Signals Point Toward Another Year of Failure for the Minneapolis Public Schools: Time to Assess the Viability of Superintendent Ed Graff’s Administration

At the midpoint of the second year of Superintendent Ed Graff’s administration, numerous signals point toward another year of failure.  

 

There have been many instances of teachers quitting because they are unable to cope with disciplinary problems.  Due to these resignations, and because there is a substantial number of teachers taking medical and personal leaves of absence, many students have had to endure long-term substitutes who cannot control their assigned classes and, even in those moments when they do maintain some control, lack the ability properly to instruct the class.

 

Behavior is a problem for many experienced teachers, as well.  At Folwell Middle School an eighth grade math class is inevitably so rowdy that the teacher just gives up, frequently telling students to take a look at their I-Pads and figure out their assignment the best they can.  The same is true for a geometry class at North High School, in which the teacher often gives up and merely hands out an assignment for which students have not been properly prepared to complete.

 

Even when behavior is under control, numerous teachers are not imparting knowledge and skill bases pertinent to topics introduced in class.  My students in the New Salem Educational Initiative (a program of fundamental math and reading skill development and college preparation for students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools) frequently bring to our academic sessions homework assignments for which the teacher has not covered the material on which the assignment is based.

 

One of the most flagrant examples of professional incompetence in the Minneapolis Public Schools concerns an English teacher at North High School who gave the Autobiography of Malcolm X very strange treatment.  The students did not actually read even the assigned chapters.  The teacher instead gave them an ongoing task to skim select chapters to find out whether racism or familial and personal matters most influenced the course of Malcolm X’s life.  This was the only task assigned, the only theme explored.  And there was little follow-up class discussion.

 

The question itself is problematic, inasmuch as there was great intersection of these two sorts of influences, rendering difficulty in separating encounters with racists and experiences within the family and in the personal realm.  Famously, for example, Malcolm X’s father was murdered by a racist mob that broke into the family home.

 

But then there is also the astounding fact that students did not even read the Autobiography of Malcolm X, one of the great classics of African American literature.  They were simply asked to hunt for passages pertinent to the teacher-designated theme.

 

I asked one of my students who is in this class a few questions about aspects of Malcom X’s life that figure heavily in the book:

 

“Did you learn about Malcolm X’s time on the streets in Boston, involving him in activities that eventually landed him in jail?”

 

“How about his time in prison, during which his wide reading and vocabulary development pointed toward another approach to life?”

 

“Okay, how about his affiliation with the Nation of Islam---  you, know, the Black Muslims---  and with Elijah Muhammad?”

 

“And did you learn anything about his trip to Saudi Arabia, his becoming a more conventional Muslim, and his founding of the Organization of African American Unity?”

 

“Anything about his assassination?”

 

All of these questions yielded answers in the negative:  This student---  African American, male, highly intelligent, keen on learning all he can about all manner of subjects---  had learned absolutely nothing of importance after several weeks of assignments based on the Autobiography of Malcolm X.  This is astounding, given that many African American males who for various reasons never acquired a reading habit have nevertheless read and been inspired by this famous autobiography, as told to Alex Hayley (author of Roots).

 

…………………………………………………………………………

 

Students of the Minneapolis Public Schools are on track yet again to produce below grade level scores on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) and to score poorly on the ACT college readiness exam.  Students are not being taught the skills necessary to perform mathematical operations and to read the material appearing on these exams;  and they are not being given proper instruction in test-taking skills pertinent to the MCA and ACT formats.  Furthermore, officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools have not developed a viable strategy for addressing the problem of teachers and parents who sabotage the MCAs by encouraging students to opt out of this key assessment of student performance.  In this situation, the goal of the MPS 2020 Strategic Plan for substantial annual student academic gains becomes mere verbiage without any reliable assessment for measuring these gains.

 

This is a school district in disarray, a district wherein classes are frequently disorderly, instruction is poor, knowledge imparted is meager, and skills in mathematics and reading are not being developed.

 

This situation will abide until decision-makers adopt a program for the overhaul of curriculum for knowledge intensity and skill mastery;  the training of teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum;  the provision of opportunities for skill remediation or academic enrichment as appropriate;  resource provision or referral for families of students struggling with dilemmas of poverty or dysfunction;  and central office paring so that resources may be directed to the four areas immediately noted.

