Ed Graff is Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, earning a salary of $225,000 annually.
In a portal of the website of the Minneapolis Public Schools that cites the duties of staff members in leadership positions, the description of the fundamental responsibilities of MPS Superintendent (Ed Graff, as of 1 July 2016) goes as follows >>>>>
Superintendent Ed Graff
>>>>> The superintendent of schools is responsible for leading all functions and processes for the school district. The superintendent is charged with working with all internal and external stakeholders to implement and execute core strategies that produce results across the school district. The superintendent sets the academic priorities of the school district and serves as the primary decision-maker and spokesperson for Minneapolis Public Schools.
I have compiled from various sources this brief-form curriculum vitae or resume of the new superintendent >>>>>
Superintendent Ed Graff
Academic Credentials
Post-Master's Degree work in curriculum, educational leadership, and instruction
Master's Degree in Educational Administration, University of Southern Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education, University of Alaska Anchorage
Experience
2013 - Spring 2016 Superintendent of the Anchorage School District (ASD) in Alaska
1991 - 2013 Various positions in the ASD, including the following;
ASD Chief Academic Officer
ASD Chief Academic Officer
elementary school principal
elementary school teacher
Evaluation
The strength of Ed Graff's qualifications as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools lies in his experience at all major positions typical of the locally centralized school district: teacher, principal, and central office positions leading to superintendent.
According to those who visited Anchorage when Graff became a finalist for the superintendent position in Minneapolis, he had many supporters in that city and district who considered him to be an approachable and dedicated educator.
Cited prominently in the bio-sketch provided by Graff when he became a candidate for the Minneapolis position was his having received (earlier in this year of 2016) the Exemplary Social and Emotional Learning Award from the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, "demonstrating Mr. Graff's leadership and vision for Social and Emotional Learning."
.................................................................
There are many factors, though, that do not augur well for Graff becoming the transformative superintendent needed at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Many of these factors lie in his apparent strengths.
Here I provide a brief version of observations that I have often detailed in multiple articles on this blog:
Before the long and sluggardly search for a superintendent began, I counseled members of the MPS Public Schools Board of Education to go in-house, as the board had done in the case of Bernadeia Johnson--- the best MPS Superintendent I have witnessed during my 34 years in Minnesota.
I told the school board directors that the system producing superintendents does not result in many able candidates, that political or personal struggles tend to limit their tenure to 3 to 5 years, and that the most important task for this particular school board was to identify those within the existing Bernadeia Johnson administration who could pursue her promising initiatives, dubbed Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction.
And indeed, the laborious, error-laden, 17-month odyssey that was the superintendent search featured only one candidate truly above the norm; failing to grasp that opportunity, the board moved forward on an ungainly course that culminated in this very conventional candidate-become-superintendent, Ed Graff.
Consider:
>>>>> Social and Emotional Learning is one of those feel-good approaches offered by education professors, the latest iteration of many such schemes promoted in the absence of any reference to academic skills and knowledge.
>>>>> Like most people trained for educational administration, Graff's university training lacks much substantial training in legitimate subject area disciplines (i.e., mathematics, chemistry, history, English literature, drama).
>>>>> When I questioned Graff multiple times as to his educational philosophy, he declined to give a clear answer; what can be gleaned from his comments suggests strongly that he believes that development of the "whole child" does not necessitate the establishment of specific knowledge and skill sets as the goal toward with social and emotional learning leads.
>>>>> Similarly, what can be gleaned thus far from Graff's comments at various meetings and gatherings strongly suggests that he is not inclined to oversee the establishment of the kind of comprehensive, cohesive approach to tutoring that our academically lagging students must have to achieve grade level performance.
>>>>> Nor does Graff grasp the need for curriculum overhaul, teacher retraining, extensive family and community outreach, or central bureaucratic paring that (along with well-articulated tutoring ) are among the five most needed initiatives in a program designed to achieve excellence in K-12 education.
>>>>> The Anchorage school board elected not to renew Graff's contract when his three-year stint came to a close in spring 2016; he left behind him academic achievement levels (see the Anchorage School District website) as low as, very similar to, those now prevailing in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Graff's contract became effective on 1 July 2016 and will last for three years.
The prospects for these three years are
>>>>> that the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) will continue their vitiation as measurement tools as various forces continue to mount opposition to these well-constructed assessments in the absence of any clear alternative;
>>>>> that the only goal in the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan for which there will be any kind of progress will be improved graduate rates--- not due to academic progress but rather to the "multiple pathway" approach that will proceed in an atmosphere of diminishing academic rigor.
>>>>> and that the Graff response, consistent with an education establishment that is always moving the target so as to forestall and explain away the lack of any academic progress, will be essentially, "but hey, I said that academics is not our only goal here--- because we are concerned for the whole child."
Thus it will be, come 2019, that people will again wring their hands and profess not to understand why we are as stuck as the proverbial tire spinning in the proverbial mud.
One-third of our students who attempt college and university matriculation will continue to need remedial instruction, even if they are among the 50% or so who actually graduate.
Very few of our students will carry knowledge and skill sets into the world as culturally enriched, civically prepared, professionally promising citizens. Most will not give evidence of the Minneapolis Public Schools claim, "every student college and career ready."
After his three-year tenure, Graff will pack away his $700,000 or so (the accumulation of his $225,000 or more per year salary, perks, and adjustments), head for other school district terrain, and leave the mission of providing excellent education to all of our precious children abominably and immorally unfulfilled.
This will all happen, that is if you and I do not act ever more vigorously to promote an education of excellence at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
I'm all in.
How about you?
Nov 28, 2016
Prelude to an Evaluation of Superintendent Ed Graff >>>>> Leadership of the Minneapolis Public Schools as Given on the MPS Organizational Chart
As a prelude to a consideration of the fitness--- or lack thereof--- in the case of Ed Graff as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), consider first the people and positions given in the district's organizational chart.
General Counsel Amy Moore is given first, as is the case on the organizational chart, representing as she does interpretation of law that must be observed by everyone, including the superintendent.
Thereafter the district pays tribute to the Minneapolis Community as the source of the student population that is (or should be) the reason for existence of the locally centralized school district.
Linking the superintendent and the community is the MPS Board of Education.
Note that Jesse Winkler serves the school board directly; and that Lanise Block reports directly to the superintendent.
