was approved at a September 2014 meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
Via the program advocated in the pages of the work overseen by then Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and Chief Executive Officer (now Interim Superintendent) Michael Goar, the public schools of Minneapolis were to advance educational excellence and equity for all students enrolled in the district.
Six high-level goals were given in the document: 1) Improved Student Outcomes; 2) Equity; 3) Family and Community Partnership; 4) Effective Teachers, School Leaders, and Staff; 5) Stewardship; and 6) Resources for Students and Schools. Goals offered in what was termed the “big, bold spirit of the 5-8-10 plan” included the following, to be attained in the run-up to year 2020:
>>>>> 5 percent annual increase in students overall meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and math;
>>>>> 8 percent annual increase in students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and math for MPS’s lowest performing students;
>>>>> 10 percent annual increase in the four-year graduation rate.
Officials at MPS declared that “Our targets are intentionally high to reignite a sense of urgency in the system and ensure that everyone is operating with growth mindset. Meeting these targets is absolutely possible. Under this plan, we will achieve our vision of every child graduating college and career ready.”
Toward the achievement of Goal Number One, Improved Student Outcomes, officials at MPS stress that teachers at Grades Pre-K through Grade 3 should have routines in place for development of student reading and language skills; that teachers at Grade 4 through Grade 12 and for adult learners should abet the development of such skills via guided academic conversations and “close reading”; and that teachers at Grade 6 through Grade 12 and for adult learners develop students’ math and science vocabulary and content knowledge using “literacy strategies.” Also stressed are core instruction for all categories of learners; personalized learning opportunities; readiness at key points of transition from one major age grouping to another; behavioral interventions that minimize suspensions; and the availability of ethnic studies courses in high school.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Two, Equity, officials at MPS stress the use of student data as examined and then acted upon by Professional Learning Communities of teachers at each site, problem-based learning and critical thinking; multiple pathways to graduation via dual enrollment, Post-Secondary Options (PSEO), credit recovery, community-based GED and literacy programs, and online learning; and availability of world languages. Associate Superintendents are to monitor progress toward the goal of equity and the given sub-goals; and staff at all schools are to be given proper supports, with enhanced supports at High Priority Schools and Focus Schools.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Three, Family and Community Partnership, officials at MPS stress engagement with families of students, with appropriate language translation and interpreting services, with training for teachers in communication with families, and with great effort made to provide accessible locations and flexible times for familial participation. They also stress increases in corporate support, grant funding, and volunteers--- with ongoing monitoring of community partnerships for effectiveness.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Four, Effective Teachers, School Leaders, and Staff, officials at MPS stress the need for diversity in hiring, identification and placement of individuals particularly suited for teaching and staff roles to meet the needs of students at certain schools, and the provision of training and supports for staff in performing to expectation. There is also emphasis placed on providing leadership training and career advancement opportunities; and on implementing Quality Compensation (Q-Comp) to promote staff retention and career development.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Five, Stewardship, officials at MPS stress accountability on the part of administrators at all levels for the implementation of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 via ongoing assessment of effectiveness and adjustment of strategies as necessary; use of the Baldrige Criteria for Education Organizations as a guide to ongoing staff training in planning, management, decision-making, and data collection and utilization; and central office adjustments to abet increased school autonomy.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Six, Resources for Students and Schools, officials at MPS stress “zero-based budgeting” to assure that funds are used where they are truly needed, with allocations prioritized for the classroom, and with attention to services pertinent to transportation, food security, instructional technology, school environment, and athletics that have a direct impact on students’ lives. All of these goals are to be attained in the context of an inclination toward school autonomy and upon the conviction that the individual site--- the school--- is the meaningful unit of change and that school staff members should have flexibility to meet the needs of their particular student population.
………………………………………….......
Stating that the school is the unit of change, with attention to the needs of particular populations, is one of those expressions that can float into the ears of people without giving offense and even seeming favorable--- but actually may be harmful, depending on those devils called details.
In reality, in the United States the locally centralized district itself must be the unit of change.
At that level, we must specify a knowledge-rich curriculum for implementation throughout the schools of MPS, for impartation by knowledgeable teachers trained by the school district itself. With the definition of an excellent education, the identification of a knowledge-rich curriculum, and the training of knowledgeable teachers accomplished, then most functions of the central bureaucracy could be moved out to the individual sites, with principals and teachers given responsibility for implementation.
With the central bureaucracy having acted meaningfully as the original unit of change, the sites will then become subsidiary units of change.
In articles to come--- and not surprising to readers of articles past--- I will analyze in considerable detail the deficiencies of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 that is now the guiding document for the attainment of educational excellence in the Minneapolis Public Schools. For now, consider the following fundamental observations:
Remember that an excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, logically sequenced curriculum in the liberal (mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, fine arts), technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
And remember that an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
Remember also that the purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
With those succinct definitions and observations, I have provided more detail in my vision of an excellent education than officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools have given in their entire Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 document.
In the latter document, the most specific statements are those pertinent to goals for student achievement; and those identifying the school as the unit of change. But those statements seem to assume that annual increases in math and reading skills (5% annually for the general student population, 8% for previously lowest-performing students), and 10% annual increases in the four-year graduation rate; can be attained without highly specific approaches for achieving results. And MPS officials focus measurable goals on basic skills, while relying on site-based school innovation, multiple pathways, and linguistic and advanced course opportunities to forge a path to excellence.
Compare such “Hail Mary” approaches to my own approach, summarized above and detailed in articles posted on this blog focused on the meaning and purpose of excellent education; and the need for thorough training of teachers; all of whom come ill-prepared to enter the classroom by virtue of the abominable training that they get in departments, schools, and colleges of education.
