Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education Authorized by Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison, with Priority Given to Defeat of Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz, and Don Samuels in November 2018 Election and Ongoing Assessment of the Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali Candidacies

As Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) I have authorized the formation of the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education, the first major activist initiative of which will be the defeat of Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz,  and Don Samuels in the November 2018 Election.  The Committee will also be conducting an ongoing assessment of the Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali candidacies.

 

Most school reform efforts involve individuals and groups who have no clear definition of an excellent education, very little idea of what constitutes the excellent teacher, or any organizational ability to achieve change.  This is true of Michelle Rhee’s nearly moribund StudentsFirst and the Minnesota-based entities MinnCAN and Generation Next.

 

I have authorized the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education to proceed with the organization lacking in these entities, toward the recruitment of candidates for the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education who embrace my definitions of educational and teaching excellence, and the three main purposes that I have identified for K-12 education.

 

Remember, then, the following:

 

An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts in grade by grade sequence to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.

 

An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge, with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.

 

The three great purposes of an excellent K-12 education are cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.

 

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Five members of the current Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will be up for reelection in November 2018:  Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz, Don Samuels, Jenny Arneson, and Siad Ali.

 

Priority will be given to the defeat of Rebecca Gagnon and Nelson Inz. 

 

By November 2018, Gagnon will have served on the MPS Board of Education for eight years.  She has served as chair of the finance committee and is currently the chair of the MPS Board of Education.  Gagnon is a master of the system as it is, with deep knowledge of public school finances, but she is deeply connected to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. 

 

The MFT is affiliated with Education Minnesota, which invariably opposes change in K-12 education and is the most powerful lobby funding DFL politicians.  Accordingly, DFL politicians Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, Keith Ellison, Bobby Joe Champion, and Jeff Hayden---  while better than their Republican counterparts on most issues--- are all bought and paid for on education issues, always acting as retrograde opponents of changes that could move us toward excellence in K-12 education.  Politicians of the DFL can always be counted on to do the bidding of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Minnesota.

 

And so Gagnon also does the bidding of the MFT and Education Minnesota.  Gagnon is weak in her knowledge of pedagogy and philosophy of education.  She frequently mouths the shibboleths of the MFT and Education Minnesota.  She did the dirty work of those two entities in working to defeat Tracine Asberry in the school board elections of November 2016;  Asberry, who represented District 6, was the foremost advocate for change and the most persistent critic of the MPS administration for the district’s abysmal academic performance.   

 

Similarly, Nelson Inz is firmly connected to the MFT, Education Minnesota, and DFL establishments.  He also did the bidding of these entities by working to defeat Josh Reimnitz, who had stunned the MFT by winning without the endorsement of that organization in November 2012.  Inz endorsed the candidacy of Bob Walser, who is the silliest and most frivolous school board member I have ever witnessed, opposes objective measurement of student performance, and serves as a willing mouthpiece for the most harmful notions of the MFT, Education Minnesota, and those campus low-lifes known as education professors.

 

Don Samuels is disappointing for different reasons.  He is a member of the DFL but did not run for a seat on the school board with the endorsement of that party or with the backing of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.  Samuels is given to bombastic statements but is lazy in his preparation, weak on matters of educational philosophy and pedagogy, and ineffective as an agent of change.  His defeat in November 2018 is a secondary priority behind only the defeat of Gagnon and Inz;  his replacement with a candidate backed by the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education would greatly abet the journey of the Minneapolis Public Schools toward educational excellence.

 

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The Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education will also be monitoring the positions of candidates Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali.  By November 2018, Arneson will have served eight years on the MPS Board of Education;  thus, she bears much responsibility for the terrible academic performance of the district.  She is also intimately connected to the MFT, Education Minnesota, and the DFL Party.  But she was adroit in her conduct of meetings during her tenure as MPS Board of Education chair, presiding over the tumultuous gatherings covering the two-phase search for a superintendent from spring 2015 into winter2016.  There is also something in Arneson’s demeanor that gives me and the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education some hope that she can be moved to embrace our definitions of educational and teaching excellence, according to the defined purposes of K-12 education.  But that hope may prove forlorn;  if so, we will also work for the defeat of Arneson as a tertiary but definite priority.