Michael Thomas also reports directly to the superintendent and has two staff members, Stephen Flisk and Michael Walker, who report to him. Not given in the organizational chart are six associate superintendents who also report directly to Thomas.
Thereafter, personnel are given who report directly to the superintendent and who have sizable staff members working under their own direction. Given after the names and positions of these personnel are the areas for which these individuals have responsibility.
From Organizational Chart
Amy Moore (General Counsel)
Compliance Policy
Our Minneapolis Community -----
Board of Education ----- Ed Graff
Jesse Winkler Lanise Block
(Administrator (Strategic Projects
to the Board of Education) Administrator)
Equity
EDIA Projects
Ed Graff ------------ Michael Thomas
(Superintendent of Schools) (Chief of Schools)
Associate Superintendents
Principal Development
Stephen Flisk (Deputy Chief of Schools)
Athletics
SIG Coordinator
Safety & Security
Michael Walker (Director, Office of Black Male Achievement)
Susanne Griffin (Chief Academic Officer)
Community Education
College and Career Readiness
Early Childhood Education
Educational & Cultural Services/ Indian Education
Professional Development
Special Education
Teaching & Learning
Ibrahima Diop (Chief Financial Officer)
Accounting
Finance
Budget
Procurement
Grants
Payroll
Vacant (Chief of Staff)
Human Capital
Human Resources Operations
Fadi Fadhill (Chief Information Officer)
Technology & Data Governance
Technology Purchasing
Elia Bruggeman (Deputy Education Officer)
Multilingual
Contract Alternatives
Global Education
World Languages
Community Partnership Schools
Mark Bolinger (Deputy Chief Operations Officer)
Facilities/ Plant Operations
Nutritional Services
Transportation
Gail Plewacki (Executive Director of Communications)
Internal/ External Communications
Media Relations
Multi-Media
Social Media
Eric Moore (Executive Director Program of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability)
Research
Evaluation
State and District Assessment
Accountability
General Counsel Amy Moore is given first, as is the case on the organizational chart, representing as she does interpretation of law that must be observed by everyone, including the superintendent.
Thereafter the district pays tribute to the Minneapolis Community as the source of the student population that is (or should be) the reason for existence of the locally centralized school district.
Linking the superintendent and the community is the MPS Board of Education.
Note that Jesse Winkler serves the school board directly; and that Lanise Block reports directly to the superintendent.
Michael Thomas also reports directly to the superintendent and has two staff members, Stephen Flisk and Michael Walker, who report to him. Not given in the organizational chart are six associate superintendents who also report directly to Thomas.
Thereafter, personnel are given who report directly to the superintendent and who have sizable staff members working under their own direction. Given after the names and positions of these personnel are the areas for which these individuals have responsibility.
From Organizational Chart
Amy Moore (General Counsel)
Compliance Policy
Our Minneapolis Community -----
Board of Education ----- Ed Graff
Jesse Winkler Lanise Block
(Administrator (Strategic Projects
to the Board of Education) Administrator)
Equity
EDIA Projects
Ed Graff ------------ Michael Thomas
(Superintendent of Schools) (Chief of Schools)
Associate Superintendents
Principal Development
Stephen Flisk (Deputy Chief of Schools)
Athletics
SIG Coordinator
Safety & Security
Michael Walker (Director, Office of Black Male Achievement)
Susanne Griffin (Chief Academic Officer)
Community Education
College and Career Readiness
Early Childhood Education
Educational & Cultural Services/ Indian Education
Professional Development
Special Education
Teaching & Learning
Ibrahima Diop (Chief Financial Officer)
Accounting
Finance
Budget
Procurement
Grants
Payroll
Vacant (Chief of Staff)
Human Capital
Human Resources Operations
Fadi Fadhill (Chief Information Officer)
Technology & Data Governance
Technology Purchasing
Elia Bruggeman (Deputy Education Officer)
Multilingual
Contract Alternatives
Global Education
World Languages
Community Partnership Schools
Mark Bolinger (Deputy Chief Operations Officer)
Facilities/ Plant Operations
Nutritional Services
Transportation
Gail Plewacki (Executive Director of Communications)
Internal/ External Communications
Media Relations
Multi-Media
Social Media
Eric Moore (Executive Director Program of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability)
Research
Evaluation
State and District Assessment
Accountability
If Change is to Come in K-12 Education, You Must Have the Courage to Act: An Introduction to a Multi-Article Series on the Ineffective Personnel and Programs of the Minneapolis Public Schools
If we hope to transform our K-12 systems so as to deliver an education of excellence to all of our precious children, we must first understand the need for transformation and what needs to change.
That is to convey, we must first get the fundamental principles right.
We must first comprehend the reality that no one is right when almost everybody’s wrong.
First, those who inhabit the halls of our locally centralized school districts are wrong. They do not grasp the need for fundamental change, but as cover from attacks all around they are forever engaging in diversionary tactics. In the Minneapolis Public Schools the production of such diversion has taken the forms of the 2020 Acceleration Plan (mere goal-setting parading as a program for change), the Educational Equity Framework (a pretension to care about equity, deceptive surrogate for providing excellent education as the only real vehicle for equity), and Community Partnership Schools (pseudo-charter schools to which are lofted metaphorical “Hail Mary” passes to staff at local school sites, in the hopes that someone can get this thing called education right).
Second, most of those calling for change are wrong as to the most important features of the needed K-12 Revolution. Michelle Rhee’s seemingly promising StudentsFirst organization is effectively moribund, having withered on a vine that tried to grow into state capitals on the misguided conviction that change at that level could foment the needed revolution. This observation holds, too, for such weak reform efforts represented by 50CAN, of which our state’s MinnCAN iteration is a part. This will most likely be true now of Campbell Brown’s Partnership for Educational Justice. The leaders of such organizations have erroneously gone forth on the assumption that efforts at the state level most importantly entails advocacy for changing teacher tenure laws, the institution of teacher evaluations, the opening of pathways to alternative teacher certification, the promotion of charter schools as alternatives to failing school districts, and vouchers extended upon the same principle of school choice.
No one is right as to the fundamentals in either the education establishment or those seeking change.
As I have detailed in many articles on this blog, we must first understand that excellent education is a a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts to all students; and that an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge, with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
With those definitions firmly guiding our pathway to excellence, we must redesign curriculum in grade by grade sequence for the provision of clearly specified knowledge and skill sets; retrain our current teachers for the delivery of such knowledge-intensive curriculum; provide aggressive remedial instruction (tutoring) in a highly intentional and cohesive manner; prioritize outreach to families of impoverished students, variously providing direct services or connecting them to resources for addressing their most critical problems; and greatly streamline the prevailing central school district bureaucracy so as to marshal resources for the first four prioritized items given above in this paragraph.