We will achieve educational excellence for all of our precious children when we specify a knowledge-rich curriculum for implementation in grade by grade sequence throughout the K-12 years. Teachers of such an information-heavy curriculum must have a much stronger knowledge base than they have now.
As I have detailed in other articles, the knowledge base of our K-5 teachers is particularly wretched and must be rectified via mandatory acquisition of a challenging Masters of Liberal Arts degree for knowledge mastery in math, natural science, history, economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts--- with a required master’s thesis and a full year of internship served under the guidance of the best teacher available; this Masters of Liberal Arts degree must be superintended at the central school district (MPS) level, with instruction provided by professors and other experts in their fields of specialization.
Secondary (Grade 6 through Grade 12) teachers should possess an academic master’s degree (granted in legitimate disciplines, not from faculty composed of education professors) and serve the same full year of internship as given for K-5 teachers.
The level of specificity that I have provided---even in the few lines given above, and in much more detail in articles dedicated to these components of an excellent education--- is what is missing from the Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 document of MPS.
This week the three finalists for the position of Superintendent of MPS will gather on Wednesday (2 December 2015) at Webster School in Northeast Minneapolis for questions and interaction with the public; and for interviews (8:00 AM - 3:30 PM) and Public Comment (5:30 – 7:00 PM) on Thursday (3 December 2015) at the MPS central office building on West Broadway.
These finalists for the superintendent position should be asked closely what they will do to fill in the many gaps of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 with appropriate detail and specific definitions as to what constitutes an excellent education and who may be properly identified as an excellent teacher.
This document was approved at a September 2014 meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
Via the program advocated in the pages of the work overseen by then Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and Chief Executive Officer (now Interim Superintendent) Michael Goar, the public schools of Minneapolis were to advance educational excellence and equity for all students enrolled in the district.
Six high-level goals were given in the document: 1) Improved Student Outcomes; 2) Equity; 3) Family and Community Partnership; 4) Effective Teachers, School Leaders, and Staff; 5) Stewardship; and 6) Resources for Students and Schools. Goals offered in what was termed the “big, bold spirit of the 5-8-10 plan” included the following, to be attained in the run-up to year 2020:
>>>>> 5 percent annual increase in students overall meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and math;
>>>>> 8 percent annual increase in students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and math for MPS’s lowest performing students;
>>>>> 10 percent annual increase in the four-year graduation rate.
Officials at MPS declared that “Our targets are intentionally high to reignite a sense of urgency in the system and ensure that everyone is operating with growth mindset. Meeting these targets is absolutely possible. Under this plan, we will achieve our vision of every child graduating college and career ready.”
Toward the achievement of Goal Number One, Improved Student Outcomes, officials at MPS stress that teachers at Grades Pre-K through Grade 3 should have routines in place for development of student reading and language skills; that teachers at Grade 4 through Grade 12 and for adult learners should abet the development of such skills via guided academic conversations and “close reading”; and that teachers at Grade 6 through Grade 12 and for adult learners develop students’ math and science vocabulary and content knowledge using “literacy strategies.” Also stressed are core instruction for all categories of learners; personalized learning opportunities; readiness at key points of transition from one major age grouping to another; behavioral interventions that minimize suspensions; and the availability of ethnic studies courses in high school.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Two, Equity, officials at MPS stress the use of student data as examined and then acted upon by Professional Learning Communities of teachers at each site, problem-based learning and critical thinking; multiple pathways to graduation via dual enrollment, Post-Secondary Options (PSEO), credit recovery, community-based GED and literacy programs, and online learning; and availability of world languages. Associate Superintendents are to monitor progress toward the goal of equity and the given sub-goals; and staff at all schools are to be given proper supports, with enhanced supports at High Priority Schools and Focus Schools.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Three, Family and Community Partnership, officials at MPS stress engagement with families of students, with appropriate language translation and interpreting services, with training for teachers in communication with families, and with great effort made to provide accessible locations and flexible times for familial participation. They also stress increases in corporate support, grant funding, and volunteers--- with ongoing monitoring of community partnerships for effectiveness.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Four, Effective Teachers, School Leaders, and Staff, officials at MPS stress the need for diversity in hiring, identification and placement of individuals particularly suited for teaching and staff roles to meet the needs of students at certain schools, and the provision of training and supports for staff in performing to expectation. There is also emphasis placed on providing leadership training and career advancement opportunities; and on implementing Quality Compensation (Q-Comp) to promote staff retention and career development.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Five, Stewardship, officials at MPS stress accountability on the part of administrators at all levels for the implementation of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 via ongoing assessment of effectiveness and adjustment of strategies as necessary; use of the Baldrige Criteria for Education Organizations as a guide to ongoing staff training in planning, management, decision-making, and data collection and utilization; and central office adjustments to abet increased school autonomy.
Toward the achievement of Goal Number Six, Resources for Students and Schools, officials at MPS stress “zero-based budgeting” to assure that funds are used where they are truly needed, with allocations prioritized for the classroom, and with attention to services pertinent to transportation, food security, instructional technology, school environment, and athletics that have a direct impact on students’ lives. All of these goals are to be attained in the context of an inclination toward school autonomy and upon the conviction that the individual site--- the school--- is the meaningful unit of change and that school staff members should have flexibility to meet the needs of their particular student population.
………………………………………….......
Stating that the school is the unit of change, with attention to the needs of particular populations, is one of those expressions that can float into the ears of people without giving offense and even seeming favorable--- but actually may be harmful, depending on those devils called details.