 

The candidacy of Siad Ali is also problematic.  He is a strong advocate for the Somali community and for immigrant communities and English Language Learners in general.  He frequently engages me in conversation and seems open to my message.  But he actually works professionally for the DFL and is strongly tied to the MFT and Education Minnesota.  He must distance himself from these entities and openly embrace my definitions of educational and teaching excellence and K-12 purpose that guide the work of the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education---  or face our opposition to his candidacy in November 2018.

 

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Keep these identifications in view as you work with the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education to overhaul the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education in November 2018:

 

>>>>>   


Rebecca Gagnon will be running again citywide as an At-Large candidate.

Nelson Inz will be running again for the District 5 seat, geographically covering
South Minneapolis east of I-35.

 

These two are prioritized for defeat in November 2018.
 

>>>>>    Don Samuels will be running again citywide as an At-Large candidate.

 

His defeat is a secondary but definite priority, behind only the defeat of Gagnon and inz.

>>>>>   


Jenny Arneson will be running again for the District 1 seat;

Siad Ali will be running again for the District 3 seat.

These two will be given a chance to embrace our definitions of educational excellence,the purposes that we have identified for K-12 education, and the five-point program that we are advancing for bringing education excellence to the Minneapolis Public Schools;  failure to embrace these positions will result in our working for their defeat in the elections of November 2018.

 

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The on-the-ground movement for education change that I am advancing via the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education at the level of the locally centralized school district is unprecedented in the United States.  For that matter, inasmuch as change in the United States must occur according to the nation’s stated preference for local control, our movement has no precedents in those nations that feature the best systems of public education, all of which are centralized at the national level.  

 

The K-12 Revolution in the United States will thus begin with overhaul of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education in November 2018.

 

With the victory of candidates backed by the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education in that November 2018 election, we will then have a majority of members on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education who embrace educational and teaching excellence and the great purposes of K-12 education.

 

At that point the changes that I have already made via my five-point program articulated and implemented as Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent will move into the universe of conventional reckoning, thereby transforming K-12 education in the United States.   

 

Associate Superintendents and Curriculum Specialists Among Those Cut by Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison in Paring 400 Positions at the Davis Center: Clear Focus is on Academic Achievement and Professionalized Teacher Corps

In paring  400 positions at the Davis Center (central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools [MPS], 1250 West Broadway), I (Gary Marvin Davison) am as Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent signaling our clear focus on academic achievement with a now professionalized teaching contingent.

 

I have already indicated in a previous article that I am eliminating the Office of Black Male Achievement, the Department of Indian Education, and the Department of College and Career Readiness;   former heads of those MPS central office enclaves have been invited to apply for positions that will make better use of their skills, should they be selected to fill the newly defined positions.

 

The Davis Center will now have a greatly slimmed staff of 150 people, a major shift from the 550-650 staff members that have typically filled the halls of the building housing the MPS central bureaucracy.  Inside the new Davis Center administration, the emphasis will be on programming emanating from the Department of Academic Achievement.  Staff in this department will focus on designing knowledge- intensive, skill-replete curriculum to be implemented in grade by grade sequence throughout the K-12 years;  and the teacher training program necessary to impart such a curriculum.   As detailed in a previous article, the new curriculum will carefully observe the Minnesota Department of Education academic standards, with major reference also to grades K-6 subject area information generated by the Core Knowledge Foundation of E. D. Hirsch and by the K-12 curriculum that I detail in the August 2014 edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

My Davis Center staff cuts are made in the context of the greatly professionalized teaching force that will result from the rigorous new teacher training program.   Teachers will now all hold legitimate academic masters degrees and will emerge from their years of training and internship with a full grasp of the curriculum that they are to impart.  Prospective principals will be required to meet the same academic degree requirements as teachers in their buildings, so that they, too, will have a deep understanding of the new knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum.

 

In this context of teacher and principal academic professionalization, we will have no one on staff bearing the titles of Curriculum Specialist or Associate Superintendent.  Teachers themselves will be masters of curricular matters.  Principals, previously mentored ineffectively by Associate Superintendents, will now meet the same rigorous academic standards as teachers, and they will serve year-long internships before gaining consideration for employment.   In their roles as site-based administrators, they will handle managerial details while recognizing great authority for professionalized teachers and Family Relationships and Resources Program staff members to assume responsibility for fulfillment of the duties for which they have been highly trained.