By doing these things we circumvent the ever ephemeral policy shifts at the state and national levels, moving forward so as to achieve change at the level of the locally centralized school district, where our mantra of local control can become reality rather than shibboleth.
If we are to achieve the five-point program that I have summarized above and detailed in many articles on this blog, we must emphasize hard work over proclamation.
We must focus on those people and those programs that are currently disserving our students and vitiating our societal present and future.
In the Minneapolis Public Schools we must begin by examining the performances of Ed Graff, Susanne Griffin, Michael Thomas, Stephen Flisk, Macarre Traynham, Tina Platt, Terry Henry, Michael Walker, and Anna Ross--- and the departments and bureaucratic sinecures that they represent.
As a foreshadowing of my book, now at advanced draft stage, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect --- I detail in the following multi-article series as you scroll down on this blog the individuals and the programs that must change or be jettisoned.
Please pay attention and go forth to act.
You cannot depend on the most high-profile education reformers to do this work for you.
If change is to come in K-12 education, you must have the courage to act.
That is to convey, we must first get the fundamental principles right.
We must first comprehend the reality that no one is right when almost everybody’s wrong.
First, those who inhabit the halls of our locally centralized school districts are wrong. They do not grasp the need for fundamental change, but as cover from attacks all around they are forever engaging in diversionary tactics. In the Minneapolis Public Schools the production of such diversion has taken the forms of the 2020 Acceleration Plan (mere goal-setting parading as a program for change), the Educational Equity Framework (a pretension to care about equity, deceptive surrogate for providing excellent education as the only real vehicle for equity), and Community Partnership Schools (pseudo-charter schools to which are lofted metaphorical “Hail Mary” passes to staff at local school sites, in the hopes that someone can get this thing called education right).
Second, most of those calling for change are wrong as to the most important features of the needed K-12 Revolution. Michelle Rhee’s seemingly promising StudentsFirst organization is effectively moribund, having withered on a vine that tried to grow into state capitals on the misguided conviction that change at that level could foment the needed revolution. This observation holds, too, for such weak reform efforts represented by 50CAN, of which our state’s MinnCAN iteration is a part. This will most likely be true now of Campbell Brown’s Partnership for Educational Justice. The leaders of such organizations have erroneously gone forth on the assumption that efforts at the state level most importantly entails advocacy for changing teacher tenure laws, the institution of teacher evaluations, the opening of pathways to alternative teacher certification, the promotion of charter schools as alternatives to failing school districts, and vouchers extended upon the same principle of school choice.
No one is right as to the fundamentals in either the education establishment or those seeking change.
As I have detailed in many articles on this blog, we must first understand that excellent education is a a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts to all students; and that an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge, with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
With those definitions firmly guiding our pathway to excellence, we must redesign curriculum in grade by grade sequence for the provision of clearly specified knowledge and skill sets; retrain our current teachers for the delivery of such knowledge-intensive curriculum; provide aggressive remedial instruction (tutoring) in a highly intentional and cohesive manner; prioritize outreach to families of impoverished students, variously providing direct services or connecting them to resources for addressing their most critical problems; and greatly streamline the prevailing central school district bureaucracy so as to marshal resources for the first four prioritized items given above in this paragraph.
By doing these things we circumvent the ever ephemeral policy shifts at the state and national levels, moving forward so as to achieve change at the level of the locally centralized school district, where our mantra of local control can become reality rather than shibboleth.
If we are to achieve the five-point program that I have summarized above and detailed in many articles on this blog, we must emphasize hard work over proclamation.
We must focus on those people and those programs that are currently disserving our students and vitiating our societal present and future.
In the Minneapolis Public Schools we must begin by examining the performances of Ed Graff, Susanne Griffin, Michael Thomas, Stephen Flisk, Macarre Traynham, Tina Platt, Terry Henry, Michael Walker, and Anna Ross--- and the departments and bureaucratic sinecures that they represent.
As a foreshadowing of my book, now at advanced draft stage, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect --- I detail in the following multi-article series as you scroll down on this blog the individuals and the programs that must change or be jettisoned.
Please pay attention and go forth to act.
You cannot depend on the most high-profile education reformers to do this work for you.
If change is to come in K-12 education, you must have the courage to act.
Nov 27, 2016
Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Members Rebecca Gagnon and Nelson Inz are Highly Culpable for Their Endorsements in the Recent (8 November 2016) School Board Election--- Opposing as They Did the Very Independent and Courageous Voices of Josh Reimnitz and and Tracine Asberry
As of this coming February 2017 the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education will be heavily dominated (by a majority of eight [8] to one [1]) by members with strong links to the Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) Party and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT).
With the defeat of Josh Reimnitz in District 4 and Tracine Asberry in District 6, the Minneapolis school board now loses two of its three most independent voices, both of which emanate from members who have been much more effective than Don Samuels, who now stands as the only candidate who gained a seat on the school board without DFL/ MFT endorsement.
Understand that Reimnitz, Asberry, and Samuels are also members of the DFL. Asberry did gain DFL/ MFT endorsement in her election run of 2012, but lost endorsement to Ira Jourdain for the recent 2016 election. Reimnitz has never been endorsed by the DFL/ MFT, not seeking it in 2012 and failing to gain it in 2016. Samuels won election in 2014 without support from the sibling political entities.
In the recent election for seats on the MPS Board of Education, the results were as follows:
At-Large Number of Votes (Percentage of Votes Cast)
Kim Ellison 127,629 (80%)
Doug Mann 31,280 (19%)
District 2
Kerry Jo Felder 10, 636 (50%)
Kim Caprini 10,435 (49%)
District 4
Bob Walser 14,222 (52%)
Josh Reimnitz 13,029 (47%)
District 6
Ira Jourdain 15,242 (51%)
Tracine Asberry 14,657 (49%)
All of the winners (Ellison, Felder, Walser, and Jourdain) had DFL endorsement. With these victories, the composition of the MPS Board of Education as of February 2017 will be as follows:
Jenny Arneson (District 1)
Mary Jo Felder (District 2)
Siad Ali (District 3)
Bob Walser (District 4)
Nelson Inz (District 5)
Ira Jourdain (District 6)
Rebecca Gagnon (At-Large)
Kim Ellison (At-Large)
Don Samuels (At-Large)
All but Samuels are backed by the DFL/ MFT and beholden to the education establishment.
