Article #2 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< Volume X, Number Eight, February 2024

Article #2

 

The Academically Lightweight Doctorate in Educational Leadership That Typifies The Degree Sought by Those Such as Lisa Sayles-Adams

 

In reading Introductory Comments and Article #1 of this edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, readers have learned that the dissertation written by Lisa Sayles-Adams was the sort of work that should have been relegated to at most a journalistic article.  The subject covered had nothing of the academic heft of dissertations written for those seeking degrees in legitimate academic fields such as mathematics, physics, history, economics, or literature.

 

Further, the courses taken by students seeking education doctorates have no academic content to them.  Observe (given below) these courses required for the doctorate in educational leadership, taught by those campus embarrassments known as education professors and devoid of any academic content.  Consider that no college or university president would have wasted time taking such courses;  college and university presidents hold Ph.D. degrees in genuine academic disciplines and have otherwise learned what they need to know pertinent to educational leadership by occupying administration positions after many years of classroom teaching.

 

 

Educational Leadership (EDD)

The doctorate in educational leadership is dedicated to developing racially conscious leaders for P-21 schools, higher education, and non-profit organizations. 

Admission Requirements

·       PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

·       DEGREE PLAN

 

 

 

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

Common Core

EDLD 734 Professional Development Colloquium I 3 credits

 

EDLD 735 Professional Development Colloquium II 3 credits

 

EDLD 747 Organizational and Critical Race Theory & Analysis 3 credits

 

EDLD 751 Seminar: Advanced Leadership Ethics 3 credits

 

EDLD 752 Seminar: Leadership Exemplars 3 credits

 

EDLD 759 Influences and Assessment of Public Policy 3 credits

 

Doctoral Internship (Specialization): Higher Education, P-12, or Non-Profit Leadership - Choose 8 Credit(s). Select 4 credits each, in consultation with advisor, during Semester 3 and Semester 5.

EDLD 798 Doctoral Internship in Educational Leadership 1-12 credits

 

Research/Methods Course(s)

EDLD 782 Design and Method in Qualitative Inquiry 3 credits

 

EDLD 792 Quantitative Research Methods for Educational Leadership 3 credits

 

EDLD 793 Focused Research Investigations I 3 credits

 

Doctoral Internship - Research Internship (in consultation with advisor). - Choose 4 Credit(s).

EDLD 798 Doctoral Internship in Educational Leadership 1-12 credits

 

This course is designed for doctoral candidates in educational leadership to experience implementation of theory where they are given the opportunity to create, demonstrate, and maintain effective strategies and methodologies from leadership practices in a school or higher education setting.

Prerequisites: none

Unrestricted Electives

Unrestricted Elective Credit and/or Advanced Standing Recognition - Choose 9 - 10 Credit(s). Advanced Standing will allow up to 10 post-Masters degree credits to satisfy this category.

EDLD 600 - 799  credits

 

Capstone Course

EDLD 799 Dissertation 1-12 credits

 

Other Graduation Requirements

Program will recognize a maximum of 30 credits from an earned Masters degree program and will apply toward the required 90 credits of EdD program

Article #3 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< Volume X, Number Eight, February 2024

Article #3

 

Lisa Sayles-Adams’s Mediocrity Was Clearly on Display at the Tuesday, 13 February 2024, Meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education---  As Was the Intellectual Corruption of Board Chair Collin Beachy and the Embarrassing Buffoonery of Education Consultant Betty Webb

 

 

The monthly meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education was this past Tuesday (13 February), the first at which Lisa Sayles-Adams took occupancy as MPS Superintendent.

 

A number of African American women who do not often in some cases (e.g., activist gadfly Nekima Levy-Armstrong) and not every time in others (e.g., We Win Program leader Titilayo Bediako) show up at Board meetings attended this time to demonstrate support for Sayles-Adams.  A full slate of the possible 25 commentators made Public Comments, some of them a representation of the aforementioned African American women supporters;  others speaking to issues at certain schools;  and, among other issues, some there to express concern about anti-Semitism in schools and other public venues, in Minneapolis and in the context of the broader national phenomenon.