 

With site-based staff positions now occupied by professionalized teachers, principals, and family resource specialists, we will be reversing the previous central office- school building staff relationship:

Curriculum will be articulated and staff training will be provided by those operating at the central level;  the same rigorous, knowledge-intensive, skill replete curriculum will be implemented across the district of the Minneapolis Public Schools, according to standards and training emanating from the Davis Center.   But with common curriculum and district-wide standards clearly understood, great authority will be invested in site-based teachers, administrators, and family resource specialists to impart excellent education to students of all demographic descriptors.

 

With site-based academic and family resource staff properly trained according to standards and programs overseen by members of the Department of Academic Achievement, the greatly reduced central office staff at the Davis Center will otherwise focus on legal, financial, operational, maintenance, security, and food service matters.

 

Hence, as Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, I am highly centralizing academic standards and staff training while then giving great authority to site-based professionals to implement our rigorous academic program.  Paring of the central bureaucracy will mean a reduction of approximately $30 million in total expenditures for Davis Center salaries, abetting my plan to increase salaries for the newly professionalized teaching force, from the current $64,000 median to a median of $85,000.

 

In implementing my five-point program of knowledge-intensity, teacher training, tutoring and academic enrichment, family relationships and resources, and reduction of the central office bureaucracy, I am signaling a clear focus on academic achievement and respect for a professionalized staff trained to provide truly excellent education to students of all demographic descriptors.   

Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison Initiates New Family Resources and Relationships Program, As He Pares 400 Positions at the Davis Center (MPS Central Offices, 1250 West Broadway)

As Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, I am today initiating a new Family Resources and Relationships Program that will fulfill the fourth of my five programmatic components for carrying this iteration of the locally centralized school district toward excellence in education.  I have in the three articles that next appear in succession as you scroll on down this blog described the programmatic initiatives that I am taking for the first three components, those of

1) knowledge-intensive curriculum,  2) teacher training, and 3) academic remediation (tutoring) and enrichment.  The other two components of my program for academic excellence are 4) family resource provision and referral and 5) paring of the central bureaucracy at the Davis Center (1250 West Broadway).  The latter point will be the subject of my next article;  the former is the subject of this exposition.

 

Actually, this article also foreshadows the looming exposition on bureaucratic paring by making clear this aspect of the new Family Relationships and Resources Program:  I am forthwith eliminating 400 positions at the Davis Center while creating 350 new positions in the Family Relationships and Resources Program.

 

Only one of these new positions, bearing the title Family Relationships and Resources Coordinator, will have an office in the Davis Center;  the others will all be located at school sites, with roughly 5 positions in each of the approximately 70 schools of the district.  The prime responsibility of each of these positions, to be called Family Resource Specialists, will be to develop relationships with students at their respective school sites and with the families of those students.  These specialists will follow a sequential pattern of developing relationships with students, counseling students in the event of behavioral infractions, communicating with families as to student needs and responsibilities, developing relationships with family members in each student’s residence, and serving as resource agents for meeting the needs of families directly or with the assistance of external agencies.     

 

Both the coordinator and the specialists will be a part of the new Department of Academic Achievement, in which most Davis Center positions will now be located.  Coordinator and specialists will communicate to students and families the philosophical thrust of the school district under my leadership, with paramount focus on knowledge intensity and excellent teaching.  Those serving in the Family Relationships and Resources Program will explain to all students and parents the importance of knowledge and skill acquisition, the absolute dedication of all school staff to the provision of an excellent education according to my clear definition, our absolute dedication to the academic present and futures of our students, and our willingness to help in any way that we can to meet the needs of students and families so as to prepare every young person to receive the knowledge that we will impart.   

 

I envision a future for the Minneapolis Public Schools in which all students and families embrace and are prepared to receive the excellent education that we will be providing.  In such an atmosphere, most behavioral problems will abate, School Resource Officers will be phased out, and all focus will be directed to the accumulation of knowledge and skills delivered in grade by grade sequence throughout the K-12 years.  Students and families will be thoroughly engaged in the magnificent world of knowledge, focused on the great purposes of K-12 education (cultural enrichment, civic engagement, and professional satisfaction), thrilled with the post-secondary preparedness of our graduates, and convinced of our mutual friendship and common mission to promote the academic and therefore life success of our students, their offspring, our agents of a better world.

 

Successful programs and organizations move forward on the basis of firm prime principles.