Know that to be a liberal and a Democrat may seem superior in policy and moral terms for national and state elections, but that with regard to elections at the level of the locally centralized school district, this is decidedly not so--- and is not so with regard to education issues even at the national or state level: With our mania for local control in the United States, the only policy matters at the national level with any staying power are those pertinent to funding; this is mostly true at the state level, as well.
Remember that we need five programmatic initiatives to overhaul education at the level of the locally centralized school district, saliently represented by the Minneapolis Public Schools, which currently features nary a one of the following:
1) The provision of knowledge-intensive curriculum, specified grade by grade, for all grades K-12;
2) retraining of all teachers, especially those at grades K-5, capable of delivering such a curriculum;
3) academically rigorous and administratively cohesive skill acquisition (tutoring) for all students functioning below grade level in mathematics and reading;
4) outreach and resource referral to families of impoverished students;
5) paring of the bloated central school district bureaucracy.
Of the current school board members, Josh Reimnitz, Tracine Asberry, and Carla Bates have demonstrated the greatest understanding regarding the need for these initiatives.
Bates is the only school board member for whom the DFL/ MFT endorsement does not seem to weigh too heavily as an impediment to independence; and, given that she was last elected in 2012 and did not seek reelection in this year of 2016, she may have felt better positioned than ever to give free reign to her independent quest for educational equity of the sort that can only be achieved with the five-point program as given above.
Kim Ellison has great name recognition and a clearly large following; that she got well over 100,000 votes constituting 80% of the total--- as she vacated her District 2 position to run At-Large--- is very notable. Ellison is a soft-spoken and thoughtful member of the school board, but she will always be constrained by her tether to the DFL/ MFT establishment.
Much more troubling than the retention of Ellison, with her DFL/ MFT affiliations, on the MPS Board of Education is the ascension of Felder, Walser, and Jourdain. These three won by narrow margins in vote counts that did not reach 10% of votes cast for the seat gained by Ellison. Felder, Walser, and Jourdain were thus effectively thrust onto the school board via their access to DFL/ MFT street-level political activity, campaign mailings, and phone call operations.
Felder is an advocate for full-service community schools, the conception of which has some resonance with the fourth of my five points for the needed overhaul. But this is the most palatable feature of my program to the education establishment, consonant as it is with the MFT call for wrap-around services. The MFT might also be open to the central office bureaucratic paring for which I advocate; but the measures associated with curriculum overhaul, teacher retraining, and aggressive skill remediation are unlikely in the extreme ever to be embraced by the MFT. Since these go to the core of the academic program necessary to bring excellent education to all of our precious children, the DFL/ MFT endorsements will prove much more problematic for Felder than would have been the case for her opponent, Kimberly Caprini.
The most troubling new entries to the MPS Board of Education are Bob Walser and Ira Jourdain:
Walser defeated education reformer and former Teach for America participant Josh Reimnitz, who at 30 years of age and four years of experience was rapidly positioning himself as one of the most promising advocates for change.
Asberry has been hands-down the most incisive questioner of MPS central office officials and the all-around best member of the school board for the last several years.
Thus it is that Nelson Inz and Rebecca Gagnon are deeply implicated in DFL/ MFT machinations that resulted in 8 November election day losses for Reimnitz and Asberry. Of Reimnitz’s opponent, Walser, Inz had this to offer on the official DFL website:
Bob is a passionate supporter of public education,
with a great sense of what is possible for our schools.
Of Asberry’s opponent, Jourdain, Gagnon offers the following on the same website:
Ira is incredibly caring, and his experience is exactly
what we need on the School Board.
These endorsements by Gagnon and Inz bespeak two school board members bought and paid for by the DFL/ MFT. Their implied opposition to two of their most energetic colleagues, the incumbents who have been articulate advocates for the interests of students over those adults who have disserved them for decades, is morally reprehensible and politically expedient in the most insidious way.
Thus it is that Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Members Rebecca Gagnon and Nelson Inz are highly culpable for their endorsements in the recent (8 November 2016) school board election--- opposing as they did the very independent and courageous voices of Josh Reimnitz and Tracine Asberry.
We must be ready in 2018 to oppose the reelection of Gagnon and Inz and in all future elections to organize to counter the outsized influence of DFL/ MFT campaign money and political muscle.
All of you who fancy yourselves leftward leaning or politically progressive, go to my many articles explaining how your inclination to vote for DFL-backed candidates is disastrously naïve and analytically shallow:
Far from furthering a truly revolutionary or even progressive agenda for transforming our K-12 system of education, such gullible group-think is of the sort that has undermined excellence in K-12 education for at least four decades in the United States.
With the defeat of Josh Reimnitz in District 4 and Tracine Asberry in District 6, the Minneapolis school board now loses two of its three most independent voices, both of which emanate from members who have been much more effective than Don Samuels, who now stands as the only candidate who gained a seat on the school board without DFL/ MFT endorsement.
Understand that Reimnitz, Asberry, and Samuels are also members of the DFL. Asberry did gain DFL/ MFT endorsement in her election run of 2012, but lost endorsement to Ira Jourdain for the recent 2016 election. Reimnitz has never been endorsed by the DFL/ MFT, not seeking it in 2012 and failing to gain it in 2016. Samuels won election in 2014 without support from the sibling political entities.
In the recent election for seats on the MPS Board of Education, the results were as follows:
At-Large Number of Votes (Percentage of Votes Cast)
Kim Ellison 127,629 (80%)
Doug Mann 31,280 (19%)
District 2
Kerry Jo Felder 10, 636 (50%)
Kim Caprini 10,435 (49%)
District 4
Bob Walser 14,222 (52%)
Josh Reimnitz 13,029 (47%)
District 6
Ira Jourdain 15,242 (51%)
Tracine Asberry 14,657 (49%)
All of the winners (Ellison, Felder, Walser, and Jourdain) had DFL endorsement. With these victories, the composition of the MPS Board of Education as of February 2017 will be as follows:
Jenny Arneson (District 1)
Mary Jo Felder (District 2)
Siad Ali (District 3)
Bob Walser (District 4)
Nelson Inz (District 5)
Ira Jourdain (District 6)
Rebecca Gagnon (At-Large)
Kim Ellison (At-Large)
Don Samuels (At-Large)
All but Samuels are backed by the DFL/ MFT and beholden to the education establishment.