 

Before I spoke there was a slight pro-Sayles-Adams vibe to the evening, even if Davis Center staff members seemed possessed of limited enthusiasm.

 

Then I changed the mood >>>>>

 

I began by conveying aspects of my heavyweight scholarly preparation in conducting doctoral research in route to my Ph. D. in Taiwanese history:  high-level fluency in Mandarin Chinese, reading skill in Japanese, some acquisition of the local Minnan dialect, village-based research, interviews in Mandarin with university professors and government figures, construction of surveys in Chinese administered to farmer association officials, and meticulous combination of anthropological and oral history techniques with copious reading of the English and Chinese literature.

 

I then conveyed that while such scholarly seriousness typically accompanies pursuit of the Ph. D., the Ph.D. is not be confused with the Ed.D. (Education Doctorate).  I said,

 

Education professors are campus embarrassments. 

No one who holds the Ed.D. would ever be selected

as a college or university president.  The Twin Cities

metro has a number of cash cow degree mills--- 

University of Minnesota, Augsburg University,

University of St. Thomas among them---  

that bestow such degrees.  At Minnesota State

University/Mankato, of 89 dissertations written

between 2016 and 2022, only one, a gossamer 134-page

whisp of a document, has been embargoed.  This is a

dissertation for the Ed. D. written by Lisa Sayles-Adams.

 

At this point, Board Chair Collin Beachy interrupted me, saying, “That’s character assassination,” and seemed poised to continue interrupting and possibly cut the mike.  So I stepped away from the podium and walked right in front of the Board members and Sayles-Adams and continued,

 

The evidence strongly suggests that Sayles-Adams

is even worse than the typical mediocrity, nevertheless

selected by (as I gestured with my right hand in a semicircle

enveloping each Board member and Sayles-Adams) these

inept members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board

of Education.

 

I actually got some scattered applause but mostly received angry looks for the Sayles-Adams supporters and solicited startled expressions from MPS staff members and many others.  I got an angry retort from erstwhile Board consultant, the buffoonish Betty Webb.  When at the 10-minute break between Public Comments, a member (African American female) member of the Robbinsdale Board of Education engaged me in a spirited conversation, Webb (holder of the Ed.D.) approached us as if to break into our conversation, saying to me,

 

“I’m just as smart as you are---  if not smarter.”

 

“You’re trying to justify yourself to me,” I replied.  “Please go away,” a request that the Robbinsdale Board member reinforced by urging Webb (whom the Board member knows) not to interrupt our conversation, which was lively and constructive.

 

After the meeting, Webb touched me gently on the arm as if to make amends.

 

I told her, “Do not touch me.” 

 

She touched my arm again. 

 

I then very loudly shouted, ”I said do not touch me!!!.  I do not want to talk to you!!!!!”

 

Remember that Betty Webb is the buffoon who wasted my time and that of the Board (at the invitation of Sharon El-Amin) at a six-hour--- that would be 360 minutes---  retreat and a couple of follow-up sessions.  My disgust was registered to many people and now has been implicitly conveyed to Webb herself.

 

…………………………………………………

 

The meeting then consisted primarily of Sayles-Adams giving a monotonic, jargon-infested presentation of her plans for her first hundred days as MPS Superintendent.   She brought forward no staff members during this presentation.  She read from a script.  In numerous ways my pain was amplified in enduring this presentation by the contrast with Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox’s presentations at business and Committee of the Whole meetings with lively focus on academics, mainly, and otherwise student support services and school environment issues---  always with staff (variously teachers, principals, and Davis Center leaders) well-represented.

 

I stared in disgust throughout this inept presentation.

 

Follow-up communications with Davis Center staff have been interesting.  Despite their variously tacit or explicit agreement with me as to Sayles-Adams as the typical mediocrity or worse, I have the sense that spines are softening and accommodation is occurring, faster and involving more staff members than I had predicted.  There are only so many situations in which many Davis Center staff could ever gain $150,000 per annum remuneration.

 

Much will come into my consciousness in the days ahead that will be assessed on my blog, in the second edition of Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, and at an ongoing series of Public Comments.