In reality, in the United States the locally centralized district itself must be the unit of change.
At that level, we must specify a knowledge-rich curriculum for implementation throughout the schools of MPS, for impartation by knowledgeable teachers trained by the school district itself. With the definition of an excellent education, the identification of a knowledge-rich curriculum, and the training of knowledgeable teachers accomplished, then most functions of the central bureaucracy could be moved out to the individual sites, with principals and teachers given responsibility for implementation.
With the central bureaucracy having acted meaningfully as the original unit of change, the sites will then become subsidiary units of change.
In articles to come--- and not surprising to readers of articles past--- I will analyze in considerable detail the deficiencies of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 that is now the guiding document for the attainment of educational excellence in the Minneapolis Public Schools. For now, consider the following fundamental observations:
Remember that an excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, logically sequenced curriculum in the liberal (mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, fine arts), technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
And remember that an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
Remember also that the purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
With those succinct definitions and observations, I have provided more detail in my vision of an excellent education than officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools have given in their entire Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 document.
In the latter document, the most specific statements are those pertinent to goals for student achievement; and those identifying the school as the unit of change. But those statements seem to assume that annual increases in math and reading skills (5% annually for the general student population, 8% for previously lowest-performing students), and 10% annual increases in the four-year graduation rate; can be attained without highly specific approaches for achieving results. And MPS officials focus measurable goals on basic skills, while relying on site-based school innovation, multiple pathways, and linguistic and advanced course opportunities to forge a path to excellence.
Compare such “Hail Mary” approaches to my own approach, summarized above and detailed in articles posted on this blog focused on the meaning and purpose of excellent education; and the need for thorough training of teachers; all of whom come ill-prepared to enter the classroom by virtue of the abominable training that they get in departments, schools, and colleges of education.
We will achieve educational excellence for all of our precious children when we specify a knowledge-rich curriculum for implementation in grade by grade sequence throughout the K-12 years. Teachers of such an information-heavy curriculum must have a much stronger knowledge base than they have now.
As I have detailed in other articles, the knowledge base of our K-5 teachers is particularly wretched and must be rectified via mandatory acquisition of a challenging Masters of Liberal Arts degree for knowledge mastery in math, natural science, history, economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts--- with a required master’s thesis and a full year of internship served under the guidance of the best teacher available; this Masters of Liberal Arts degree must be superintended at the central school district (MPS) level, with instruction provided by professors and other experts in their fields of specialization.
Secondary (Grade 6 through Grade 12) teachers should possess an academic master’s degree (granted in legitimate disciplines, not from faculty composed of education professors) and serve the same full year of internship as given for K-5 teachers.
The level of specificity that I have provided---even in the few lines given above, and in much more detail in articles dedicated to these components of an excellent education--- is what is missing from the Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 document of MPS.
This week the three finalists for the position of Superintendent of MPS will gather on Wednesday (2 December 2015) at Webster School in Northeast Minneapolis for questions and interaction with the public; and for interviews (8:00 AM - 3:30 PM) and Public Comment (5:30 – 7:00 PM) on Thursday (3 December 2015) at the MPS central office building on West Broadway.
These finalists for the superintendent position should be asked closely what they will do to fill in the many gaps of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 with appropriate detail and specific definitions as to what constitutes an excellent education and who may be properly identified as an excellent teacher.
Envisioning a Better World, with the Minneapolis Public Schools Leading the Way
Imagine the Minneapolis
Public Schools improving so thoroughly as to become a model urban central school district that similar organizations in other cities can utilize as reference for their own overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the central school district.
In my new book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education) focused on the subject areas of economics, political science, psychology, world religions, world history, American history, African American history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics; I am providing the knowledge and skill set that would provide the essence of the curriculum productive of well-educated graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). Based on such a solid base of academic information and skills, graduates of MPS would possess knowledge that even our present version of university graduates in the United States would be happy to remember from courses in the given subject areas.
What I am doing in all aspects of the New Salem Educational Initiative--- including writing Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education; monthly production of the academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota; hosting of the television show The K-12 Revolution (every Wednesday at 6:00 PM on Channel 17, Minneapolis Telecommunications Network [MTN]); personally conducting 17 small-group college preparatory academic sessions per week in a network that includes 125 students and their family members; superintending the Tuesday Tutoring program at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church; speaking at numerous public venues (including monthly appearances during Public Comment time at the convening of the MPS Board of Education); and the posting of well over 200 articles on this blog--- is providing a vision for K-12 education and the future of North Minneapolis that encompasses what I am hoping to leave to the world when my own days on earth are numbered.
Imagine MPS extrapolating the principles of the New Salem Educational Initiative so as to design a locally centralized school system so worthy as to offer a model for the excellent liberal arts education that I am always advancing and that I am now detailing in the nearly completed book (I have finished ten out of the projected fourteen chapters).
Imagine school classrooms from the K-5 level forward that are replete with academic resources of both the venerable print and the contemporary technological sort. Hold in your consciousness an image of classroom walls and hallways filled with maps of continents, nations, and ecosystems from throughout the world; and with prints of great works of art and visual representations (paintings, photographs, and sculpture) of historical personages of great thought and accomplishment.
Consider the transformative lifetime impact on young people who fully function at grade level in mathematics and reading and then follow academically committed teachers on a journey through the exciting world of knowledge. Think about the effects on the lives of our precious young people, alive in the world of knowledge and excited by the banter of teachers who truly love them and effortlessly blend academic, comedic, and culturally attuned comments into their verbal expressions, their communications, their teaching.
