The Strike Just Concluded with a New Contract for the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals Will Not Improve Curriculum and Teaching at the Minneapolis Public Schools--- And Will Not Aggressively Remediate Reading and Mathematics Skills or Promote Connection to Families Struggling with Dilemmas of Finances and Functionality

The contract that will be signed according to negotiations between officials in the central administration (Davis Center) of the Minneapolis Public Schools and the unions (Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals) will raise teacher and education support professional pay, reduce some class sizes, and provide more counseling and psychological support, but will not promote knowledge-intensive curriculum, acceptable teacher quality, or any effort to address current skill deficiencies or connections to families struggling with dilemmas of functionality.

 

Academic excellence was not the goal and cannot be the result of the new contracts.

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Between autumn 2019 and autumn 2021, 4,811 students departed the Minneapolis Public Schools to seek education elsewhere, the result of a drop in enrollment from 33,500 to 28,689.

Poignantly, very few of those students found better education in the near suburbs, charter, or parochial schools;  public education is rarely good and most often terrible  >>>>>

Students at the preK-5 level, wherever they matriculate, are likely in the extreme to master no rigorous, systematically imparted knowledge sets pertinent to natural science, history, government, geography, quality literature, or the fine arts. Middle school features more courses in those areas but those courses are knowledge-deficient.  At the high school level, only Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses have the potential for academic substance but are often taught by teachers who do not possess the requisite knowledge base.

Administrators and teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools are themselves ill-educated and poorly positioned to signal any reason why students should not seek any other options, as forlorn as are the alternatives. 

Remember these proficiency rates  >>>>>

 

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%

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

The overhaul at the Minneapolis Public Schools must include

 

>>>>>  the design of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum;

 

>>>>>   the training of teacher capable of imparting such curriculum; 

 

>>>>>  intensive skill remediation (one hour set aside each day for individual advancement [either enrichment or remediation] for all students at grades K-5;  and at grades 6-12, an hour a day as necessary for those still needing to gain grade level proficiency);

 

and

 

>>>>>   the creation of a Department of Resource Provision and Referral staffed with people comfortable on the streets and in the homes of those students from families struggling with dilemmas of finances and functionality.

 

If the district does not take these steps, the following morally reprehensible proficiency rates will continue to be recorded year after year >>>>> 

 

>>>>> 

Academic Proficiency as Indicated Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)

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

African American            

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021

22%     21%    21%    21%    22%    23%   19%

American Indian

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021

 21%    20%    21%    23%    24%    25%   20%

Asian/Pacific Islander    

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021          

41%     40%   45%    41%     48%    50%   54%

Hispanic        

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021

23%     25%   26%    26%     27%    27%   20%

White                

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021

78%      77%   77%    78%    80%   78%    74%

All Students      

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021

42%      42%     43%      43%      45%      47%    46%

Mathematics

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

African American             

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021

22%     23%    21%   18%    18%    18%     9%

 American Indian         

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

23%     19%    19%   17%     17%    18%    9%

Asian/Islander                

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

48%     50%   50%    47%    50%    47%    46%

Hispanic            

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

31%     32%    31%   29%     26%    25%   12%

White                

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

71%     75%    71%   70%     71%    70%   61%

All Students      

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

44%     44%   44%    42%    42%     42%   35%

Science

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

African American

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

11%     15%     13%   12%    11%    11%    11% 

American Indian          

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

14%     16%   13%    17%     14%    17%     9%

Asian/Pacific Islander                

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

31%     35%    42%    35%    37%   40%    43%

Hispanic            

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

17%     18%    21%   19%    17%     16%   10%

White                

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

71%     75%    71%    70%   71%    70%    61% 

All Students      

2014    2015   2016    2017    2018    2019    2021 

33%     36%   35%     34%    34%    36%   36%

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Neither administrators at the Davis Center nor teachers and education support professionals are primarily concerned with academic quality.

 

Such quality will only be brought to the long-suffering students of the Minneapolis Public Schools when administrators and teachers come under severe pressure, such as will come with the ever-widening circulation of my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect and the activist energy represented and promoted by the book.

 

Remember that I am in the process of taking this district apart piece by piece and rebuilding according to the four-point program indicated above.