 

Ed Graff should turn to Michael Thomas, Cecilia Saddler, and Eric Moore to spearhead the development of this five-point program, or he should make his exit.  And this contingent of leaders must be evaluated on their ability to develop such a program, whether Graff is present or not.

 

The quality of education at the Minneapolis Public Schools is abysmal.

 

There is a path toward a better day.

 

Decision-makers must demonstrate progress along that path.

 

Or they should depart, to be replaced by those willing and able to proceed along the path toward an education of excellence for the students of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Overview of the Reasons for the Abominable Quality of Education Delivered by K-12 Institutions in Minnesota--- Including the Salient Locally Centralized School District of the Minneapolis Public Schools

Reasons for the lousy quality of education delivered by K-12 institutions of Minnesota, including the salient locally centralized school district of the Minneapolis Public Schools, are grounded in history and in the nature of the education establishment that history produced.

 

Public education as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann in the 19^th century called for the establishment of “common schools” that would bestow like knowledge and skill sets on students of all demographic descriptors.  But by the time that attendance in school beyond the 6^th grade became common, the notion of knowledge-focused education was waning among those most in a position to affect the future of education in the United States.  By the 1920s, independent “normal schools” had become teacher colleges absorbed by universities and were staffed by education professors who bridled at their low status and were insecure in their roles, given that professors of psychology, philosophy, and the various subject area disciplines were more intellectually astute and better positioned to impart a knowledge-intensive education to prospective teachers.

 

Thus, led by William Heard Kilpatrick at Teachers College of Columbia University, education professors began to disseminate two harmful ideas:  1) the notion that specific knowledge acquisition does not matter and that curriculum is best generated by students themselves on their way to becoming critical thinkers ad lifelong learners;  and that 2) students should be given the education appropriate to their race, ethnicity, and social class, with African Americans, southern and eastern Europeans, and students from ill-regarded ethnicities and working class families generally being given vocational training while a few white elite students received enough subject matter education pertinent to the liberal arts to gain entrance into colleges and universities.   

 

The lack of regard for knowledge among education professors began to take a toll on teacher training, such as we now observe at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and at the universities of St. Thomas, Augsburg, and University of Minnesota at Mankato.  Only at Hamline are prospective K-5 teachers required to earn a bachelor’s degree in a legitimate subject area discipline;  at the other institutions, those aspiring to teach at the K-5 level take academically lightweight courses emphasizing pedagogy as devised by education professors, acquiring very little knowledge pertinent to mathematics, natural science, literature, English composition, history, government, economics, or the fine arts.  Prospective grades 6-12 teachers do generally receive a bachelor’s degree in a subject area outside of education departments, colleges, or schools;  but prospective middle school and high school teachers almost never get master’s degrees in any field other than education.

 

Teacher training institutions are “cash cows” for universities, and this is particularly so at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis).  At that institution, those aspiring to gain certification to teach at any level must first earn a master’s degree;  prospective K-5 teachers and most aspiring grades 6-12 teachers receive that degree from the UM College of Education and Human Resources, rather than in the subject area disciplines of the College of Arts and Sciences.  Thus at all levels K-12 teachers are undertrained in their subject area disciplines and have imbibed the anti-knowledge creed of education professors, the latter of whom are the lowest regarded professorial figures on any college or university campus.

 

College and university administrators are deeply culpable for tapping the ample teacher training revenue stream while variously observing or ignoring the terrible quality of teacher training dispensed at their institutions.

 

These institutions send forth teachers with little knowledge and very limited experience in economically challenged and culturally diverse communities.  Administrators are also all trained in the anti-knowledge creed of education professors, so that at the Minneapolis Public Schools Ed Graff and other central office staff at the Davis Center (1250 West Broadway) and principals at the site level have a debased understanding of curriculum.  At MPS, Ed Graff’s current emphasis on social and emotional learning as a means to raise student achievement provides just the latest fad and example of a nonacademic approach to education providing whatever passes for educational philosophy to guide curriculum and teacher development.

 

Thus do our students, excepting those who thrive in Advanced Placement courses, have no or very limited knowledge of the U. S. constitution, U. S. or world history, economics, psychology, mathematics, the natural sciences, or the fine arts.  Fewer than 65% (and only about 50% of African American students) graduate from high school;  one-third of those who do must take remedial courses once matriculating on college and university campuses.