Know that to be a liberal and a Democrat may seem superior in policy and moral terms for national and state elections, but that with regard to elections at the level of the locally centralized school district, this is decidedly not so--- and is not so with regard to education issues even at the national or state level: With our mania for local control in the United States, the only policy matters at the national level with any staying power are those pertinent to funding; this is mostly true at the state level, as well.
Remember that we need five programmatic initiatives to overhaul education at the level of the locally centralized school district, saliently represented by the Minneapolis Public Schools, which currently features nary a one of the following:
1) The provision of knowledge-intensive curriculum, specified grade by grade, for all grades K-12;
2) retraining of all teachers, especially those at grades K-5, capable of delivering such a curriculum;
3) academically rigorous and administratively cohesive skill acquisition (tutoring) for all students functioning below grade level in mathematics and reading;
4) outreach and resource referral to families of impoverished students;
5) paring of the bloated central school district bureaucracy.
Of the current school board members, Josh Reimnitz, Tracine Asberry, and Carla Bates have demonstrated the greatest understanding regarding the need for these initiatives.
Bates is the only school board member for whom the DFL/ MFT endorsement does not seem to weigh too heavily as an impediment to independence; and, given that she was last elected in 2012 and did not seek reelection in this year of 2016, she may have felt better positioned than ever to give free reign to her independent quest for educational equity of the sort that can only be achieved with the five-point program as given above.
Kim Ellison has great name recognition and a clearly large following; that she got well over 100,000 votes constituting 80% of the total--- as she vacated her District 2 position to run At-Large--- is very notable. Ellison is a soft-spoken and thoughtful member of the school board, but she will always be constrained by her tether to the DFL/ MFT establishment.
Much more troubling than the retention of Ellison, with her DFL/ MFT affiliations, on the MPS Board of Education is the ascension of Felder, Walser, and Jourdain. These three won by narrow margins in vote counts that did not reach 10% of votes cast for the seat gained by Ellison. Felder, Walser, and Jourdain were thus effectively thrust onto the school board via their access to DFL/ MFT street-level political activity, campaign mailings, and phone call operations.
Felder is an advocate for full-service community schools, the conception of which has some resonance with the fourth of my five points for the needed overhaul. But this is the most palatable feature of my program to the education establishment, consonant as it is with the MFT call for wrap-around services. The MFT might also be open to the central office bureaucratic paring for which I advocate; but the measures associated with curriculum overhaul, teacher retraining, and aggressive skill remediation are unlikely in the extreme ever to be embraced by the MFT. Since these go to the core of the academic program necessary to bring excellent education to all of our precious children, the DFL/ MFT endorsements will prove much more problematic for Felder than would have been the case for her opponent, Kimberly Caprini.
The most troubling new entries to the MPS Board of Education are Bob Walser and Ira Jourdain:
Walser defeated education reformer and former Teach for America participant Josh Reimnitz, who at 30 years of age and four years of experience was rapidly positioning himself as one of the most promising advocates for change.
Asberry has been hands-down the most incisive questioner of MPS central office officials and the all-around best member of the school board for the last several years.
Thus it is that Nelson Inz and Rebecca Gagnon are deeply implicated in DFL/ MFT machinations that resulted in 8 November election day losses for Reimnitz and Asberry. Of Reimnitz’s opponent, Walser, Inz had this to offer on the official DFL website:
Bob is a passionate supporter of public education,
with a great sense of what is possible for our schools.
Of Asberry’s opponent, Jourdain, Gagnon offers the following on the same website:
Ira is incredibly caring, and his experience is exactly
what we need on the School Board.
These endorsements by Gagnon and Inz bespeak two school board members bought and paid for by the DFL/ MFT. Their implied opposition to two of their most energetic colleagues, the incumbents who have been articulate advocates for the interests of students over those adults who have disserved them for decades, is morally reprehensible and politically expedient in the most insidious way.
Thus it is that Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Members Rebecca Gagnon and Nelson Inz are highly culpable for their endorsements in the recent (8 November 2016) school board election--- opposing as they did the very independent and courageous voices of Josh Reimnitz and Tracine Asberry.
We must be ready in 2018 to oppose the reelection of Gagnon and Inz and in all future elections to organize to counter the outsized influence of DFL/ MFT campaign money and political muscle.
All of you who fancy yourselves leftward leaning or politically progressive, go to my many articles explaining how your inclination to vote for DFL-backed candidates is disastrously naïve and analytically shallow:
Far from furthering a truly revolutionary or even progressive agenda for transforming our K-12 system of education, such gullible group-think is of the sort that has undermined excellence in K-12 education for at least four decades in the United States.
Nov 16, 2016
Thoughts on the Application of Grassroots Organization Espoused by Keith Ellison to a Matter Over Which Neither He Nor His Endorser Elizabeth Warren Have Much Policy Control--- The Overhaul of K-12 Education
I received this message given as you scroll on down, below, noting Elizabeth Warren's endorsement of Keith Ellison for Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). These two Democrats will be hugely important in the years ahead. As we look toward the 2020 presidential campaign, Warren will be among those likely to seek the Democratic nomination. I also consider Minnesota's own Amy Klobuchar a likely contestant for that nomination. And I personally think that Michelle Obama is such a keen intellect, gifted speaker, and knowledgeable policy advocate that those qualities will of their own force impel her forward as a candidate. In my view, Keith Ellison will be an excellent DNC chair and either stay in that role through the 2020 campaign or himself become a vice-presidential candidate should one of the above emerge with the Democratic nomination.
I first met Keith Ellison at the behest of my friend, Bobby Joe Champion, who took me along to a meeting of a group that back in the late 1990s periodically congregated under the appellation, Young African American Future Leaders of Minnesota. Jeff Hayden was also in attendance. In fulfillment of the prescient prediction embedded in the name of the organization, Champion is now in the Minnesota State House of Representatives, Hayden is in the Minnesota State Senate, and Ellison is one of eight members from Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives.
In the autumn of 2008 I interviewed Ellison as I was conducting the research for the latter of my two books written for the Minneapolis Urban League (State of African Americans in Minnesota 2004 and State of African Americans in Minnesota 2008) when my friend Clarence Hightower was President & CEO of that organization. Recently, I had a chance to exchange ideas on education with Ellison outside the offices of the Davis Center housing the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). I gave a scathing critique of the current academic performance and philosophical direction of MPS and emphasized the importance of knowledge-intensive education along the lines articulated by E. D. Hirsch at the Core Knowledge Foundation.