Imagine schools as genuine places of knowledge acquisition that welcome students, their families, and community members to the sites and into the hallways of learning and ethics. Into these hallways would come experts from the realms of academia, business, government, social service, and theology to talk to MPS students and their families in a setting alive with the love of knowledge and ethical action--- and to engage in lively intellectual encounters with teachers capable of exchanging informed views with people of enormous information bases and great expertise.
Ethics would be an important topic for discussion in the schools of the future for MPS, with powerful conversations flowing in consideration of ethical precepts from the world's great religious traditions, applied in the context of an extensive knowledge base acquired both through dedicated academic study and active engagement with the workaday world:
Young people and their families would be invited to participate in discussions focused on the nature of the good, the beautiful, and the empathic--- for the express purpose of advancing human understanding and promoting peaceful, productive relationships among people.
Imagine beckoning rooms in our schools from the K-5 level forward that are packed with great classic and contemporary works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; performance stages; technological resource area; media center; kitchen for student use; along with conventional classrooms used for traditional purposes and as centers for discussion, lectures, and speeches.
Imagine schools from the K-5 level forward that include spaces for instruction in the vocational and technical arts, arranged for particular students upon expressed interest, so that the transmission of liberal arts knowledge would flourish alongside instruction that could include auto repair, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, and various other vocational arts.
Minneapolis in general and North Minneapolis specifically would become much better places for our young people and their families to dwell--- very much including those who are my personal passion: those who have been mired in cyclical familial poverty for generations. Schools would become tangible expressions of the joy of knowing and understanding the great world and universe, centers of information and wisdom in the midst of a community that radiates love of knowledge, ethical conduct, human beings.
I am developing the New Salem Educational Initiative as a vanguard community, formed by the 125 students and family members in my network, with the view of educating hordes of others interested in increasing their knowledge in all manner of subjects and coming to a place where ethics and moral conduct are treated as cherished guides to human action and interaction.
A very definite component of my vision is the transformation of the image of the North Minneapolis community that I love, from the perception of a place of destitution and violence to the recognized center of advanced academic knowledge and elevated ethical conduct.
This can and must happen in the future overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the locally centralized school district, with the Minneapolis Public Schools serving as model to a world that must thrive on the basis of knowledge and ethics, rather than perishing for a lack thereof.
In my new book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education) focused on the subject areas of economics, political science, psychology, world religions, world history, American history, African American history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics; I am providing the knowledge and skill set that would provide the essence of the curriculum productive of well-educated graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). Based on such a solid base of academic information and skills, graduates of MPS would possess knowledge that even our present version of university graduates in the United States would be happy to remember from courses in the given subject areas.
What I am doing in all aspects of the New Salem Educational Initiative--- including writing Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education; monthly production of the academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota; hosting of the television show The K-12 Revolution (every Wednesday at 6:00 PM on Channel 17, Minneapolis Telecommunications Network [MTN]); personally conducting 17 small-group college preparatory academic sessions per week in a network that includes 125 students and their family members; superintending the Tuesday Tutoring program at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church; speaking at numerous public venues (including monthly appearances during Public Comment time at the convening of the MPS Board of Education); and the posting of well over 200 articles on this blog--- is providing a vision for K-12 education and the future of North Minneapolis that encompasses what I am hoping to leave to the world when my own days on earth are numbered.
Imagine MPS extrapolating the principles of the New Salem Educational Initiative so as to design a locally centralized school system so worthy as to offer a model for the excellent liberal arts education that I am always advancing and that I am now detailing in the nearly completed book (I have finished ten out of the projected fourteen chapters).
Imagine school classrooms from the K-5 level forward that are replete with academic resources of both the venerable print and the contemporary technological sort. Hold in your consciousness an image of classroom walls and hallways filled with maps of continents, nations, and ecosystems from throughout the world; and with prints of great works of art and visual representations (paintings, photographs, and sculpture) of historical personages of great thought and accomplishment.
Consider the transformative lifetime impact on young people who fully function at grade level in mathematics and reading and then follow academically committed teachers on a journey through the exciting world of knowledge. Think about the effects on the lives of our precious young people, alive in the world of knowledge and excited by the banter of teachers who truly love them and effortlessly blend academic, comedic, and culturally attuned comments into their verbal expressions, their communications, their teaching.
Imagine schools as genuine places of knowledge acquisition that welcome students, their families, and community members to the sites and into the hallways of learning and ethics. Into these hallways would come experts from the realms of academia, business, government, social service, and theology to talk to MPS students and their families in a setting alive with the love of knowledge and ethical action--- and to engage in lively intellectual encounters with teachers capable of exchanging informed views with people of enormous information bases and great expertise.
Ethics would be an important topic for discussion in the schools of the future for MPS, with powerful conversations flowing in consideration of ethical precepts from the world's great religious traditions, applied in the context of an extensive knowledge base acquired both through dedicated academic study and active engagement with the workaday world:
Young people and their families would be invited to participate in discussions focused on the nature of the good, the beautiful, and the empathic--- for the express purpose of advancing human understanding and promoting peaceful, productive relationships among people.
Imagine beckoning rooms in our schools from the K-5 level forward that are packed with great classic and contemporary works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; performance stages; technological resource area; media center; kitchen for student use; along with conventional classrooms used for traditional purposes and as centers for discussion, lectures, and speeches.
Imagine schools from the K-5 level forward that include spaces for instruction in the vocational and technical arts, arranged for particular students upon expressed interest, so that the transmission of liberal arts knowledge would flourish alongside instruction that could include auto repair, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, and various other vocational arts.