 

I have been clear as to the philosophy that guides my programmatic initiatives. 

 

Let me further clearly offer the following:

 

I love young people.

 

I am alive in the world of knowledge.

 

I thrill at connecting the young people whom I teach to the wonderful world of knowledge.

 

I believe in ethical conduct, modeling ethical conduct, and nurturing young people and adults so that they act in ethical and loving ways.

 

These principles will suffuse the Family Relationships and Resources Program and all aspects of the Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools. 

 

In the months to come, the Alternate Universe MPS Family Relationships and Resources Program and the other initiatives that I have articulated will via the K-12 Revolution supplant the innervated structures now crumbling around conventional MPS Superintendent Ed Graff and the conventional MPS Board of Education.  

 

Aggressive New Skill Remediation (Tutoring) and Academic Enrichment Program Inaugurated by Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison

Students for whom I have responsibility as the Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools will progress in the K-5 years through a sequence of skills in math and reading that I have identified for grade by grade acquisition in the August 2014 edition of Journal of the K-5 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, summarized in detail as you scroll on down to the immediately following articles on this blog;  the skills identified for acquisition are identified with careful attention to Minnesota state academic standards and with curriculum generated by the Core Knowledge Foundation.

 

In math during the K-5 years, students need to progress through skill acquisition that includes pre-math positional terms (up, down, under, over, and the like), time telling (analog and digital), units of money, the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, data representation (graphs, charts, tables), and introductions to geometry and algebra.

In reading during the K-5 years, students need to progress through alphabet recognition, phonemic awareness, vocabulary of ascending syllables and degrees of abstraction, sentence construction and recognition, paragraph construction and comprehension (with use and understanding of topic sentences), and reading of a variety of fictional and nonfictional works of thematic variety and topical diversity, allowing for an expanding and ever-richer vocabulary.

One hour a day will be set aside for K-5 students to work on enrichment activities connected to the skill level that each student is manifesting:

For students who have mastered grade level skills, this will mean working on advanced material that challenges students to solve intriguing math problems or read for the enhancement of literary appreciation or knowledge acquisition.

For students who are lagging below grade level, this will mean working one on one with a well-trained tutor until the necessary math and reading skills are acquired.   Work with a tutor should be viewed as an opportunity to master important math skills and to read an array of interesting and high quality fictional and nonfictional material.  Students should receive positive feedback for progress made;  tutors should convey a sense of joy in learning and delight in the opportunity to spend time with the young person.

Over time, most struggling students will gain the basic skills that they need in the course of remediation during the K-5 years.  But tutoring will most certainly continue at the middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12 levels) also, and at those levels the new rigorous curriculum that we are implementing will provide the enrichment opportunities manifest in subject area specialized courses, Advanced Placement, and the array of world languages that will be available in the curriculum that I have detailed.   Via continued skill remediation and the rigorous and engaging curriculum, students will ascend to academic challenges either for mastery at grade level or advancement from already secured grade level position.

Except for those facing particularly severe learning challenges, all students will be provided masterful instruction in Advanced Placement courses;  they will conduct research, engage in specialized study of topics of driving interest, and gain training of the type needed for success on ACT and SAT exams.  For those students who do face particularly elevated learning challenges, standards will be high and encouragement will abound for these students to reach their maximum learning potential in our knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum.   

The programs for skill and knowledge enhancement will under my leadership as Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools be administered in the spirit of challenging students to know all that they can know and to become all that they can be.

Such a program of academic remediation and enrichment will necessitate well-trained teachers of the type that I have specified in my academic journal and in articles as you scroll on down this blog. 

The program will also require a great increase in the number of tutors and very careful training of these tutors.

An aggressive program of volunteer solicitation will secure high quality talent among college students, workaday professionals, and academically astute and pedagogically adept parents and retirees.  We will train and integrate any tutors that have come to us from the conventional universe via Generation Next, Community Volunteers, Elementary Literacy Tutor Program, Adult Education Volunteers, Math Corps, Reading Corps, City of Lakes Americorps, and VISTA. 

 

But expansion of professional staff hired for the express purpose of tutoring will also be necessary.

Academic enrichment (advanced and remedial) will be a budgetary priority of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

This will make the dramatic central bureaucratic paring that I have indicated as a priority all the more imperative.