Front Matter and Contents >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 9, March 2022 

Volume VIII, No. 9                                        

March 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 Five

 

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

 

Part Five

   

A Five-Article Series         

 

Copyright © 2021

Gary Marvin Davison

New Salem Educational Initiative

 

Contents

 

Introduction                                                                                                                          

 

The Internally Perpetuating Nature of the Education Establishment as a Consequence of Anti-Knowledge Ideology that Took Hold in Departments, Schools, and Colleges of Education by the 1970s    >>>>>

 

The Insubstantial Academic Credentials of Those Who Preside in the Classrooms of the Teaching and Learning Program in the Education Department at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota as Salient Example

 

Article #1                                                                                                                                 

We Pay a High Societal Price for Failing   

Face the Truths About PreK-12 Education

 

Article #2                                                                                                                                

The Consequences of the Anti-Knowledge Ideology of Education

Professors Are Witnessed in the Achievement Rates of Students   

in Locally Centralized Schools Districts Such as the Minneapolis

Public Schools, Perpetuated by Central Office Acolytes

 

Article #3                                                                                                                                 

The Consequences of Academically Inept Administrators and

Teachers for African American Families Living at the Urban Core

 

Article #4                                                                                                                                 

The Heavy Toll Taken on Native American Students at the

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Due to the Abysmal

Quality of MPS Curriculum and Teaching

 

Article #5                                                                                                                              

The Current Teachers Strike is Playing Out as Theater of the Absurd---   

With Catastrophic Consequences for Students Who

Will Continue to Sustain Academic Abuse

 

Introduction >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 9, March 2022 

Introduction

The Internally Perpetuating Nature of the Education Establishment as a Consequence of Anti-Knowledge Ideology that Took Hold in Departments, Schools, and Colleges of Education by the 1970s    >>>>> 

The Insubstantial Academic Credentials of Those Who Preside in the Classrooms of the Teaching and Learning Program in the Education Department at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota as Salient Example

By the 1970s, the anti-knowledge ideology emanating from William Heard Kilpatrick and others at Teachers College/Columbia University had taken hold in the programs of all departments, schools, and colleges of education in the United States, so that all public school administrators and teachers trained in these programs enter our schools unprepared to deliver the abundant knowledge and skill sets that would give our students and our body politic the opportunity to live lives as culturally enriched, civically engaged, professionally satisfied citizens. 

We bear the consequences for wretched public education throughout the United States as demonstrated in a bevy of anti-scientific, irrational, and irresponsible behaviors.

And of elevated importance as a consequence of the anti -knowledge ideology that took hold by the 1970s is the low intellectual quality of education professors who have themselves trained in the programs of departments, schools, and colleges of education and go forth to perpetuate the ideology and to produce knowledge-deficient administrators and teachers.

Remembering the vacuous curriculum inflicted on students in the M. Ed. Teaching and Learning program of the education department at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, recorded in Article #18 of this series, inspect this list of those who teach in this program, giving attention to the low level of their own academic preparation;  note that there are very few holders of doctorates, and understand that an M.Ed., the highest degree held by most of these staff members, is academically insubstantial, as is an Ed. D.   >>>>>

M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning Staff at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota

 

Megan Troje, M.A.

Lead Field Specialist

Admission - SGPP

LaSalle Hall - TC Campus, LSH 114

 

Faculty

Tracy Lysne, M.Ed.

Program Director

 

Sarah Haugen, M.Ed.

Associate Program Director

Faculty Observation Advisor

 

Emily Albrecht, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Nicole Biondich, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Tamara Colucci, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Instructor

 

Tony Hastings, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Katherine (Katie) Higgins, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

David Jackson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

 

 

William Knutson, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

  

Patti Lagos, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Instructor

 

Emily Larsen, Ed.D.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Theresa Lewis, M.S.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Mary Lien, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Stacy Lufkin, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Mary Jo Nairn, Ed.S.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Shane Rasmussen, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

  

Stefanie Scarset, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Instructor

 

Joseph Schingen, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

Michele Wood, M.Ed.

Course-Contracted Assistant Professor

 

 

Article #1 >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 9, March 2022 

Article #1

We Pay a High Societal Price for Failing   

Face the Truths About PreK-12 Education

                                                                                  

 

Truth is daunting to face, so that we are forever waiting until societal dilemmas linger for decades until some social force demands the long-delayed confrontation.  

Among the most important truths that we have never faced are those pertinent to 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.

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.

Now we have the possibility of teacher union strikes in Minneapolis and St.  Paul, with demands (psychological support staff, smaller class sizes, increased remuneration) that have nothing to do with the key vexations. 

Here are the undiscussed truths and those aspects of our system of public education that sustain abominable academic quality:

Students at the preK-5 level master no rigorous, systematically imparted knowledge sets pertinent to natural science, history, government, geography, quality literature, or the fine arts. Middle school features more courses in those areas but those courses are knowledge-deficit.  At the high school level, only Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses have the potential for academic substance but are often taught by teachers who not possess the requisite knowledge base.

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.  Similarly, teachers have since the 1990s been induced to seek advancement on the “step and lane” system via lightweight graduate programs in education.

Knowledge-deficient curriculum and abominable teacher quality at the median yield graduates (those who manage to graduate) who walk across the stage to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only, bequeathing to us the ignorant body politic that our incompetent public education establishment produces.

We have no hope of healing our suffering society until we face the truths pertinent to the key vexations in our wretched system of public education:  knowledge-deficient curriculum and woeful teaching at the median.