Minneapolis in general and North Minneapolis specifically would become much better places for our young people and their families to dwell--- very much including those who are my personal passion: those who have been mired in cyclical familial poverty for generations. Schools would become tangible expressions of the joy of knowing and understanding the great world and universe, centers of information and wisdom in the midst of a community that radiates love of knowledge, ethical conduct, human beings.
I am developing the New Salem Educational Initiative as a vanguard community, formed by the 125 students and family members in my network, with the view of educating hordes of others interested in increasing their knowledge in all manner of subjects and coming to a place where ethics and moral conduct are treated as cherished guides to human action and interaction.
A very definite component of my vision is the transformation of the image of the North Minneapolis community that I love, from the perception of a place of destitution and violence to the recognized center of advanced academic knowledge and elevated ethical conduct.
This can and must happen in the future overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the locally centralized school district, with the Minneapolis Public Schools serving as model to a world that must thrive on the basis of knowledge and ethics, rather than perishing for a lack thereof.
Nov 27, 2015
What We Really Need from a New Superintendent in Order to Address the Structural Impediments and Philosophical Deficiencies That Have Produced the Terrible Quality of Education at the Minneapolis Public Schools
The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education is now considering three viable candidates for the position of Superintendent. Any one of them most likely could lead MPS competently:
Michael Goar deserves front-runner status, having graduated from Washburn High School, served as the Director of Labor Relations and Human Resources for MPS, held the position of Chief Executive Officer under Bernadeia Johnson, and functioned as Interim Superintendent since Johnson stepped down about a year ago. He brings business acumen to the position, demonstrated in his 18% staff reduction of central office staff; this was an advancement in the Shift program begun in the Johnson administration. Goar clearly cares about lifting the academic performance of children from economically challenged and frequently dysfunctional familial situations, and in attaining educational equity across racial and ethnic lines; improvements in student performance at the High Priority Schools (also a Johnson initiative) manifest that concern.
Sergio Paez brings a proven record of turning an academically terrible school district (in Holyoke, Massachusetts) around, and he has a very broad grasp of the issues pertinent to running a school district with a diverse student population in which many of the young people face linguistic and economic challenges. He has a passion for the job and a candor that impels him to say that imparting high quality public education to historically underserved populations is a matter of acknowledging the need for "Reparation."
Charles Foust is a resourceful administrator from the Houston Independent School district who is talented at reaching out to the community in which students are embedded. He insists that people do the job to which they have been assigned and that they have said that they can do. Foust has a very dynamic personality and youthful energy that strongly suggest an ability to inspire school personnel and to connect with students.
A case can be made that all of these candidates have most of the desired qualities that the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education have identified as desirable for a superintendent. These characteristics focus on the ability to connect with the community, teachers, parents, and students; to improve the academic performance of historically underserved populations; to grasp current research relevant to the professional educator; to understand the challenges facing a large urban school district and demonstrate likelihood of effectively leading such a school district;
and to signal commitment to leading the district over a long period of time.
But no individual possessing this array of characteristics would necessarily be positioned to improve the terrible quality of education currently prevailing in the Minneapolis Public Schools. A superintendent could have all of those characteristics and still lead a school district in which graduates have no knowledge of the way in which the Federal Reserve Board of Governors controls money supply in the United States; could not tell you the difference in the psychological approaches of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner; could not explain how Sunni Muslims differ from Shi'ite Muslims and which nations are dominated by one or the other of the major sectarian groups; could not demonstrate understanding of the difference between the theory of communism as postulated by Karl Marx and communism historically in practice in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China; and could not explain how the physics of Albert Einstein described the functioning of the universe encountered by astronauts in a way that the physics of Isaac Newton could not.
Students of the Minneapolis Public Schools are abominably ignorant as they walk across the stage at graduation to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only. And no wonder: They are taught by teachers who have themselves been abused by education professors serving at the behest of departments, schools, and colleges of education that are degree mills producing knowledge-deficient teachers ill-equipped to deliver an excellent education to students of all demographic descriptors.
For reasons detailed in many articles posted on this blog, any incoming superintendent--- whether that person's name be Goar, Paez, or Foust--- must overhaul curriculum for knowledge-intensity and logical sequence across the K-12 years; and oversee the training the teachers needed to impart such a knowledge-intensive curriculum.
Without achieving the needed overhaul of curriculum and teacher training, even a superintendent who connects with all relevant parties in the community and in the schools; or manages to raise basic math and reading skill levels of historically underserved populations; will fail to send students across the stage at graduation any better equipped for lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction than they are now.
To be successful, the new superintendent will have to oversee the overhaul of curriculum and teacher training.
Otherwise, graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools will still walk across that stage as abominably ignorant young people claiming a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.
And any superintendent that would lead such a school district would similarly be an educator in name only.
Michael Goar deserves front-runner status, having graduated from Washburn High School, served as the Director of Labor Relations and Human Resources for MPS, held the position of Chief Executive Officer under Bernadeia Johnson, and functioned as Interim Superintendent since Johnson stepped down about a year ago. He brings business acumen to the position, demonstrated in his 18% staff reduction of central office staff; this was an advancement in the Shift program begun in the Johnson administration. Goar clearly cares about lifting the academic performance of children from economically challenged and frequently dysfunctional familial situations, and in attaining educational equity across racial and ethnic lines; improvements in student performance at the High Priority Schools (also a Johnson initiative) manifest that concern.
Sergio Paez brings a proven record of turning an academically terrible school district (in Holyoke, Massachusetts) around, and he has a very broad grasp of the issues pertinent to running a school district with a diverse student population in which many of the young people face linguistic and economic challenges. He has a passion for the job and a candor that impels him to say that imparting high quality public education to historically underserved populations is a matter of acknowledging the need for "Reparation."