But as I have written many times, truly important decision-making and policy implementation regarding K-12 education takes place at the level of the locally centralized school district. As you read Warren's endorsement of Ellison for DNC chair and then consider Ellison's own comments on the importance of grassroots organizing, understand that grassroots organizing for education will take place at the level of the locally centralized school district.
With platforms in place in the form of this blog, a television show, academic journal, public speaking venues, two new books in advanced draft stage--- and with a seven-day program of academic instruction for students in Minneapolis (especially the Northside)--- my activism is now in swift motion upon my conviction regarding the importance of the locally centralized school district.
My next move is to call upon more of you to join me.
Please think about this as you ponder the following words from Elizabeth Warren and Keith Ellison:
From Elizabeth Warren >>>>>
Keith and I have had the chance to work together many times over the past several years. I’ve watched up close as he has pushed hard to try to hold Wall Street accountable through his work on House Financial Services, and he has consistently exercised bold leadership for the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I admire Keith’s values, his grit, and his dedication to making this country work not just for some of our kids but for all of them. I’m proud to support his candidacy for Chair of the Democratic National Committee." -Senator Elizabeth Warren
From Keith Ellison >>>>>
Democrats win when we harness the power of everyday people and fight for the issues they care about. This election cycle, we did not motivate enough people to the ballot box. Voter turnout hit a 20-year low for presidential elections, following a 70-year voter turnout low in 2014. We must champion the challenges of working families and give voters a reason to show up at the polls in 2018 and beyond.
That is why I am announcing my candidacy to be the next Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Our Party is at its best when people across the country – rank and file DNC members, state chairs and vice chairs, county and local leaders, state legislators, governors, congressional leaders and activists have an active voice. As a former state legislator, I know that elections are won and lost on the ground in the states, not in DC. As DNC chair I will invest in and empower our state and local parties by creating effective field operations, by maximizing access to an enhanced and advanced voter file, and by promoting collaboration between candidates at every level.
Most importantly, I want to be the Chair who brings all Democrats together around our shared values. Growing up in Detroit, Michigan I saw firsthand how families and communities were devastated by job losses. We must reclaim our history as the Party that stands with working people. I want to re-energize our broad and diverse Democratic coalition and I want to make sure all are represented across our staff and leadership. We will never stop fighting attempts by the Trump White House and Republican-controlled states to roll back affordable health care, worker wages and protections, and a woman's right to choose. We will stand strong against efforts to divide or marginalize our friends and family by race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.
In the spirit of a great Democratic leader from Minnesota, Senator Paul Wellstone, I believe that “politics is the art of the possible, and organizing is the art of making more possible.” I believe I have the vision, track record, and work ethic required to be your next DNC Chair. I hope you will add your name and join our campaign today.
Our Party is right. Our values are just. Our future relies on grassroots organizing and an agenda that improves people’s lives throughout our country. In solidarity, Keith Ellison Authorized and Paid for by Ellison for Congress.
I first met Keith Ellison at the behest of my friend, Bobby Joe Champion, who took me along to a meeting of a group that back in the late 1990s periodically congregated under the appellation, Young African American Future Leaders of Minnesota. Jeff Hayden was also in attendance. In fulfillment of the prescient prediction embedded in the name of the organization, Champion is now in the Minnesota State House of Representatives, Hayden is in the Minnesota State Senate, and Ellison is one of eight members from Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives.
In the autumn of 2008 I interviewed Ellison as I was conducting the research for the latter of my two books written for the Minneapolis Urban League (State of African Americans in Minnesota 2004 and State of African Americans in Minnesota 2008) when my friend Clarence Hightower was President & CEO of that organization. Recently, I had a chance to exchange ideas on education with Ellison outside the offices of the Davis Center housing the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). I gave a scathing critique of the current academic performance and philosophical direction of MPS and emphasized the importance of knowledge-intensive education along the lines articulated by E. D. Hirsch at the Core Knowledge Foundation.
But as I have written many times, truly important decision-making and policy implementation regarding K-12 education takes place at the level of the locally centralized school district. As you read Warren's endorsement of Ellison for DNC chair and then consider Ellison's own comments on the importance of grassroots organizing, understand that grassroots organizing for education will take place at the level of the locally centralized school district.
With platforms in place in the form of this blog, a television show, academic journal, public speaking venues, two new books in advanced draft stage--- and with a seven-day program of academic instruction for students in Minneapolis (especially the Northside)--- my activism is now in swift motion upon my conviction regarding the importance of the locally centralized school district.
My next move is to call upon more of you to join me.
Please think about this as you ponder the following words from Elizabeth Warren and Keith Ellison:
From Elizabeth Warren >>>>>
Keith and I have had the chance to work together many times over the past several years. I’ve watched up close as he has pushed hard to try to hold Wall Street accountable through his work on House Financial Services, and he has consistently exercised bold leadership for the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I admire Keith’s values, his grit, and his dedication to making this country work not just for some of our kids but for all of them. I’m proud to support his candidacy for Chair of the Democratic National Committee." -Senator Elizabeth Warren
From Keith Ellison >>>>>
Democrats win when we harness the power of everyday people and fight for the issues they care about. This election cycle, we did not motivate enough people to the ballot box. Voter turnout hit a 20-year low for presidential elections, following a 70-year voter turnout low in 2014. We must champion the challenges of working families and give voters a reason to show up at the polls in 2018 and beyond.
That is why I am announcing my candidacy to be the next Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Our Party is at its best when people across the country – rank and file DNC members, state chairs and vice chairs, county and local leaders, state legislators, governors, congressional leaders and activists have an active voice. As a former state legislator, I know that elections are won and lost on the ground in the states, not in DC. As DNC chair I will invest in and empower our state and local parties by creating effective field operations, by maximizing access to an enhanced and advanced voter file, and by promoting collaboration between candidates at every level.
Most importantly, I want to be the Chair who brings all Democrats together around our shared values. Growing up in Detroit, Michigan I saw firsthand how families and communities were devastated by job losses. We must reclaim our history as the Party that stands with working people. I want to re-energize our broad and diverse Democratic coalition and I want to make sure all are represented across our staff and leadership. We will never stop fighting attempts by the Trump White House and Republican-controlled states to roll back affordable health care, worker wages and protections, and a woman's right to choose. We will stand strong against efforts to divide or marginalize our friends and family by race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.
