Article #20 >>>>> Origin and Consequences of Wretched Public Education Throughout the United States

Consequences of Education Professor Ideological Corruption Is Witnessed in the Academic Skills of Students in Locally Centralized Public Schools Districts Led by Acolytes Such as Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff

Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff is a typically ill-trained education administrator, possessing no substantive academic credentials.  

He has a bachelor's degree in elementary education, standard for grades preK-5 teachers but the least intellectually rigorous degree on any college or university campus;  his only graduate training is in educational administration, received via an online program from low-tier University of Southern Mississippi.

Graff has been superintendent in the Minneapolis district since 1 July 2016, so that his administration is responsible for the following results in the years ending in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021--- and for the failure to improve at any acceptable standard, even in literacy, one of the avowed emphases in his four-point programmatic focus (literacy, equity, social and emotional learning, and multi-tiered system of support).

As is the case with most superintendents throughout the nation, Graff is a creature of the ironically anti-knowledge education establishment that assures production of an ignorant populace and cyclical poverty at the urban core.

Perpend  >>>>>

Academic Proficiency Rates as Indicated by Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA)

Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021

(Note  >>>>>      The MCAs were not administered for the academic year ending in 2020.)

Reading                  

2014               42%                                             

2015               42%                                        

2016               43%                                            

2017               43%                                            

2018               45%                                             

2019               47%                                             

2021               46%                

                             

Mathematics                                          

2014               44%                                         

2015               44%                                         

2016               44%                                         

2017               42%                                         

2018               42%                                         

2019               42%                                          

2021               35%                                          

Science

2014               33% 

2015               36%

2016               35%

2017               34%

2018               34%

2019               36%

2021               36%

Article #19 >>>>> Origin and Consequences of Wretched Public Education Throughout the United States

Meager Qualifications of Members of the Education Establishment

Not a single administrator at the United States federal, Minnesota state, or city (Minneapolis and St, Paul) levels holds even a bachelor’s degree received from a college or university department representing a key subject area taught in the public schools;  note that Joe Gothard’s bachelor degree is in biology education, a very different program from that pertaining to an academic department representing the field of biology.

Thus do we have a list of academic lightweights, as follows  >>>>>

Miguel Cardona  (United States Secretary of Education)

Ed. D. (Doctor of Education)                

Central Connecticut State University

Dissertation:  Sharpening the Focus of Political Will to Address Achievement Disparities

M. S.                  

Central Connecticut State University

Bilingual and Cultural Education

B. S. (Bachelor of Science)                    

Central Connecticut State University

Education 

Heather Mueller 

(Minnesota Commissioner of Education)

Ed. D. (Doctor of Education)                

St. Mary’s University of Minnesota

Educational Leadership with Emphasis on Organizational Analysis and Change 

M. Ed. (Master of Education )             

Minnesota State University, Mankato           

Educational Leadership

Specialist Degree                                     

Minnesota State University, Mankato           

Educational Leadership and Administration, General

B. Ed.                                                           

Minnesota State University, Mankato           

 

Associate Arts Degree                          

Arizona Western College       

General Studies

  

Ed Graff              

(Superintendent, Minneapolis Public Schools)

M.A.                                                             

University of Southern Mississippi

Educational Administration (online degree)

B.A.                                                               

University of Alaska, Anchorage

Elementary Education

Joe Gothard      

(Superintendent, St. Paul Public Schools)

 

Ed. D. (Doctor of Education)               

Edgewood College

Administrative Leadership

 

M.A.                                                             

Edgewood College

Educational Administration and Leadership

 

B.A.                                                               

Edgewood College

Biology Education

Article #18 >>>>> Origin and Consequences of the Wretched System of Public Education Throughout the United States

With Origins in the Anti-Knowledge Ideology Prevailing at Teachers College/Columbia University During the 1920s, Abominable Teacher Training Abides in the Institutions of the Twin Cities---  as Subsets of Similar Programs Throughout the United States 

From the days during the 1920s when William Heard Kilpatrick and Harold Rugg presided in classrooms at Teachers College/Columbia University, education professors advocated for teacher training based on their anti-knowledge ideology.