 

What is true at the Minneapolis Public Schools is true in even the putatively best of our school districts. By international comparison, notably demonstrated in results of the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA), students in the United States are ill-educated.  Those who attend colleges and universities specialize in some particular liberal arts subject and may go on to train for a profession in medicine, law, or engineering.  But the broad knowledge that defines the truly well-educated person abides in very few citizens of the United States.  

 

Those who can afford to send their children to private schools do so.  Parents of humble means seek solutions in charter schools.  But most charter schools are worse than our wretched mainline K-12 institutions;  and private schools are for the very few and in any case provide an education that is at best mediocre by international standards.

 

Circumstances of history have herded African Americans, many immigrant populations, and the economically most challenged urban residents into districts such as the Minneapolis Public Schools, the administrators of which are intellectually and philosophically ill-positioned to devise a program to address the vexing curricular and teacher deficiencies that effectively send many of our students forth to the life of the street, along pathways that lead to desultory lives and often to prisons.

 

This is the abominable situation in K-12 education in the United States, born of history, waiting for contemporary redress.

 

We are all culpable until we insist that key decision-making administrators such as Ed Graff, Michael Thomas, Cecilia Saddler, and Eric Moore at the Minneapolis Publics School rid themselves of the degraded education professor creed and assertively overhaul curriculum and teacher training for the delivery of the knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education for which students have been waiting a very long time.     

Decision Itself Is Fine, But Explanations of Ed Graff and the MPS Board of Education for Trimming the School Year by Two Days Are Facile and Illogical

Star Tribune staff writer Beena Raghavendran’s article, “Minneapolis School Board Trims Calendar by Two Days” (10 January 2018), reveals numerous examples of the intellectual disarray that describes the administrative leadership of the Minneapolis Public Schools, led by Superintendent Ed Graff.  

 

By extension, this failure in reasoning capacity also is evident in the membership of the MPS Board of Education, which signed off on the decision of reference, as is typically the case for a board that may discuss agenda items at length but tends to assent to administrative proposals.

                                                         

There is another, more invidious, possibility, that administrator and board reasoning is consciously specious, offered to achieve whatever momentary objective is sought, with any reasons tendered considered fine as long they effectively move the proposal toward adoption.  

 

Consider Raghavendran’s article in its entirety, interspersed with my own comments following certain paragraphs considered together:

 

>>>>>       Paragraphs One through Five

 

Minneapolis school board members voted Tuesday night

to scrap the last two days of the school year.

 

School officials note that even though the district has the

longest school year in the metro area, its student academic

outcomes haven’t improved.

 

With its 176 school days, Minneapolis has the longest school

year of any public school district in the metro area.  Dropping

two days makes the district’s school year as long as South

Washington County and St. Anthony-New Brighton’s, according

to state data documenting last school year’s lengths. 

 

Charter schools still boast the longest school years, with some

calendars close to 200 instructional days.

 

Officials said that they wanted to see if a longer school year--- 

11 days above the state minimum---  would push test scores

higher.  Instead, Minneapolis’s achievement gap has persisted.

 

Comment:

 

Are we then to assume that there is a correlation between lengthening the school year and poor academic outcomes?   Students in the geopolitical entities (e. g., Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Shanghai [China] in East Asia;  Finland, Germany, and Poland in Europe;  and in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) who score highest on the PISA (Program of International Student Assessment) have many more days and hours of instruction time than do students in the Minneapolis Public Schools and other locally centralized school districts of the United States.  The real problem is that quality of teaching in the Minneapolis Public Schools is on average at best mediocre, so that whether the number of instructional days is increased, reduced, or remains the same, outcomes are unlikely to improve.  

 

 

<<<<< 

 

 

>>>>>       Paragraphs Six through Eight

 

Superintendent Ed Graff said in December that

cutting school days could save $1 million per day.

 That could help the district with a projected $33

million budget deficit for the next school year.

 

After opposition arose from teachers, Graff and

his administration cited other reasons.  They say

they saw an uptick in student and staff absences

as the school year trailed later into June.

 

Summer temperatures heat up buildings that

aren’t air conditioned.  And the district heard

from parents that student learning fell as the

year pressed further into the summer.  The

change will “solely address the student calendar

and the expectations of the students,” Graff

said at Tuesday’s meeting.

 

Comment:

 

Graff and staff give the appearance of caring not about the exact reasons offered;  they seem merely intent on achieving the objective of the proposal to cut two school days:

If you don’t like the idea that cutting school days won’t hurt academic performance, because MPS students hadn’t thrived academically with a longer school calendar, then consider the cost savings of $1 million per day. 