In the spirit of a great Democratic leader from Minnesota, Senator Paul Wellstone, I believe that “politics is the art of the possible, and organizing is the art of making more possible.” I believe I have the vision, track record, and work ethic required to be your next DNC Chair. I hope you will add your name and join our campaign today.
Our Party is right. Our values are just. Our future relies on grassroots organizing and an agenda that improves people’s lives throughout our country. In solidarity, Keith Ellison Authorized and Paid for by Ellison for Congress.
Advanced Draft Ready for New Book, >Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect<
As I conveyed to members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education at their monthly meeting last evening (15 November 2016), I have completed an advanced draft for a new book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect.
At present, this book runs to 314 pages in the single-spaced with space between paragraphs style familiar to you subscribers to my academic journal, Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota. If I were to go to press with this amount of material, the book would run about 500 pages in the format used by publishers of my other eight books.
For about two more months I will be gathering additional material and honing the text for maximum comprehensiveness and effectiveness. The book is organized into three parts, each with about five chapters for a total of approximately fifteen chapters. The major parts are as follows:
Part One Bureaucratic Organization
Part Two Critical Analysis and Evaluation of the Minneapolis Public Schools
Part Three Philosophical Underpinnings for Excellent Education at the Minneapolis
Public Schools
Part One features a minutely thorough, objective presentation of the organizational structure of the Minneapolis Public Schools, department by department, office by office, and with abundant attention to documents such as the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan, Educational Equity Framework, District Report Card (emphasizing MCA [Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment]results), and the MMR (Multiple Measurement Rating), a system that includes measures of student progress along with status as to grade level performance. I discuss key personnel, including those at the upper echelons of leadership but also many others in less conspicuous roles whose actions have particular impact on the lives of children. I give all of the schools of the district, principals and other administrative figures within the schools, and an account of the defining characteristics of each school. I examine the sources of funding for the Minneapolis Public Schools as emanating from federal and state sources, as well as from levy referenda. And I give an account of budgetary allocations made on the basis of this funding and the propensities of decision-makers.
Part Two features a critical examination of all major aspects of the Minneapolis Public Schools, with particular attention to the Office of Academic Affairs, the Department of Teaching and Learning, the Department of College and Career Readiness, the Office of Black Male Achievement, and the Department of Indian Education that bear most heavily on the academic program delivered to students.
Part Three features a very full exposition of my own philosophical convictions pertinent to K-12 education, a vigorous assertion of the importance of knowledge-intensive K-12 education, and the transformation that must be accomplished in order to advance my five-point program emphasizing curriculum, teacher training, coherent and well-articulated remedial instruction, outreach to our most challenged students and their families, and bureaucratic paring.
Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect all of a sudden began to fall into place on the basis of my investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools over the course of the last 28 months--- and my 45 years of experience working with urban youth, 25 of those years in North Minneapolis.
This book, then, will appear about the same time as my Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education (with eleven of fourteen chapters already complete), snippets from which appear at many entries on this blog. These two books are very much in thematic synchrony: Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect examines the delivery system of K-12 Education as it is; Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education offers a complete set of 14 compact courses that give the essence of the quality of education that all high school and university graduates should want to have.
As always, readers of my Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota will get a chance to read chapters of these books in advance and will eventually receive free copies of the completed works. Readers of the blog will be able to continue to read snippets from the chapters of both books.
Then, as these books go to press, readers across Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, and throughout the many places of the world that my blog now reaches, will receive a powerful message for K-12 transformation, considering all the while how we can make of our nation the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be.
At present, this book runs to 314 pages in the single-spaced with space between paragraphs style familiar to you subscribers to my academic journal, Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota. If I were to go to press with this amount of material, the book would run about 500 pages in the format used by publishers of my other eight books.
For about two more months I will be gathering additional material and honing the text for maximum comprehensiveness and effectiveness. The book is organized into three parts, each with about five chapters for a total of approximately fifteen chapters. The major parts are as follows:
Part One Bureaucratic Organization
Part Two Critical Analysis and Evaluation of the Minneapolis Public Schools
Part Three Philosophical Underpinnings for Excellent Education at the Minneapolis
Public Schools
Part One features a minutely thorough, objective presentation of the organizational structure of the Minneapolis Public Schools, department by department, office by office, and with abundant attention to documents such as the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan, Educational Equity Framework, District Report Card (emphasizing MCA [Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment]results), and the MMR (Multiple Measurement Rating), a system that includes measures of student progress along with status as to grade level performance. I discuss key personnel, including those at the upper echelons of leadership but also many others in less conspicuous roles whose actions have particular impact on the lives of children. I give all of the schools of the district, principals and other administrative figures within the schools, and an account of the defining characteristics of each school. I examine the sources of funding for the Minneapolis Public Schools as emanating from federal and state sources, as well as from levy referenda. And I give an account of budgetary allocations made on the basis of this funding and the propensities of decision-makers.
Part Two features a critical examination of all major aspects of the Minneapolis Public Schools, with particular attention to the Office of Academic Affairs, the Department of Teaching and Learning, the Department of College and Career Readiness, the Office of Black Male Achievement, and the Department of Indian Education that bear most heavily on the academic program delivered to students.
Part Three features a very full exposition of my own philosophical convictions pertinent to K-12 education, a vigorous assertion of the importance of knowledge-intensive K-12 education, and the transformation that must be accomplished in order to advance my five-point program emphasizing curriculum, teacher training, coherent and well-articulated remedial instruction, outreach to our most challenged students and their families, and bureaucratic paring.
Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect all of a sudden began to fall into place on the basis of my investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools over the course of the last 28 months--- and my 45 years of experience working with urban youth, 25 of those years in North Minneapolis.
This book, then, will appear about the same time as my Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education (with eleven of fourteen chapters already complete), snippets from which appear at many entries on this blog. These two books are very much in thematic synchrony: Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect examines the delivery system of K-12 Education as it is; Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education offers a complete set of 14 compact courses that give the essence of the quality of education that all high school and university graduates should want to have.
As always, readers of my Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota will get a chance to read chapters of these books in advance and will eventually receive free copies of the completed works. Readers of the blog will be able to continue to read snippets from the chapters of both books.