 

The document that accompanied Sayles-Adams’s presentation, which she mostly read in verbatim monotone, can be found at the School Board portal of the MPS Board of Education website.

Article #4 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< Volume X, Number Eight, February 2024

Article #4

 

Lisa Sayles-Adams Is the Typical Public School Mediocrity Who Moves from One District to Another Without Having a Positive Impact on Student Academic Achievement 

 

Lisa Sayles-Adams has worked for four public school districts during her career:  Minneapolis Public Schools (Minnesota), Clayton County Public Schools (Georgia), St. Paul Public Schools (Minnesota), and East Carver County Schools (Minnesota) before her return to the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) upon selection as MPS Superintendent in December 2023.   

All of these district today still reveal low academic achievement, so that Sayles-Adams has followed the typical pattern of careerist public education administrators who work for a number of districts without having an enduring positive impact on student academic achievement.

Perpend  >>>>>

 

 

U.S. News and World Report data on public school districts indicates the following for Eastern Carver County Schools         >>>>>

 

 

U.S. News and World Report data on public school districts indicates the following for Eastern Carver County Schools         >>>>>

 

 

Minneapolis Public Schools

 

Student enrollment 30,115

 

White                                 38.5%

African American            30.6.3%

Hispanic                            17.3%

Two or                                 6.6%

more ethnicities

Asian/                                 3.8%

Pacific Islander

American Indian/             3.1%

Alaska Native

Native Hawaiian/             0.1%

Other Pacific Islander

 

………………………………………………….

 

Free/                                 32.5%

Reduced Price Lunch     

English                              22.9%

Language Learners

 

Academic Proficiency

 

                     Math             Reading

 

Elementary                30%                 35%

Middle School           17%                 27%

High School                23%                 39%

 

Graduation Rate                55.9%

 

College Readiness             26.9   (Rated on scale of 0-100)

 

 

Clayton County Schools      (Georgia)

 

Student enrollment 52,335

 

African American             68.8%

Hispanic                             23.3%

Asian/                                   3.2%

Pacific Islander

Two or                                  2.9%

more ethnicities

American Indian/               0.3%

Alaska Native

Native Hawaiian/               0.1%

Other Pacific Islander

 

………………………………………………….

 

Free/                                 Not Available

Reduced Price Lunch     

English                                   14.4%

Language Learners

 

Academic Proficiency

 

                     Math             Reading

 

Elementary                11%                 18%

Middle School           19%                 30%

High School                23%                 42%

 

Graduation Rate                81.6%

 

College Readiness             16.7   (Rated on scale of 0-100)

 

St. Paul Public Schools

 

Student enrollment 33,475

 

Asian/                                 30.0%

Pacific Islander

African American            24.6%

White                                 21.7%

Hispanic                            14.4%

Two or                                 8.4%

more ethnicities

American Indian/            0.8%

Alaska Native

Native Hawaiian/            0.1%

Other Pacific Islander

 

………………………………………………….

 

Free/                                 48.0%

Reduced Price Lunch     

English                              27.7%

Language Learners

 

Academic Proficiency

 

                     Math             Reading

 

Elementary                20%                 27%

Middle School           18%                 31%

High School                29%                 46%

 

Graduation Rate                64.3%

 

College Readiness             27.3   (Rated on scale of 0-100)

 

 

Eastern Carver County Schools

 

Student enrollment 9,379

 

White                                74.6%

Hispanic                            10.4%

African American              5.4%

Two or                                 5.2%

more ethnicities

Asian/                                  3.9%

Pacific Islander

American Indian/              0.3%

Alaska Native

Native Hawaiian/              0.1%

Other Pacific Islander

 

………………………………………………….

 

Free/                                     9.2%

Reduced Price Lunch     

English                                  5.6%

Language Learners

 

Academic Proficiency

 

                     Math             Reading

 

Elementary                64%                 63%

Middle School           42%                 59%

High School                56%                 67%

 

Graduation Rate                69.5%

 

College Readiness             45.2   (Rated on scale of 0-100)