 

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As in the case of the knowledge-intensive curriculum and teacher training discussed in the next articles on this blog, I will be swiftly and efficiently implementing the skill remediation and enrichment programs as Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  I and my Alternate Universe MPS Board of Education will in doing this be preparing for that time in the months to come that we supplant conventional universe MPS Superintendent Ed Graff and the conventional universe MPS Board of Education, providing the vision and the leadership that these ineffective non-decision-makers have failed to provide.    

 

Professional Development Terminated in Favor of Rigorous Teacher Training Under the Leadership of Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison

Professional Development, as that weak feature of locally centralized schools district has been known, is now terminated under my (Gary Marvin Davison) leadership as Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).

 

In accord with my five-point program to bring excellent education to the Minneapolis Public Schools, we will now acknowledge that the training received by prospective teachers in departments, schools, and colleges of education is woefully inadequate.  We recognize that K-5 teachers arrive severely unprepared to deliver knowledge-intensive curriculum to MPS students.  We further observe that teachers of students in grades 6-8 and 9-12 lack the necessary field specialization to impart knowledge-intensive curriculum at the secondary level, so that requirements for teachers at those levels have been greatly upgraded.

 

Under my leadership, we will be delivering the same curriculum to all students during the K-5 years, also providing during those years daily hour-long sessions giving opportunities to explore personal interests and to meet personal needs via academic enrichment and remediation (tutoring) as appropriate.  During their K-5 years, students will amass strong knowledge sets in the liberal arts areas of mathematics, natural science, history, economics, psychology, high quality literature across the world and of many ethnicities, and fine arts across a similar human spectrum.  All K-5 students will equitably be the beneficiaries of the same rigorous curriculum while also having the opportunities provided in daily hour-long sessions for exploring personal interests and to meet personal needs via academic enrichment and remediation (tutoring) as appropriate.   Curriculum pertaining to the K-5 years will logically extend into the grades 6-8 and 9-12 years, with expanding opportunities for specialized knowledge and skill acquisition in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts.

 

This rigorous curriculum will require knowledgeable teaching contingents at all levels. 

 

Master’s degrees in departments, colleges, and schools of education will no longer be accepted. 

 

Instead, K-5 teachers will now all be required to earn a Masters of Liberal Arts degree articulated and overseen by myself and my staff in the Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools.  We will invite professors in the fields of mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, political science, psychology, literature, music, and visual arts to provide one full academic year of instruction to all teachers aspiring to teach K-5 students.  Sessions for each subject are will last two to six weeks, depending on the temporal demand for field mastery.  Prospective K-5 teachers will master fundamental college level biology, chemistry, physics, world history, American (by definition including general and ethnically specific) history, English and world literature, music theory and history, visual art practice and history, and mathematics through calculus.

 

Prospective K-5 teachers will thus devote an entire academic year running 33 weeks of actual instructional time (allowing for holidays and short breaks), at the end of which they will be tested for mastery in the given fields.  Upon successful completion of exams, prospective K-5 teachers will then research and write a 50-page or more master’s thesis on a topic in a field of their option, under the guidance of an appropriate professorial expert.  Upon successful completion of the master’s degree, all K-5 teachers will then serve a full academic year internship working under the best experienced teachers available;  realistically, not all professionals under whom prospective K-5 teachers serve will be master teachers, but I and my staff will be making frequent observations in all classrooms and offering advice and resources for maximizing the quality of the internship experience.

 

As in the case of prospective K-5 teachers, master’s degrees in departments, colleges, and schools of education will no longer be accepted for teachers proposing to teach at the grades 6-8 and grades 9-12 levels.  Teachers at these levels must earn a field-appropriate master’s degree in a college or university department such as mathematics, economics, English, music, or fine arts.   Prospective grades 6-8 and grades 9-12 teachers will upon earning their field-specific master’s degree then serve a full academic year internship in the manner of prospective K-5 teachers.

 

Only after successful completion of these rigorous master’s degree programs and a full academic year of internship will prospective teachers be evaluated for employment in the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

The newly academically professionalized teaching force of the Minneapolis Public Schools will thenceforth be given sabbatical and research opportunities in the manner of college and university professors, along with temporal space to meet with colleagues for discussion of matters pertinent to subject area knowledge and pedagogy.