Charles Foust is a resourceful administrator from the Houston Independent School district who is talented at reaching out to the community in which students are embedded. He insists that people do the job to which they have been assigned and that they have said that they can do. Foust has a very dynamic personality and youthful energy that strongly suggest an ability to inspire school personnel and to connect with students.
A case can be made that all of these candidates have most of the desired qualities that the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education have identified as desirable for a superintendent. These characteristics focus on the ability to connect with the community, teachers, parents, and students; to improve the academic performance of historically underserved populations; to grasp current research relevant to the professional educator; to understand the challenges facing a large urban school district and demonstrate likelihood of effectively leading such a school district;
and to signal commitment to leading the district over a long period of time.
But no individual possessing this array of characteristics would necessarily be positioned to improve the terrible quality of education currently prevailing in the Minneapolis Public Schools. A superintendent could have all of those characteristics and still lead a school district in which graduates have no knowledge of the way in which the Federal Reserve Board of Governors controls money supply in the United States; could not tell you the difference in the psychological approaches of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner; could not explain how Sunni Muslims differ from Shi'ite Muslims and which nations are dominated by one or the other of the major sectarian groups; could not demonstrate understanding of the difference between the theory of communism as postulated by Karl Marx and communism historically in practice in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China; and could not explain how the physics of Albert Einstein described the functioning of the universe encountered by astronauts in a way that the physics of Isaac Newton could not.
Students of the Minneapolis Public Schools are abominably ignorant as they walk across the stage at graduation to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only. And no wonder: They are taught by teachers who have themselves been abused by education professors serving at the behest of departments, schools, and colleges of education that are degree mills producing knowledge-deficient teachers ill-equipped to deliver an excellent education to students of all demographic descriptors.
For reasons detailed in many articles posted on this blog, any incoming superintendent--- whether that person's name be Goar, Paez, or Foust--- must overhaul curriculum for knowledge-intensity and logical sequence across the K-12 years; and oversee the training the teachers needed to impart such a knowledge-intensive curriculum.
Without achieving the needed overhaul of curriculum and teacher training, even a superintendent who connects with all relevant parties in the community and in the schools; or manages to raise basic math and reading skill levels of historically underserved populations; will fail to send students across the stage at graduation any better equipped for lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction than they are now.
To be successful, the new superintendent will have to oversee the overhaul of curriculum and teacher training.
Otherwise, graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools will still walk across that stage as abominably ignorant young people claiming a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.
And any superintendent that would lead such a school district would similarly be an educator in name only.
Nov 24, 2015
The Terrible Burden of Personnel and School Board Members at the Minneapolis Public Schools >>>>> The Students Don't Know Much About Nothin' at All
Don't Know Much About Nothin' at All
(adaptation of [What a] Wonderful World, song written by Lou Adler, Herb Alpert, and Sam Cooke)
Don't know much about history,
don't know much geography,
don't know much about the science book,
don't know much about the French I took.
Don't know much about no Rise and Fall.
don't know much about nothin' at all---
You ain't put much in our heads,
so all we got to do is fall into bed,
gettin' pregnant in our early years,
you left us with so many haunting fears---
So just when the sun of our youth had risen,
we hit the streets and were off to prison.
That must make you feel real good,
not having educated us as you should.
just sittin' there watchin' us Rise and Fall,
we don't know how you sleep at all---
You ain't put much in our heads,
so all we got to do is fall into bed,
gettin' pregnant in our early years,
you left us with so many haunting fears---
So just when the sun of our youth had risen,
we hit the streets and were off to prison.
That must make you feel real good,
not having educated us as you should.
just sittin' and watchin' us Rise and Fall,
we don't know how you sleep at all---
We don't know how you sleep at all.
(adaptation of [What a] Wonderful World, song written by Lou Adler, Herb Alpert, and Sam Cooke)
Don't know much about history,
don't know much geography,
don't know much about the science book,
don't know much about the French I took.
Don't know much about no Rise and Fall.
don't know much about nothin' at all---
You ain't put much in our heads,
so all we got to do is fall into bed,
gettin' pregnant in our early years,
you left us with so many haunting fears---
So just when the sun of our youth had risen,
we hit the streets and were off to prison.
That must make you feel real good,
not having educated us as you should.
just sittin' there watchin' us Rise and Fall,
we don't know how you sleep at all---
You ain't put much in our heads,
so all we got to do is fall into bed,
gettin' pregnant in our early years,
you left us with so many haunting fears---
So just when the sun of our youth had risen,
we hit the streets and were off to prison.
That must make you feel real good,
not having educated us as you should.
just sittin' and watchin' us Rise and Fall,
we don't know how you sleep at all---
We don't know how you sleep at all.
Nov 20, 2015
If We Understand That Black lives Matter, Then We Will Overhaul K-12 Education
As a matter of long-term response to the challenges of people living at the urban core, we will demonstrate that we truly understand that Black Lives Matter by overhauling K-12 education.
The education establishment of the United States has never properly educated the great majority of African American people, and in the broader sense K-12 public education in this nation has never offered academic instruction of excellence to most people.
African Americans have been most victimized by the deficiencies of K-12 public education In the United States.
Consider the history:
Most African American slaves were denied access to literacy. When slavery ended in 1866 with the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, and when the immediately succeeding 14th and 15th Amendments respectively acknowledged fundamental rights of citizenship and voting rights specifically, the pathway opened for African Americans to gain access to education. But Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877, whereby Democrats granted the contested votes in the very close 1876 presidential election to Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for withdrawal of federal troops from the South.