By the 1970s, such programs came to dominate in departments, colleges, and schools of the United States---  including those in Minnesota.  And by the middle 1990s, graduate programs in education came to replace those in field-specific disciplines as the means by which teachers moved up the step and lane system so as to attain greater remuneration.  These are graduate programs in name only, cash cows that yield high revenue for universities but are no more than degree mills that give us teachers with extraordinarily low knowledge bases.

Among the worst of these terrible ruses of the education establishment in Minnesota is the following program that upon completion bestows an M.A. in Teaching and Learning to those who endure the courses:

Low Quality of Teacher Training  >>>>>  The Salient Case of the St. Mary’s University of Minnesota

Masters (M.Ed.) in Teaching and Learning

36 credits  >>>>>

$520 per credit

Required Courses       

(30 credits)

MED 615          

Becoming a Community of Learners                             

(4 credits)

 

MED 616          

Applying Social and Emotional Learning

Principles of Community                                                   

(2 credits)

 

MED 625          

Developing Principles for Practice                                 

(4 credits)

 

MED 626          

Applying Principles for Practice                                      

(2 credits)

 

MED 635          

Research and Design                                                         

(4 credits)

 

MED 635          

Applying Research to Design                                          

(2 credits)

 

MED 645          

Integrating Principles of Design into Practice            

(4 credits)

 

MED 646          

Application of Research and Design                            

(2 credits)

 

MED 655          

Becoming a Teacher Leader                                             

(4 credits)

 

MED 655          

Applying Principles of Leadership                                  

(2 credits)

 

Elective Courses          

(6 credits)

 

MED 660          

Education with a Growth Mindset                                

(1 credit)

 

MED 661          

Creating a Growth Mindset Culture                              

(3 credits)

 

MED 663          

Today’s Busy Teacher:                                                       

Battle Burnout and Build Balance

(3 credits)

 

MED 665          

Movement and Motivation:                                            

Instructional Practices to

Boost Learning and Achievement                                  

(3 credits)

 

MED 666          

Trauma-Informed Teaching                                             

(3 credits)

 

MED 667          

Renewal for Teachers and Educators:                          

Top 20 Training

(1 credit)

 

MED 668          

Student and Faculty Development                               

through Social and Emotional Learning:

Top 20 Training

(3 credit)

 

MED 669          

A Professional Book Study:                                             

Heart!  Fully Forming Your Professional

Life as a Teacher

(3 credit)

                                                                                                                                       

MED 670          

A Professional Book Study                                                

and Professional Development Application:                          

Heart!  Fully Forming Your Professional

Life as a Teacher         

(3 credits)

 

MED 671          

Teaching the Current Generation!                                 

Understanding the Students in My Classroom

(3 credits)

 

MED 672          

Be Wild:  Unleash Your Innate Creativity                      

To Engage Learning

(3 credits)

 

MED 673          

Mathematical Mindsets for                                             

Teaching and Learning

(3 credits)

                                                         

MED 674          

A Professional Book Study 2                                            

(1 credit)

 

MED 675          

A Professional Book Study and Application 2           

(3 credits)

 

MED 678          

A Professional Book Study 3                                            

(1 credit)

 

MED 679          

A Professional Book Study and Application 3            

(3 credits)

Article #17 >>>>> Origin and Consequences of the Wretched System of Public Education Throughout the United States

Internally Sustaining Nature of Our Wretched System of PreK-12 Education 

Of the many articles and opinion pieces to appear in the Star Tribune during the last weeks and months, not a single one focuses on the key vexations of our wretched system of public education in Minnesota. 

Those vexations are knowledge-deficient curriculum and abysmal teacher training.

But one of the many consequences of our abysmal system of public education is the development of certain features that serve to sustain that very system while distracting journalists and the public from the brutal reality of the key vexations.