But, whoops, that was in December, before the opposition from teachers (almost all of whom belong to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers [MFT]).

So maybe you’ll be convinced by the student and teacher absences that registered an observed uptick when days were added, extending the academic year farther into June.

Or, let’s go back to costs and consider those darn hot summer months;  expensive air conditioner use increases.

Oh, and parents say that student learning fell;   by what measure we do not know, but that’s what moms and dads are supposed to have said.

<<<<< 

>>>>>      Paragraphs Nine through Eleven

 

The issue has divided parents and district employees. 
In an online survey from mostly white parents and
employees, respondents supported the shorter calendar.

But respondents of color weren’t as supportive.

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers said in a
bargaining update in October that a shorter year would
mean a 1 percent pay cut to teachers this school year. 
“It’s becoming clear that administration is failing to
understand the value of its educators,” MFT wrote in
its update.

Comment:

 

That sure is a shaky excuse for a survey.

 

Students of color dominate enrollment in the Minneapolis Public Schools, so a survey of parents that was not effective in reaching them would indicate lack of proper sampling. 

 

And though “employees” were deemed supportive of shortening the school year, those “employees” apparently did not include the teachers, who feel undervalued because of the 1 percent in cut in pay that results from axing two days from the academic calendar.    

 

<<<<< 

 

>>>>>       Paragraphs Twelve and Thirteen

District officials now say the decision to shorten
the school year for students is separate from plans
with employee bargaining groups around the total
number of staff workdays.

The district foreshadows more potential changes
on the horizon, like snipping off the first few days
of the 2018-19 year to begin school post-Labor Day. 
School officials have batted around other possible
saving spots to deal with its finance woes, such as
pitching a $30 million referendum to voters in
November.  Final decisions will surface in coming
weeks.

 

Comment:

So, hey, teachers, know now that we say that whatever costs we save may not be at your expense.  That wasn’t our line in December, but remember that our reasoning is of an extremely flexible and prevaricating sort.  Because while achieving savings at the expense of your paychecks may have been implied in our prior statements, we now maintain that trimming the school days for students does not necessarily mean cutting your own work days.

So we may have to do some other stuff.

And, naturally, the public will now be so impressed with the cogency of our reasoning processes that they may give us $30 million dollars to cope with our financial mismanagement.

>>>>>       Paragraphs Fourteen and Fifteen

As if an afterthought, Raghavendran notes at article’s end:

Also Tuesday, the Minneapolis school board elected Nelson Inz as chairman.

Across the river in St. Paul Tuesday, Zuki Ellis, a first-term school board member, moved from vice chair to board chairwoman.

Comment:

 

I’ll reserve judgment for now as to the portent of the change in school board chair for the St. Paul Public Schools.

 

But the change in the position of chair at the Minneapolis Public Schools is most certainly of high significance, signaling a diminution in the luster of Rebecca Gagnon’s formerly bright star---  covered in an article as you scroll on down this blog.

 

…………………………………………………………………………

 

Summative Comment:

 

The request to trim two days from the school calendar is fine.  About nine months of well-used instructional time is sufficient.  Although I admire many features of the East Asian educational systems, I have never advocated the adoption of a lengthy school calendar such as those prevalent in East Asia.  Quality of curriculum and teaching is what is important---  not quantity.

But in advancing reasons for trimming the school calendar, Graff and staff reveal themselves to be

variously illogical, fickle, specious, and cynical.   

The Ed Graff administration at the Minneapolis Public Schools has little idea what it is doing.  The modus operandi appears to be to please as many constituents as possible so as to protect staff positions that for upper-level administrators yield salaries ranging from approximately $145,000 upward to Graff’s own $225,000.  Thus, we have the survey approach and informal collections of anecdotal information as to prevailing community, staff, and student opinions.

 

There is no viable driving philosophy of education from which policy decisions are made.  The best that Graff has offered is an assertion of the importance of social and emotional learning and the adoption of a new reading curriculum. 

 

But what is needed is the overhaul of curriculum for knowledge and skill intensity in grade by grade sequence;  training of teachers capable of imparting that curriculum;  highly intentional tutoring for those lagging below grade level (along with academic enrichment opportunities for those achieving at grade level and above);  direct resource provision and referral for families struggling with dilemmas of poverty and dysfunction;  and substantial additional trimming of central office positions and those that have little to do with the academic achievement of students or support of families.         