This left innervated the guarantees of the Reconstruction amendments and created conditions for the rise of hate groups such as the Knights of the Golden Circle, Midnight Raiders, and Ku Klux Klan; the advent of Jim Crow; and the “separate but equal” abomination in the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Segregation, violence, and the sharecropping system sent multitudes of African Americans scrambling on a Great Northern Migration.
But in the urban North black people found restrictive housing covenants that directed them to certain parts of the city where, as in the case of African Americans settling in alongside the Jewish population of North Minneapolis, they joined other ethnic groups who also bore the burden of hateful treatment. The Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas, decision of the Supreme Court formally ended segregation in 1954, and the Civil Rights victories manifested in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; in combination with fair housing and employment laws in the course of the 1960s and early 1970s; opened a pathway for African Americans positioned to grab for the middle class American Dream.
Ironically, though, many successful African American people joined whites fleeing the urban core. In North Minneapolis, after rioting on Plymouth Avenue in summer 1967, Jewish people left in droves for St. Louis Park and other suburbs; when many middle class African Americans did the same, this left behind--- as a general rule--- the poorest of the poor.
The Minneapolis Public Schools, like all American systems of K-12 public education, never had offered a superb quality of education. Now mostly white educators were at a loss to provide high-quality education to a Northside population that increasingly included very challenged populations moving in from such places as Gary, Indiana; Southside Chicago; and Kankakee, Illinois.
And that’s where we remain today.
Our locally centralized system of the Minneapolis Public Schools has never provided anything close to a decent K-12 education to African Americans living at the urban core.
The time is now for us to define that education as I have in the immediately succeeding article on this blog and many other places.
If we really believe that Black Lives Matter, then we must formulate a long-term response to the challenges of people living at the urban core by overhauling K-12 education in the Minneapolis Public Schools and across these not yet very United States.
The education establishment of the United States has never properly educated the great majority of African American people, and in the broader sense K-12 public education in this nation has never offered academic instruction of excellence to most people.
African Americans have been most victimized by the deficiencies of K-12 public education In the United States.
Consider the history:
Most African American slaves were denied access to literacy. When slavery ended in 1866 with the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, and when the immediately succeeding 14th and 15th Amendments respectively acknowledged fundamental rights of citizenship and voting rights specifically, the pathway opened for African Americans to gain access to education. But Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877, whereby Democrats granted the contested votes in the very close 1876 presidential election to Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for withdrawal of federal troops from the South.
This left innervated the guarantees of the Reconstruction amendments and created conditions for the rise of hate groups such as the Knights of the Golden Circle, Midnight Raiders, and Ku Klux Klan; the advent of Jim Crow; and the “separate but equal” abomination in the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Segregation, violence, and the sharecropping system sent multitudes of African Americans scrambling on a Great Northern Migration.
But in the urban North black people found restrictive housing covenants that directed them to certain parts of the city where, as in the case of African Americans settling in alongside the Jewish population of North Minneapolis, they joined other ethnic groups who also bore the burden of hateful treatment. The Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas, decision of the Supreme Court formally ended segregation in 1954, and the Civil Rights victories manifested in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; in combination with fair housing and employment laws in the course of the 1960s and early 1970s; opened a pathway for African Americans positioned to grab for the middle class American Dream.
Ironically, though, many successful African American people joined whites fleeing the urban core. In North Minneapolis, after rioting on Plymouth Avenue in summer 1967, Jewish people left in droves for St. Louis Park and other suburbs; when many middle class African Americans did the same, this left behind--- as a general rule--- the poorest of the poor.
The Minneapolis Public Schools, like all American systems of K-12 public education, never had offered a superb quality of education. Now mostly white educators were at a loss to provide high-quality education to a Northside population that increasingly included very challenged populations moving in from such places as Gary, Indiana; Southside Chicago; and Kankakee, Illinois.
And that’s where we remain today.
Our locally centralized system of the Minneapolis Public Schools has never provided anything close to a decent K-12 education to African Americans living at the urban core.
The time is now for us to define that education as I have in the immediately succeeding article on this blog and many other places.
If we really believe that Black Lives Matter, then we must formulate a long-term response to the challenges of people living at the urban core by overhauling K-12 education in the Minneapolis Public Schools and across these not yet very United States.
Nov 19, 2015
The Next Step and the Next Big Question in Selecting One of the Three Finalists for Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools
On the evening of 18 November 2015, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education selected three candidates as finalists in the search for the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).
The six semifinalists were interviewed this week on Monday (16 November 2015) and Tuesday (17 November 2015).
Those semifinalists included Michael Goar, who has served as Interim Superintendent since taking over for Bernadeia Johnson last January 2015; Jinger Gustafson (Associate Superintendent, Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota), Charles Foust, (Assistant Superintendent, Houston [Texas] School District), Sergio Paez (a former superintendent in Holyoke, Massachusetts), Kenneth Spells (superintendent in Alton, Illinois), and Jesse Rodriguez (Regional Superintendent, Milwaukee Public Schools).
................................................................................
I spoke with each of the candidates and in the case of those three candidates interviewed on Tuesday evening had the chance to sit down for substantial conversations.
Yesterday I made my recommendations in favor of Michael Goar, Charles Foust, and Sergio Paez, so for my reasoning scroll on down to the relevant article.
Those three were in fact the candidates chosen as finalists, with the school board members evidencing considerable agreement on the strength of Goar and Paez, and selecting Foust after further discussion of his candidacy.