Coverage in the Star Tribune has focused on the challenges posed by the resurgence of Covid-19 in the forms of delta and omicron variants, including the struggles with online learning; exacerbation of the bus driver shortage;  and angry standoffs between those supportive of Covid mitigation policies and those against masks or vaccinations.

The proposed new social studies standards have induced negative comment from guest writers for being too focused on the abuses perpetrated by populations of European provenance upon those of African and American Indian ancestry, inducing in turn rebuttals from those who tout those standards for telling truths that have often been absent from curricula.

We have also had paeans to teachers from writers Sarah Haugen and Tracy Lysne, who urge us to be empathetic to those who feel burned out due to Covid-19 exigencies, which have worsened a situation already grave due to abiding systemic pressures (“Teacher burnout isn’t new, only worse,” Star Tribune, January 23, 2022);  and Al Zdon, who tells us to discuss the standards from both sides vigorously but ultimately have faith in “highly qualified teachers” in local schools to implement the standards (“Debate the standards, but trust the teachers,” Star Tribune, February 7, 2022). 

We have Jeffrey Aaron Snyder (“Conservatives are the new ‘discomfort’ police,” Star Tribune, February 1, 2022) cautioning us that bans on books and speakers have been urged by those of the left as well as the right on the political spectrum, so that both sides threaten intellectual freedom.   Others have advocated for state and federal funding for early childhood as key to assuring that young people of all economic classes prosper academically.

None of the above, though, whatever one may think of their virtue in addressing social issues, is pertinent to the core vexations of preK-12 education.  Most likely the failure to confront the brutal truths concerning public education in Minnesota is because the reality is either recondite to the writers or too daunting to face.

Here is the truth: 

None of the key figures in public education at the federal, state, or local levels are well-educated enough to make the needed changes.  Inspect the academic preparation of United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Minnesota Commissioner of Education Heather Mueller, St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Joe Gothard, and Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff and you’ll find that not one has received a graduate degree in a key subject area discipline; overwhelmingly, their degrees have been bestowed by education programs that feature the most academically insubstantial courses on any college campus (aforementioned writers Haugen, Lysne, and Snyder are among the guilty professorial sustainers of such courses) . 

Investigate further and you’ll find that the same grim reality is mostly true for central office administrators, building principals, and teaching staffs;  while those trained to teach secondary subject areas may have undergraduate degrees in legitimate fields (mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, political science, economics, literature, fine arts), they have since the 1990s been induced to seek advancement on the “step and lane” system via lightweight graduate programs in education.

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) North Star Accountability System and the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offer no hope for providing our precious young people with the knowledge and analytical skills that they need to go forth as informed citizens.  Thus do we get the abominably ignorant body politic that our incompetent public education establishment produces.

We have no hope of healing our suffering society until we address the knowledge-deficiency and woeful teaching in our preK-12 system of education.

Front Matter and Contents >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 7, January 2022

 

Volume VIII, No. 7                                        

January 2022

 

Journal of the K-12 Revolution:

Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota        

 

A Publication of the New Salem Educational Initiative

Gary Marvin Davison, Editor

             

Origins and Consequences of Wretched

Public Education Throughout the United States

 

Part Three

 

A Five-Article Series         

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

 

New Salem Educational Initiative

Minneapolis, Minnesota

      

Origins and Consequences of Wretched

Public Education Throughout the United States

 

A Five-Article Series         

 

Copyright © 2022

Gary Marvin Davison

New Salem Educational Initiative

 

Contents

 

Introduction                                                                                                                         

Origin and Consequences of Wretched Public

Education Throughout the United States  >>>>>

The Essential Situation Circa New Year 2022

 

Article #1                                                                                                                              

The Degradation of Life in Year 2022

 

Article #2

Suicide and Drug Addiction as Consequences of Lives

Devoid of Knowledge, Purpose, and Appreciation for

the Magnificence of Nature and Human Potential

 

Article #3                                                                                                                              

The Unhealthy and Cosmetized American

 