 

 

In the absence of a driving philosophy and a viable program to advance student achievement, Graff and staff are forever holding their proverbial fingers in the proverbial wind, hanging on, trying to survive, explaining themselves in any way that stands some chance of advancing their ill-conceived policies.

 

This must change.

 

We need a new membership for the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.

 

And unless Chief of Leadership and Learning Michael Thomas (along with his lieutenant, Assistant Chief of Leadership and Learning Cecilia Saddler) and Chief of Research, Innovation, and Accountability Eric Moore fully grasp my message and induce Graff to implement the necessary policies to advance knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education---

 

I’ll be calling for an overhaul at the administrative level, as well.

Understanding Developments at a Very Eventful Meeting of the MPS Board of Education on Tuesday, 9 January 2018

A number of eventful occurrences transpired at the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education convened on Tuesday, 9 January 2018 (last evening as I tap out this article on Wednesday, 10 January).

 

Prior to the Public Comments phase that typically opens board meetings, outgoing Student Representative Gabriel Spinks was lauded for his contributions during his year of service, then new Student Representative Ben Jaeger was sworn in.  Any student with enough interest to commit to the usually three-to-four hour meetings should be commended, and the officially elected members properly commended Spinks for making that commitment.

 

But whether due to hyperbolic overenthusiasm in the context of the moment, calculated political positioning, or facile belief in their own hype, members of the board gave Spinks credit for a level courage and impact that he does not deserve.  Spinks’s service unfolded much as did the tenure of the two previous student representatives,  Noah Branch and Shaadia Munye;  each had her or his moments of eloquence and passion, but none had much of an impact. 

 

No progress in the district has been made in overhauling curriculum for knowledge and skill intensity or in training teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum.  There is no vigorous tutorial program.  No well-staffed program of resource provision or referral for families struggling with economic and functional viability has been implemented.  Student academic performance continues to languish:  Fewer than 25% of African American, Hispanic, Hmong, or Somali students record grade level achievement in mathematics or reading.  Implicitly, the impact of the student representatives thus far has not been sufficient to make any difference in the provision of an excellent education to students of all demographic descriptors---  the reason for a school district’s existence.  

 

New Student Representative Ben Jaeger spoke eloquently as the voting members of the board considered alterations in the school calendar.  He made good eye contact with me during my per usual forceful Public Comments.  I have hope that Jaeger can be the first student representative to advocate for the kind of changes that need to be made as we prepare to transform the Minneapolis Public Schools into a model for the locally centralized school district.

 

……………………………………………………………………

 

After Jaeger’s induction and the first Public Comments, I had to depart to superintend the New Salem Tuesday Tutoring Program.  When I returned to the board meeting at 8:45 PM, I gazed upon significant new seating sequences for board members.

 

Based on my gaze and what I could discern in the moment, and on follow-up conversations, I report these new developments stemming from the election of new officers:

 

>>>>>    Nelson Inz defeated Rebecca Gagnon for the position of Board Chair.

 

The vote was 6-3, recorded by member as follows (district served by each board member is indicated in parentheses):

 

Voting for Nelson Inz:

 

Nelson Inz                          (District 5)

Siad Ali                                 (District 3)          

Kim Ellison                         (At-Large)

Jenny Arneson                 (District 1)

Don Samuels                     (At-Large)

Bob Walser                         (District 4)

 

Voting for Rebecca Gagnon:

 

Rebecca Gagnon              (At-Large)

KerryJo Felder                 (District 2)

Ira Jourdain                        (District 6)

 

 

This is a significant blow to Rebecca Gagnon.  Nelson Inz had nominated himself against her candidacy a year ago but lost on the 6-3 vote that he was able to turn the other way this time.

 

Gagnon overplayed her hand as board chair, seeking (in collusion with Superintendent Graff) to advance more restrictive rules for Public Comment, spending long hours at the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools (Davis Center, 1250 West Broadway) in an effort to establish connections and expand her influence, and using her leadership of the MPS Board of Education in conjunction with various memberships connecting her to other school board members across the state and nation to raise her profile.