 

The new Alternate Minneapolis Public Schools system of teacher training will be introduced during this academic year of 2017-2018, with requirements applying to all prospective teachers from academic year 2018-2017 forward.

 

In time, we will bring this professionalized teacher training program into the conventional universe of the Minneapolis Public Schools, via the force of the K-12 Revolution.

Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison Sets Clear Philosophical Direction for the Minneapolis Public Schools

In accordance with the five-point program that I (Gary Marvin Davison) have established in my role as Alternate Universe Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, I have set a clear philosophical direction for this school district.

 

Remember that members of the Alternate Universe Board of Education and I will be operating from a philosophical stance that defines an excellent education, the excellent teacher, and the purposes of K-12 education   as follows:

 

An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts in grade by grade sequence to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.

 

An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.

 

The three major purposes of an excellent K-12 education are cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.

 

Thus, all staff and community members should understand that the Minneapolis Public Schools constitutes a locally centralized school district that considers the duty of providing students with a knowledge-intensive education to be paramount.  All other considerations must serve that ultimate goal.  We want our students to go forth across the stage at graduation with brains full of knowledge in the liberal arts areas of mathematics, natural science, history, economics, psychology, high quality literature across the world and of many ethnicities, and fine arts across a similar human spectrum.

 

We will deliver the same curriculum to all students during the K-5 years, also providing during those years daily hour-long sessions giving opportunities to explore personal interests and to meet personal needs via academic enrichment and remediation (tutoring) as appropriate.

 

During the grades 6-8 and 9-12 years, students will continue to receive the same rigorous and engaging curriculum in the liberal arts areas given above.  All students will continue to be challenged and engaged with curriculum in the areas of mathematics, natural science, history, economics, psychology, high quality literature across the world and of many ethnicities, and fine arts across a similar human spectrum.  All students except for those facing truly unusual learning challenges will prepare throughout their years in the Minneapolis Public Schools to study through to Advanced Placement Calculus, Biology, Physics, English, World History, and American History.  And expectations for those students facing significant learning challenges will also be very high.

 

At the grades 6-8 and especially at the grades 9-12 levels, there will be abundant opportunities for students to take specialized courses in the given liberal arts areas, world languages, other social sciences, the technological arts, and the vocational arts.  Thus, in addition to mastering the same rigorous curriculum, students will have a range of electives in courses such as Chinese and other Asian History and Literature, Latin American History and Literature, African American History and Literature, and Native American history and Literature, and language courses in Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic.  They may opt for courses such as computer technology and design, graphic arts, auto mechanics, welding, and plumbing.  Given the now prevailing circumstance that students at all levels K-12 will be given a knowledge-intensive education, students will be well prepared to continue a commonly challenging curriculum  and to meet personal interests via enrichment experiences at K-5 and specialized course at grades 6-8 and grades 9-12.

 

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According to the philosophical direction of the Minneapolis Public Schools as articulated by alternate Universe Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison, there will be no reference to shibboleths common to education professors and those members of the education establishment whose intellects they have demeaned.  There will be, for example, no reference to critical thinking, lifelong learning, and social and emotional learning.  The latter will be assumed and subsumed in our five-point program for knowledge-intensive, skill-intensive replete curriculum;  knowledge-intensive  teacher training;  academic enrichment and remediation;  outreach to families of all demographic descriptors;  and great trimming of the central bureaucracy at the Davis Center (1250 West Broadway).  Critical analysis, love of learning, and deep respect for all  human beings will be embedded deeply in our system and culture, rather than mouthed as mere excuses for failure to provide an excellent education.

 

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Knowledge attainment will be our paramount goal in the Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools led by Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison.  This is the philosophical clarity that you will never get from MPS Superintendent Ed Graff in the conventional universe but that you will get from me, time after time.

 

Most Critical Needs of the Minneapolis Public Schools >>> Assessment and Programmatic Response from Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison

Unlike the inept Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Ed Graff and incompetent MPS Board of Education in the conventional universe, I (Gary Marvin Davison) and my board in the alternate universe intend clearly to assess, announce, and remedy the deficiencies of this iteration of the locally centralized school district.

 

The deficiencies are as follows:

 

>>>>>  Curriculum is weak, failing to follow the Minnesota state academic standards, and neglecting to impart to students vital knowledge and skill sets in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts.