Then, as these books go to press, readers across Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, and throughout the many places of the world that my blog now reaches, will receive a powerful message for K-12 transformation, considering all the while how we can make of our nation the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be.
Nov 14, 2016
There is a "Great Leap Forward" Atmosphere of Illusion and Delusion Prevailing at the Minneapolis Public Schools
Mao Zedong was a great revolutionary who led a peasant-based movement that resulted in the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. During the 1950s, Mao superintended favorable economic policies, but then toward the end of that decade he descended into a fantasy world that imposed the tenets of his thought-world on a Chinese people who endured two decades of death and division.
Mao forced policies on the young nation from 1958 through 1961 that imagined a poor country of peasant farmers overtaking industrialized Great Britain within 15 years--- by following the delusionary strategies of a purported Great Leap Forward.
And then beginning in 1965, lasting in full force until 1969, but then continuing along many misguided pathways until Mao's death in 1976--- came the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
that in actuality promoted a low aesthetic in culture and ignored the fact that as a matter of demographic percentage the People's Republic of China had very few proletarians.
............................................
When one examines documents of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) such as the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan and the Educational Equity Framework, one must confront claims that have a Great Leap illusionary sensibility in wildly improbable forecasts of student academic accomplishment and assume an unfolding Cultural Revolution in predicting a coming attitudinal shift toward a belief in the ability of every student to achieve at high levels--- in the absence of any viable strategies for attaining these grand goals.
Hence, at the Department of Academic Affairs, Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin is impelled to make claims that cannot possibly gain realization in the context of the bureaucratic structures of the Minneapolis Public Schools and the academic performance of students that I have discussed in many articles of recent vintage on this blog--- outcomes revealed in Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) scores and the Multiple Measurement Rating (MMR) presented by brilliant Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment Director Eric Moore.
Consider these claims at the Academic Affairs portal of the MPS website.
Chief Academic Officer, Susanne Griffin, oversees the district’s academic division by implementing the district academic agenda to provide world class education for all MPS students.
We work closely with the schools and many other departments at MPS to ensure that we are all focused on the following areas:
• Accelerated academic achievement for all students
• Shared accountability for student learning
• Professional development for teachers and principals
• Respectful and welcoming school environments
The Academic Leadership team works with the Superintendent to help each principal apply the educational priorities of the district within each school. This work is prioritized out of the Strategic Plan and includes a strong focus on aligning standards with instruction and assessment to ensure all students have access to rigorous learning.
Our vision to support college and career readiness is articulated in our Steps to Student Success. These represent metrics over the course of a student's K-12 experience that will accelerate their readiness for post-secondary success. Our next step is to build the character qualities that are also a critical component helping our students thrive in future pursuits.
...................................................
Mao forced policies on the young nation from 1958 through 1961 that imagined a poor country of peasant farmers overtaking industrialized Great Britain within 15 years--- by following the delusionary strategies of a purported Great Leap Forward.
And then beginning in 1965, lasting in full force until 1969, but then continuing along many misguided pathways until Mao's death in 1976--- came the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
that in actuality promoted a low aesthetic in culture and ignored the fact that as a matter of demographic percentage the People's Republic of China had very few proletarians.
............................................
When one examines documents of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) such as the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan and the Educational Equity Framework, one must confront claims that have a Great Leap illusionary sensibility in wildly improbable forecasts of student academic accomplishment and assume an unfolding Cultural Revolution in predicting a coming attitudinal shift toward a belief in the ability of every student to achieve at high levels--- in the absence of any viable strategies for attaining these grand goals.
Hence, at the Department of Academic Affairs, Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin is impelled to make claims that cannot possibly gain realization in the context of the bureaucratic structures of the Minneapolis Public Schools and the academic performance of students that I have discussed in many articles of recent vintage on this blog--- outcomes revealed in Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) scores and the Multiple Measurement Rating (MMR) presented by brilliant Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment Director Eric Moore.
Consider these claims at the Academic Affairs portal of the MPS website.
Chief Academic Officer, Susanne Griffin, oversees the district’s academic division by implementing the district academic agenda to provide world class education for all MPS students.
We work closely with the schools and many other departments at MPS to ensure that we are all focused on the following areas:
• Accelerated academic achievement for all students
• Shared accountability for student learning
• Professional development for teachers and principals
• Respectful and welcoming school environments
The Academic Leadership team works with the Superintendent to help each principal apply the educational priorities of the district within each school. This work is prioritized out of the Strategic Plan and includes a strong focus on aligning standards with instruction and assessment to ensure all students have access to rigorous learning.
Our vision to support college and career readiness is articulated in our Steps to Student Success. These represent metrics over the course of a student's K-12 experience that will accelerate their readiness for post-secondary success. Our next step is to build the character qualities that are also a critical component helping our students thrive in future pursuits.
The Academic Affairs portal then offers a link to a set of goals forecasting great advances in student achievement:
Steps to Student Success
>>>>> ACT > 24 (College and Career Ready)
>>>>> B+ in Algebra by 11th grade (Students are successful in HS math)
>>>>> 3 AP/ IB/ CIS courses (Students enroll and succeed in advanced HS courses)
>>>>> EXPLORE > 20 (Students are prepared for rigorous HS courses by 8th grade)
>>>>> MAP Math > 228 and proficient on MCA II Science (Students are advanced in math
and science by 5th grade)
>>>>> Students are advanced readers by 3rd grade
>>>>> Beginning of kindergarten literacy > 216 (students are ready for kindergarten)
>>>>> Attendance rate > 95% (students attend school at least 95% of the time)
...................................................
There prevails at the Minneapolis Public Schools, embedded in these noted documents and exercises in goal-setting, a Great Leap Forward and Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution sensibility, whereby wild imaginings replace viable policy.
Decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools would do much better to adopt Mao's strategies of the revolutionary period (1934-1949), rather than the fantasies of his last two decades (1958-1976)in power at the helm of the young People's Republic of China.
Mao the revolutionary was realistic, methodical, grounded in the circumstances of the people he motivated to achieve a great victory.
Mao the hegemon sought grand goals in the absence of any viable program for achieving those goals.
And so do decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools need viable, revolutionary overhaul of current approaches to curriculum, teacher training, academic remediation, parent and community outreach, and bureaucratic paring.
Superintendent Ed Graff, Chief of Schools Michael Thomas, Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin--- the entire staff of an ineffective bureaucratic hierarchy--- take note.
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