 

Gagnon and Inz are both deeply culpable for their role in bringing a less reformist board into existence.  In the elections of November 2016, Inz endorsed Bob Walser over former Teach for America participant Josh Reimnitz;  and Gagnon endorsed Ira Jourdain over the most outspoken advocate for better academic results, Tracine Asberry.  In making her endorsement, Gagnon did the bidding of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and sought to oust a potential rival.  Her loss in the vote of 9 January could be seen as just retribution for her various unsavory maneuvers.

 

Gagnon’s removal as board chair is a favorable development, but the ascendancy of Inz to that position is lamentable.  For reasons that I have explained in several previous articles, we should at minimum work to defeat Gagnon, Inz, and Don Samuels in the November 2018 elections while monitoring the positions and votes of Siad Ali and Jenny Arneson.

 

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

 

Other significant board elections took place at the meeting of 9 January:

 

>>>>>    Siad Ali ran unopposed for Vice-Chair, replacing Kim Ellison.

                                                                               

>>>>>    Kim Ellison ran unopposed for Clerk, replacing Bob Walser.

 

>>>>>    Jenny Arneson ran unopposed for Treasurer, thus continuing in that post.

 

These are all favorable developments:

 

Bob Walser is the silliest, most trivial member of a school board I have ever seen;  his opposition to objective testing and status as an MFT toady are also objectionable.  His replacement as clerk, Kim Ellison, is also an objectionable presence on the school board, having worked against the candidacies of both Josh Remnitz and Tracine Asberry in November 2016.  But in replacing Walser as clerk, Ellison also takes his place as head of the Policy Committee, marginalizing him as simply a participating district member without any leadership position;  thus, the potential damage that Walser could do is minimized.

 

Siad Ali is the most open to change of any member presently on the MPS Board of Education;  he makes eye contact with me and welcomes open and vigorous discussion.

 

Jenny Arneson has surprised me for her advocacy of equitable academic programming across the school district.  As Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair, she could certainly do no worse than Gagnon, who served as chair of that committee during a time when the district was drawing irresponsibly from reserves and pursuing policies that now has the district forecasting a $33 million dollar shortfall for academic year 2018-2019.

 

…………………………………………………………………………….

 

Among other decisions made at the meeting of the MPS Board of Education on 9 January 2018, the academic year calendar was shortened by two days.  I have no objection to that decision, but much that was said in defense of the decision is revelatory as to the errant academic philosophy and programming that plagues the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

I shall return to these matters raised by the vote on the change in academic year calendar in a subsequent article.   

 

The Most Important Election in November 2018 Will Be For the MPS Board of Education

Given popular disgust with both the congressional and presidential spectacles in Washington, D. C., the November 2018 election is much in the public discourse.  But the most important election that will take place next November will be that for the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education.

School board elections get short shrift by comparison to congressional elections, which in turn do not draw as many voters as do presidential contests.  But school board elections are in fact the most important in the United States, pertinent as they are to the core problems that chronically vex this body politic.

In his book, We Were Eight Years in Power (2017), Ta-Nehisi Coates details in eight essays the level of racism that continues to haunt citizens of the United States.  The aggregate message of these essays is that the history of the United States conveys two prime narratives, one portraying the nation as a testing ground for the great ideals of the Enlightenment;  the other revealing the nation to have been a police state for African Americans.  Remarkably, there is much truth in each of these narratives.  For white Americans, representative democracy built upon the principles of Locke and Montesquieu and applied by Thomas Jefferson and John Madison, has largely been a reality.  For African Americans, the conditions of slavery and the failure of Reconstruction have yielded a history in which the conditions of slavery, sharecropping, and segregated urban life have been abiding realities, even for those who through herculean effort were able to escape.

The aggregate account that can be assembled from three other books provide further insight into the imagined and actual degree of democracy in the United States.  The books are E. D. Hirsch’s The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them (1996);  Diane Ravitch’s Left Back:  A Century of Battles Over School Reform (2001);  and Amanda Ripley’s The Smartest Kids in the World (and How They Got That Way) (2013).  The composite history of education in the United States that emerges in these books is the following:

In the 19^th century, Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann envisioned common schools that would give every citizen, of all economic classes, the fundamental information in natural science, mathematics, English composition, history, and government to become economically viable and well-functioning citizens.  In the early 20^th century, an anti-knowledge creed was promulgated by education professors in teachers colleges that became attached to universities;  desperate for relevance in a context whereby field-specific professors were better positioned to provide content knowledge instruction, education professors maintained that factual knowledge is not important and that the pedagogical mission of teachers is to cultivate in students an ability to think critically and to acquire a drive for lifelong learning.  As immigration from southern and eastern Europe ensued, and inasmuch as these populations were deemed to have aptitudes mainly for manual labor, a tracking system became another defining element in American education.