 

>>>>>  Teachers are typically mediocre in quality.  Teachers at grades K-5 gain certification by completing the weakest academic training on any academic campus, emerging with low knowledge of history, government, economics, psychology, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and the visual and musical arts---  those subjects in which K-5 students should be gaining a firm foundation.  Too many teachers at the grades 6-8 and 9-12 level have a poor grasp of the fields in which they should be specialists;  rather than matriculating in rigorous field-specific master’s degree programs, they move up the step and lane system on the basis of flimsy master’s degrees earned in departments, schools, and colleges of education.

 

>>>>>  The school district of the Minneapolis Public Schools has no coherent tutoring or academic enrichment program to meet the specific academic needs of students.

 

>>>>>  The district fails to reach out to families facing dilemmas of finances and functionality, neglecting to engage them with MPS representatives comfortable on the streets and in the homes of these families.

 

>>>>>  The central bureaucracy is bloated and ineffective, infested with numerous departments and personnel the names and position titles of which have no relationship to their actual function or performance.

 

>>>>>  Students from families whose adult members are ill-educated or who do not speak English well generally have poorly developed vocabularies and have not read very much rigorous academic material.  This situation therefore means especially that the academic needs of English Language Learners and students on Free/ Reduced Price Lunch go unmet.

 

>>>>>  Because of this confluence of factors, students facing challenging linguistic and financial circumstances typically score in the 9 to 15 range on the ACT college readiness exam, the top score of which is 36 and a minimally acceptable score for which falls in the 18-21 range even for nonselective colleges and universities.

 

>>>>>  Four-year graduation rates are just over 60% for the general MPS student population and under 50% for students struggling with familial situations of poverty and functionality;  even those students who do manage to graduate have low knowledge and skill sets, a condition so severe that one-third of them require remedial training in mathematics and reading if they manage to matriculate at a college or university.

 

>>>>>  The latter situation has been exacerbated by the elimination of the grade 9 writing and grade 10 reading requirements for graduation;  students still take the corresponding Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) but do not need to demonstrate proficiency to graduate.  The reading and mathematics MCAs at the high school and the grades 3-8 levels have been vitiated by state policies.  Teachers do not properly prepare students for these exams by imparting the range and rigor of skills tested on these assessments.

 

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As Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent, I have clearly articulated my program to address these deficiencies and to provide educational excellence.  Both my Alternate Universe MPS staff and our Alternate Universe Board of Education understand my priorities and new programs to bring high academic achievement to MPS students of all demographic descriptors:

 

>>>>>  We are implementing a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum.  Academic field experts are training teachers in knowledge and skill sets pertinent to grade levels and subject areas taught.  A coordinator is now in place to oversee the new MPS-wide tutoring and academic enrichment program.  We have hired 200 new workers who are connecting with struggling families right where they live.  In order to provide the tutoring and outreach staff that we need, we have trimmed 400 positions from the conventional bureaucracy that has burdened the Minneapolis Public Schools for decades.

 

>>>>>  We are now ensuring that English Language Learners and students from academically unnourishing home environments are reading challenging material at every grade level and receiving explicit vocabulary instruction to raise their vocabulary and reading levels to grade-appropriate and college-preparatory proficiency.

 

>>>>>  I have made clear to my staff and to the Alternate Universe Board of Education that we will properly prepare students to achieve at grade level proficiency on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) and the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) standardized tests:

 

>>>>>  I have made clear to all staff members that this district strongly embraces standardized tests as the most effective and objective measures of student performance.  We will take vigorous action against any teachers who encourage parents to allow their children to opt out of our tests, and we will provide appropriate counsel in this regard to parents themselves.  

 

>>>>>  And we will accordingly prepare all students to take the ACT exam for college readiness.  They will be prepared both with the rigorous new knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum, and with specific ACT training via practice materials and teachers capable of imparting the material in the areas of English Usage, Reading, Science Reasoning, and Mathematics Reasoning covered in the four major sections of the ACT exam.

 

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You will never witness Superintendent Ed Graff or the MPS Board of Education in the conventional universe admit the deficiencies or provide the remedies given above.

But we in the Alternate Universe of MPS leadership are frank about those deficiencies and are vigorously implementing the challenging new academic program, preparing for that day when we take our program into the conventional universe, sweeping aside the incompetent Ed Graff and the conventional MPS Board of Education who are academically abusing the students whom by professional and moral duty they are bound to serve.