The main point of my own reasoning that differed from members of the board at this stage concerned the candidate who would be fourth for consideration as the new superintendent. Although a calm and confident rather than charismatic person, Jinger Gustafson was the only candidate to mention Focused Instruction, which I see as a conduit for the full implementation of a knowledge-rich, logically sequenced, grade-by-grade curriculum of the Core Knowledge type advocated by E. D. Hirsch--- that excellence of education that would give all of our precious children the K-12 education that they must have to graduate from high school with great potential for post-secondary academic success and for lives as citizens who are culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally accomplished.
Members of the school board made little mention at the Wednesday, 18 November, meeting of either Gustafson or Rodriguez. They came to a fairly clear decision in favor of Foust as number three after a detailed discussion of his strengths by comparison with those of Spells. The vote for Foust as third finalist was seven (7) to two (2). I would have cast the vote for Foust but would have offered the comparison of Gustafson as my own candidate for fourth consideration.
............................................................................
Bottom line, then, the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education and I are in agreement on the three most deserving candidates for consideration as finalists for the position of Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. The decision now comes down to the candidacies of Michael Goar, Charles Foust, and Sergio Paez.
Do scroll down to read my comments on these candidates in previous articles.
...........................................................................
What we have now is the great question, not yet posed by the members of the school board, and not broached by the candidates >>>>>
What is an excellent education?
Some member of the school board should ask that question of candidates, and they should all ask that question of themselves.
Whenever I ask people that question, including those who make their living in education or advocate for change in K-12 education, they typically start stammering and improvising awkwardly.
How amazing that we propose to rush forward rapidly toward excellence in education without ever defining what we mean by an excellent education.
Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that in many places I have been clear that
An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-rich curriculum in the liberal, industrial, and technical arts in logical, grade-by-grade sequence throughout the K-12 years.
You know, too, that I have defined an excellent teacher as follows:
An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
For reasons that I have also discussed in many articles, those definitions are contentious. They confront education professors and other members of an education establishment who are knowledge-averse and too often themselves knowledge-poor.
For that very reason, we may not ever get to the most important question that should be posed to any superintendent candidate who proposes to oversee the impartation of an academically excellent experience for students of all demographic descriptors.
But members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will be very remiss if they do not ask, and the three finalists to not answer or broach, the most important question of all >>>>>
What is an excellent education?
The six semifinalists were interviewed this week on Monday (16 November 2015) and Tuesday (17 November 2015).
Those semifinalists included Michael Goar, who has served as Interim Superintendent since taking over for Bernadeia Johnson last January 2015; Jinger Gustafson (Associate Superintendent, Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota), Charles Foust, (Assistant Superintendent, Houston [Texas] School District), Sergio Paez (a former superintendent in Holyoke, Massachusetts), Kenneth Spells (superintendent in Alton, Illinois), and Jesse Rodriguez (Regional Superintendent, Milwaukee Public Schools).
................................................................................
I spoke with each of the candidates and in the case of those three candidates interviewed on Tuesday evening had the chance to sit down for substantial conversations.
Yesterday I made my recommendations in favor of Michael Goar, Charles Foust, and Sergio Paez, so for my reasoning scroll on down to the relevant article.
Those three were in fact the candidates chosen as finalists, with the school board members evidencing considerable agreement on the strength of Goar and Paez, and selecting Foust after further discussion of his candidacy.
The main point of my own reasoning that differed from members of the board at this stage concerned the candidate who would be fourth for consideration as the new superintendent. Although a calm and confident rather than charismatic person, Jinger Gustafson was the only candidate to mention Focused Instruction, which I see as a conduit for the full implementation of a knowledge-rich, logically sequenced, grade-by-grade curriculum of the Core Knowledge type advocated by E. D. Hirsch--- that excellence of education that would give all of our precious children the K-12 education that they must have to graduate from high school with great potential for post-secondary academic success and for lives as citizens who are culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally accomplished.
Members of the school board made little mention at the Wednesday, 18 November, meeting of either Gustafson or Rodriguez. They came to a fairly clear decision in favor of Foust as number three after a detailed discussion of his strengths by comparison with those of Spells. The vote for Foust as third finalist was seven (7) to two (2). I would have cast the vote for Foust but would have offered the comparison of Gustafson as my own candidate for fourth consideration.
............................................................................
Bottom line, then, the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education and I are in agreement on the three most deserving candidates for consideration as finalists for the position of Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. The decision now comes down to the candidacies of Michael Goar, Charles Foust, and Sergio Paez.
Do scroll down to read my comments on these candidates in previous articles.
...........................................................................
What we have now is the great question, not yet posed by the members of the school board, and not broached by the candidates >>>>>
What is an excellent education?
Some member of the school board should ask that question of candidates, and they should all ask that question of themselves.
Whenever I ask people that question, including those who make their living in education or advocate for change in K-12 education, they typically start stammering and improvising awkwardly.
How amazing that we propose to rush forward rapidly toward excellence in education without ever defining what we mean by an excellent education.
Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that in many places I have been clear that
An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-rich curriculum in the liberal, industrial, and technical arts in logical, grade-by-grade sequence throughout the K-12 years.
You know, too, that I have defined an excellent teacher as follows:
An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
For reasons that I have also discussed in many articles, those definitions are contentious. They confront education professors and other members of an education establishment who are knowledge-averse and too often themselves knowledge-poor.
For that very reason, we may not ever get to the most important question that should be posed to any superintendent candidate who proposes to oversee the impartation of an academically excellent experience for students of all demographic descriptors.
But members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will be very remiss if they do not ask, and the three finalists to not answer or broach, the most important question of all >>>>>
What is an excellent education?
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