The upshot of these trends was that the education professor creed took hold over the course of many decades, culminating in a generally anti-knowledge approach to education with enough of a begrudgingly administered college track curriculum to allow a few students to satisfy university entrance requirements.  And there abided an assumption that the great bulk of students needed much less of the broad knowledge for citizenship envisioned by Jefferson and Mann.

The dual realities of suburbanization and fair housing laws in the late 1960s induced both white and black middle class flight from the inner city, leaving behind the poorest of the poor at the urban core.  From the 1970s forward, the conditions of life for African Americans living at the urban core defined the circumstances of those living in the major cities of the United States.  For African American students, the assumptions about the vocational propensities of southern and eastern European immigrants now were applied to them, and the anti-knowledge views of education professors now were entrenched.  Given the rise of crack cocaine and gang activity in the nation’s cities from 1980 forward, administrators and teachers were faced with additional challenges to which they have never articulated a viable response.

Thus do we have those students in systems such as the Minneapolis Public Schools who either fail to graduate or who graduate with little knowledge and with skills so low as to need remediation once attempting matriculation on college and university campuses.  The only answer to this debased situation is to overhaul curriculum for knowledge and skill intensity and to articulate a program that allows students of all demographic descriptors to go forward to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.

In doing this, we will be able for the first time in the history of the United States to resolve the tension between the historical narratives of the nation as Enlightenment testing ground and racist police state, finally achieving democracy for people of all demographic descriptors.

To do this, we will need to overhaul leadership at the locally centralized school district, including the election of a new school board membership.  Administrators and teachers are all trained in the education professor creed that has deprived generations of students of a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education.  School board members, even when growing contentious with school district leaders, remain under their sway as to matters of curriculum and teacher quality.  Since both public school administrators and school boards formulate or approve policies typically consonant with the anti-knowledge creed of education professors, we must move to transform both administrative leadership and school board membership.

In the context of a nation fixated on local control, we must work to make a single locally centralized school district a model for others.  We have the responsibility to make the Minneapolis Public Schools such a model.  We should work on overhauling administrative leadership in this school district, and we should work to overhaul the membership of the MPS Board of Education in the November 2018 election.

The inadequate educational preparation of our nation’s citizens is at the root of all our most vexing, intransigent dilemmas.  Hence, school board elections are more important than either congressional or presidential contests.  Accordingly, because they manifest the most deleterious features typical of school board members, we should oust Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz, and Don Samuels from their positions on the MPS Board of Education next November, monitoring the votes and propensities of Siad Ali and Jenny Arneson in the meantime.

When we do these things, we will be on our way toward resolving the tensions in our competing historical narratives;  and we will for the first time in our nation’s history provide an excellent education to all of our precious children, of all demographic descriptors.  

Nativity 2017

You will abide within me all through this season

that brought brightest luster to those treasures

of humanity and matter that you loved most.

 

I see your Christmas vest and skirt, your pins and

jewelry shaped in wreathes and candy canes, your

reclining Santa, your exquisite ornaments from

a world traversed widely with your beloved.

 

I bask in your smile, rejoice in your laughter rising

to match the enthusiastic peal of your mother,

as family arrived amidst hugs and banter, the time for

“having the tree” on Christmas Eve drawing near.

 

I see, smell, taste, the lovingly prepared tender turkey,

renowned dressing, oyster gravy;  the cranberry sauce,

pineapple and marshmallow salad, celery, carrot sticks.

 

You appear before me now, aglow with the transcendent

joy you felt in December 1994, when all of those whom

you loved most in the world gathered under your roof to

celebrate the season and honor the centenary of the radiant

woman of joy for whom Christmas seemed devised.

 

Deep in my heart, embedded eternally, abiding immortally,

throbs that special gift you gave to me each Christmas, that

gift you presented anew each day of my life, the only gift

that matters, the reason for our being and the season, the

 

 

Gift

 

of

 

LOVE

 

 

GMD

Christmas 2017

As most of you will recognize, I wrote this verse in honor of my mom, Betty Geer Davison (16 July 1921- 16 September 2017).

I wish all of you abundant joy with your families during Christmas and Hanukkah 2017, celebrations from other traditions, and for everybody all good fortune in New Year 2018.