Article #4                                                                                                                                

Recent Actions of Officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools that Saliently Sustain Wretched Public Education  >>>>>

The Unsustainable Retention of Failed Superintendent Ed Graff

 

Article #5                                                                                                                              

Minneapolis Public Schools As Saliently Sustaining Wretched Public Education  with Typically Academically Vacuous Leadership >>>>> 

The Academic Hopelessness of the Ed Graff Tenure

Introduction >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 7, January 2022

 

Introduction

Origin and Consequences of Wretched Public

Education Throughout the United States 

>>>>>The Essential Situation Circa New Year 2022

 

Following from events and processes described in the articles of the November and December 2021 editions of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, we see that the knowledgeable citizenry envisioned by Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann never developed.

The common school movement was enormously promising but even at 19th century peak impact featured schools that varied widely and wildly in quality, as did the normal school programs that trained teachers.  These schools, did, though, feature knowledge and skill-based curriculum that gave many students a sense of United States history, world geography and history, English literary classics, government and civics, and foundational mathematics.

Similarly, high schools and junior high schools developed over the course of the first two decades of the 20th century so as to present knowledge-based curriculum inspired by the instruction long imparted to the privileged.

And despite the best efforts of university-based education professors to promote the vacuous curriculum touted by William Heard Kilpatrick and Harold Rugg and acolytes at Teachers College/Columbia University, most locally centralized school district leaders continued well into the 1960s to deliver foundational skills and subject area knowledge desired by the preponderance of families, very much including immigrant and African American populations seeking ascent on the economic ladder.

But the anti-knowledge creed advanced by education professors resonated with the zeitgeist of the late 1960s and early 1970s, gaining dominance at a most unfortunate historical juncture, at which affluent African Americans chased the national dream into the suburbs, fast upon the heels of whites in flight.  

Left behind at the urban core were the poorest of the poor, victims not only of the degradations wrought by history but victims also of particularly wretched public education.  The standards movement energized in the aftermath of the 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk showed promise but eventually was undermined by forces of both the political right and the political left.

Our students (those who graduate) now walk across the stage at graduation to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only, and our schools give us the ignorant population that we have in the United States today.  

We see the abundantly abominable consequences of wretched public education in the ongoing life of the nation, as presented in the articles to follow in this edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Article #1 >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 7, January 2022

 

Article #1

The Degradation of Life in Year 2022

 

The typical person in the United States lives a degraded existence.

That person has no understanding of why she or he does what the individual does, having no grasp of the bio-environmental determinants of human behavior.  

Human behavior proceeds on the basis of biological imperatives studied and presented with clarity by Edmund O. Wilson and environmental determinants seminally examined and explained by B. F. Skinner.  

With a proper understanding that behavior is determined rather than willed freely, inhabitants of the globe could gain comprehension of those forces that impel and compel people to do what they do.  There is no reality in the perception of free will, but people do have the native intelligence to study the bio-environmental determinants of behavior so as to establish those institutions and to design those environments conducive to favorable outcomes for humanity.

But in the absence of knowledge of psychological reality, people are susceptible to false claims, superstition, and surreptitious messages.  People cling to facile notions of free will while in fact being controlled from the moment of birth by their circumstances of genetic inheritance, family, community, and parameters of life that compel their actions.  Perceiving that they make choices, people are driven from one life stage to another by multiple forces pertinent to highly particular personal experience and those of pervasive, multiple media that coalesce with individual circumstance.

.......................................................

In the absence of knowledge of self;  knowing little of history, government, geography, economics, and world culture;  lacking appreciation for exquisite music and visual art;  uncomfortable in and alienated from nature;  insensitive to beauty of nature and human creation;  the typical person lives out this one earthly sojourn as an automaton given to base addictions.

Not until we are positioned to become people of knowledge and ethics will people gain the opportunity to live lives of meaning.

In the meantime, daily life and an abundance of contemporary dilemmas are replete with catastrophic reminders of the human degradation that now abides.